Charlotte Hodes

Senior Research Fellow in Drawing, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK

Drawing Skirts

My practice led research is articulated through my vision as a painter and it is this, as well as a strong interest in the decorative arts, that informs the structure and imagery in my artworks.

This presentation will focus on the making of a series ofintricately cut, large scale collages, papercuts, which formed the exhibition ‘ Drawing Skirts’at the Baring Wing, University of Northumbria, UK May 2008. The central theme of these artworks is a silhouetted motif of the female figure, made from drawings using myself as a model, intertwined withlinear, diagrammatic depictions of skirt shapes derived fromearly twentieth century pattern books in the Library Archive at London College of Fashion.The imagery alsodraws uponhistorical textiles and wallpapers for pattern and colour.

The papercuts have been developed froma previous project at the Wallace Collection, London where, as Associate Artist 2005-2007, I researched their collection of eighteenth century ornate Sèvres rococo porcelain and the Fête Galante paintings of Antoine Watteau, as a starting point for new papercuts and a series of highly decorated ceramic vases.