Overview
This artwork by Donna Demente-Ogilvy and Jeff Mitchell pays tribute to the tradition of vaudeville theatre – variety shows that included singers, dancers, comedians, magicians, and circus-style performers. Until radio and film, vaudeville was the main popular entertainment here, as well as in Britain and the United States.
In Sandow’s Microvaudevillean Thrillorama! Donna and Jeff refer to the great strongman Eugen Sandow, an internationally popular vaudeville performer who toured New Zealand in 1902–3. He was idolised by both men and women, and it’s said that ladies in his audiences sometimes fainted from excitement.
Donna and Jeff have been working together on art projects since 1994. Sandow’s Microvaudevillean Thrillorama! was, like many of their works, built up in a series of layers.
Jeff constructed the basic framework in customwood. He cut it, shaped it, and carved it, then Donna painted and varnished it. After that, she covered it using a technique called papier collé – applying thin layers of tissue and craft paper with paste. She glued on images that she’d collected, and added more painted details. Then, in a time-consuming casting process, the work was adorned with a shallow relief made from plaster of Paris. Jeff made the tiny figures from paper clay and Donna painted them. Finally, the whole piece was varnished again.
For the audiences of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a night at the vaudeville was a big occasion. The lavish, ornate architecture of the theatres must have added to the atmosphere. Sandow’s Microvaudevillean Thrillorama! refers to and draws inspiration from the décor of two old New Zealand theatres:
• Wellington’s His Majesty’s Theatre (now the Wellington St James), designed by Henry Eli White and opened in 1912, and
• The Opera House, Oamaru built in 1906.
The work also comments on the way that live performance has now largely been replaced by TV, film, and radio. Look at the orchestra: its members are extinct or threatened New Zealand birds. While Donna and Jeff’s pieces recall the beliefs and values of older societies, they never pretend to be faithful recreations. They are influenced by modern tastes, ideas, and media.
Donna’s interest in the theatre and the visual culture of the past has been longstanding. She went to Auckland’s Elam Art School in the mid 1980s, and studied printmaking and photography. After two years, she left, disillusioned, and headed south to Dunedin. There, she found an alternative arts community that was more in tune with her own creative philosophy.
She says, ‘I’ve always seen the way I work as a craft, more than an art … That’s probably to do with my historical, traditional ideas, that artists had a role to play as much as anyone else did, and I don’t put them on a pedestal … Most people are terribly intimidated by what they see as contemporary art. They just don’t have an entry point into it. I think it’s getting more and more removed from everyday life, and I don’t know if I want to perpetuate that.’ (1)
In Dunedin, she started making papier-maché masks inside casts taken from friends’ faces and her own. She moulded, painted, and decorated them with collage, often using historical images. She also produced masquerade poles and body pieces for collaborative theatrical and musical events.
To Donna, the theatrical aspect of her work was as important as the visual. She believed then, as she does now, that public performance and art should be a part of life for everyone, not just for the few who invest in the art market.
Donna began entering the annual Montana World of WearableArt Awards. This event, where fashion and design intersect with art, craft, and theatre, has provided an ideal vehicle for Donna. She won the Supreme Award in 1991, and section awards in 1996 and 1997, in collaboration with Jeff.
Recently the couple moved north of Dunedin to the small, historic town of Oamaru. A growing number of artisans and artists practise their craft there, while contributing to community life. Along with fellow artist John Ogilvy, Donna runs the Oamaru Midwinter Arts and Mask Festival, which includes a masquerade ball, and a ‘Moonlight Promenade’.
References
1. O’Connor, Naomi (1996). Wearable Art: Design for the Body. Nelson: Craig Potton Publishing. p. 40
Text originally published in Tai Awatea, Te Papa's onfloor multimedia database (2001).