Article
Search
Upcoming Exhibitions
Article
Search
Upcoming Exhibitions
Green Pebble Magazine
Rood Hall Studio
Bungay Road
Beccles NR34 8HE
Articles> Deanna Tyson
By Paul Dance
The
idea of ‘politically motivated design’ may sound like an artist’s
ploy to be taken seriously, but for Deanna Tyson it is a passionate response
to a deeply held sense of the unjust.
‘My first kimono was made when I read an article about a park in Japan
where people had for years eaten lunch, drunk coffee and relaxed. When developers
came to develop the park they discovered that it had been the site of a
concentration camp in the Second World War. I knew that this was the story
I wanted to show but took a while to crystallise it into creating kimonos.’
She continues, ‘Clothing has always had a political and social edge
to it, from the Heian period of 17th Century Japan, when the emperor forbade
the rich from displaying their wealth in fancy kimonos, to today’s
obsession with designer labels.’
Deanna’s current work follows her own definition of her art as ‘soft
sculptures’ but incorporates hard social and political statements
into their designs. Sitting with her two Maine Coone cats in the garden
a few miles outside Cambridge, she explains, ‘I hate the tactile quality
of metal so I work in silk and other materials.’ She then paints and
finishes by hand her kimonos waistcoats, bags and wallhangings. The material
for these she finds during her travels and she stores them until the right
idea comes along to match the material.
She describes her work as three-dimensional paintings on a moving canvas
and they range from portraits of The Rolling Stones or a Newmarket race
scene to images of African heroes or jazz musicians....
This is only a small part of the article.
Subscribe to Green Pebble Magazine
and have the latest issues delivered
straight to your door!
Artist
Search