when alone; i dream of steam
A research project prompted by memories of girlhood: why was the English steam fair such a distinctive marker of my coming-of-age? A significant role in defining who I am.
The creative, material, cultural and social richness of these customs is a tradition that dates back centuries. It’s that feeling of coming together to put on a show — an unflinching spirit of self-ownership and the right to show off.
I studied the book Circus Posters: Poster Museum in Wilanów, Zaklad Widowisk Cyrkowych, Warszawa Wilanów, May-September 1983. This stunning catalogue of Polish circus posters encapsulates the spirit of the tradition through graphic design. Documentary photographers Diane Arbus, Jill Freedman (Circus Days) and Bruce Davidson (Circus) were all able to fully integrate themselves into travelling circus communities, documenting life in the circus as a tug of war between exhaustion and exhilaration, spotlights and shadows, grit and adoration.
This body of research revels in the acts of flaunting and spectacle, the feeling of having all eyes in the room locked on a performer with pure attraction, or the feeling of losing oneself in the swift, disorientating topsy-turvy of the moment, a defiant yet indulgent giving-in to sequins and tassels and smoke and steam.