eyeball massage

my video taken at pipilotti rist and inspired by her.

thanks to matt x

unilever: tacita dean

pipilotti rist eyeball massage

 'when i close my eyes, my imagination roams free'

 

wedgwood

victor skellern, 1934

persian pony by victor skellern, 1939

 new england industries by claire leighton, 1950 

kalkulium suite by eduardo paolozzi, 1971

heartsease by edward bawden, 1952

an amazing eclectic collection of designs and illustrations on show at the wedgwood museum.  documenting the history of wedgwood from its founding in 1759 by josiah wedgwood, a true innovator who's pioneering techniques are still employed today.  all the designs are documented right up to current collections and my favourite are pictured above, particularly the eduardo paolozzi and victor skellern designs. 

judith scott

in conjunction with the museum of everything at selfridges.

high arctic

immersive and beautiful interaction at the national maritime museum.



arctic from elizabethmaryclay on Vimeo

kelido camera

these are a selection of the first publicly exhibited abstract photographs in the history of art. vortographs by alvin langdon coburn, photographer attributed to the vorticist movement shown in london 1917. coburn used a 'vortoscope' (an attachment to his camera made from three mirrors placed in the shape of a triangle) to capture these beautifully angular, graphic works.

miró

a stunning show, spanning a life time of work.

from the surreal and contemplative to the raw and violent abstraction, miró mastered many mediums and was truly and great experimenter and inspiration.

birds of a feather

photos from the beautiful collier campbell exhibition at the national theater.

amazingly vibrate with painterly touches every where, i had the real feeling of snooping around a studio. getting up close to designs so familiar was very special.

colour dancing

gruau master of ink

i was fortunate to visit dior illustrated, rené gruau and the line of beauty at somerset house in january. this exceptional illustrator worked with dior from the 40's to the late 1980's and mostly drew for the dior perfumes, despite this being a time when fashion houses were turning to photography for their advertising. dior met gruau when they both worked on the fashion desk at le figaro in 1936, from then on the two men had a lasting friendship and working partnership.

responding to the zeitgeist but with a strong individual style he produced some of the most iconic images in fashion (and even appeared in the dior cook book)

truly gruau was the master of the minimal, conveying so much with only the few strokes of a brush:

miss dior, 1971

miss dior, 1961

diorissmo, 1959. from a series known as the flower women

miss dior, 1949 the hand of mitzah bricard (muse to dior)

everything is everything

the museum of everything, a brilliant collection of miscellaneous objects curated by peter blake. a real circus theme this year, creepy puppets, glass eyed dolls, the bearded lady, dirty embroidery, boxing rats and a fully functioning miniature fairground. so good.

ted willcox embroidery

it had to be horrockses

i recently had a lovely afternoon looking at old photos with my granny. granny brown had so many beautiful printed dresses, of those she hadn't made herself a few special pieces were horrockses. horrockses fashions was established in 1946 as a ready-to-wear women's wear brand and encompassed day, evening and beach wear. horrockses were particularly clever with marketing, regularly advertising in vogue (at the time filled with couture) and being worn by well known models and many in the royal family. dresses were covered in distinctive prints, designed by contemporary artist such as eduardo paolozzi and graham sutherland.

i visited the horrockses exhibition at the fashion and textiles museum (which if you miss look out for the book written by the exhibitions curator christine boydell) filled with great examples from the archives. i particularly liked the bikini and play suits and of course the beautiful prints, my favorites including a green and yellow banana print and crazy 50's atomic styles.

an illustrated fashion advertisement, vogue june 1949

hand painting in the design studio

princess margaret in her horrockses dress 1956. fabric designed by louise le brocquy