Bob Carlos Clarke: Fairy Bum

     Bob Carlos Clarke (1950-2006) - Fairy Bum

A photographer's cheeky, modern take on the butterfly girl. 

 

Butterfly-Girl Cigarette Cards

These are rather lovely. They are cigarette cards produced by British American Tobacco and Players cigarettes in 1928. The cards depict Flappers - liberated women of the 1920s who initially scandalised society with their fast-living behaviour - openly drinking and smoking, bobbing their hair, and wearing loose-fitting dresses with short hem-lines that showed off their legs and silk stockings - sporting magnificent pairs of butterfly wings.

Anthropomorphic figures combining human and insect elements perfectly captured the spirit of the Victorian and Edwardian era, and this was due in no small part to the artists and illustrators of the day using fantasy hybrid figures as the basis for their work. Fairies and butterfly-girls proved popular subject matter for illustrators such as Cicely Mary Barker who was responsible for creating the enchanting Flower Fairy series (top and bottom below), and artist John Atkinson Grimshaw who created the painting Iris (1886) middle below. 

Fairy figures also featured largely in the public imagination in the early twentieth century because of the notorious Cottingly Fairies photograph, in which two girls claimed to have captured photographic proof that fairies exist. The image caused a sensation and became famous world-wide. It was only as recently as 1981 that Elsie Wright - one of the two girls responsible - admitted that the image was a hoax, and that the 'fairies' were in fact actually cut-outs from a colouring book.

 
There were earlier examples of butterfly-girl cigarette cards produced in Germany (to be featured in another post), in which the butterfly-girls wear more modest, classical attire. What is unusual about these B.A.T/Players cigarette cards featuring butterfly-girls is that they depicted contemporary girls - flappers - with butterfly wings, wearing contemporary fashions, which was a first.

The B.A.T and Players butterfly-girl cards were produced as a set of 50, and are based on real butterfly species from across the globe. They are not just pretty ephemera, but an interesting document of social history too. At the time they were produced Europe and America were still recovering from the devastating effects of World War One. During the war women were required to take on roles traditionally reserved for men both socially, and in the work-place. Despite their new enhanced roles, women were still fighting for equality and to get the right to vote through the suffragette movement. It was only in 1928 - the year in which these cards were produced - that all women over the age of 21 in the UK were finally given suffrage.

The graphics on these cigarette cards are so charming, beautifully illustrated, and most probably lithographically printed. I don't think it is recorded who is responsible for illustrating the cards, but they are very charming pieces of ephemera that perfectly encapsulate an interesting period of history.

My Favourite Dress?

Whilst in Cambridge I delivered new work to Cambridge Contemporary Art for their Summer Show which opens at the weekend. Among the work delivered is this - the latest in my dress series - Mandarin Collar. Quite excited about this one, as I think it is perhaps the best and most intricate of my Dress series (here), so far. It is a symmetrical design and was inspired by patterned cut-work leather dresses seen on visits to Rome.

 Butterfly appliquéd and embroidered dresses in a Vienna boutique.

As well as these Valentino dresses seen in London at Harrods' Social Butterfly promo.

Mandarin Collar is made from copper leaf, which is my favourite working material of choice of late. I only started working with copper leaf earlier this year, and I love the really soft, rose-coloured glow of its surface, and the way it reflects the light, in contrast to the usual gold, and silver leaf that I work with. I decided it was time to start working with new dress silhouettes and this is the first of them. I like the way that Mandarin Collar resembles delicate lacework. All elements of the dress are individually hand cut by myself. It comes in a 55cm x 75cm ash frame. There are more new pieces to be revealed shortly including women's swimwear, lingerie, and a few more dress silhouettes. 

Mandarin Collar though, will be available for viewing and purchase from Cambridge Contemporary Art as part of their Summer Show which runs from 8th July - 3rd September. If you are interested in this piece and would like more information, or to reserve it before the show officially opens, then contact the gallery directly (details below).

Summer Show
until 3rd September
Cambridge Contemporary Art
6 Trinity Street
Cambridge
01223 324222 
http://www.cambridgegallery.co.uk/contact/

The Best Of All Possible Worlds: Quentin Blake And The Folio Society

To Cambridge to see this interesting exhibition from Sir Quentin Blake - one of Britain's best illustrators, and creator of the images of so many beloved children's books.

The exhibition is at the sleek, beautifully designed Heong Gallery space at Downing College, and is a collection of the work that Blake has illustrated specifically for the Folio Society.

The Folio Society was founded in 1947 and produces particularly well-crafted editions of the finest literature. The Society aims to create books which are beautiful objects in which typography, illustrations, paper, printing and bindings all complement each other to create a unique and harmonious object. The Folio Society have worked with a number of acclaimed authors and promote the art of illustration by using not just famous illustrators, but well known artists, and also talented fledgling illustrators. 

The illustrations in the exhibition are from Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (1995), Fables of La Fontaine (2013), and more recently Riddley Walker, published this year. All are executed in Blake's idiosyncratic scratchy line drawing, augmented with wet-in-wet watercolour technique. They bring a smile to the face, and memories of a younger self reading Mr Magnolia, Matilda and Aristide, - all filled with the exuberant illustrations of Quentin Blake.

The Best Of All Possible Worlds: Quentin Blake And The Folio Society
until 8th October
The Heong Gallery
(At Downing College)
Regent Street
Cambridge
CB2 1DQ
www.dow.cam.ac.uk/contact

Ferrari-Hardoy/Kurchan/Bonet: Butterflies Through Other Eyes #33

The Butterfly Chair, BKF or Hardoy Chair, originally designed in 1938 by a trio of architectural designers - Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy, Juan Kurchan, and Antonio Bonet, is one of the most famous chair designs of the 20th Century and was quickly acknowledged as a design classic. It was mass produced in the 1950s with many manufacturers producing their own versions of the original, and very popular among teenagers and young couples wanting different, modern furniture to that of their parents. This Butterfly chair consists of a black enameled tubular solid steel frame with a suede or leather sling seat. It is light weight, and apparently very comfortable, like a hammock. This version of the Butterfly chair was manufactured by Knoll in the USA during the 1970s.