Still working on our Pop Up exhibition 10 Together to be ready for Monday week! I have enjoyed making the skirts for the Maypole dancers from reclaimed paper lamp shades {a bit raggetty with age and me hitting them when throwing the ball for the dog} now cut in half and patched with fabric scraps and wall paper paste. They now look quite jaunty and hold their shape..
The scraps are mostly pieces of Zandra Rhodes fabrics which seems appropriate to the theme of women [in this case] bound by cultural expectations of looking happy and fashionable, yet sometimes aware that the dance has trapped them..
My printed pizza faces need some work however, perhaps they should all be the same, to emphasise uniformity, Stepford wives, but they do not satisfy yet.
I would like to add LED lights in the dark room, to emphasise the false gaiety, reminiscent of Xmas, constantly acquiring more sparkly stuff to show everyone how happy we are.
Matisse dancers should not come to mind, as they are all supple and full of movement. Maybe The nightmarish dancers of Edvard Munch.Or the fairy tale figures of Paula Rego, ordinary yet full of menace.
