In the photo above, of the USS Mahomet in port (circa November 1918), it’s hard to make out even the out the shape of the ship.Īdditional good examples of ships with dazzle camouflage can be seen here, here, and here (in an article that discusses the design process for the patterns).Ĭuriously, dazzle camouflage seems to have made a recent comeback in fashion. This is different from traditional camouflage, which tries only to minimize visibility, but can be surprisingly effective. Now, where have we seen this kind of thing before?Īh yes: Dazzle Camouflage! Dazzle camouflage was used in WWI to make ships more difficult to identify and target, by disguising their size, configuration, range and orientation. The pattern of angled, high-contrast shapes makes it remarkably difficult to see the actual shape of the dress underneath that print. However, we recently came across the above pictured dress (the Signature Shift Dress by Julie Brown), and noticed a peculiar quality about it. You might also like, “Using Steel and Mirrors, Dream the Combine Transforms MoMA PS1’s Courtyard.We’re no strangers to seeing an occasional hard-to-look-at article of clothing.
Enderby said, “We’re living in uncertain times and the importance of remembrance feels key in preventing it from happening again.” Remembrance was something Enderby and Auerbach often discussed throughout the project.
Dazzle camouflage series#
Auerbach’s contribution is the first U.S.-based ship, the final boat in the series before the centennial of the end of World War I on November 11, 2018. The project, co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW, a UK-based organization that commissions art related to the First World War, is part of a series of “dazzle” ships, all based in the U.K in collaboration with artists Sir Peter Thomas Blake, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Ciara Phillips, and Tobias Rehberger.
Dazzle camouflage free#
I like those instances where cleverness is an antidote to brute force.”īeginning July 1 through late September, the painted fireboat will visit docks around New York Harbor and offer free trips to the public on weekends. “The palette also exaggerates the fact that ‘dazzle’ was more about confusing and outsmarting, than about hiding.
Harvey‘s identity, so I took the boat’s usual paint job and scrambled it,” said Auerbach in a statement. “With Flow Separation, I didn’t want to ignore the John J. A small plaque bears the ship’s name at the side of the boat. Hoses protrude from various points on the boat, only their bases painted. Large-scale reproductions of these prints were then drawn onto the boat by Auerbach and then painted by a crew with epoxy paint, which is durable and water-resistant.įour small flags adorning the ship all feature a unique red and white marbled pattern, while a large American flag flaps at the boat’s stern. “Scene painters understood that dimensionality.”Īuerbach marbled hundreds of pieces of paper before settling on a final design. “It’s not like a regular boat or painting, mapping a 2D pattern onto this 3D surface,” said Enderby. The process of painting the ship by hand took six weeks with a crew of scene painters alongside Auerbach. Enderby said marbling was chosen to illustrate “fluid dynamics, the way an object moves through the water and leaves a pattern behind it.” Courtesy Nicholas Knight/ the Public Art FundĪuerbach created the red and white pattern –an homage to the ship’s original colors - through marbling, a process of dragging combs through floating ink before transferring the ink to paper. Harvey was not a warship, it served the City of New York until retirement in 1994, and was notably recalled to service to pump water to firefighters after the Septemattacks. The elements in dazzle are already in her process.”Ĭredited to artist Norman Wilkinson, dazzle camouflage painted geometric patterns and colors on Allied Navies’ ships to make it difficult for enemies to estimate the ships’ size, speed, and direction of travel. “She does already apply some historic techniques– distortion, perception, dimensionality. Auerbach, whose background is in geometric and spatial designs that play with perception, drew inspiration for the ship’s painted exterior from World War I-era “ dazzle camouflage.”Īuerbach was an obvious choice, said Emma Enderby, the installation’s curator. Local visual artist Tauba Auerbach’s first major public art commission, Tauba Auerbach: Flow Separation, is a study in eye-catching design steeped in history.