 |
| PAINTING ON A WOODEN SLAB PLUS
PAISLEY FABRIC. ARTIST JOLIE
STAHL REFERENCES THE KEELING HOUSE, VIRGINIA BEACH,
CIRCA 1740. |
After the first appearance of the
woven paisley shawl in 17th century Kashmir, some
citizens of the Middle East expanded shawl usage for the
home. They hung shawls as wall coverings
for warmth and beauty, placed them over windows
and doors as shelter from the sun and used border strips to accent shelves .Shawls
were spread on the ground for lush banquets.
In the late days of the 19th
century, retailers sourcing The East India Trading Company, developed an Empire cache by popularizing
paisley upholstery and wall covering. And
of course, there was the ubiquitous shawl that got draped over the grand
piano.
Now, working artist Jolie Stahl ,
has incorporated
bits of a fine
paisley-printed scarf fabric into one of her house paintings-and-found-object
collages being prepared for an exhibition titled Home Economics. It will be
held at New York's Hudson Guild
Gallery in Chelsea, starting March 20, 2014. Stahl is also
curating the show that will include the sculpture of Tom Otterness.
Here, Stahl shows a home
referencing the American Colonial period circa 1740, not that colonials had a
lot of paisley to work with..
It took
another century for
both Queen Victoria
and Napoleon to create a full-on paisley-at-home trend in Europe
with their sharp eyes for local fabric industries.
Stahl says that the dismal home
foreclosure figures of the past seven years prompted her to focus on the future
of the American home and what the dramatic changes might mean to our
culture.
The artist is also director of
Ddora Foundation which is dedicated to preserving applied arts
. JP
