History of Art and Design
Fashion and Dress History Visual Culture
1-9 June 2019 Grand Parade
BA (Hons) BA (Hons) History BA of (Hons) Art and History Design of Art History and Design of Decorative Arts BAand (Hons) Crafts Fashion Fashion and and Dress Dress History History Museum BA (Hons) and Heritage VisualStudies Culture Visual Culture
BA (Hons)
BA (Hons) History of Art and Design BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History BA (Hons) Visual Culture
‘Things make us just as much as we make things’ (Daniel Miller, 2010)
Welcome… …to the 2019 dissertation Degree Show, designed and delivered by students in the History of Art and Design programme in the School of Humanities. This showcase of original research encompasses three undergraduate courses: BA (Hons) History of Art and Design, BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History and BA (Hons) Visual Culture. For all these students, the dissertation is the fulfilment of twelve months of intensive research. Topics emerge from a combination of students’ own enthusiasms and the specialist knowledge acquired on their degrees. Their independent study develops through a range of supported milestones, culminating in this final public presentation. As you will see, students’ projects cut across time and place, from the eighteenth century to the present, and include local concerns as well as international case studies. The themes they explore cover gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, class and taste, politics and protest, consumption and collecting, craft and technology, horror and pleasure, structures and their subversion. The images, objects, media and sites are an equally broad field, taking in the cherished and the despised, the sacred and the profane, the elite and the humble. Students engage with painting, photography and performance art; film, music video and digital media; advertising, periodicals and packaging; architecture, furniture and interiors; historic houses, galleries and exhibitions; fashion, dress and textiles. In preparing their dissertations, students conduct original research in national and local libraries, archives, museums and collections, and through interviews and fieldwork. As their final flourish, they distil their results into various forms for this exhibition. We very much hope that you will enjoy what you see here in the posters and showreel images that they have produced, and appreciate the intellectual endeavour of the dissertation outlines provided in this catalogue. Please take your time to enjoy the fruits of their labour; we are truly proud of what they have achieved. If this whets your appetite for pursuing a similar course of study, we will be very happy to hear from you. Contact details for all our undergraduate and postgraduate degrees can be found towards the back of the catalogue. As part of our wider provision, we offer BA (Hons) Philosophy, Politics, Art, a hybrid degree that straddles the History of Art and Design and Humanities programmes, and two postgraduate degrees. MA Curating Collections and Heritage and MA History of Design and Material Culture both enable further depth and specialism, and we offer advanced level research to PhD. A special thanks to University of Brighton alumna Anne Clements and to Professor Stephen Maddison, Head of School of Humanities, for generously covering the print costs of this catalogue. Dr Annebella Pollen (Academic Programme Leader, History of Art and Design), May 2019
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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
The Grand Tour: Influence on the Arts, Architecture and Society of the British Elite Lola-May Baldock
Chiswick House’s Facade Emulating Palladio’s La Rotunda. Personal photograph by the author. Taken 15th August 2018. Chiswick House and Gardens, English Heritage.
The Grand Tour in the eighteenth century was a European trip, which the British elite took to learn about the arts, architecture and culture of Europe. This trip went on to inspire the building, extending and decoration of their houses and public buildings. British elitist, Richard Boyle (Lord Burlington, 3rd Earl of Burlington) went on the Grand Tour twice before deciding to create his own villa inspired by the Classical style of architecture, used by Andrea Palladio. Lord Burlington’s Chiswick House displayed the art and sculpture collected on his travels. The architecture and sites he would have seen abroad are shown throughout Burlington and his friend, William Kent’s design of the house and gardens. Despite the magnificent European influence on Britain bought back by the British elite society, they were also involved in some controversial investments, this being that of the Transatlantic slave trade. Henrietta Howard had built Marble Hill House with her investment in the South Sea Company, evident through the architecture and decoration of her home. Similarly, Alexander Baring and his wife used the inheritance they gained from his wife’s father who made his fortunes from the slave trade. A theme linking Marble Hill House, Northington Grand and Chiswick House is their use of Palladian and classical inspired architectural style. This style is discussed by historian Laurence Brown with the term ‘Classical slavery’ meaning it can be an appropriation of slavery like that of ancient Rome.
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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
Extravagant Horrors: Dario Argento’s Staging of Vision and Violence Natalie Blesson
Film still from Tenebrae (Tenebre), Dario Argento, 1982. Arrow Video.
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Those familiar with the films by Italian director Dario Argento will likely be aware of the emphasis he places upon flamboyant visuals and visceral violence, which have often incited controversy due to his so-called stylised portrayals of brutality inflicted upon his female characters. Argento’s overt attention to mise en scène, elaborate pictorial imagery and innovative camera techniques, at times, rendered narratives as incoherent and nonsensical. By referencing films which span between the 1970s to the early 1980s, with scene examples taken from films such as The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (L’Uccello Dale Piume di ristallo, 1970), Deep Red (Profondo Rosso, 1975) and Tenebrae (Tenebre, 1982), this study will explore and analyse Argento’s depiction of cruelty and violence through his utilisation of mise en scène and cinematography, and how in scenes that depict such psychological and physical anguish are overall intensified through means of aesthetic, built cinematic environment and elaborate camera techniques. It will also assess Argento’s use of binaries and repetitional elements, and his expansion on genre conventions regarding place and setting, and how particular components are exploited to further intensify acts of cruelty and violence within scenes, with analysis supported by Anthony Vidler’s text The Architectural Uncanny, and Sigmund Freud’s infamous 1919 essay on The Uncanny.
BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
How Display Techniques Employed by the Acropolis Museum Inform Its Historical Narrative Sofia Christodoulou
The Parthenon Gallery of the Acropolis Museum, Athens, with a view out to the Parthenon. Personal photograph by the author. September 2018.
The Parthenon Marbles have had a long and interesting lifetime; from their creation over 2,000 years ago to their most recent position as points of negotiation in the Brexit process, these objects have had a variety of roles as items of cultural importance which I argue informs how they are displayed. In 2009 the new Acropolis Museum, in Athens, was opened. The new museum had – and maintains – the aim of housing the entirety of the Acropolis’ site material under one roof, an aim which the architecture and curation have allowed for. In my dissertation I have explored the ways in which the display techniques used in the museum convey this aim alongside a comparison of the different display style of the “missing” objects from the collection that are housed in the British Museum. In the comparison I have considered the aesthetics of the two galleries and how visitors to the museums will experience different aspects of the object’s histories through their contrasting curation. Alongside a visual analysis of the two galleries, theory from Hooper-Greenhill and Duncan has allowed for an insight into how these techniques can shape how visitors experience the museum space as well as their perception of the museum and the narrative that it is presenting.
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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
Addressing and Representing Women: Patriotism and the Patriarchy in World War One Propaganda Posters Elizabeth Collinson
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E.J. Kealey. Women of Britain Say – “Go!”. 1915. Lithograph poster. 759 x 505mm. Hill, Siffken and Co Ltd, London, Parliamentary Recruitment Committee. Imperial War Museum.
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In the years leading up to the First World War, the British public had already become well-acquainted with the modus of the poster. Its bold typography and images originated in advertising, allowing its move from selling products to selling the idea of strong Britannia seem only natural. The infamous recruitment poster Women of Britain Say – GO!, acts as a symbol of war-time British patriotism. However, the ‘fictional’ women captured within this poster remain somewhat disregarded. Their representation within this propaganda poster and others, leads to two questions: how were women represented and addressed in propaganda posters from the First World War, and how did this reflect social attitudes of the time? And: how did the depiction of women’s roles in propaganda posters – for examples as mothers, wives and workers – reinforce the expectations of patriotism and the patriarchy? Using the work of visual culture expert James Aulich and social historian Susan Grayzel in combination with in-depth analysis of the posters within the Imperial War Museum’s vast collection, this dissertation attempts to uncover the connection between patriotism and the patriarchy from 1914-1918. The female war experience cannot be simply defined and so this dissertation explores issues faced by women in the home and in the factory, working class and middle class. Throughout the research conducted, it is clear that World War One propaganda posters were used as ammunition to perpetuate the patriarchal hierarchies of the period.
BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
Framing Frida: The Politics of Representation and the Representation of Politics in the SelfPortraits of Frida Kahlo Ellie Costello
Frida Kahlo, My Nurse and I, 1937. Oil on metal, 35cm – 39.8cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo, Mexico City.
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is arguably one of the most famous woman artists of the 20th Century. As her oeuvre of paintings include a great number of self-portraits, Kahlo’s portraits have consistently been analysed from the perspective of her private life and are consistently framed as articulations of physical and emotional pain. Through studying Kahlo’s work in relation to her biography, her work has all too often been removed from the contexts of its production. Conversely, when re-aligned with the socio-political contexts of Modern Mexico, a far more nuanced, critical Frida emerges. Over two chapters this dissertation will employ contemporary narratives alongside analysis of the self-portraits of Frida Kahlo to assess the manner in which her portraits can be read as political. Chapter one, “Examining the political significance of My Nurse and I, and Remembrance of an Open Wound, in the contexts of post-Revolutionary Mexican national identity,” will examine the extent to which Kahlo’s self-portraits can be read as articulations of the political through placing her work within contexts surrounding nationalist artistic production between the years 1920-1940. Chapter two “Gender and Disruption in My Birth, and Self Portrait with Cropped Hair,” will expand on the cultural outline as set forth in chapter one to consider the manner in which Kahlo articulated gender and sexuality. By examining contemporary feminist narratives alongside historical cultural production, this chapter will posit that Kahlo’s self-portraits can be read as disruptive to the historic production of gender in Mexico. 11
BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
Authenticity and Heritage: A Discussion of Authentic Museum Display at William Morris’ Red House Francesca King
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View of the Red House, Bexleyheath. Personal photograph by author. 20 April 2019.
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In recent decades, there has been substantial growth in the number of museums resulting in what cultural historian Robert Hewison describes as the ‘museumification’ of Britain. Our obsession with the past has led to heritage becoming a prominent industry geared towards economic gain. History becomes a commodity and as a result the accuracy in which it is presented in museums has become increasingly questioned. Terms such as ‘authenticity’ and ‘accuracy’ have become prevalent topics within heritage studies with many theorists examining the extent to which we are showing ‘true’ accounts of the past. Information presented in museums is usually perceived by visitors to be truth, and for the larger part of the visiting public, the motivation to visit heritage sites is to experience some sort of ‘authentic’ aspect of the past. This dissertation aims to focus on the conflicting theories and issues surrounding authentic museum display, looking specifically at the genre of ‘house museums’. My research examines William Morris’ Red House, located in Bexleyheath, London, and how it is presented by the National Trust today. Arguably, dwellings such as these are important artefacts for reconstructing histories as houses are part of everyone’s common experience and it is possible to convey simplified approaches to history, art and architecture. A house museum’s importance is constituted in the way they can convey aspects of domestic culture, however, Red House now holds little original decoration or furniture. Consequently, my research questions whether the house successfully displays aspects of Morris’ life and character, and also evaluates the level of authenticity and accuracy with which this is done.
BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
Homer in Your Home: The Simpsons, Britain and 1990s Consumer Culture Sally Lawrence
Grandad’s Study. Photograph. 08/2018. Author’s own.
The Simpsons made its British television debut in September of 1990 and continues to this day almost thirty years later. As a result of their immediate and long lasting success, this American cartoon family had a world of consumers to entice; not only with their hundreds of hours of television but also with their millions of products, both licenced and otherwise. But what can these products tell us about British consumption in the 1990s? As this dissertation reveals, seemingly small objects and long forgotten advertisements, are able to tell big stories about British consumer culture. Stories about how seemingly American products can have very little to do with America; about how human emotion can be exploited to sell goods and how apparently innocent objects can help shape desirable consumer habits. But what makes The Simpsons such an effective tool for exploring these complex ideas? Their captivating cartoonish behaviours paired with their ability to elicit real human emotion made the Simpsons marketing gold. With hundreds of companies holding licences to use The Simpsons name, fans and non-fans alike, could not escape them. They featured on everything from Doritos packaging to plastic pin badges and were sold to consumers of all ages. This market saturation coupled with their wide and varied fanbase make the Simpsons a wonderful lens through which to explore consumer culture in 1990s Britain.
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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
Barbie: From Hyper-Femininity to Trixie Mattel Georgia Lester
Justin Bettman, GQ Magazine, Trixie Mattel, 2017. GQ Magazine Online. https:// www.gq.com/story/trixie-mattel-is-for-menand-women-and-kids
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This year (2019) Barbie celebrates her 60th Birthday. Over the past 60 years Barbie has become a cultural icon symbolic of femininity, flamboyance and fantasy. For a piece of moulded plastic, Barbie has been the subject of much controversy and debate, with critics arguing that the doll perpetuates harmful sexist stereotypes that paint women as vain, vapid and inferior. However, toy company Mattel is certain that Barbie is a feminist and a positive role model for young girls. This dissertation examines the ways in which that Barbie has been assigned a human persona while demonstrating a form of hyper-femininity that alienates her from reality. The conflicting characteristics applied to Barbie has led her to become Camp and confused; a perfect example of a woman for a Drag Queen to emulate. This dissertation explores the ways in which Barbie has been subverted in Drag Culture and how the doll has transformed from a toy for young girls to a caricature of femininity performed by men. This dissertation tells the story of the journey of Barbie, from how she was originally intended to be a friend for girls to educate them on proper American post-war femininity, to how her signature form of hyper-femininity has been used to highlight the fantastical ridiculousness of the doll in Drag performance, deconstructing the artifice of contemporary gender binaries.
BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
Devising Control: Discourses of the Gothic Semantic Mary Loveridge
S. Scott. Tudor Rose. Reproduction wallpaper after a design by Augustus Charles Pugin for the Houses of Parliament. 184550. Bridgeman.
After a catastrophic fire in 1834 much of the medieval Palace of Westminster was destroyed. A competition was held by the Royal Commission to determine the reconstruction of the New Palace. The winning design was a Gothic Revival entry submitted by Charles Barry. Building commenced in the following year. This dissertation has explored the reasons for which the Gothic Revival was exploited in the restoration of the palace. Delving into theories on space and power by the French philosopher Michel Foucault, the text has highlighted the interaction between the Gothic and groups of power, irst by monarchy and then by Parliament. Alongside the application of key concepts by Foucault and other writers, the history of the Gothic and its role in a British national identity has been investigated. The text has outlined the diverse and contradictory history of the Gothic, revealing how its architecture has been claimed by many politically adverse groups throughout the centuries. The grounds behind which is that reconstruction and appropriation of history lies at the heart of the Gothic Revival. Looking back to a chivalrous age of medieval knights and kings, and to the birth of the British Empire, the Victorians of 1834 reimagined the Gothic through the New Palace. By harnessing only parts of Gothic symbolism, and by associating themselves with an admired romantic image, Parliament was able to legitimise their authority over the British people. The home to the Houses of Parliament is a theatre of power, in which Gothic plays a starring role.
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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
The Barbican and the Gentrification of Council Estates Abigail Schofield
The Barbican Estate’s three residential towers. Photographer unknown. 3 September 2012.
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Gentrification is a topic which is increasingly relevant in society today, with many estates being demolished to make way for newly built, privately owned housing. This dissertation discusses the gentrification of council estates in London, using the Barbican Estate in the City of London and Trellick Tower in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea as specific case studies. My essay is a study into why many of the Brutalist council estates are now being gentrified by the middle and upper classes, whereas before they were lived in by the lower classes. I have questioned why this process is happening, what the causes of gentrification are, and whether the Barbican Estate has had an influence on this. Being constructed as a council estate with high rent prices, the Barbican was always meant to be for middle class residents, despite being so similar aesthetically to so much social housing such as Trellick Tower. It also studies why Post-war Modernism in Britain was perceived as a ‘failure’ and how this correlates with the Barbican and Trellick Tower, questioning whether they could be seen as a failure. I also explore the effects that listing a building have on the residents, and whether the overall effect of gentrification is good or bad for communities, looking at examples of displacement in London to discuss the morality of the act.
BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
A Study into the Audience and Artists’ Role within Kinetic, Cybernetic and Robotic Art from 1960 to the Present Day Kira Sosson
Jean Tinguely, Detail of Meta-matics n°6, 1959. Sculpture 50 x 70 x 30 cm. Museum Tinguely Collection
Technology enabled the possibilities of using sound, colours and movement to introduce interactive audience participation. This dissertation addresses the great history of movements within kinetic, cybernetic and robotic artworks in order to investigate the role of the artist in contrast to the role of the machine, as well as the significance of the public’s participation. Audience participation was first settled in kinetic installations give the command to the public using a press button, the relationship between the artwork and the audience is straight forward. However, the insertion of cybernetic theories in art expanded the possibilities of machines to interact not only with the audience but its environment. Recent robotic art exploits the progress with artificial intelligence offering a new autonomy to machines, thus the robot can express its own curiosity. These three movements constitute the progressing steps of technology in art. The research considers the highly connected society of today and the role technology holds in it. Robotic art, therefore, offers a social tool that enhances audience participation in a way that uses every sense. The audience adopts an active role creating unique properties in kinetic, cybernetic and robotic art. The creativity of the artist is being handed over to the machine which challenges the role of the artist. Artists create in a more exponential and immersive way by creating forms only possible through technological tools. However, a distinction can be made when the robot is used as a tool to create or whether it is used to express the artist’s curiosity. 17
BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
British Landscape in the 1980s: Ingrid Pollard and Chila Kumari Burman’s Conversation with Landscape and Nation (1981 – 1987) Colette Walsh This dissertation brings together the vastly different works of Ingrid Pollard, born in 1953, Guyana, and raised in Hackney, London, and Chila Kumari Ingrid Pollard, “pastoral Burman, born 1957, Liverpool. Both prolific Black women interlude”... (taken in artists of the 1980s, part of the British Black Arts Movement the Lake District) 1987. and exhibiting with other Black women as part of Lubaina Gelatin-silver print, Himid’s Thin Black Line (1985); their work explores the coloured by hand. 25.5cm x 38.8cm. Prints, struggles and conversations happening in Thatcher’s Britain Drawings and Paintings around race and nationalism. Pollard’s “pastoral interlude”… Collection, V&A Museum (1987) is examined by exploring landscape with a subversive (collections.vam.ac.uk) approach to the countryside, paying particular attention to history vs. heritage. Burman’s Riot Series (1981 – 1982) is also looked at in regards to landscape, but using the urban cities, predominantly where social uprisings occurred in the early 1980s, incorporating the artist’s interest in Punk and Reggae culture. The project uses theories around nationhood and identity to investigate how the works, although completely different in approaches and mediums, can be united to demonstrate the climate of working class society in a decade that saw social unrest throughout what the Conservatives promoted as a ‘unified island’. The 1980s is held as a conflicting period where although many factions of the country were disillusioned and fragmented, great art and community was achieved.
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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
Existential Art or Post-War Anxiety? Wols 1945-1951. Sarah Watts
Wols, It’s All Over, 1946-1947, Artstor.
French Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre met German Artist Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze, commonly known as ‘Wols’, in Paris in 1945, just after World War II had finished. Their friendship and working relationship continued until Wols’ untimely death in 1951. Wols had a troubled past, as an exile from Germany for refusing his service call-up, being interned as an enemy alien in France when WWII started and alcoholism, which plunged him into poverty in his last few years. Wols is known for his involvement in the Art Informel movement in France and his small body of abstract, surrealist work. After Wols’ death Sartre wrote an intimate essay about him, describing him as the existential artist. Sartre’s philosophy of Existentialism had become very popular in Paris during WWII. The theory, as Sartre taught, said that humans had no reason for existence in life until they chose to make one for themselves, which as humans we had the freedom to do. He called for artists to make art without preconceptions, as freedom was key in his thinking. This dissertation questions Sartre’s statement that Wols was the existential artist, instead it argues that the stimuli for his artwork stemmed from post-war anxieties, rather than from Sartre’s theory of Existentialism and the freedoms that surrounded it. Analysis consists of comparing Sartre’s theory and Wols’ art to find methodological similarities, exploring other technological advancements in science and aerial photography to explain the images Wols painted, and looking at how anxiety about identity, nationality and a life of exile can be read in his paintings.
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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design
Art In Exile: The Lives of Interned Artists in Britain During World War Two. Danielle Yianni
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Still Life, Hutchinson Camp, IOM. Hellmuth Weissenborn. 1940. Support: paper medium: linocut. H 235mm x W 183mm. IWM. Art.IWM ART 15989 15
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Fleeing one country to be imprisoned in another, around 27,000 people were interned by the British Government during the Second World War, however, little to nothing is known about the lives of these individuals. Nicknamed “Prison Island,� the Isle of Man housed the largest population of internees, with the majority of them being Jewish victims and escapees of Nazi prosecution. These individuals were forced to live out the war in exile, but how did they spend their time? With men and women living apart from one another, Hutchinson Internment Camp was one of the largest camps situated on the Isle of Man, housing around 10,000 men. Known as the artists camp, due to the vast number of creative individuals housed there, Hutchinson allows for an incredible insight into the continuation of everyday life during this time of exile. Filled with rich primary materials, such as personal diaries and letters, this dissertation dives into the lives of these interned men, unravelling their daily lives, gaining insight into the structural make-up of the camp. By focusing on the use of newspaper publications and the production of art, this paper explores how, in exile, the individuals of Hutchinson Internment Camp were able to utilise this period of further unrest to create an environment which allowed for a community spirit to flourish and art to be produced. Whilst simultaneously tacking complicated issues surrounding topics such as identity, this paper aims to acknowledge the struggles of those whose histories have near enough been forgotten and ignored, in hope to make them known again.
Undergraduate Degree Show 2014
Title of the Dissertation Authors name
BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
The ‘Uniform of Domesticity’ in Post-War Britain, 1945-1955 Donna Gilbert
Bird’s Cereal Advertisement. Picture Post, 13 Aug 1955. Print. St Peter’s House Library, University of Brighton.
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As Britain began to recover from the aftermath of the Second World War, married women were encouraged return to the home to become paragons of housewifely virtue. Magazines and newspapers promoted the idea that only through home and family could a woman find true feminine fulfilment. Housework was systematised, prioritized and fetishized and a woman’s role of homemaker was promoted as vitally important to both the family and society, and equal to that of man as breadwinner. The garments women wore for household tasks, such as aprons, overalls and housecoats are emblematic of this nurturing role and were an indispensable part of a woman’s wardrobe. Collectively they may be regarded as what Jennifer Craik refers to as a quasi-uniform, meaning a dress code which is shared by a certain group but not enforced by an authority. Utilising primary sources including surviving garments, oral history, magazines, newspapers and sewing patterns, this dissertation proposes that these garments are viewed as a ‘uniform of domesticity.’ This suggests conformity, order, occupational skill and a placed identity which is examined through French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, illustrating how women negotiated the social demands of class and dress, based on what men and society required. The notion of uniform is also subject to conflicting ideas of moral decency and erotic desires and this study explores the way in which the uniform of domesticity was positioned by film, saucy British humour and American pin-up art, thus objectifying the housewife and reinforcing hegemonic masculinity.
BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
Sex Determination and Gendered Dress for Newborns: An Analysis of Brighton Midwives and Mothers’ Consumption Choices Emily Gould-White
Screenshot of an image, taken from @ honestlymommy Instagram page @honestlymommy image caption: “GENDER REVEAL; a real one this time ha ha I bet you’ve never seen a gender reveal quite like this before!” 125,598+ views. 14 Sept 2018.
Is it a boy or a girl? A question that many expectant mothers find themselves answering, but why, and how does this information alter their pregnancy experience? An increase in the use of sex determination technologies in pregnancy has allowed for the normalisation and acceptance of identity beginning in utero, based on the knowledge of a foetus’ sex. It is difficult to deny that newborn clothing has become palpably more gendered, which contradicts contemporary knowledge and understanding of different gender identities, as well as public backlash against gender stereotyping in Britain. By focusing on expectant mothers’ prenatal, newborn clothing consumption habits, this dissertation sets out to understand this phenomenon’s timeline, to explore a possible connection between sex determination and gendered newborn consumption choices. The work of Janelle S. Taylor and Medora M. Barnes are part of a small selection of studies that focus on the use of technology in pregnancy, and its influence on consumption practices of expectant mothers. To further explore this neglected area of research I produced and then interpreted the responses of twelve questionnaires, completed by a group of midwives from The Royal Sussex County Hospital. Differing from the work of Taylor and Barnes the questionnaires explore not just their experiences, and gendered consumption choices as mothers, but also how their midwifery career shaped their decisions. By investigating the role of newborn clothing, and how it communicates gender identity and gendered expectations of a foetus, this study emphasises how prenatal consumption habits are intrinsically intertwined with the personal experiences and circumstances of the expectant mother, highlighting a greater desire to subvert and reject gendered newborn clothing amongst this specific demographic group. 23
BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
The Wearing of the Green: Expressions of Irish Nationalism in Irishwomen’s Dress During the Early Twentieth Century Veronica Liptrot
Clare Kennedy wearing Celtic Revival costume, 1927. Digital Repository of Ireland, National Museum of Ireland
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The twentieth century was a turbulent time in the history of Ireland, with the first few decades alone seeing rebellion, civil war, and the beginning of partition, which still divides the island to this day. The early twentieth century was also a time of great change in the lot of women, with more women entering the workplace during wars, and the advent of women’s suffrage. This dissertation aims to explore the dual roles of Irish nationalist and Irish woman, and how the women of the republican movement expressed their patriotic ideals and longing for a culturally Gaelic Ireland through one of their dress. Many of these garments, such as the Celtic Revival costume worn by Claire Kennedy, consisted of a fanciful design, based upon romanticised ideas of an Ireland long past, before her colonisation, as depicted in the Cycle of the Kings. This costume, created by the all-female Dun Emer Guild, using all Irish fabrics and craftswomen, serves as the main case study of this dissertation, but garments such as this were not suitable for most women, and so I will also be examining the more practical ways in which women showed their allegiance. I also intend to discuss whether this attempt at creating a purely Irish style of dress was an attempt to forge a new Irish identity in the uncertain times following partition, appealing to tradition with the aim of decolonisation, or indeed ‘DeAnglicise’, and also to examine whether there is a correlation between these costumes and other attempts at folk-dress revival elsewhere.
BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
Subverting Pink: Queer Reclamations of Hyper-Feminine Dress Eleanor Medhurst
Lison D. Photograph posted publicly on Instagram @ princesscarnival. 1st Nov. 2018. Web. 9th Nov. 2018.
The colour pink is the most prominent symbol of stereotypical femininity. Its associations since the mid twentieth century have been of womanhood, girlishness, and heterosexuality. Subverting Pink: Queer Reclamations of Hyper-Feminine Dress addresses the opposition to this; through interviews with 6 pink-wearing people within the LGBTQ community, it assesses how the colour can be worn and reclaimed in a queer setting. Analysis of the statements made in the interviews, alongside photographs of outfits worn by the interviewees are connected to academic theories by the likes of Luce Irigaray, Michel Foucault and Dick Hebdige, outlining a new understanding of what pink has the potential to express within Western society. The themes addressed in this work are of dress as a visual statement of queerness, hyper-femininity as a challenge to stereotypes of mainstream femininity, and of pink as a symbol of subversive self-expression. Luce Irigaray’s writings on mimicry are prominent in explaining how a purposeful application of ‘feminine’ traits or actions can magnify and question what femininity means within society. This theory is used to assert that pink can rewrite femininity and that its power can be transferred. The second half of this dissertation moves on from discourses of femininity into a discussion of pink as a bold and powerful colour in itself, and as such it is a perfect aesthetic weapon to be used by the LGBTQ community. A queer individual dressed in bright pink demands a place in the world. This dissertation argues that pink is being subverted and reclaimed in real time by real people.It is an examination of statements which are already being made. 25
BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
‘Nothing is ever really new in fashion’: Feminine Ideals in the Evening Dresses of the House of Worth (1895-1905) and Christian Dior (1947-1957) Caroleen Molenaar
Left: House of Worth. Evening dress. 1903. Silk, chenille, boning. Fashion Museum, Bath, Somerset, U.K. Right: Christian Dior. Evening Dress. 1953-55. Silk, organza, boning. The Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.A.
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By definition, fashion is typically described as a type of dress that embodies the latest and newest aesthetic-making it desirable and popular to the consumer. However, theorists Walter Benjamin and Ulrich Lehmann, as well as historian Marie-France Pochna, argue that fashion is in fact not new, but continually uses ideas and concepts from the past and presents them as new. This dissertation uses this theory to demonstrate how the New Look-influenced evening dresses created by fashion designer Christian Dior (1905-1957) between 1947-1957, and the ‘new’ components introduced by Dior—including ‘new’ marketing practices, a ‘new’ way of life, and a ‘new’ type of dress construction—which corresponded with Dior’s evening dress appearance, were actually revived from the past. The New Look, a term originally coined by Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief of America’s Harper’s Bazaar in 1947 when it was first released, is associated with the feminine ideal expressed through fashion which consists of an accentuated bust, a small waist, and a full skirt. This ideal was labeled as ‘new’ since it contrasted the masculine-shaped clothing that many women wore throughout the Second World War; this ideal became the emblem of 1950s. To explore how the ‘new’ feminine ideal in Dior’s evening dress and their ‘new’ related facets are revived, a comparative analysis with the appearance and corresponding facets of evening dresses made in the Belle Époque era (1895-1905) by the House of Worth, a famed Parisian couture house in the late 19th and early 20th century, is used. It is through this analysis that makes one question how new this fashionable feminine ideal and its corresponding aspects really are.
BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress Hisotory
‘Blame it on Mame’: Auntie Mame and Camp Feminism. Phoebe Portlock
Auntie Mame (1958) Poster, Dir. Morton DaCosta, Courtesy of Warner Brothers.
In Susan Sontag’s seminal essay Notes on ‘Camp’ from 1964, she notes the failed seriousness of camp taste, and the private zany experiences camp audiences can find within c media. Auntie Mame is an example of camp cinema from 1958 which was prior to Sontag’s essay. The film starred comedic actress Rosalind Russell who through her three-decade career had cultivated an exaggerated star image which can be perceived as subverting gender ideals, this is especially present in her role as Mame Dennis. Camp taste draws on the mostly unacknowledged ideas around taste and normative life, therefore the exaggeration of Russell’s gender and sexuality in Auntie Mame can be perceived as feminist and camp. The genre of comedy plays a role in the way women in film could step out of the gender binaries that the Hays code was enforcing in cinema from 1934 to 1968. This allowed the film to be perceived by audiences differently as today the audience for the film can unpick the feminist camp themes of the movie, something 1958 audiences would not have seen or done. The film has a camp aesthetic overall due to the exaggerated and excessive costumes and sets of the film. Auntie Mame retains its popularity amongst certain groups so much so that camp taste and academia have become a significant movement, for example the theme of the 2019 Met Gala is inspired by Sontag’s Notes on ‘Camp’ called Camp: Notes on Fashion, something Auntie Mame knows all too well.
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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
Victoria’s Secret: The Sexual Representation of Females in Lingerie Advertising Tamsin Rogers
Victoria’s Secret. ‘Very SexyV-Wire Teddy.’ February 2019. Victoria’s Secret. Victoria’s Secret Press Room. 29 Feb.
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Society is bombarded daily with millions of advertising images created to convince the world to purchase a certain commodity. Sexual content is found to be one of the most persuasive techniques exploited by advertisers to motivate consumers to invest in a company brand. Lingerie retailers recognised the potential of the powerful force of sex that promises the viewer an “improved” life. The theme of sex was encompassed as a potent marketing tool from as early as the 19th century. The nature of the sexuality was mild to suit the prudish Victorian attitudes of the era. However, the characteristics of the eroticism in advertising that has continued to permeate the contemporary media landscape is more aggressive. This is seen in the graphic nudity incorporated in such images as the Victoria’s Secret 2019 Valentine’s Day campaign. The women’s 1960s liberation movement challenged for the objectification of women to be abolished. Their endeavours were evidently not successful as the perfectly slender, big-boobed, plastic sex robot stereotype was regularly utilised in advertising from the 1990s. Gender critic Ariel Levy responded to these images by arguing: conforming to these sexual standards is an illusion that is perpetuated by the male-managed institutions in retaliation to the rise in female power to oppress women into an inferior social position. This provides an invitation to argue against the stance adopted by neoliberal post-feminists that sexualising the female body in popular culture is empowering as an active symbol of patriarchal defiance. This paper intends to present constructing your self-identity in to the image of hyper-sexuality is not taking control of your body but an appropriation of the system that subdues women.
BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
Underwear in Costume Drama Charlotta Ruotanen
Still from Marie Antoinette. Sofia Coppola. 2006. Columbia Pictures.
Costume drama films are known for their beautiful costumes from another eras. Some costume drama films also display beautiful women’s undergarments which are quite different from our contemporary underwear. These pieces of clothing are seen through rose-coloured glasses or with a feminist lens. This dissertation explores how underwear is displayed in a costume drama film and how underwear is used to enforce the plot of the film. These ideas are explored through three different costume drama films. Common features of these films are that they are all made in 21st century and they are all set in the later part of the 18th century Europe. The Duchess (2008) is directed by Saul Dibb and it is based on Amanda Foreman’s biography: Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1998). The Duchess is story of Georgiana Cavendish’s marriage with all the side lovers. Farewell My Queen (2012) is directed by Benoît Jacquot and it is based on a novel by Chantal Thomas: Farewell My Queen (2002). Farewell My Queen is showing the chaos in Versailles from Marie Antoinette’s reader’s point of view two days before French Revolution came to Versailles. Marie Antoinette (2006) is directed by Sofia Coppola and it is based on Antonia Fraser’s biography: Marie Antoinette: The Journey (2001). Marie Antoinette shows Marie Antoinette’s journey from Austrian princess to dauphin of France to teenage queen of France. All of these three films display underwear in different contexts and this dissertation is analysing meaning if the underwear or lack of underwear in the scene.
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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
The Costumes of Josephine Baker in Inter-War Paris: Negrophilia, Bananas and Race Georgia Saunders
Paul Colin. Josephine Baker. c. 1927. Lithograph. Found in Paul Colin, Henry Gates, Karen Dalton, Josephine Baker and La Revue Négre. (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1998) 37.
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‘The only black community they mostly failed to mention was the one from which the show had truly come, the one in America. Josephine to them was an African—it could be seen from the way she bent her knees and jutted out her bum’. This observation by Ean Wood truly summarises InterWar Paris. It was a ‘crazy’ time of Avant-Garde thinking, when bourgeois life appeared to many white artists as mechanical and phoney. Arguably, the isolation and brutality of World War I enhanced their utter disdain for this conventional life, and thus became a catalyst for drastic change. Artists therefore took it upon themselves to transform into ‘modern primitives’, taking inspiration from black culture to live an unpretentious way-of-life. These artists used their perception of black culture to nurture fantasies of the ‘primitive’ within a contemporary setting, legitimating the notion that black people embodied a pre-civilized society. However, it was the ‘interpretation’ of black culture and not black culture itself that informed this belief. Using the costumes and, notably, the banana skirt of famous dancer and entertainer, Josephine Baker, this dissertation explores the nature of racial stereotyping. It draws on lithographs, paintings and photographs from the time, coupled with Archer-Straw’s research on Negrophilia and Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze to unpack white audiences’ distorted perceptions of Baker as an object of fascination, which often placed her in sensual, primitive and African imagery.
BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
Racebending, Fetishism and Yellowface: The ‘Other’ in Pre-Code Cinema Gina Schwencke Fear and suspicion of East Asians due to the Yellow Peril of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth-century resulted in Asian characters being portrayed as villainous and deceitful in pre-code era (1929-1934) Hollywood. With race-altering makeup and elaborate costumes, white actors were transformed into Asian characters, while Asian actors were typecast into stereotypical roles that enhanced their ‘Otherness’. Focusing on the career of Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong as well as Japanese-American actress Toshia Mori’s role in The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933) and Helen Haye’s role in The SonDaughter (1932), this dissertation looks at why these roles were created and the social impact they had.
Anna May Wong in publicity photograph for Daughter of the Dragon. Lloyd Corrigan. 1931. Paramount Pictures.
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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History
Exploring the Use and Branding of Subcultural Accessories Through The Great Frog, From 1972-2019 Imogen Warner-Dart
Black and white image of Lemmy Kilmister of the band Motörhead, featuring him wearing rings by The Great Frog, including a prosthetic eye ring in his mouth. Sourced from The Great Frog.
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This dissertation explores the branding of subcultural accessories through the jewellery brand The Great Frog who have existed since 1972 and still successfully trade today. The brand have become a greater name throughout their trading of nearly fifty years. This unique brand broke the mould for jewellery at the time which made them popular among subcultures alike. Promotion of their jewellery was aided by their famous clientele, both in the twentieth and twenty-first century. Links to such musicians and famous personalities, as well as artistic collaborations with metal bands in their collections have given the brand’s name significance in the alternative music scene. They started out in their flagship store in Carnaby Street, London and have since grown in London, including stores in the United States. This unique brand is a great example to explore the ways branding takes place in such a business that is associated with subculture. This includes influences from music within fashion and dress, using Janice Miller’s Fashion and Music. The research in this work was aided by an interview with the founder of the brand, Paterson Riley. Ideas and concepts are explored throughout this writing in the difference in society since the ‘original’ subcultures were formed around the 1970s, and how society has since changed. This further reflects ideas around the tricky term of ‘authenticity’, which they claim to have within the subcultural, rock ‘n’ roll scene. Through an exploration of changing theory around subculture, and consequently the change in society over The Great Frog’s timespan, this work explores the messages through the design in their jewellery. Consequently, seeking out their meanings in order to interpret them in the present day.
BA (Hons) Visual Culture
BA (Hons) Visual Culture
Virginia Woolf: A Celebration of Her Writings Represented at Two Contemporary Art Exhibitions. Alice Flynn
Photographer Unknown, Virginia Woolf pondering on her armchair, 1928. Image courtesy of www. nytimes.com
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Born in London in 1882, Virginia Woolf is considered one of the greatest writers and thinkers of the twentieth century. During her years as a novelist, Woolf often reflected on the world around her. She despised war and did not agree with Victorian attitudes towards women. A reflection of Woolf’s feminist and liberal ideas are apparent in some of her bestknown novels such as Orlando: A Biography, A Room of One’s Own and Mrs Dalloway. In recent years, Woolf’s radical ideas have been studied and considered influential by many. Intrigued by Woolf’s feminist ideas, my dissertation explores two recent exhibitions inspired by the writings of Woolf - ‘Virginia Woolf: An Exhibition Inspired by Her Writings’ (Pallant House, Chichester 2018) and ‘Orlando at the Present Time’ (Charleston Trust, Lewes 2018-2019). Each exhibition examines Woolf’s writings as an influential source for feminist ideas, in both modern and contemporary art practices. My thesis aimed to analyse the works of some of the exhibited artists and identify feminist narratives in their artworks. In addition, it explores feminist curation by considering primary feminist theorists Griselda Pollock, Rozsika Parker, Hilde Hein and Maura Reilly. It looks at how curation has changed over time and the ways museums have adapted their institutional methods to be inclusive of everyone. Furthermore, my dissertation delves into the history of women artists dating from the late nineteenth century into the mid-twentieth century. It will consider their struggles in their fight for independence through the act of resistance.
BA (Hons) Visual Culture
An Exploration of ‘Modern Primitives’ and the Evolution of Body Modification in the West Orla Fottrell-Gould
Fakir Stretches His Neck with Metal Collar, self-portrait. 1962.
This work was an exploration of particular individuals who identify themselves as “Modern Primitives”, and what they have done in their lives to promote and represent the movement. I primarily focused on Fakir Musafar and Jim Ward, pioneers of the body modification industry. Their extensive work has immensely improved hygiene standards and perfected techniques for executing piercings, and throughout the years they have educated the body piercing community. As part of my study into the Modern Primitive movement, I explored a brief part of the punk subculture of 1970s Britain, and how it was the punk style that began to make body piercing more of a mainstream part of society in Britain, in both negative and positive ways. I discuss how punks made their appearance a statement, much like how ‘Modern Primitives’ did. I analysed ethnographic photography taken by British and American explorers in order to understand where Western society got its visual inspiration for ritualistic practices, and how the people in the images were predominantly represented as unsophisticated, ‘primitive’ visual spectacles. ‘Modern Primitives’ main sources of inspiration were photographs published in the National Geographic magazine of other cultures. I included photography from around the Victorian era in my work since this was visual evidence of Western culture benefitting from colonialism.
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BA (Hons) Visual Culture
Django Unchained: Does Historiogrpahic Metafiction Engage an Audience Productively with History? Sophia Welton
Master Candie spectating over his slave’s Mandingo fight. Django Unchained, 2012. Photographed still by Andrew Cooper. www.imdb.com/
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Django Unchained (2012), the much talked about film about a freed slave who rescues his enslaved wife, was one of the first in a surge of films depicting representations of the African-American experience throughout history. Historiographic metafiction is a method of representing history which incorporates both historical fiction and references to other modes of discourse, such as art, film and literature. Django Unchained was packed full of these different references - officially termed as intertextuality - especially previous films. I want to explore how, despite controversy surrounding Django Unchained and its fictional elements, the film’s methods managed to broaden an audiences engagement with history rather than impair it. By exploring, in particular, intertextual references to the 1975 film Mandingo as well as the established and contentious character Uncle Tom, the audience’s engagement with history engages with not only slavery but, also, its afterlife. Director Tarantino chose to intertextually reference previous representations which were once racist stereotypes which haunted American screens. However, he has carefully re-framed them within a new context to not impair the AfricanAmerican character, but, to focus upon those responsible. This being the white spectators within the film, but also, the previous part of society which produced and consumed the film Tarantino is referencing. This is an example of how Django Unchained adds a new dimension to how slavery can be represented on screen; by reminding the audience of its still lingering consequences, by closing the gap between then and today, and broadening the audience’s personal relation to history.
BA (Hons) Visual Culture
The Search for Eden, Adam and a Post-War Paradise: Escapism in the Work of Post-War Creative John Minton Ella Winning
John Minton. Corsican Fisherman. 1948. Oil on canvas. 103 x 127 cm. Private Collection. Bridgeman Images.
After the First (1914-1918) and Second (1939-1945) World Wars, Britain’s population was left both economically and psychologically damaged, yearning for the stability, safety and plenitude that the blitzed nation could not offer. Exploring these impacts of conflict in his work, John Minton (1917 - 1957) influenced British visual culture greatly during and after the Second World War through his escapist paintings, illustrations, posters and more. This dissertation discusses the meaning and importance of Minton’s creative output in relation to the origins of post-war escapism, as well as its effects on visual culture as a whole. This analysis will be positioned in relation to theories surrounding the British relationship to the ‘other’ through racial hierarchy and sexual desire, such as Stuart Hall’s The West and the Rest, Edward Said’s Orientalism, Simon Faulkner and Anandi Ramamurthy’s arguments of Exoticisation. These theories of ‘Westernised’ sexualisation and racial difference are important when discussing Minton’s work; while his depictions of Britain during and after the war show a longing for sexual freedom and homosexual liberation, later pieces portraying exotic lands suggest he has found it - in the muscular arms, built chest and emphasised crotches of men of colour. Informed by a contemporary societal push to fully comprehend true meanings of colonialism and neo-colonialism, paired by the recent 50-year anniversary of the part legalisation of homosexuality in Britain, it is vital to understand the racially fuelled sexual fantasies British visual culture has been founded on, as well as drawing on how exploitative practices were manifested throughout ‘Western’ gay history in an effort to look towards a fairer, more inclusive future. 37
Dissertation Supervisors
Dissertation Supervisors 2018-19
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Dr Harriet Atkinson Dr Anna Vaughan Kett Dr Charlotte Nicklas Dr Lara Perry Dr Annebella Pollen Dr Louise Purbrick Dr Megha Rajguru Dr Glenn Ward
Catalogue concept Paul Jobling and Ness Wood Catalogue design Megha Rajguru and Ness Wood
Final Year Students 2018-19
Caption
Final Year Students 2018-19
BA (Hons) History of Art and Design Lola May-Baldock Natalie Blesson Sofia Christodoulou Elizabeth Collinson Ellie Costello Francesca King Sally Lawrence Georgia Lester Mary Loveridge Abigail Schofield Kira Sosson Colette Walsh Sarah Watts Danielle Yianni
Final Year Students 2018-19
BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History Donna Gilbert Emily Gould-White Veronica Liptrot Eleanor Medhurst Caroleen Molenaar Phoebe Portlock Tamsin Rogers Charlotta Ruotanen Georgia Saunders Gina Schwencke Imogen Warner-Dart
BA (Hons) Visual Culture Alice Flynn Orla Fottrell-Gould Sophia Welton Ella Winning
School of Humanities
The University of Brighton community of Arts and Humanities, situated on Grand Parade in the city centre, evolved from the Brighton School of Art founded in 1859. Committed to learning as a collaborative process, its degrees nurture excellence in the visual and performing arts, architecture, design, art and design history, media studies, moving image and film studies, literature, languages and humanities, and provide a world-leading research environment for the arts. In 2019-20 the School of Humanities offers the following degrees in the History of Art and Design: BA (Hons) History of Art and Design BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History BA (Hons) Visual Culture BA (Hons) Philosophy, Politics, Art MA History of Design and Material Culture MA Curating Collections and Heritage At the same time we welcome applications for MPhil and PhD research in the history of art and design, material culture and related topics (with some places eligible for funding). For further information, please contact us: 01273 644644 enquiries@brighton.ac.uk or visit the University of Brighton website: https://www.brighton. ac.uk/index.aspx To follow History of Art and Design programme activities and communications, please see: blogs.brighton.ac.uk/hoad twitter.com/hoadbrighton www.facebook.com/hoadbrighton
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