Marilyn: London trip part 2

 

While I was in London one of the things that HAD to be ticked off the list was seeing the Marilyn Monroe exhibition at the Getty Images Gallery.

A treat for any Monroe fan, this simple exhibition housed hundreds of beautiful black and white photos of the screen star (many I'd never seen before) alongside outifts that had belonged to her and costumes from her films. 

 A showgirl costume from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

As a life long fan I found the experience thrilling. To see a row of Marilyn size and shaped mannequins all wearing such familiar clothes was probably as close as I'll ever get to the lady herself. I took lots of photos but couldn't use flash because of the glass so some aren't as great as they could be.

I have to admit I got a little bit sentimental while viewing these great pieces of modern history and got glassy eyed when I saw her red sequin dress from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, my favourite Marilyn movie. I've probably seen that film near 50 times and it still fascinates me.

 

Marilyn with Jane Russell wearing matching red gowns in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

  

Even though Monroe was the 'blonde' in the film she only recieved a tenth of the fee Russell got. However despite this the two bombshells got along just fine. This famous red dress is sewn with thousands of red sequins of different sizes. I wonder where Jane Russells version is?

 Marilyn in her 'Mermaid' showgirl costume from Bus Stop

The Bus Stop costume has a very sweet and patched up feel to it. A showgirl in hard times, this piece perfectly described the character of Cherie, beautiful, damaged and badly mended.

 The Pink Wiggle dress from Niagra

I've a feeling the bottom of this dress has been been cropped away ar some point as it doens't seem as long on the mannequin or have a split in the front. It is still undeniably a very sexy number outlining Mariyn's curves to perfection.

  

 The white muslin dress from The Prince and the Showgirl

This dress is very fragile and several mends can be seen in the front while a sizable tear can be found round it's side on the hip. I was quite surprised to see just how sheer this piece was. It's the kind of dress that would be very unforgiving on the wrong figure. As you can see she wore it wonderfully.

  

 Black beaded dress from Some Like it Hot

It's hard to believe that this dress was so tight Marilyn had to be lifted onto the piano for this scene in Some Like it Hot. The actual dress is pretty stunning and again, only a very specific figure could fill it out in all the right places. 

 Marilyn wearing her cream showgirl dress and headdress from There's No Business Like Show Business

I was really impressed with this outfit. It was so detailed and well made, a true tribute to the costume departments of the studios of yesteryear! The ironic thing for me is I really don't rate the film, it's one of Monroe's worst, one she only took as a deal so she could work on The Seven Year Itch.

   
This is a fantastic show so go and see it while you can. The great thing is it's free! But it's only on until the 18th May, thats two more days!!! If you can't get there I hope these photos and blog give you an idea of what it's like to witness the presence of a true icon through her clothes.

Treasures of the past

This Monday saw me getting on a train and travelling to the birth place Robbie Williams, Xtreme tea drinking and the first jar of Marmite... any ideas yet?
Yes, I was in Staffordshire! (obvious wasn't it!)

Well, Stoke on Trent to be precise and my first visit to The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery for the beginning of a collaborative project based around my research on dressing tables, femininty and narrative through belongings (see my last post for a full update).

I was really impressed by the broad variety of exhibits at the museum including the famous Staffordshire Hoard, an impressive collection of local slipware and even a full size spitfire! There were many weird and wonderful objects, and I particularly enjoyed the frog mugs and Ozzy the famous pottery owl.

But my visit was focused on the decorative arts collection, as, with the help of Laura the museum's Documentation Assisitant, I began to uncover the treasures of the past!

The purpose of our collaboration is to give my research a platform resulting in new art work whilst also displaying the museum's artifacts in a new and interesting way. I'm hoping to build up a collection of selected pieces that will tell a story, and can be displayed like a dressing room similar to a theatre set.

We spent a long time sifting through drawers and unwrapping tissue paper; I gasped with delight at a bundle of Berry Pins and shuddered with discomfort at real hair twinned into keepsakes and love tokens.

The store held pieces from all eras and covered a range of genres including cosmetics, anyone recognise these?:

It was eye opening to me to find out that certain items made from the earliest plastics are very few due to their combustable nature. When they were first being made producers didn't know how the materials would age hence things like tortoise shell style combs and mirrors discintegrating and becoming very fragile. Luckily there were many other examples of historic accessories in the store including Victorian fans and antique sewing kits :

I found it very affecting as I viewed each item to think they had once belonged to someone and had some kind of emotional value or place within that person's daily routine.

Yet it was the items which seemed somewhat out of place in the decorative arts store which gave my ideas full direction; the unassuming handwritten note inside a gift box, a hotel reciept and a dance card half filled with promising suitors!

These items were clues to lives that have been lived. They offered windows into moments in time which actually took place, unlike the decorative items which are very objective when viewed seperately these documents had an immediate link to various individuals.

It seems the best way for me to progress with my project is to mix both decorative objects and documents together and create layers of information that when viewed as a whole can be read almost like a crime scene, giving clues to a characater and her story.

I can't help wondering how an item's meaning could alter depending on what it was displayed next to. For instance what would my character keep in her giftbox when it had such a sweet message written inside? would it be innocent or a secret she wouldn't want anyone to find out? This is where it gets exciting!

I have some strong ideas about where to take this but my intuition is telling me to let the items within the decorative arts collection take the lead and guide me. So my next job is to delve deeper into the possiblities of what I've recorded and source likely items within the store which I might not have seen yet. We only managed to look through about half of it this week so I am going back to view the shoes, clothes and costumes next time.

Get ready for corsets and frilly 50's knickers!

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...

Belongings

I've taken some time off writing my blog of late as I recently lost my Nan, a lady who featured on a post about dressing tables some weeks back.

As you may know I have been researching and studying narrative through belongings for an upcoming project I am collaborating on with the Stoke Pottery Museum and Art Gallery. My main interest has been looking at stories through female apparel, especially dressing tables and dressing up.

Recently I featured an article from Vanity fair called The Things She Left Behind, about the cache of personal items which had belonged Marilyn Monroe and I found this piece very provocative. In the last few weeks I have come to realise just how poignant belongings can be.

Walking into my Nan's flat to begin the big job of clearing it out soon after she died was like walking into a time capsule saturated with memories. Her jacket was still hanging directly in front of the door with her hats, and walking into the living room I saw her box of chocolates still open and ready for eating by her chair, which incidentally was covered in chocolate crumbs.

Seeing the everyday objects I associated with her felt very odd. Suddenly they took on huge significance. And the effect of having just left them as if she was coming back was upsetting. However being surrounded by things which held her essence was also comforting. It's a strange mixture.

My Nan was a lovely person with a lively interest in the what was going on in the world around her, so I don't think she would mind my mentioning her here. She was always keen to know how my art work was going and was a steady support in my develpoment from student to artist. I will miss her so much.

I now own some of her belongings. I am infusing them with another layer of meaning and history. As they have passed onto me, they will begin a new story ...

The things she left behind

Image by Mark Anderson www.markandersonphoto.com

It was Oct 2008 when I spotted Marilyn Monroe on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine that I had the idea of basing an art project around belongings and femininity. The article for the magazine's special 25th anniversary issue claimed it would 'unlock' the 45 year old Marilyn Monroe mystery by revealing her personal cache of items overlooked since her death all those years ago.

I eagerly thumbed through the pages and found beautiful full page spreads of channel bottles, necklaces and hand written notes and receipts laid carefully on soft pink rose petals. The photographer, Mark Anderson had spent two years recording these items in the hope to capture an essence of the 'real' Mariyln, and perhaps find out vital information about how she died.

The story of how many of these almost throw away objects came to be rediscovered revolves around two filing cabinets containing many of Monroe's personal documents, which upon her death were put into the care of Inez Melson, Marilyn's business manager. Melson promptly began to destroy many of the more delicate items, while 'putting aside' an apparent 586 belongings including some of the cabinets papers. It is this collection that Mark Anderson had somehow discovered and then documented for Vanity Fair and a forthcoming coffee table book.

Image by Mark Anderson www.markandersonphoto.com

Much contoversy has arisen since the article with many claims that while some of the documents were undoubtedly real many objects such as strings of pearls and a mink coat have no substantial proof that they ever belonged to Marilyn. Furthermore, on writing this post I have been able to find NO images of the said article to share with you, it even seems Vanity Fair has had a bout of amnesia and the relevant web pages have been lost while the coffee table book is yet to be published.

Image by Mark Anderson www.markandersonphoto.com

However, the authenticity is not my main issue here, it is the overwhelming feeling of sensing a person through belongings that captured my imagination. And it didn't really matter if these items had once belonged to such a famous gorgeous person as Marilyn or not, it was the idea that they had that got to me. I loved the way, Anderson's photos had a story like feel to them, giving little snippets of information and insights into this very glamorous woman's (be she real or not) life.

Image by Mark Anderson www.markandersonphoto.com