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Diane Simpson: Reviews
So much more than window dressing
by Lee B. Roberts
Journal Times (Racine, WI)
Sunday, September 16, 2007 11:23 PM CDT
For Diane Simpson, the
Storefront window displays have long been a source of fascination for Simpson, whose work is inspired by the structure of architecture and clothing — two of the artist’s most favorite things. So when she was asked to create work for the Windows on Fifth Gallery, Simpson was excited to have the opportunity to design an installation for such a space.
"I didn’t think I’d ever have a chance to work with such beautiful windows, right at street level," she said.
Simpson’s vision for the windows grew out of a variety of sources, including everything from professional journals of window dressers from the 1920s and ’30s, to Art Deco style tile she saw in a
Abstract aprons
Each of the six windows that make up her "Window Dressing" exhibit at RAM features a sculpture or sculptures based on articles of clothing such as an apron, a pinafore or a bib — some of them more abstract than others. Some of the sculptures were made for this show, while others are taken from series previously created by the artist.
Behind and around each sculpture is a background that Simpson created specifically for that sculpture and that window.
As a whole, the exhibit has the feel of a department store fashion display. A closer look at each window reveals Simpson’s 15 months of devotion to design detail and fine craftsmanship. There are also aspects of the artwork that may not be as evident to the viewer. All the research that went into each design, for example, including the 1/8-scale models Simpson made of each display before building the full-size structures. She even, in some cases, hand painted the designs on the wallpaper used to cover the backgrounds.
One of the things Simpson said she enjoyed most about working on this project was the opportunity to use materials she had never used before, such as the Marmoleum (an eco-friendly version of linoleum made with all natural ingredients) that covers a couple of the backgrounds. The artist said she is always on the lookout for unusual materials, whether it be through research, or just happening upon them.
"I’m a big yard sale hunter," she said.
She is also looking forward to continuing her work with the RAM, as she is scheduled to come back in March to make some changes in a few of the windows. Some of the sculptures will be replaced with new ones, including one she said will resemble a bowler hat.
"These pieces are almost like paper dolls, in that you can dress them up in different ways," she said.
"Window Dressing" can also look very different, depending on what time of day you view it, Simpson said.
"I actually think it looks better at night. It really comes to life with the lights on it."
Diane Simpson: Window Dressing, August 5, 2007 - July 27, 2008, Racine Art Museum, Racine WI, photography: Michael Tropea
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NUVO: INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Simpson’s articulate re-imaginings
Diane Simpson
Herron School of Art and Design
Through Oct. 15
When is a work belt not a work belt? When it’s a sculpture by Diane Simpson. Same can be said for a bib, an apron, a robe, a vest, a hat and various other articles of clothing or adornment. Simpson’s meticulously articulate re-imaginings of these things, first drawn up in precise architectural-type renderings, are realized almost as scale models of buildings, but they’re manifestations of what they represent, with the object’s soul reconfigured as its design and utilitarian essence. On view at Herron School of Art and Design, Simpson’s exhibition of sculpture and drawings makes sense in this voluminous space. The white walls and polished floors gleam with the precise sculptures and drawings, at once serious and whimsical.
From one of her earliest pieces, “Robe” (1987, made from a wood-based material called MDF), an imposing structure of robeness that flows, somehow, despite its stiff materials and clean-cut outlines, to her latest expressions, such as “Bib” (2006, in brass), resembling chain mail, Simpson’s designs take turns between simplicity and complexity. If there’s a trajectory here, it’s not so much as an expansion of what inspires her, but unique versions of it: new types of clothing, for example, but still clothing.
Certainly, there’s a playfulness underlying the formality of her spare forms. “Robe,” for instance, mimics the shape of a woman’s figure, suggesting a flourish, even, tricking the eye into believing the sculpture is not static, achieved through a forward tilt. This and many of her other sculptures are fabricated as if they were partially flattened to suggest a hovering between two and three dimensions — a metaphor, perhaps, for the meaning we invest in things. They are functional and utilitarian, they are beautiful and they are also evocative — of both warmth and sterility. But in this case they are to be seen rather than felt.
In later works such as the towering “Apron X” (2005, in aluminum and leather), a butcher or jailer comes to mind. Certainly, this piece of apparel is not fit — nor intended — for human wear; it is more like a well-designed and darkly imagined prison for the body. On the other hand, one imagines the Chrysler Building in New York: There’s an Art Deco softness to the leather even as the overall affect of the aluminum is one of distance.
Simpson calls her work “a distilled interpretation of the original source: a hybrid form subliminally informed by many other sources.” Of course, what we make of all of this is largely up to us. As she puts it, hers is a synthesis of “industrial/architectonic and domestic worlds,” achieved through careful manipulation of form and a meticulous bonding of materials with power tools and needle and thread.
Diane Simpson: Sculpture + Drawings is on view at Herron School of Art and Design, 735 W. New York St., in the Eleanor Prest Reese and Robert B. Berkshire Galleries, through Oct. 15. Call 317-278-9418 for information.