For me the company name is synonymous with the Glasgow Toile, a design based on old Toiles de Jouy's, produced in the small town of Jouey-en-Josas, in pre-revolutionary France. A Toile is a type of repeat pattern usually printed on a white background depicting a fairly complex scene, and as Paul explained can have quite sinister imagery.
As Paul flicked through his slides he showed us a rather disturbing Toile of a woman with what looked like a leery drunk man pressing against her with force. Paul commented that he imagined this would have been used on a young girls wall, as a warning to stay away from the opposite sex and the perils of alcohol. I was fascinated by his interpretation of the piece and his placement of it within society. He also explained that the copperplates used to make Toiles could take years to produce. A woman could work all night in candlelight etching away, having to sharpen her blade for half an hour after only four inscriptions. The patience that was used to produce these prints was astonishing. Simmons believes nothing has ever been reproduced with the quality and workmanship of the traditional Toile. (Below: La Moutin Chéri, Unknown c.1785; Sourced from "Peacocks among the Ruins" by Leslie Jackson and Co-curated by Timorous Beasties)
The Glasgow Toile (below) designed by the Timorous beasties is a reproduction of these toiles screen printed onto fabric with a narrative more in-keeping with modern day society. The company talks of the historic toiles and how they adapted them on the Design Museum, London website; "They depicted scenes which were then contemporary, but we now see as traditional. Some scenes showed the factory at Jouey, and others rural scenes of workers relaxing, drinking, dancing, and womanising. So we did not actually change much in the Glasgow Toile; a glass of wine becamse a can of super lager, a pipe became a rollie, and an old man sittin on a stool in a rural scene became a tramp on a park bench."
No comments:
Post a Comment