The art of dressing up...part 2

For those of you with a good memory, you may recall a while back I announced an upcoming collaboration with the Stoke Pottery Museum and Art Gallery based on my ideas around dressing tables, female artifice and narrative through feminine belongings:

I did a run of posts called the Dressing Table Gallery where, you, the lovely readers of this blog sent in photos of your dressing tables to be showcased every week and used as research into my ideas;

Harriet Cooper's dressing table

I also looked into the theatrical side of dressing up by visiting the amazing Wigs Up North shop in Manchester, where I discovered the importance of appearance means more than just looking good, it covers gender, identity and comfort...

...and I also studied vintage dressing tables and Hollywood glamour of the past and present...

Dita Von Teese makes some last minute adjustments

...as well as looking into how other artists have tackled the idea of feminine belongings and their meanings;

'Chanel' Audrey Flack 1974

My research took on a poignant note as I looked into the narritive of feminine belongings. I was inspired by the collection of supposed belongings Marilyn Monroe left after her death, which really gave a deeper empathy with the person behind the public veneer.

Image by Mark Anderson www.markanderson.com

And when my lovely Nan passed away earlier this year I was compelled to celebrate her life through talking about the objects she left behind.

This coming Monday I am visiting Stoke Pottery Museum and Art Gallery for the first viewing of their costume and decorative art collection! We are to collaborate on a project that should give the collection a new lease of life and a fresh appeal for the public.

I'm also going to be able to have access to the collection for my work and I hope to encompass all my research and ideas into some fabulous new art work!

I'll be posting about my visit next week, so see you then...

Audrey Flack

'Marilyn' by Audrey Flack 1977

I've been thinking a lot about how to narrate a story through objects, specifically feminine belongings hence my research into dressing tables and the dressing table gallery. The other week I remembered a fabulous artist by the name of Audrey Flack.

Flack is a pioneer of photorealism painting and a talented sculptor to boot. But it is her 1970's work called 'Vanitas' which always stuck in my head and ties in so well with my own current interests.

'Chanel' Audrey Flack 1974

Full of personal memorabilia these paintings related to her experiences as a woman, and expressed her own ideals of femininty; mixing rich fabrics, luscious lipsticks and delectable fruit with photos of family and celebrities.

'Queen' by Audrey Flack 1975-6

This clever yet simple idea perfectly encapsualtes one individual's passion for life and femininity and give the viewer an eyecatching interesting self portrait. The bright paintings where achieved by projecting a still life photo onto a canvas, then painstakingly painting and air brushing over the image to create an immacualte representation with a photo finish. The canvases are suprisingly large giving them a slightly filmic/advertisment quality.

I think these images are perfect in allowing the viewer to carefully 'read' each item displayed and piece together an idea of personal history whilst the subject stays frustratingly elusive!