Window dressing: Diane Simpson installs art deco store displays at MCA Chicago

‘Window displays are a ubiquitous and inescapable part of one's viewing life in the big city,’ says artist Diane Simpson. Her current exhibition ‘BMO Harris Bank Chicago Works: Diane Simpson’, on show at the MCA Chicago, is inspired by the first examples of visual merchandising in the early 20th century. For the four window displays – from her Window Dressing series – Simpson crafted stands, platforms, hangers and other display furniture, as well as clothing and accessories – a bowler hat, a pinafore – using patterns and shapes that evoke the art deco period she references. The exhibition also includes trade manuals from the 1920s and 30s that the artist used to research her sculptures.
Over the past 35 years, architecture, fashion and utilitarian design, and the points at which these practices intersect, have consistently inspired Simpson. Her first work with the Window Dressing displays was created for the Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin, aptly housed within a former department store; she has also previously installed them at storefronts at the NYU Broadway Windows (in 2014). In Chicago, four of her window tableaux appear in the city for the first time. Simpson says she’s less interested in the merchandise itself than the formal aspects of a window display and the backdrops that have been used throughout different periods in history. So what makes for a good window display? ‘I view a successful window display as one where the window dresser has succeeded in unifying the background of the display and the merchandise. This is always an important consideration in the way I display my sculpture. I strive for a real correlation between the sculpture and its environment.’
Simpson has been an integral part of the arts community in the Chicago area over the last three decades and has exhibited across many of its arts venues; but, she says, ‘The opportunity to show a major segment of my work at the MCA is sort of a pinnacle for me.’
For the four window displays – derived from her Window Dressing series – Simpson crafted stands, platforms, hangers and other display furniture, as well as clothing and accessories
A bowler hat, a pinafore and other patterns and shapes evoke the art deco period that Simpson references
The exhibition also includes trade manuals from the 1920s and 30s, that the artist used to research her sculptures
’Window displays are a ubiquitous and inescapable part of one’s viewing life in the big city,’ says the artist
Simpson says she’s less interested in the merchandise itself than the formal aspects of a window display and the backdrops that have been used throughout different periods in history
INFORMATION
‘BMO Harris Bank Chicago Works: Diane Simpson’ is on view until 3 July. For more information, visit MCA Chicago’s website
Photography: Nathan Keay
ADDRESS
MCA Chicago
220 E Chicago Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Charlotte Jansen is a journalist and the author of two books on photography, Girl on Girl (2017) and Photography Now (2021). She is commissioning editor at Elephant magazine and has written on contemporary art and culture for The Guardian, the Financial Times, ELLE, the British Journal of Photography, Frieze and Artsy. Jansen is also presenter of Dior Talks podcast series, The Female Gaze.
-
Bless interprets Fendi’s world for its immersive Design Miami 2023 installation
Provocative situation design duo Bless go behind the scenes at Fendi for ‘Backfrontal’, the Italian fashion house’s presentation at Design Miami 2023 (6-10 December)
By Dal Chodha Published
-
Helen Johnson explores bodily distortion and ablution at Pilar Corrias
Helen Johnson’s ‘Opening’, at Pilar Corrias in London, unites psychological motives and physicality
By Emily Steer Published
-
Bell & Ross leads the luminescent watches trend
New luminescent watches see us going for the glow, in hues from green to lavender
By James Gurney Published
-
Sabine Marcelis wins Wallpaper* Designer of the Year 2020
Between fountains for Fendi, donut-shaped rugs, and a takeover of Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion, Dutch-Kiwi designer Sabine Marcelis has widened the spectrum of what light, glass and resin can do
By Rab Messina Last updated
-
Isamu Noguchi's unrealised playground design revealed in New York
By Pei-Ru Keh Last updated
-
Idris Kahn, Annie Morris and Comme des Garçons create Yves Klein-inspired sculpture
By Glenn Waldron Last updated
-
Dozie Kanu designs a multi-discipline remix of Rimowa’s intelligent travel in Milan
By Elly Parsons Last updated
-
Never-before-exhibited watercolours by Steven Holl go on display in Milan
By Ali Morris Last updated
-
Laufen celebrates its 125th anniversary with an unconventional sculpture show
By Jessica Klingelfuss Last updated
-
Glass act: a Venice exhibition reveals a never before seen side of Ettore Sottsass
By Ali Morris Last updated
-
Bubbling over: Sunbrella and Charles Pétillon’s inflatable collaboration
By Emma O'Kelly Last updated