Layers of remembering Eileen Gray (in)visibility
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Architecture and planning beyond sustainability, MSc
Publicerad
2021
Författare
Olsson, Kerstin
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
In the beginning of the twentieth
century Eileen Gray was one of
the most influential designers and
architects in Paris. Her lacquer work,
furniture and rugs were acquired by famous
singers, authors, art collectors and fashion
designers. Her decadent aesthetics with
rich, luxurious, sensual materials positioned
her as a new promising young designer.
However, with a growing public interest
in Eileen Gray also the rumours began to
circulate. Paris was at this time a vibrant
cultural city and a haven for women with
queer desires. Eileen belonged to this group
of creative women that had come to Paris
to live their life free from prejudice. But the
freedom had a price.
After the World War II Eileen Gray’s
contributions to architecture and design
were largely forgotten. Her most famous
work, villa E.1027, had instead been credited
to the male architect Jean Badovici, and
many of her furniture designs, rugs and
lacquer screens had been destroyed or gone
missing after the war. Eileen Gray’s refusal
to sign her work and the limited amount
of text she had written about it, turned her
celebrated career into scattered fragments.
A few years before she died, she destroyed
most of the photographs and letters that
reflected her personal life.
In regard to such a background this thesis
aims to contribute to the visibility of Eileen
Gray by analysing the layers of invisibility
that have marked her remembrance. The
first chapter introduces the work and life
of Eileen Gray, and the second chapter gives
a background on how women architects,
historically have been made invisible. The
third chapter discusses the rediscovery of
Eileen Gray, performed through heterosexual
male gazes, resulting in moments of silencing
and oppression. The fourth chapter identifies
three mechanisms behind the invisibility of
Eileen Gray: Archival Research, Presence
and Preservation and, Heteronormative
Heritage, all related to the queerness in her
life, and the fifth chapter analyses what role
the World Heritage List could play for the
visibility of Eileen Gray, and the visibility of
queer heritage.
In recent years, feminist scholars as
Katarina Bonnevier and Jasmine Rault have
shed new light on what the queerness meant
for the development of Eileen’s career. Before
that, the traces of queer desires and lesbian
intimacy in Eileen’s work, had been largely
overlooked. Bonnevier and Rault’s analyses
and interpretations of Eileen’s work,
performed through non-heterosexual gazes,
have been inspirational and influential to
this project.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Eileen Gray, queer archives, queer cultural heritage , preservation, visibility, world heritage list