HAYLEY MCCULLOCH
A LIFETIME OF DISPOSABLE COMMEMORATION PLATES
Selections from "A Lifetime of Disposable Commemoration Plates" 2005-2010
" A Lifetime of Disposable Commemoration Plates" 2005 - 2010, finds its origins in the souvenir china plates I'd see in the 1980's throughout the living and dining rooms of British midlands housing estates - like, "Charles and Diana '81," "Silver Jubilee," "World's Best Granddad," along with brass band tournament victory cups and tokens of coal mining union memberships.
This collection offers a different kind of remembrance, celebrating anniversaries one would rather not admit to or would sooner forget.
These plates represent endurance in fields not often congratulated. From the dreary to decadent, they are plaques to the marginal and often un-heroic accomplishments of a life examined honestly. I find it funny to highlight the more minor achievements and honor the more unsavory landmarks in ones life. Nobody in their right mind would proudly have them displayed on their walls. That is, apart for me I suppose - but I did say nobody in their right mind.
Seeing things since 1965
Remembering anniversaries since hospitalization 1973
Not having needs met since 1976 getting used to it since 1985
Having it Large since 1910
Not speaking to each other since 1982
Gone for a pack of Cigs since 1981
Idyll in my mind since 1908
Monopolies and mergers commission, Booze and Fags since 1972
THE MOTHBALL POCKET THEATER
+ Les Petit Morts
DIRTY WORK + THE GOLDEN HANDSHAKE
An installation for the 54th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
H A Y L E Y M C C U L L O C H
ART INSTALLATION for the 54th session of the
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
“DIRTY WORK AND THE GOLDEN HANDSHAKE”
Household rubber gloves, 24 carat gold leaf, enamel paint, acrylic nails, sequins, beads, glue, varnish, thread _ 2010
The yellow rubber glove is a symbol of female labor, of dirty work and household toil. The latexglove is purchased to aid the worker in her cleaning duties, to guard her from any abusively harsh chemicals, and to buffer against diseases that she may contract whilst cleaning the scum of daily living.
“DIRTY WORK AND THE GOLDEN HANDSHAKE” is a piece that was conceived whilst thinking about the horrors of the female sex slave
trade and human trafficking. Predatory souls who lure women and children in poverty/disaster stricken areas, often promote to them a better and glamorous life of luxury and riches in a new land. Such raptors deceptively promise protection and golden opportunities, as they collect cash for later selling them into slavery and prostitution.
The elaborate repeat pattern on the piece, created with 24 carat gold leaf and enamel paint, thinly disguises what these gloves are and what service they are meant to be employed in. In this there is yet an element of dignity - utilitarian gloves dolled up to turn out the appearance of finery.
They later shrivelled, becoming mummified and are now encased in a plexi display box and look like the remanants of a costume belonging to some High Priestess.
This piece was made possible in part by Chashama.org.
Hayley McCulloch is the recipient of a 2010 Studio Award Grant from the NYC Chashama Foundation, supported in part by NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts.
“Out Tonite with Anthracite,” 2014
Medium: coal, satin gloves, silk, silk paint, crystals, mirror balls, moss
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JAPONISM IN CONTEMPORARY ARTS
145 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019
Tel. (212) 581-2223
Dates: February 6 - March 6, 2014
Opening reception on February 6, 6pm-8pm
Performance on February 12th, closing performance on March 6th, 2014
The dawning of Glam Rock in the 1970’s, was a call to the individual suppressed by her/his social economic status - especially In the sometimes saturnine coal mining midlands of England. Anyone with a bit of imagination could raid their mother’s closet to acquire sparkly accessories or score great nightclubbing treasure at second hand stores - piling on jewelry and make-up in order to transport themselves to other worlds. The research into elements of eastern cultures, notably in Japanese art, theater, music and fashion, were of great interest to a number of cultural icons of this time - David Bowie, being a prominent one.
Subsequently, the Glam Rock era turned around to inform the Japanese style of “Visual Kei,” in the 1980’s.
“Out Tonite With Anthracite,” began as a rumination on the coal mining sector of the working classes - and the upper class practice of prospecting from it.
The elitist habit of mauling and trawling the harvests of natural resources via cheap labor - from a luxurious distance, is age old and dirty.
The shield of glamour taken up by lower class music lovers and club kids in the UK is the story of donning finery to evoke sensations of prestige within a group of people who were told that they were surplus to society’s needs. Acts of fashion promoted sensations of power within those who were effectively told that they had none.
The act of dressing up to go out on the town produced a referential and tribal kinship between the people tottering down dreary high streets and flocking to dance halls. Involvement with raw, imaginative potential, its currency can spirit a person far from the drudgery suffered in the pits of everyday life - and in the case of Glam Rock, revived pagan folklores, stoked wild humors, songs and imagery reagrding mythology, earth bound elements and space travel.
Image courtesy of Nippon Club + Gallery, NYC