Photo: Marinco Kojdanovski. © Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Transcript
Nylon is a Melbourne milliner who believes that 'a hat can change your day'. Hats change the way you hold yourself and walk. And in terms of millinery, Nylon says "There's nothing I don't like", and this preempts his adventurousness in this medium. He uses all sorts of materials to create his work. This work, String Pictures, mirrors his autumn 2011 runway collection, which featured icicle-like creations, exploring the potential of different materials. He's made his name with eccentric creations for the Melbourne Cup and is president of the Millinery Association of Australia. In recent works with Balletlab's Aviary for the Melbourne Festival, he used dramatic feathers for large headdresses, moustaches and beards. And Toni Maticevski, another Love Lace finalist, also worked on this production.
String Pictures with Lenses
Richard Nylon
Dimensions
106 x 90 mm
Materials
Headwear: aluminium, rubber, elastic, steel spring and plastic magnifier lenses woven using string picture techniques
Artist statement
‘I am not exotic in origin. Sometimes I look to my fairly mundane Australian upbringing and find inspiration. Most charity shops of the early eighties had at least one example of the string picture (symmograph). Very popular in the 1970s, it consisted of a chipboard base painted or covered in hessian, tacks strategically positioned, with string in various colours joining up the tacks to create a picture. I was fascinated by the pictures, chiefly because straight lines create curves. String Picture with Lenses is a reflection of that childhood fascination. The strands cross and re-cross each other, creating geometric shapes, moire patterns and graceful curves at the same time.
An elderly great-aunt had a magnifying lens across her television screen. I was in awe of this magnifier. The magnifier lenses in String Picture add to the play of light and line, and reference the magnifiers used by lace-makers to focus light on their work.’