I had not counted on it snowing during the residency – an oversight as I did not bring either studs for my running shoes nor sufficient warm layers of running wear. Compounded by increasingly late sunrises I realise that I have probably run my last run here. The forecast for the coming week shows nothing above zero … perhaps a sunny -1 will be enough to melt the snow and provide the opportunity for run on the last weekend – that would be nice. In the meantime I shall shift my morning routine and do some much needed stretching. I cannot imagine my life without regular physical exercise … how do my fellow artists here feel in their bodies?
My days here are quite different from those of the other artists … I am at the other end of many different spectra – the earliest to rise, the earliest to go to bed, the ones who drinks the least, the one who does (the most/some) physical exercise. The other artist who is in his fifties is a heavy smoker and drinker … though often the second to rise. The other artist who drinks in moderation and is the youngest, she is also a non-smoker. This situation is not so unusual, I am used to being on the edge … at a distance from the majority of artists’ lives … in my own orbit.
Yesterday I spent a surprisingly (to myself) long time at the Riga fashion museum – Modes Muzejs. Despite having a modest collection of perhaps no more than 40 garments on display it kept me engaged and intrigued for nearly three hours. I have now seen a dress from the house of Charles Worth – the creator of what is now haute couture (it was Worth who first sewed labels bearing his name into garments, he was the first to show his collections on models, the street where he established his ateljé became the centre of Parisian … read ’global’ … fashion). I have learned about Watteau pleats, seen exquisite embroidery and beadwork form the eighteenth hundreds, as well as pieces by Chanel, Schiaparelli, Balenciaga, Halston, Ralph Lauren, Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, and Alexander McQueen as well as designers who were new to me such as Gustav Bear, Paul Poiret, and Rudi Gernreich. Often I was the only person in one of the three rooms – sometimes in the whole museum. Although I am fascinated by tailoring it was the draperi and embellishment that I found most inspiring … thinking not so much about how the garments might work when worn but rather how the pleats, folds, drapes, and forms worked now … static … as I encountered them … what could I learn for my own work, for the flags?
The museum shop was full of substantial monographs, surveys, and thematic publications … if I had unlimited resources and unrestricted baggage allowance I would have spent a fortune. As it was I went back to the very glamorous and helpful staff at the entrance and asked for their tips on local fabric shops. They recommended two (one each) on the same street a short distance from the city centre. I am going to use the remainder of the ’culture award’ that I got to buy fabric, and possibly some braids, ribbons, and fringes to take home with me.
