My new eyes allowed me to see Atelier as a curated space. As in an exhibition, each piece has been selected specifically to be included in the salon: the large ornate mirrors, the colours, the font, the layout, the machinery, tools, and the movement of people around all the objects. 

 

The space has been designed to encourage relaxation, even force it if necessary through the act of offering, touch, and ‘frivolous’ decoration. This signals to the average person – this is a special place where you are encouraged to embrace pleasure. 

As decoration often gets minimised by the tenets of functionalism it is quite quickly gendered as a way to subjugate it into the realm of the ‘unnecessary’.

“Driven by the heroic male architect, Modernist dictates of good design—functionalism, truth to materials, purity of form—quickly took over and continue to be the dominant ideology today in the way architecture and interiors are taught and practiced. If Modern architecture was rational, masculine, and structural, then decoration was considered emotional, feminine, and shallow.” 

As I watch people arrive in a flurry of wind and hurry I watch them leave renewed, calm, stronger in themselves to buffer the wind once more. After witnessing this, I am stronger in my belief that while it may be unnecessary, it is very useful. As echoed in Stone’s article – “Decoration continues to both establish and challenge popular assumptions about good taste. While subjective and messy, it is essential to how we exist in the world and how we perceive ourselves and others.”  An act of wellbeing and reclamation of one’s self. 

 

 

 

Reference: Stone, J. (2020) ‘In Defence of Decoration’, Metropolis Magazine (published online 22 September). Available at: https://metropolismag.com/viewpoints/in-defense-of-decoration/.

Additional reading:

Huntley, G. H. (1946). In Defense of Ornament. College Art Journal, 6(1), 29–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/15436322.1946.10795169

Negrin, Llewellyn. (2006). Ornament and the Feminine. Feminist Theory – FEM THEORY. 7. 219-235. 10.1177/1464700106064421. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240712443_Ornament_and_the_Feminine