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| Hats on heads. |
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Hats on display.
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Remember "paper or plastic?" at the grocery check-out? Making puppets out of paper lunch bags? The all-time maestro of paper bag upcycling may be moses (born Murray Odessky, 1931-2015) and his moniker is indeed all lowercase.
We viewed this wonderful display of his work in the exhibit "Fold-Twist-Tie" at the Mingei International Museum, part of the art complex in Balboa Park the cultural center and garden in San Diego.
moses moved to Hawaii and according to the exhibit wall text:
According to moses, his journey making hats began serendipitously on a New Year's Eve in 1979 when he brought some things to a party in a paper bag. When he went home, he emptied a size 12 bag and turned it over his head. It fit, and he formed it into a hat. The original concept for the hats was to create protection from the strong Hawaiian sun, but ideas kept coming, each hat inspired by a person, thing or idea over roughly a decade. moses created over 250 hats in total, ranging from relatively simple designs each made from a single bag to elaborate examples that transformed a hundred or more bags each into fanciful headdresses. His past career experience as an package and graphic designer for Mattel and other firms informed his work, as did his love of literature, poetry and travel. He was clearly influenced by the brilliance of other cultures just as he was inspired by the mundane. He worked daily and diligently, either from a "studio" at the public library in Waimea or with a borrowed camera on the beach, photographing willing participants who somehow served as the perfect characters to model each hat. He also visited schools all over the Big Island, teaching workshops to hundreds of children. He also hosted countless workshops for adults. Today, over 20 years since his first exhibition at Mingei, moses' hats continue to radiated prodigious talent, perceptive humor, his love of humble materials - and unexpected beauty.
The Mingei museum, which collects and displays what we commonly call "folk art," holds a collection of over 200 of moses' hats. In addition to the displays, a continuous video loop featured portraits of willing volunteers modelling the hats. moses took snapshots of his hat models - some are shown in the first image in this post and more images can be admired at the website of his daughter, artist Kira Od.
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Imaginative hat designs.
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Shangri-la hat.
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Image of Shangri-la on model.
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Off to the races hat. Shades of Royal Ascot!
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Off to the races hat on enthusiastic model.
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Wall of hats.
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Exhibit title on wall.
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As the exhibit title indicates, many of the hats were made by simply folding, twisting and tying bags, but more elaborate creations involved scissors, twine and white glue.
There was wall text with moses' instructions for making a paper bag hat; I would have loved a hand-out of this to learn more about his methods but will just experiment on my own, if I can find the bags in this era of reusable grocery totes.
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More hats.
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Artichoke hat.
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As Halloween is Monday, I'll share a Halloween craft, made with a paper bag and tempera paint by my son some time ago in kindergarten. Believe it or not, this item is in mint condition.
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Happy Halloween!
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