I've spoken before on here about both my love of polka dots and the art of Yayoi Kusama. So, with that in mind, it seemed fitting that the first artist I really talk about on this blog would be Kusama.... here we go!
If you're unfamiliar with her work, then the first thing you will probably notice is the sheer amount of polka dots used. Her art is very much about portraying what it's like inside her brain - since childhood she has experienced hallucinations and struggled with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She started drawing dots when she was 10, and has carried on with it ever since.
She refers to her vast field of polka dots as "infinity nets", taken directly from her hallucinations. Her earliest recorded work to have used polka dots (shown above) is a portrait of a Japanese woman in a kimono (believed to be Kusama's mother), covered in dots, produced in 1939 at the age of 10.
Kusama lived in New York between 1957 and 1972, during which time she became quite involved in political activism, organising events to protest the Vietnam War in locations like Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge. At one point, she wrote an open letter to Richard Nixon, offering to have vigorous sex with him if he stopped the war.
While I was first drawn to Kusama's art on a purely superficial level - a mutual love of polka dots - it was finding out more about her as a person and the inspirations behind her art that led to it meaning so much to me. I've touched on it a little on here, but I do have mental health issues of my own (one of which is also OCD) and I love the way Kusama is able to take all that's going on in her head and turn it into something physical, something external as opposed to taking up so much internal space and energy. I'd love to be able to do that for myself one day (maybe if my confidence goes up a little, I'll post some artwork on here), but for now, Kusama's art is a huge help to me.
Despite her difficulties, Kusama has become one of the most respected female artists in history. Her art has encompassed a variety of media, including painting, drawing, film, fashion and immersive installation. I've really only scratched the surface of her work here so, just as when I last wrote about her, I'd really recommend checking out her work for yourself!
If you were to have a glance through my wardrobe, you'd know straight
away that I love polka dots. I was thinking about my love of polka dots
yesterday (like you do!), and thought I'd write a post about the QUEENS
of polka dots... Strawberry Switchblade. Of
course, they were much more than just polka dot queens; they were an
awesome synthpop duo (made up of Rose McDowall and Jill Bryson) in the
early 80's.
If I'm honest, I fell in love with them before I'd even heard them, based purely on seeing this picture:
I quickly took to the rest of the internet to hear as many songs as I could, and find out every last detail of these ladies. The first song I managed to listen to was Since Yesterday,
and I was surprised at first, it wasn't at all what I expected them to
sound like! On first listen, there music is quite poppy (don't get me
wrong, I like a bit of pop), but then you start to notice the lyrics,
the harmonies, all the subtleties that make their music so addictive.
In a way, it reminds me a bit of The Birthday Massacre; they're music
is very synthpop-influenced, but the lyrics are often much darker. I
read somewhere (I wish I could remember where!), I think possibly an
interview with the band... someone said the name was a good reflection
of their music; sweet and happy sounding, like a Birthday, but with
darker undertones (the "massacre"). You could definitely apply this theory to Strawberry Switchblade's music.
They
weren't around for that long, only releasing one album and a few
singles, so I guess it's not unsurprising that, without the internet, I
had no idea they ever existed. Like a lot of great things though, they
were really popular in Japan.
Check out the video above, if you haven't already, and try listen to
some of their other stuff. I'm going to talk a bit more about their
style, and the influence I think it's had on me. Their style
definitely has elements of Lolita fashion to it, which I love. I discovered Strawberry Switchblade a couple of years before I'd even heard of Lolita, let alone the many substyles attached to it. Lolita,
and other Japanese street styles, were the first kind of fashion blogs
I used to read and I still love those styles (there are too many to
list here, I'd rather talk about them in their own posts and give them
the attention they deserve!) today. Rose and Jill were the first girls I thought of when I first saw these blogs.
Of course, this was the 80's, so the hair is BIG. These ladies weren't
concerned with sticking to the trends though, so they often took their
big hair further, usually by adding lots of polka dot ribbons and big
bows or flowers.
I think it's only fair to give these ladies at least SOME credit for my love of synthetic dreads, hair falls etc. I plan on making some falls adorned with polka dot ribbons myself sometime, I'll be sure to post a picture when I do.
Polka dots aside, I think it's the DIY ethic that lies at the heart of the Strawberry Switchblade style. While I've dabbled in making things, it's only now that I've decided to take it a step further and actually make things on a regular basis, a process I plan to chronicle on this blog. I guess it doesn't hurt that a Hobbycraft store has just opened here!
