Elis Parry Mutlu

About

As a design historian, my love for material culture lies within its centrality to our engagement with life as human beings. My discipline is rooted largely in early 20th century design culture, concerning transnational exchanges suited to an ethnographic research approach. Hollywood filmic and sartorial representations of the female identity form a large part of this interest, along with decorative arts, and all present much to be examined through a design historical lens. The situation of people in extraordinary circumstances underpins my practice, and how such examples often culminate in material expressions of character. New biographical insight can be gleaned from this ongoing dialogue with the world of objects. We impart upon things a degree of ourselves, and the notion is reciprocal — this interplay of material and memory fascinates me endlessly. Exploring these ideas, I consult a variety of research fields, enacting a multidisciplinary approach to consider the role of design in constructing and mediating cultural identities. 

In my dissertation, I set out to examine this phenomenon in the case of Russia’s last tsarina, Alexandra Feodorovna. Steeped decidedly in mysticism, her character presents as exemplary for considering the interplay between sentimentality, material possessions, and cultural afterlife. The part played by ‘things’ in a person’s surviving mythology proved a common thread throughout my postgraduate research; central to my argument is Alexandra’s contention of identity, and its manifestation within her design tastes. Similarly pertinent is the culture of gifting so prevalent between the Russian and English royal families, and subsequent attributions of character brought about by exchange; Fabergé eggs formed in the tsarina’s image, inherently romantic, are coloured by the melancholy attributed to Alexandra when their fate is set against her own. Entangled within the vast array of objects left behind by the tsarina are the means for reconstruction in her absence; things act as mediators, asserting a sense of self when we ourselves are worlds away.