Australian Homespun — October 2017

Selvedge

DESIGNER EDGE

JOHANNA

FLANAGAN

The reason that Johanna

Flanagan’s dolls captivate

is because you can’t quite

work out whether to be spooked or

charmed. The question hangs in the air and keeps you

pondering. Some of the more waif-like figures seem to implore

you to pick them up and protect them, while other wonky-eyed,

naked dolls chill you with their vacant gazes and ghostly

presence. Either way, your focus remains fixed on these ethereal

creatures, and that has to be the mark of true artistic success.

“I’m generally more attracted to things that fall somewhere

between one world and another – things that are mysterious or

never quite revealed,” says Johanna. “I am fascinated by the point

where a piece of cloth becomes a character with its own ‘soul’.

Someone once described my dolls as looking like they’d been

frozen at the point of being transformed from one thing to another.

It’s not that I aim to create a sense of foreboding or suspense in

my work; it’s more that I am drawn to a point

of transformation that creates that sense.”

Unquestionably, the eeriest element of the

designs is the missing or mismatched eyes – the

thing of nightmares for many. But this has

varying responses, according to Johanna:

“Some people are very drawn to it and some

people are completely terrified by it. I think it

comes back to my interest in the point where

one thing changes into another – where

beautiful becomes frightening, and vice versa.”

There are also circus-clown references, with

ruff ed collars and striped stockings and garments. But those dolls

seem spent – exhausted from the performance of life itself, just

waiting to be revitalised. Meanwhile, they sit mutely staring back

at you with a sadly haunted look on their hand-painted faces.

Again, Johanna is much more pragmatic about these references

than this particular viewer, putting their appearance down to her

background in dance, rather than a forlorn story the dolls have

to tell. “I think that being a dancer from a young age, I have a real

love for performance and costume,” she says. “I don’t often add

clothing to my dolls, but the ruff ed collars definitely add a bit

of a performance context without looking too dressed up.”

Some of that theatricality must also be attributed to Johanna’s

work in museum costuming. Her professional base of Glasgow,

Scotland, has a network of museums that call on her design

prowess to produce costumes for their exhibitions and events

(she has a Master’s degree in fashion design from the Royal

College of Art and an Honours degree in textiles). Most are

historical interpretations or replicas, and lots of her hand-sewing

techniques for the dolls are extensions of her historical work.

Johanna is intrigued by the disparate responses people have

to the same doll – some will see sadness, others fearlessness,

vulnerability or drama. It’s all in the eye of the beholder, she

thinks. As to her own take: “I would describe my work as

intimate and elemental. There’s a primal quality about the dolls

• they look like they’ve been around for an incredibly long time.
  I think every one of them is a self-portrait in one way or another.”

For more information about Johanna Flanagan, visit

The Pale Rook at thepalerook.com.

• Susan Hurley

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22 Homespun

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