Well Storm Eric has thrown rain at the windows, howled through the trees and whistled down the chimney all night. Eric* for goodness sake, why not Thor, or Woden or even Lugh throwing their weathery anger at us....
I have been up early because of the storm, so watched the last of The Victorian House of Arts and Craft, enjoyable, and did not those poor modern craftsmen have to work hard over the four weeks. Sometimes the article that won was not my choice and though I thought the weather vane beautiful, the silversmith knew her business, I was taken by the curtains designed for the drawing room, and the magazine was so authentic.
Also watched the programme featuring Angela Carter as well, Winterson said something very revealing as well here. It was to do with the 60s and not much good fiction coming from the era. Why not? well because the creativity was out on the street everywhere... think about it.
What do you make of the feminist movement? Angela Carter with all her four letter words, bold and dashing, but did she get anywhere? Never read any of her books, they seemed vibrant splashes of fictional work, described almost like a painting.
Which brings me to another thing I have been listening to whilst making the coffee in the morning, Threads of Life - A History of the World through the eye of a needle. Yesterday she talked of the 'Dinner Party' at the Brooklyn Museum
This takes a long read, again an expression of feminist angst, laid for 39 women, everything takes the shape of a vulva. The place mats are exquisitely embroidered as well.....
The principal component of The Dinner Party is a massive ceremonial banquet arranged in the shape of an open triangle—a symbol of equality—measuring forty-eight feet on each side with a total of thirty-nine place settings. The “guests of honor” commemorated on the table are designated by means of intricately embroidered runners, each executed in a historically specific manner. Upon these are placed, for each setting, a gold ceramic chalice and utensils, a napkin with an embroidered edge, and a fourteen-inch china-painted plate with a central motif based on butterfly and vulvar forms. Each place setting is rendered in a style appropriate to the individual woman being honored.
Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, Boudicca and Elizabeth 1st are the British ones, as also is Bridget.
Anyway, the BBC occasionally does us proud in their more obscure programmes of past times and past people, and what a learning curve ;)what about Erik Bloodaxe?
* made a mistake there, actually called Erik, so
The principal component of The Dinner Party is a massive ceremonial banquet arranged in the shape of an open triangle—a symbol of equality—measuring forty-eight feet on each side with a total of thirty-nine place settings. The “guests of honor” commemorated on the table are designated by means of intricately embroidered runners, each executed in a historically specific manner. Upon these are placed, for each setting, a gold ceramic chalice and utensils, a napkin with an embroidered edge, and a fourteen-inch china-painted plate with a central motif based on butterfly and vulvar forms. Each place setting is rendered in a style appropriate to the individual woman being honored.
Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, Boudicca and Elizabeth 1st are the British ones, as also is Bridget.
Anyway, the BBC occasionally does us proud in their more obscure programmes of past times and past people, and what a learning curve ;)what about Erik Bloodaxe?
* made a mistake there, actually called Erik, so
I remember this exhibit...at least reading about it. Angst turned to anger and now turned to action.
ReplyDeleteYes lets hope it keeps its momentum...
DeleteI watched the Angela Carter programme when it was first broadcast. A strange woman yet an interesting one - enough so to make me by her biography. Having read that - it is most interesting - I resolved to buy one of her novels but have not done so yet.
ReplyDeleteAs to The Victorian House. Like you I watched and enjoyed all of it. I was never sure that I thought it necessary to choose an item each week which best represented the era. And like you I wasn't sure about the weathervane in the final episode. Very good I thought it but the thought that had gone into producing that magazine - and how authentic it looked was brilliant.
Perhaps I will read her biography but not her books, they seemed very weird and outlandish.
DeleteLovely Welsh house for those crafts people to work in must have been sad to leave it.
Sorry of course my first 'buy' should have had a u in the middle.
ReplyDelete