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simply because she couldn’t draw or paint very well. But a teenage interest in L)the work of Joseph Cornell left her toiling away on shadow boxes of her own,
and eventually a bare-bones portfolio got her into Ontario College of Art
and Design (OCAD). (Despite her formal training, she never buys supplies.
“I can’t go into art stores at all,” she says. “I totally flounder.”)
Her upbeat approach to art is enough to ma ke me di rect-message a friend
of hers, designer Warren Steven Scott, and ask, “Is Georgia as positive and
easygoing as she seems?” Seconds later, he responds. “Yes,” he writes. “She
is proactive and encouraging. She doesn’t deal with the BS.” (Scott and
Dickie recently travelled to Men’s Fashion Week in Paris at the invitation of
Celine and stopped in to see Smile. “It was very surreal to be there and see
it in person,” she admits.)
While Dickie avoids overthinking her art, Oakville Galleries curator
Frances Leoffler sees a direct link between Dickie’s output and contemporary
art movements such as Arte Povera and Surrealism, albeit with a consumption
bent to it all. “We are quick to acquire and discard objects without realizing
that many will continue to exist for decades and probably outlive us all,”
explains Leoffler. “Her work presses ‘pause’ on that process, asking us to
regard everyday objects with a new sense of attention and care.”
That’s something Dickie touches on in our conversation. “I know it sounds
a little bit cheesy, but I don’t express myself through materials—materials
express themselves through me,” she says. “I feel like the conduit.” Regardless
of who is doing the talking, Dickie’s talent speaks for itself. JACQUELYN FRANCIS
OCAD UNIVERSITY’S DEAN of the
faculty of design, Dr. Elizabeth Tunstall,
has a bright corner office in downtown
Toronto that’s as sunny and authentic as
her Instagram persona #DeanDrag. Since
becoming dean in August 2016, “Dori,” as
she is affectionately known to friends, has
embraced Instagram to capture the atten-
tion of the next generation of great design
minds. Tunstall’s love of self-expression
is evident in her canary-gold silk-dupion
Ghanaian-wax-print pantsuit, which flares
out over black Fluevog heels, and the
stunning emerald and silver hoop earrings
from OCAD graduate Eugenia Chan that
hang off her earlobes. In a world of flashy
images, Tunstall sees social media as a
way to reach the student population—
specifically youth of colour. “I want to
show them that this is what it means to
be a black female dean of the largest
and oldest art and design institution in
Canada while still being authentically
myself in any space,” she says. Before she
was this “first,” Tunstall was a creative
young girl taking weekend art classes
in Indianapolis at the Herron School of
Art and Design. She says her time as an
undergraduate at Pennsylvania’s liberal
arts women’s college Bryn Mawr was
“transformational,” propelling her further
into academia and eventually leading her
to receive a Ph.D. in anthropology from
Stanford. Now Tunstall strives to use her
knowledge of anthropology and design to
decolonize work. “Once you understand
the history of design, you can then find
alternative ways of approaching it—from
the perspectives of cultures all over
the world—that don’t involve cultural
exploitation,” she says. “You have all the
tools you need to make the world a better
place.” BYRON ARMSTRONG
DR.
ELIZABETH
“DORI”
TUNSTALL
Smile, 2013