THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT: CHARLOTTE HODES IN CONVERSATION WITH FLAVIA LOSCIALPO
29/04/2014
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT: CHARLOTTE HODES IN CONVERSATION WITH FLAVIA LOSCIALPO
With an international reputation as an artist working through collage across different media, this new work by Charlotte Hodes has been informed by the influential 1856 book The Grammar of Ornament by architect Owen Jones, one of the most important design theorists of the 19th century.
Hodes subverts this male treatise and re-interprets it from the position of a contemporary female artist engaged in the languages of fine and decorative arts. “Hodes dismantles idea and form by using collage and papercut techniques to disrupt images, thus creating multifarious new directions and possibilities,” says Dr Janet McKenzie in her catalogue essay on the work.
In Hodes’ papercuts the female figure appears as a protagonist serving to undermine and disrupt the rigidity of the hierarchical system presented by Jones, defined by his “General Principles” that govern the use of design and ornament in architecture. Her feminist approach is further explored through the medium of ceramic dishes as a canvas, situating the imagery firmly within the domestic domain rather than seeking to replicate the grand and lofty iconography of architecture and classic design.
“Her work, using tiny fragments of paper and decorative motifs, explores the diverse manner in which the women have been presented in art history; the decorative links to the domestic, and the way in which so much of female activity goes unnoticed,” says McKenzie.
Significantly the exhibition will be restaged at New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge, the only collection devoted to women’s art in the UK (26th April-24th May)
This work in this first solo exhibition by Charlotte Hodes at jaggedart and builds upon her prize winning work on paper for the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2006, her solo exhibition at The Wallace Collection 2007 and her participation in Glasstress: White Light White Heat exhibitions at both the Venice Biennial 2013 and The Wallace Collection 2013.
In an After Nyne exclusive, Flavia Loscialpo,Senior Lecturer in Fashion, Southampton Solent University, interviews Charlotte Hodes, to get behind the skin of the exhibition.
Flavia Loscialpo: Your latest exhibition ‘The Grammar of Ornament. New papercuts and ceramics’ (Jaggedart, London; New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge, 2014) unfolds a visual and poetic response to the work of architect Owen Jones (1809-1874), who is a point of reference for many artists and designers, such as Le Corbusier, William Morris, Frank Lloyd Wright. What drew you towards Owen Jones and in particular his treatise The Grammar of Ornament?
Charlotte Hodes: I had a facsimile of The Grammar of Ornament (1856), the Victorian cataloguing by Owen Jones of decoration and ornament in architecture. It includes many coloured plates and samples of decorative motifs across different cultures and ages. One of the entries in this Victorian book is an outline of 37 general principles on the arrangement of form and colour in architecture and decorative arts. In the treatise, Jones articulates a proper system of hierarchical ordering. What interested me in the book was partly the beauty of the colour plates, very richly printed and dense in colour and matter, but also the potential to disrupt the system outlined by Jones, breaking the rules set by the propositions.
Proposition 6 Linear Perfection painted & printed papers 65 x 88cm 2014. Photograph by Daniel Caulfield-Sriklad
Proposition 6 Linear Perfection painted & printed papers 65 x 88cm 2014. Photograph by Daniel Caulfield-Sriklad
FL: Proposition 6 reads ‘Beauty of form is produced by lines growing out one from the other in gradual undulations: there are no excrescences; nothing could be removed and leave the design equally good or better’. Ideals of harmony and equilibrium are at the basis of Owens’ theories on decoration, ornament and polychromy. However the propositions seem to extend beyond ornament and decoration and contain in nuce a whole vision of life and beauty…
CH: They do, and Owen Jones was hugely innovative at the time. In articulating my response, I wanted to disrupt the system he delineates by introducing a female figure motif, which is distinctly absent in his treatise. Each proposition provided a starting point for the corresponding papercut: sometimes I used the entire proposition, other times only a part or even just a word that triggered images and ideas.
In responding to Proposition 8 – All ornament should be based upon geometrical construction – I re-interpreted geometry using the patterns from the Hayes textile archive at London College of Fashion; I manipulated some of the swatches digitally and printed them on sheets of paper to use as collage material. The original patterns informed the construction of the collage, and in particular the geometric pattern from the archive was reiterated through out the papercut in a number of ways. Out of patterns I created other patterns. In my Proposition 8: Geometry, there is a sense of the image being divided into two, with the two figures mirroring each other and being the cut out of the other – such as the negative and positive – which are fundamental aspects of patterns. The central section is also divided into half, resembling a pillar, with the decorative motifs referring loosely to the ornaments of a pillar base. Through out my response, the vibrancy and richness of the colours is informed by the jewel-like quality of the plates in Jones’ book, which is derived by chromolithography.
Proposition 8 Geometry painted & printed papers 63.5 x 86cm 2014
Proposition 8 Geometry painted & printed papers 63.5 x 86cm 2014. Photograph by Daniel Caulfield-Sriklad
FL: In your work the texture, the bi-dimensionality of collage, is central and creates different layers within the whole image. Which role does drawing play in defining the papercuts?
CH: The papercuts for my collages are made mostly from printed or painted papers, and I use the abstract fragments as a colour palette, as a painter would use colours. Initially I have an idea of the contours, but the collage further develops the idea. There is a continuous conversation between the fragments that define a shape but at the same time can ‘break out’ of the shape. This gives a sense of fragility to the final works: the contours of the silhouette have the potential to dissipate and be contaminated by the fragments.
FL: You mentioned the absence of a female motif in Jones’ treatise. Within your work instead the female figure, even in its intangibility, is protagonist. How does it relate the surrounding context within your papercuts?
CH: In my work there is always a single female figure or the suggestion of a presence of the female figure, traces of it. The more the material nature of the collage takes over, the more the female figure is absent. She ‘tends to just be’, disinterested in the viewer. My figures in fact are never fully there. There is always a tension between what is tangible (the fragments) and what is intangible (the formless figure, as a shape, a silhouette). In particular, the female figure participates by becoming part of the pattern and colour. She becomes part of a decorative environment but is not subsumed by it. She has the potential to leave. The work seeks to challenge the way women are represented within fine and decorative arts, and even beyond.
The Grammar of Ornament
New Papercuts and Ceramics by Charlotte Hodes
A poetic response to the Thirty Seven Propositions outlined in Owen Jones’ 1856 publication.
Exhibition dates:
New Hall Art Collection: Saturday 26 April – Saturday 24 May, 2014
University of Cambridge