Marion Manifold: Through the Notebook - Marie Antoinette
Saturday, March 24, 2012 -
Sunday, May 06, 2012,
9:00 AM -
5:00 PM
Timken Gallery
Admission: Free
The exhibition started as research into Marie Antoinette's
'Notebook of Ladies' Attire' in the Archives Nationales, Paris. The
book has fabric samples which were presented to Marie Antoinette
who pricked the pages with a pin to choose her attire.
Using a facsimile of the book and researching places and images
of Marie Antoinette's life and era, including the
revolution, Victorian artist Marion Manifold has
created works that are richly beaded and/or embroidered, or
painted, some with silk appliqué, in keeping with Marie
Antoinette's lifestyle.
Marie Antoinette's fashion revolution was the beginning of her
end on the guillotine. Her fate is omnipresent in the work - the
attempted destruction of her identity through satire and as
Prisoner No. 280 and the complete loss of identity by beheading and
burial in an unmarked grave.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government
through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and
advisory body and is a result of a 3 month Paris residency.
