It has been such an honour and privilege over the past four months to have hosted the exhibition Zandra Rhodes – 50 Years of Fabulous at Aberdeen Art Gallery. The exhibition has brought a much-needed pop of colour and a liberal sprinkling of Dame Zandra’s creative energy to staff and visitors alike. In this final week of the exhibition’s run (there’s still time to see it before it closes on Sunday 20 March!), we’d like to share some reflection on the experience of hosting this fabulous exhibition and to highlight some of the phenomenal creative responses to it we’ve received from local artists and makers.
Our first response is from a local poet known as Vers who is studying for a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Aberdeen. Vers visited the exhibition when it first opened in November and felt inspired to write a poem about his experience.
Paper Houses Design is a textiles lifestyle brand created by Mhairi Allan, an Aberdeenshire-based designer. Zandra Rhodes was one of the first textile designers that Mhairi was inspired by. We love that she used Dame Zandra as the inspiration for this new printing workshop resource. You can find Mhairi’s workshop on Creative Collective page on our website. The talks, tutorials and resources on these pages have been created by artists, designers, students and professionals in the creative sector – it’s all there to inspire creative futures!
Please enjoy pop-it printing by Mhairi Allan!
In February we were thrilled to welcome Dame Zandra on a visit to Aberdeen (which she loved, by the way!). She spent an evening in conversation with Dennis Nothdruft, the curator of the exhibition and head of exhibitions at the Fashion and Textile Museum. They discussed highlights of Zandra’s career, her work and her process, sharing some fun stories about her life and what it’s like dressing the stars, as well as answering some great questions from the audience. At 81 years of age, Dame Zandra continues to be a revolutionary force in fashion. We were all completely enthralled.
The next morning we invited local fashion and textile students from Gray’s School of Art and NESCol to have breakfast with Zandra and Dennis and enjoy a guided tour of the exhibition. The students were able to spend time with Zandra and ask her questions about her work and her career. Some students gave her gifts and artwork inspired by her. One of these students was Savvas Marin, a HND student from NESCol.
You can hear about Savvas’ experience meeting Zandra here
Another local creative who had the opportunity to meet Zandra was Kate Steenhauer, a visual artist who was born and raised in The Netherlands, and is now based in the North East of Scotland. Kate’s audio-visual project, ‘On the Runway’ aims to shed a light on and to capture what life in the fashion industry is really like. The video features detailed images of Zandra Rhodes’ dresses, highlighting the colourful prints and iconic patterns. You can watch ‘On the Runway’ here.
