Hanging tapestry / embroidery on recycled US army woodland camoflage battle dress uniforms.
Price: £9,500 (SOLD)
Blechman's research for DPM uncovered the important reference that, in 1929, the Italians became the first to mass-produce camouflage fabric, the Italian army subsequently issuing the revolutionary 3-colour telo mimetico contours.
Surplus fabric rolls were discovered some thirty years later by Alighiero Boetti in a flea market in Trieste. Boetti exhibited the material as it was, recycling and framing the original fabric untouched. By the 1970’s the Italian artist had moved on, using the cross-stitching of Afghani embroidery as his medium in a series of maps of the world which reflected the shifting state of nations in the later years of that decade.
Blechman's bold Pop colours reflect Warhol’s 1987 interpretations of the U.S. Army Woodland pattern as well as the hues of each national flag used by Boetti within the sewn outline of each continent. 'DPM: Mappa' portrays the nation’s shape, displaying its signature pattern in primary 'flag' colours. Boetti's work addresses the political and economic differences which exist between the west and the third world/Middle East. The maps sing of times both ancient and modern, the technological advances which threaten handicraft, the mass production which closes small family businesses as ancient techniques begin to disappear. Blechman’s ethos from the beginning of his career was to recycle utilising technology whilst respecting nature.
In his map works Boetti acted an explorer and philosopher; a likely influence on Warhol’s own methods and interests, his 1967 found images, decorative patterns and trade symbols pre-date the mid-60s New York Pop era, plundered, reconfigured and recycled again by Blechman since 2007.
Unlike Boetti's maps, Blechman's 'DPM: Mappa' leaves matters unresolved. What shape and size is Europe in the process of becoming ? What should the 21st century's stars and stripes consist of and what is America's place in shaping the new world ? Blechman offers a 3-dimensional quilted rendition of Warhol while retaining the original ‘Pop’ colourways. Warhol turned the function of the woodland pattern camouflage on its head, changing its scale and colours to suggest new meanings and fresh connotations. Blechman has in turn reinterpreted both Boetti's and Warhol's work, adapting the medium/technique and the symbolic meaning while reversing the function. It’s a comment on recycling, the re-use of 'found' work, turning symbols of war into symbols of art. The reclamation of the symbolic value of camouflage from one of war to one of nature and art.
