About “Harlequin”

Paul Cezanne

I was inspired to name my business Harlequin Feltworks by the personal & symbolic importance of the “harlequin,” a classic figure in Italian theater.

As a young child growing up in the Veneto region of Italy (my father was a doctor at the military base in Vicenza & my mother became part of the local community), I vividly remember certain moments of the annual Carnival festival in February.  One particular memory was of the Arlecchino throwing candy from the rooftops.  To a small child, this was literally candy raining down from heaven.  Abundance, sweetness, joy….mythical costumed characters coming to life and sharing their gifts.

Costuming became an important form of artistic expression in my life.  There were many opportunities for costuming growing up with a birthday so close to Halloween (tragically, I was induced early and missed being born on the holiday) and costuming even became a genre of art that I took very seriously for a couple concentrated years.  During this time, the elegant clown character became something I would return to over & over again.  Fortunately, it had special resonance in the Bay Area which has a strong tradition of Commedia dell’Arte & circus.  During this period of intense costuming in my early to mid-twenties, I would piece together costumes from found materials in an ad-hoc & spontaneous combination (most costumes were completed in under 24 hours), always aiming to be elegant, fanciful, and over-the-top; a momentary manifestation and statement designed to dazzle and amuse.

When I began to make wearable art from felted wool and other materials, I wanted to retain this sense of playfulness, spontaneity, and a subtle element of spectacle/theater.  The Harlequin became a great mascot for the business: agile in making new designs and pieces (but also kind of mentally slow, as some skills took longer to develop); a sort of greedy & vain character (business can be a bit greedy & vain-at least those are aspects that one wrestles with: profit & presence); a romantic figure who personifies love and enchantment.  Colorful & illusionistic, he is a character as well as the concept of  animation through color (near & dear to my heart).  His mask is anonymity or a new/auxiliary identity, something you become as a business entity.

The harlequin brought to mind notions of old-world traditions & craft, which related strongly to the craft of feltmaking.  Coincidentally, the harlequin also had great currency in high fashion, inspiring such designers as Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, and Miuccia Prada.  No matter when or where, the harlequin has a delightful, charming innocence juxtaposed with a certain sexual mystique.

Since the beginning of Harlequin Feltworks in 2007, the years have been full of nimble acrobatics in the fields of design, fashion, art & business.  These 5 years have seen a lot of evolution & change, yet the harlequin continues to be a source of inspiration, keeping me company and sharing his gifts.

Harlequin or Arlecchino in Italian, Arlequin in French and Arlequín in Spanish is the most popularly known of the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian Commedia dell’arte and its descendant, the Harlequinade. The Harlequin is also known to be a type of clown. 

The Harlequin character may have been based on or influenced by the Zanni archetype who, although a slow thinker, was acrobatic and nimble.[5] Interpreted thus, Harlequin’s distinctive motley costume may be a stylized variant of Zanni’s plain white garb, designed to reflect the ad-hoc patching necessary to prevent the garment’s degradation

The primary aspect of Arlecchino was his physical agility.[1][5] While generally depicted as stupid and gluttonous, he was very nimble and performed the sort of acrobatics the audience expected to see. The character would never perform a simple action when the addition of a cartwheel, somersault, or flip would spice up the movement.

He is typically cast as the servant of an innamorato or vecchio much to the detriment of the plans of his master. Arlecchino often had a love interest in the person of Colombina, or in older plays any of the Soubrette roles, and his lust for her was only superseded by his desire for food and fear of his master.

He eventually became something more of a romantic hero around the 18th century, when his popularity provoked the Harlequinade.

Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlequin

Animal Fibers at ISS featured in SIGNED magazine

First Anniversary

Wedded by Jenne Giles 2011

felted wool, mixed media

Today is the first anniversary of my my marriage.  My husband and I have been together for 9 years and, as many do, I did not think things would change that much after the ceremony.  I have been surprised in many ways by the profound changes that did follow: more trust, better cooperation & communication, and certainly better balance.  Our marriage and mutual support has given me a profound sense of security that I did not feel previously.  One does become one half of a greater whole.

This painting, Wedded, was completed just prior to our ceremony.  It evokes the atomic relationship between partnerships and the greater interrelationship of parts that make stabile societies.  I hope that it conveys the buoyancy and humor that I feel are required to make a resilient and lasting bond.

Flowers Blooming

Apple & Colette Rose Scarves 2008 by Jenne Giles/Harlequin Feltworks

photo by M. Clement

Getting back in the Saddle

Stone Scarves (2008) by Jenne Giles/Harlequin Feltworks

photo by M. Clement

Well, we are back in the Bay and brushing some of the road dust off.  Our Easter trip to visit Texas was great: not only did we get to spend important time with family, but enjoyed the time we spent on the highways and byways.  Many beautiful wildflowers, funny hotels, odd experiences and encounters.

I think of the roadtrip as a quintessentially American experience what with the vast expanses of open land, the car culture and, up until now, the cheap gas.  At $5 a gallon, it is not quite the budget vacation option anymore.  I’m glad to have embarked on many mad-cap trips in my twenties, as sitting that long in one position is not quite as easy as it once was either!

Now we are back home, back on a healthy diet, and surveying the road ahead for Spring/Summer.  I am excited to get some new projects started and to spend more time in the studio experimenting & exploring.  Summertime always has its own sweet rhythm.

Some blips & bleeps:

An interesting article about how “talentism” could replace “capitalism”

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a intimate, sweet movie about falling in love with your work/craft

Man, Woman, Wild is an awesome survival show.  Similar to Survivorman or Dual Survival.  Let me count the ways I love Netflix Streaming….

Experimental

Cocoon Wrap by Jenne Giles 2007

Photo by M. Clement

Just got back in from CraftBoston last night.  I am excited to get back to the studio and get unpacked.  Looking forward to Summer for some new experimentations…many ideas!  Just a small trip to Texas to visit family and we’re in the homestretch.

Decisions, Decisions

Rose Flamenco Sleeve 2010

I am working on my upcoming article for FilzFun Magazine.  Though it has been a difficult process of choosing images, the bright side is that I have gotten the chance to revisit some of the original disks of photoshoots from the past few years.  There I discovered many lovely images that I had originally passed over.

This shoot was a particularly amazing one: the model was spectacular and we really had an all-star team, all of which shows in the final quality of the images.  These photos depict garments made of my Rose Scarves.  It was the hairstylist (who is a multi-talented and dimensional artist), Mil U Ranon, who suggested that we go in this direction.  I used just about every safety pin I had on hand to layer the scarves to create these stunning ensembles.  Moja Ma’at took these images and Tamara Marie did the make-up.

Alas, these do not fit into the body of images I will use for the article, but at least I can post them here where we can enjoy them.

Rose Dress 2010

Looking back at making Big Art

Many moons ago, when I was in my early-mid 20′s (which there is about a dime of time’s difference to where I am now) I made huge art installations for the Burning Man event in the Black Rock Desert.  It was a fantastic opportunity to do very ambitious projects thanks to their generous grant program.  I was always amazed at the art out there and would really muster all my forces to do something that contributed to the dialogue of the event.

Ribcage/Birdcage 2000

The first project that I did with my boyfriend at the time was a 17 foot tall Ribcage made from steel pipe (in college I had been doing a lot of steel anthro/biomorphic art so this fit right in).  It was also intended to look a bit like a birdcage and even had a wide chain-swing in the middle so a person could swing back and forth, like the heart beating in the body.  I hoped that it would convey the sense of eternal hope despite physical limitation.

You can’t see the swing in this shot but thousands of people climbed over it during the week-long event.

Up until I really did not have images of the works, but I threw myself on the mercy of photographer Philippe Glade who had taken glorious images of the work over the years.  Here are some of his images of The Living Mandala piece I did in 2001.

For this piece, the viewer sat in this stupa-like chair (if you could look a little lower you would see a smiling face on the base…so you were kind of the “third-eye”).  From this vantage point, you would look at a line of sculptures that were all aligned in one spot.  Each sculpture represented a phase of life according to Shakespeare.  At night, these huge black light projectors (disguised as the heads of angels) would shine light on them and they would illuminate.  When you sat in the right spot and all the pieces were spinning, it was supposed to form one vision of a mandala (concentric form) in space, thereby representing a person’s entire life, made up from individual stages.  I even had reincarnation worked in there…it really had everything but the kitchen sink.

I think the only disappointment was that I only managed to make 5 of the 7 stages of life and that any vision disorder would make it so the viewer couldn’t see the illusion.  Still, when someone saw it…it was a great thing.  I used to stay out there and spin the pieces for people like a carnival ride.  My friends called me “Vanna White” like from Wheel of Fortune.

The Living Mandala seen from the back.

LotusLand Ballroom 2002

These last images are not Phillipe’s, but I would be remiss in not including it.  This project was conceived at a friend’s wedding and inspired by a drums and bass marching band.  I wanted to create a whole ballroom that would be like a pipe organ.  That year’s theme was Floating World, so it would be a floating lilly or lotus garden where an imaginary waterline would be created with lilly pads and flowers, so as to create an “underwater” and “abovewater” world…making everyone who visited a little fish in the pond.

I worked on this with a Plumber named Paul, who rigged it to shoot giant fireballs at night.  When it wasn’t shooting fireballs, the flames lit up the pieces like giant lawn torches.  Underneath, I’d put in a bunch of green and blue rope lines and randomly-flashing strobes, so that it would have a visual underwater music of bubbles (plus a cool blue/green glow).

It was a fun piece….I imagined it being a grand art deco-like ball room with singers and people waltzing which happened only in the briefest way…..usually the fire mechanisms would get stuck open and people would have ot run around and kick the flower to put them out.  It ended up being more of a soccer game which was a blast!!

Here is more about the project form an article that ran in the paper (with cool photos!) You can see me back in my young, punky days….though notice that crafty hat

So that was my trip through those early big art days.  I hope to get back to doing large scale works.  Thing is….you have to have a place to store pieces like this!!