Blonde, a shameful mess to be avoided

Its fair to say that I didn't come to this film with an open mind, but even with the warnings in place I still gave it a go because as a Marilyn fan since childhood, a new movie about her is still an exciting prospect

However this isn't a film about Marilyn Monroe. I don’t know who this sacrificial lamb is but she meandered from scene to scene in a daze of tears and trauma as almost everyone she met either abused, raped or beat her. No one offered even a hint of humanity to this woman who seemed to have absolutely no agency whatsoever

This film pisses on the #metoo movement. This film is trash. Andrew Dominck should be ashamed. A woman director would never have put its female lead through so much lingering voyeuristic porn and cruelty

I found myself actually skipping whole scenes because seeing little wide eyed Norma Jeane get screwed over again and again frankly got boring as hell! 

It's important to know that BLONDE IS NOT A BIOPIC! It is a fictionalised retelling of Marilyn's story using only minimum fact as a base to build lurid details upon.

Marilyn Monroe's life was anything but easy, with well documented substance abuse brought on from childhood trauma and an undiagnosed mental condition. But as her husband the playwright Arthur Miller once said, "the struggle was valiant, she was a very courageous human being"

SHE WAS NOT A VICTIM. Marilyn had spark! She took on the patriarchal studio system to create her own production company. She stood up for civil rights and stood against McCarthyism. She refused to be typecast into the one dimensional role she was given and studied hard to hone her craft and she did all this in the era of the 1950's where a woman's voice counted for little

Using Marilyn's legacy to make this drivel is a slap in the face to everything she achieved and worked through to get to where she did. She came from nothing and literally became a Hollywood legend!

In all the decades since Marilyn struggled to be taken seriously and be seen as more than just tits and ass, this film underlines that things haven't changed as much as we like to think. She put it best when she said Hollywood was, "a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.”

Don't bother watching this film

Lockdown Leading Ladies: With Darren Nixon

In March I did a small collaboration with artist Darren Nixon based on the recent photo and video work I've been doing. Darren's work is a sublime mix of colour, shape and composition that uses painting as a springboard for investigation. He says, 'Although painting is the language at the root of what I do, I am interested in how it mingles with film, photography, sculpture, animation, sound, music and movement'.

For this work Darren was intrigued by the images and footage I'd been shooting about lockdown anxiety inspired by vintage Hollywood and wanted to see what would happen when they were handled in different ways by another person.

Usually Darren's paintings would be the starting point of his collaborations with other creatives, but here it was my work, which I think was very unusual for both of us.

It's fair to say that Darren and I have completely different ways of working and thinking; whereas I am fascinated by the figurative and narrative he is interested in shape and construct and trying to create an understanding of the whole. All imagery in this post is the result of mixing Darren's and my own ideas.

To begin our collaboration I sent him what I would call 'the stuff I decided not to use' from my own work; Video clips that I didn't like and couldn't make work and images from shoots that didn't hit the mark. I had no clue what he would make of them or what he could do with them, seeing no value in them myself.

The first thing he sent back to me was a video clip, 'Gemma 1-1'. I was confronted by a zoomed in version of my reflection but layered several times and filtered with colour. 

I had earlier made a tentative start at playing with mirrors and filming myself but had found the process difficult and the result unsatisfying. Here however the video had a new feel and somehow looked more complete and he totally understood my aim to create a feeling of discomfort and unease while keeping an aesthetic of glamour.

 

What I really liked was that he had given the imagery the same treatment he would one of his paintings. Framing, cropping and putting holes in it almost as if it was a piece of board to be moved, shaped or painted as was seen fit. I would never have done this.

I then asked if he could do some literal mirrored effects on the same video and again I really liked how he turned the work into something else. Having me glance sideways fervently at myself at different speeds was so simple yet effective.

I suggested filming into a mirror again for Darren to try some more ideas out. I'd recently watched more mirror themed 1940's films (Dark Mirror and Corridor of Mirrors) and was very inspired to try and capture something about isolation and anxiety using my reflection (see my last post to find out more about this shoot)

It was important to me to set the feel of the imagery by referencing the era, so I spent a whole morning setting my hair with a 1940's curling pattern. I was really pleased with the result and it helped me to frame myself within the mirror from different angles. Even when I wasn't sure what to do, the style did a lot of the speaking for me telling it's own story.

 

Interestingly, that is what also stood out to Darren. Of the shots I took of just the back of my head he said, 'The way the light plays on the waves of hair almost acts out its own drama...
There is something sexual but also full of anxiety and maybe dread in that image'

 

 

In line with this, a whole section of video where just my hair was reflected into the mirror was slowed down to almost stillness. An infinitesimal movement as I barely moved my head to one side. I really liked this and it inspired other slow subtle movements in other videos I've since tried out (see last post)

Layering of clips or side by sides (as with the film still here and above) were also a really good way of seeing my work in a new way and giving it a new and unexpected narrative. I like how a simple grouping of similar clips when put together can create something that looks almost planned and as Darren put it,  'communicate with each other in small quiet ways'

 

For me, this quick collaboration was a way to explore the possibilities of making video artwork. I am so new to it and still finding my way around the technology. I've made a wobbly start at playing with Premiere thanks to Darren taking the time to walk me through the basics and in time I'd like to play some more and try to make some complete videos (currently I have no access to using Premiere properly)

 

It's also taught me some of what will and won't work when it comes to certain effects and how to think about what I want to get across through a moving image. Seeing my work through someone else's eyes was exciting. It reminded me that one idea is potentially the opening to a hall of mirrors that bounces around more ideas in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Camp and theatrics are important to me, whereas Darren likes what the smallness of a movement can tell us. Somewhere in the middle through this project we have found a way to communicate both. What I also like is that Darren's work is often, although I'm not sure if it's his intention, very attractive and decorative, and this complemented my own aesthetic.

Since editing moving image isn't currently an option I've been applying the feelings some of this collaborative work has given me to photos, experimenting with layering and reflecting images to create new and evocative moments and I'm enjoying trying this out.

For Darren this project was an interesting opportunity to work with someone else's footage. 'Normally if I am working with my own stuff I have to invest all of the footage with anything it is going to have. But {Gemma's work} arrived so full of richness and ideas...all I had to do was watch the stuff {she} sent and listen to what it told me'. This made decision making so much easier and made Darren think about how to make his own voice clearer in the things he films for his own practice.

 

'Our work is so obviously hugely different to each others so it was really nice to just work with a completely different visual, There are so many themes and moods in {Gemma's} work that I would not even be able to think about touching so it was really interesting to think about those ideas and how to play with them'.

 

To see more about Darren's work from my past posts take a look HERE and check out his Instagram to find out the latest about his practice.

Painting The Tattooed Lady

The Tattooed Lady has landed! Friday night saw the launch of HOME's opening exhibition The Heart Is Decietful Above All Things where my art work got her first airing. I am very pleased to say she is a big hit and throughout the night people were getting covered in my tattoo transfers depicting tales of love and regret! To see more photos from the private view and maybe spot yourself sporting a tattoo visit this project's facebook page.

I had wanted to keep most of the details about how The Tattooed Lady would look under wraps until the show, so now that she is up and running I thought I'd share with you the painting process of the tattooed lady herself who appears on the machine.

From the start I knew I wanted her to have a 1920/30's look, not quite flapper girl but moving away from the belle epoque. I trawled through my books about vintage Hollywood and fashion and also began to search the internet to find the right face. The face was very important because as this entire project was inspired by tales of love and regret I wanted the lady to have a hint of melancholy.

I very nearly settled on an image of Gloria Swanson looking dashing in a gypsy headscarf but then I stumbled across a tiny black and white image of a beautiful unknown vintage lady with just the right look in terms of period but also with the most lovely pensive expression that held a hidden story of its own.

So began the design for the painted panel: I kept the lady's shoulders and neck bare in order to show off the tattoos she would be covered in and then built up an art deco style pattern around her that would allow me to comfortably fit in the text I wanted: LOVE, REGRET and BECOME A LIVING WORK OF ART. This last phrase was inspired by the posters I'd seen advertising real tattood ladies who were marketed as living exhibitions, a curious idea to our modern minds but one I really enjoy!

 

Once I was happy with the design I began to paint and here's how that process went:

I painted this image directly onto a wooden panel and found that the wood acted very differently to the canvas I am used to. It tended to suck up the paint (even after several layers of primer) which made blending more time consuming. However once I'd layerd up enough paint it began to react much better and take the colours and consistency.

I chose tattoos that would look both simple and striking and fit the shapes of the lady's shoulders, neck and chest

All inked up!

Here is the lady sitting where she was intended in the machine. You can go an visit her and bag yourself a tattoo transfer to boot between now and 26th July at HOME!

Got a light?

The perfect accessory, Marlene made smoking sexy

During my last visit to the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery at Stoke while viewing the branded items for the dressing table we came across a book of matches. This in turn led me to think about smoking and the huge influence it had back in the 1940's and 50's.

Before we realised that those little sticks could kill you the act of lighting up was considered fashionable and even classy! As that day, we had been also looking at entertainment and cinema from the local area, this led me to think the project's character would probably want to emmulate her idols by also taking up smoking.

Crawford takes a drag

Much of the glamour associated with smoking was proliferated by the advertising of the time which was in turn acted out in many films so popular back then. A rather brilliant article about the feminisation of smoking called 'Red tips for Hot lips; advertsing cigarettes for young women in Britain 1920-70' was brought to my attention on my last visit.

It states that one of the main strategies to make smoking an attractive option for females was to associate it with beautiful or famous women both in the USA and UK. Adverts for a brand called De Reszke Minors utilised the assistance of film stars such as Peggy Wood and Gracie Fields; 'If Gracie Fields offered you a cigarette, it would be a De Reszke of course'! These type of adverts were aimed mostly at middle class and upper class women such as the readers of Vogue and Miss Modern.

Lets also not forget the visually seductive quality of smoking. The focus of the hands the elegance of long fingers occupied, the framing of the face and above all the focus of the mouth! Smoking was probably one of the most risque things a woman could do on screen, especially if the said smoke was offered and lit by a man.

Bacall knows how to do it herself; she just puts her lips together...

The association of smoking with the movies was further solidified by the use of cigarette cards. Collectable cards which came with the cigarettes and focused on individual film stars, giving a photo and sometimes information. Although not entirley aimed at women I'm sure some girls might have got a kick from opening the wrapper to find Clark Gable nestling inside!

Some of the gimmicks proffered by the advertisers of the time to a specifically female audience were the red tip, so no unattractive red smudges would appear on the cigarette! Brilliant. And the cork tip; This little invention proved helpful in preventing tobacco sticking to lips and therefore compromising the perfect image that had been carefully constructed.

Rita avoids that messy tobacco by using a holder

Bette looks the modern and independant woman with her cigarette

The epitomy of sophisication, Katherine Hepburn

Lamarr and her long perfectly manicured hands highlighted by a cigarette

All this glamour, it's making me crave a cigarette right now! Not to smoke you understand, but to hold and wave ever so airily and elegantly about. It's true to say smoking has never been so attractive to watch since this golden era. One can't help but wonder why women were focused on quite so much at this time though, was it to make money from a previously nearly untapped market, was it because the act of smoking helped to de-stress in times of hardship? Whatever the case it sure did look pretty.

Seeing stars...

I was back in Stoke on Tuesday to view some of the vintage branded product items that Stoke Pottieries Museum and Art Gallery holds in order to illustrate my dressing room set to the fullest extent.

Most of the branded products are housed within the social history collection rather than the decorative arts collection, and as it turns out have changed the direction of the project; No dressing table would be complete without the required beauty products and perfumes, and I origianlly wanted these products to reflect the refined character of the project's story. An upper class socialite of the late 1940's early 50's.

However the branded items in the museum are all very everyday and in turn reflect the ordinary working class and middle class women of Stoke! Of course! This was just one of the seemingly obvious things I've learnt whilst this project has unfurled.

No Channel or Givenchy here, but popular products all the same.
Tokalon, originally established before 1900 was relaunched in 1930's
and became a good seller for cosmetics and toiletries.

I was suprised and rather relived to find out that ladies of the era had
access to Tampax! A welcome if not very glamorous addition to the dressing room.

Perfumes and cosmetics of the 1940's and early 50's were produced in very
small sizes due to rationing. This bottle of Phul-nana fits into the palm of my
hand! Not the ostetatious larger bottles I'd envisiged

So cue a drastic change of class for my character. Instead of the femme fatale aristocratic type, she is now a much more accessable kind of girl. With Stoke's history revolving around it's potteries there is a chance she worked in something similar or perhaps as a shop worker. I have an inkling she might be married to a shop keeper and therefore be a little better off.

But I still want her to have glamour, I want the dressing room to evoke a vintage style that people will find intriguing and enjoy looking at and therefore encourage them to learn about the artifacts within. If the 'Dressing Table Gallery' taught me anything, it's that we love looking at other women's personal objects and 'oohing' and 'ahhing' over attractive belongings.

Being a girl limited means doesn't mean my character can't dream. Indeed the era of the 1940's and 50's was a time of escapism as the war years cast a gloomy shadow of limitation and loss over most of the country. This is where I see an opening for the glamour aspect. Popular pastimes included theatre going, a day at the races (dogs that is), the radio and the cinema.

Frank Sinatra and Katherine Hepburn were some of the major stars of the time thanks to
the films they appeared in.

The glorious silver screen was perhaps one of the most influential of pastimes. In 1946 there were 39 cinemas in the Stoke area! The wonderful website Stoke on Trent Film Theatre, states that as well as being a source of information about what was happening during and after the war courtesy of the newsreel, cinemas were cultural spaces in which, 'fantasies of escape to exotoic lands, and dreams of identifaction with idealised images could be given free rein' How wonderful!

It stands to reason that the glamour the stars of the time exuded set many trends back in their day and home made versions of the must have fashions took off. Hairstyles were emmulated and women would try their hand at improvising the make-up 'look' of their favourite screen siren. Where better to find these gems of information than in the contemporary magazines of the day?

A fabulous article called 'Keep it up!' not only highlights the female love of self decoration but the title touches on the importance of looking ones best during a time of national crisis and hardship. Check out the hairstyle in the top right! Lady Gaga eat your heart out! Incidentally all these women were stars of the day.

Cue my browsing a selection of Home Notes magazine from the late 1940's. A treasure trove of advertisments, beauty tips, short stories and recipes. You could say they were the Woman's Own of the past. The magazine reached a readership of 299,000 by 1952 and would have been a good source of information for the working class and middle class woman.

'Calling all career girls. it's practical feminine business sense to look like a sucess you
are going to be'

Deborah Kerr is labled with some of the most beautiful hair in the world
thanks to Lustre Cream Shampoo. It's worth noting the power of celebraty
was strong even then, and as an aspirational young woman the character
from my project would have been drawn to this kind of product.

'Try to wear fur somewhere near your face. It needn't be a mink coat.
The tiniest furry touch will flatter your skin and eyes!'

'Cocks Comb, or Cherry or Satin Red will give your lips a lovely winter glow'

My visit also allowed me to view some of the playbills and programmes of the area's many theatres and dance halls. It really highlighted how important social outings and entertainment was.

A beautifully classy cover for a theatre programme I couldn't help
but be drawn to especially as it shows a lady at her dressing table!

An amateur production programme from 1950

The marking sheet for an amateur dance test, 'Good footwork, hand
postition could be better'.

One of the photos I have put aside to be displayed on the dressing table shows a
couple dancing, to represent my character and her husband. Maybe they
went to a dance class like this one from 1951.

The Hanley Theatre Royal enjoyed a grand re-opening in 1951
were it boasted being, 'Enlarged, re-built and entirley modernised'!

Really it seems the change in direction has opened up a whole new range of possibilities for my character. In fact I quite like her now, I suppose I can relate to her love of entertainment and need for glamour. She avidly follows the films, has a keen sense of fashion in which she's eager to emmulate her favourite stars and enjoys music and the theatre. But she does all this without the advantage of pots of money and free time. Like many of us she does what she can, but oh how she loves to dream!

Her dreamy outlook on life also opens up many possiblites about her relationship with her husband, her friends and her past, all things I hope to leave open to interpretation through the postioning and choice of items within the finished set. She seems to be rounding up nicely, perhaps it's time to give her a name...

A trip to the Plaza

Last night myself and my good friend Layla went to Stockport's beautiful art deco Plaza Cinema to watch Blue Murder at St Trinnian's.

The Plaza is one of those treasures that is right on your doorstep, yet not that well known about. Let me tell you about our evening:

We met outside the entrance in front of glass panelled doors under an awning lit up with old school light bulbs. The whole building is very impressive from the outside, and I felt excited to be seeing a film inside. I could imagine how it might have felt going to the cinema back in the day, when it was a big event at the end of the week.

After being greeted by the doorman and buying our tickets (a very reasonable £6 each) we made our way upstairs to the fully restored tearooms. A riot of pearl colours, and mint green wicker met my eyes! Apparently the tearoom has been decorated exactly as it was back in its heyday, by using photos of the time, even the carpet is of the art deco style, and wouldn't look out of place on an episode of Poirot.

We had to drink our teas fast so as not to miss the organist who played until 7.30pm. Imagine taking your seats in a grand ornate art deco jewellery box whilst having a man play the organ which rises from the floor all lit up in pinks and creams! Our seats were in the upper circle which meant we got a great view of the entire interior, including the columns and screens decorating the walls and the beautiful emboidered stage curtain. (A gift from one of the patrons so Layla tells me)

As the organist slowly lowered back into the floor the lights dimmed and the curtains opened... and we were treated by a comedy short of Laurel and Hardy! The audience loved it and it was good to see the duo of decades ago can still have a crowd in stitches!

After a short interval where ice cream was available to buy from round the neck of an usherette, the main film began. Blue Murder at St Trinian's was made in 1957 and has an all star cast of British comedy greats including George Cole as Flash Harry, Joyce Grenfell as an incompetent police woman and the ever seductive rogue Terry Thomas! But that wasn't all, the 'school swot' was played by Stockport's very own blonde bombshell Sabrina! A woman with an 17inch waist(!), Sabrina was the Northwest's answer to Jayne Mansfield. Despite being billed next to Alistair Simms (another favourite) she was only in the film for a few minutes, reclining on a bed reading a book while awe struck policemen 'searched' her room.

The film was brillinat fun and got lots of laughs. I was quite shocked when the picture began to flicker then race then stop altogther. But this minor technical hiccup only added to the authenticity of visiting a fully functioning vintage cinema. The picture was soon back on the screen and we were once again able to immerse ourselves in diamond thefts, Itallian royality and sexy schoolgirls in VERY short skirts!

We had a fab night and I would highly recommend a visit to anyone else with a penchant for vintage style, classic old school and a longing for the good old days!