Drawing upon understudied collections of circus and theatre ephemera, Rachael’s work explores the ways in which female perfomers utilised objects to cultivate alternative, often overtly erotic, performance selves before proceeding to examine the movement of sexualised images of female perfomers into the home via goods produced specifically for women and children.
rachael.smith@network.rca.ac.uk
Maya’s work is a study of the modern predisposition to entertain nostalgic urges for the past. British popular interest in its chivalric ancestry is manifest in the expanding hobby of historical re-enactment in which traditions and objects, as representations of the past, are arranged into a design of modern making that satisfies contemporary needs and wants.
The history of Tudor re-enactment as leisure practice involves gradual, experiential interaction with nostalgic notions of history. Individuals throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century were exposed to participatory forms of history ranging from revivals and pageants to amusement parks and historic live-ins. An examination of these spaces demonstrates how Tudor re-enactment underwent multiple developmental phases, each articulating how participants and observers navigated the motives and rewards for play. The resulting narrative is not a definitive history of re-enactment, but it does provide a design historical account of performed history and craftsmanship.
mayarae.oppenheimer@network.rca.ac.uk
Upcoming Events this summer:
Story of London Living History Weekend, 20-21 June 2009
King Henry’s Tudor Joust, Eltham Palace, June 20, 21, 11am-5pm
‘Henry VIII arrives at Eltham Palace as we return to the year 1509 for a day of royal entertainment. There’ll be thundering hooves and clashing lances as knghts compete for the King’s favour in the first jousting tournament at the palace for five centures (wow!) Visitors can also enjoy spectacular Tudor falconry and a thrilling display of Tudor hunting games, plus courtly music, dancing and Tudor folk in their finery.’
Henry VIII’s Coronation Weekend, Tower of London, 20 June, free
‘A fabulous river pageant will travel from Tower Bridge to Hampton Court Palace. King Henry and his Queen will leave the Tower at 10am to board the Royal Shallop ‘Jubilant’ at Tower Pier. A flotilla of colourful traditional skiffs will accompany the royal pair as they journey to Hampton Court Palace.’
Henry VIII’s Coronation Weekend, Hampton Court Palace, 20, 21 June
‘The King will arrive at his favourite London residence at around 3pm for a right royal feast in the gardens, featureing music, dnacing, and entertainment from the King’s fools. On the Sunday, festivities continue with traditional Court fun and frolics including boat races and tug-of-war (period games!) Finally, the royal flotilla will bid farewell to Henry’s palace playground and sail back downriver in the late afternoon.’
See www.london.gov.uk/storyoflondon for more details!
Kentwell Hall, Long Melford, Suffolk
Kentwell Hall’s Great Tudor Recreation begins June 21st and runs through to the end of July.
This is a unique chance to see a full-functioning Tudor mansion enlivened by period crafts, cooking, activities and, of course, manor gossipa and drama conducted by authentically dressed re-enactors. Kentwell has hosted annual re-creations since the late 1970s, and they have since improved and grown with more facilities, events and volunteers. It’s a good day out!
See http://www.kentwell.co.uk/ for more details, times and directions.
Stephanie’s work explores the meanings invested in corporate femininity and practices of “dressing for success” in late twentieth-century Britain. The focus presents power dressing as distinct from the American context popularized in film and television drama and introduces the particularities inherent in a local case study. The project situates power dressing as a technique manipulated by “real” women working in the corporate sector, a mediated rhetoric of executive fashionability, and an ideological strategy implemented by organizations such as British Airways and Midland Bank Group to regulate the working body. Highlighting the dynamics of work clothing allows the various potentialities invested in corporate gender roles, and the ways in which those roles were manifested in contemporary design and culture, to be revealed. Power dressing and corporate femininity in this dissertation are not equated with synthetic glamour, but emerge as specific political, social, and economic discourses related to frameworks of aspiration, interpretation, and control.
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