This entry goes back in time a bit, to Friday the 21st.
When we visited London in 2015, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum on one of our last days. We felt that we didn't see quite as much of the museum as we would have liked to, so we made sure to return during this trip.
It continues to be a beautiful building:
One of the temporary exhibits was about plywood, which sounds a bit dry on paper but turned out to be pretty interesting. I praise those who created the exhibit for taking something as mundane as plywood and crafting a compelling story about it.
Basically, the technology of plywood--layering cross-grained veneers to make a material stronger than regular wood--has been a thing for like 4600 years, thanks to the ancient Egyptians. However, Britain didn't catch on until the 1760s, when they started using plywood in furniture workshops. Over the next 70 years or so, improved technology made plywood cheaper to manufacture and therefore became one of the "new" materials of the industrial age. People were really into it because it could be molded into curved shapes while staying strong (it was much cheaper than cast metal).
Even though plywood was widely used starting in the 1880s or so, it was usually just used structurally or hidden under other materials because the general public thought it was cheap and turned their noses up at it.
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| With plywood, it's much easier to make cool curved furniture. |
With World War II came improvements in waterproof glues as well as molding technology, and plywood was "promoted in the post-war period as a technologically sophisticated material of the future." After that, it was much more visible in products.
In more recent plywood news, plywood has become super popular as a material for digital design. CNC machines can be used to cut very precise shapes of plywood, using a computer program that is compatible worldwide.
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| "The WikiHouse Foundation aims to develop open-access building systems that are inexpensive and capable of being rapidly erected by anyone...The designs can be downloaded anywhere in the world, the pieces then cut locally and assembled on site. Plywood is the standard material for WikiHouse construction." |
After learning the history of plywood and celebrating it as a material, the end of the exhibit reminds you that there is a dark side to its popularity:
After we finished exploring the plywood exhibit, we headed to the Fashion wing (in case anyone is worried that I keep dragging Jonadams through fashion exhibits against his will, rest assured that he also likes pretty dresses and innovative and/or whacky clothing construction!)
On our way to the Fashion section of the museum, we found this unsettling sculpture:
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| Rachel Kneebone, The Solitude in Depth, 2014 "A cracked sphere acts as the centre from which layer upon layer of limbs and garlands cascade. As with Rodin's nearby Fallen Angel [there were two similar sculptures in the same area], the sculpture initially appears as an inert mass. Its complexity and sense of movement only reveal themselves as we peer closer and register its formal differentiation." |
The current special exhibition in the Fashion wing of the V&A is on Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895-1972). His designs were highly sculptural, and he was known for his champion fabric manipulation skills as well as his bold use of color and texture. The designs on display are from the 1950s and 60s.
While his designs weren't always the most practical, the craftsmanship involved was always impressive:
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| The Envelope Dress |
Many of the dresses exhibited include x-ray images of the dress to reveal the construction involved:
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| "Great swathes of fabric, supported by hoops, are drawn towards the back from the centre front seam. The skirts are shaped through 'bagging out,' which creates spacious voids which fill with air as the wearer walks. At the hem are ties which knot above the knee, lifting and ballooning the hem for yet more drama." I've always thought of people who construct costumes and complicated clothing as part wizard; this confirms it! |
A lot of couturiers (which is a word I did not until I saw this exhibit) outsource their hats, but Balenciaga wanted to keep the millinery in the family. However, he didn't design the hats himself (Wadzio d'Attainville and Ramon Esparza were the brains behind [under?] the Balenciaga hats).
Balenciaga's hats were so elaborate that during WWII the authorities shut down his hat-making operations, accusing him of exceeding the fabric allowance under austerity measures.
I don't wear a lot of hats in life, but I'm a big fan of them as a concept:
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| Cream Spiral Hat, 1962 Silk |
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| Hat with Straw Leaves, ~1950 Silk and straw |
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| Top: Hat with Turquoise Cockerel Feathers, 1964 Rayon, taffeta and fathers Bottom: Hat with Black Ostrich Feathers, 1955-60 |
Below are some of our favorite Balenciaga dresses in the exhibit:
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| Hand-Painted Silk "This textile design does not appear in any of the records of Balenciaga collections. It may have been a one-off commission for Balenciaga's American client, Elizabeth Parke Firestone." |
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| The Balenciaga Sash, 1950 "...inspired by the draper of saints in the paintings of the 17th-century Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbaran." |
The second level of the exhibit included pieces by designers who have been inspired by Balenciaga:
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| Minimalism in Menswear J.W. Anderson, 2013 I was unable to convince Jon to find a similar outfit for himself. |
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| These shoes were only along for the ride with one of the exhibited pieces. I just think they're rad. |
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| For some reason we couldn't find a description for this miraculous display, but it is fabulous and we needed to include it! It's like a dress that has two extra dresses as sleeves. |
We have dubbed this number The Poof, and we agree it's the highlight of the exhibit:
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| Hussein Chalayan, designed 2000, made 2011 "This laser-cut tulle dress looks strikingly similar to a Balenciaga design from the 1957 collection. Although the two are not directly linked, the similarity suggests parallels in the two designers' approaches to the body, creating shapes which obscure the natural form." |
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| Embroidered silk organza over tulle Oscar de la Renta, New York 2015 "As in Balenciaga's creations, floral patterns and flamenco ruffles are recurring motifs." |
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| Man's hoodie, trousers, belt and headdress Rory Parnell-Mooney "Like Balenciaga, Parnell-Mooney is also inspired by the shapes of ecclesiastical clothing." |
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| Evening mini-dress Paco Rabanne, 1967 "Rabanne was a leader in 1960s experimental fashion, employing unconventional materials such as plastics, metals, and leather" |
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| Snake dress worn by Bjork Iris Van Herpen, 2011 "As with some of Balenciaga's designs of the late 1960s, its sculptural form distorts and conceals the natural shape of the body." Jon and I find this unsettling. It reminds of us intestines. |
Outside of the Balenciaga exhibit is the permanent Fashion collection. Some highlights:
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| Hat, Rebe, about 1950; Shoe, Roger Vivier, 1965 |
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| Afternoon dress, Paris (5 rue du Helder), 1889-92 |
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| Chillens play in the fountain! |
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| Jon and I try and fail to take a selfie. |
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| :) |
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| Friends Forever Designed by Demeter Chiparus Cast by J. Chardon et Petit Fils, Paris, France, about 1927 "Here the elegance of the lady resting her hands on her slender canine companions, as well as the outline of her body beneath her clothes, accords with the ideal of the 'new woman' that emerged after the First World War." |
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| Nude Shoes "The colour nude is often used in fashion to describe a light peachy-beige tone representing the colour of Caucasian skin. In autumn 2013 the French fashion house Christian Louboutin launched The Nudes Collection, a range of shoes in five skin tones. This was the first time that a major fashion house had adjusted its definition of nude to include skin colours other than white." |
I remember that there used to be a Crayola crayon called "flesh," and then after a lot of backlash they changed it to "peach," because not everyone has the same color flesh--this was in 1962. However, here we are in 2017, and "nude" is the standard term for clothing that matches your skin tone--as long as you're white. Good work Mr. Louboutin!
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| "This mobile phone is a bestselling device in Ghana. Known as the 'power bank phone,' it features a removable battery that can be used to charge other devices via a USB port. Ghana is currently experiencing a severe power crisis--city-wide blackouts of 36 hours or more have become the norm in the capital, and a brisk business has grown around selling power banks." |
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| "This is the flag of the Refugee Nation, a not-for-profit creative project set up to support the first refugee team competing at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The flag's design and colours refer to the lifejackets worn by many fleeing conflict." |
Of course we had to stop by to say hi to Turner before entering the Theatre exhibit:
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| St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall, 1834 |
I really enjoyed how comprehensive the Theatre exhibit was. Almost all theatrical disciplines were represented, from acting to writing to design to theatre construction to fire safety to marketing (although I did not see any explicit mention of stage management, which I object to, as there are dozens of us who would love to pore over calling scripts and blocking notation).
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| Gauntlet and Wrist Support for Edward Scissorhands, 2005 |
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| Costume for Rhinoceros, 2007. "Rhinoceros examines the spread of Fascism but uses the device of people becoming rhinoceroses instead of Fascists. Up to this point in the play, the transformation was effected by the appearance of masks, then at the end of Act 1, the rhino appears and lumbers across the stage. Its costume is operated by two people and has a bicycle chain inside to allow them to move the tail and head." |
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| I did a sound design project on Rhinoceros in college, which is how I learned that baby rhinoceroses sound ridiculous. They're very squeaky. |
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| Tailcoat worn by Fred Astaire in the film Shall We Dance (1937) |
In the section on playwriting, there was a station that encouraged young folks to write dialogue for their own plays. We were treated to this masterpiece:
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| I think it's a shame Sophie left this behind, this could be the start of a pretty compelling story! Is the shark friends with the doggo, or is the play so short because he ate him? I must know! |
Theatre fires were incredibly common before electricity became a thing:
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| "A fire at Drury Lane in 1809 reduced the Covent Garden Theatre to little more than a wall--despite the building's iron curtain and large water tanks." The theatre was eventually rebuilt. |
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| I've left this here for any of our friends who might be reading this blog who thinks that art and popular culture have never had any affect on society. ;) |
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| Telegram from Tennessee Williams to Laurence Olivier after A Streetcar Named Desire opened in Manchester in 1949. It starred Vivien Leigh as Blanche and was directed by Olivier, Leigh's husband. |
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| Star Trap Trapdoors used to be built like this; performers would stand under the trapdoor on a small platform, which would then shoot upwards at high speed and propel the performer through the trap, creating the illusion of bursting through solid floor. They were super dangerous and they were banned in the mid 20th century. |
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| "I'm being you!" Jon said to me :) Jon plays with an interactive lighting design display (which is really more of a board operator display, as it's simply toggling through a bunch of pre-set lighting looks). |
After we left the museum, we got burgers at a chain restaurant called Honest Burgers. They're not the best burgers we've ever had, but they were pretty tasty:
And the beer glasses were adorable:
That night we say Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, which featured Audra McDonald as Billie Holiday. It's essentially a one-woman show (although Billie's manager/pianist and band members are also characters), a fictionalization of Billie Holiday's 1959 performance at a Philadelphia club just four months before her death. I would listen to Audra McDonald sing the alphabet for ninety minutes, so I was pretty excited to see the show. The music was beautiful, and while it was humorous at times, for the most part it was bittersweet and heartbreaking.
Audra McDonald does a phenomenal portrayal of Lady Day (who becomes progressively intoxicated throughout her performance), sharing with the audience her harrowing childhood, her tumultuous romantic relationships, her drug addiction and resultant incarceration, affectionate stories about her mother, and her struggles as a black female musician. I was not that familiar with Billie Holiday before seeing this production, but I don't think that took away from the experience for me--if anything, it may have added to it, as I enjoyed learning the details of her life as the play progressed.
Audra channels Billie Holiday masterfully, and her performances of Billie's songs were exquisite. "Strange Fruit" was especially powerful. Other highlights included "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" and "God Bless the Child." Apparently Lady Day was on Broadway in 2014; I don't even remember hearing about it, so I am really glad that we were able to catch it in London!
xo
Hannah
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