#spring queen

[love-dive-into-ive]

[melladys]

XXXVII. 

A Convocation of Spring and Summer     Summer break dawned bright and hot, thr sky the most brilliant, cloudless blue, and the hydrants already spraying to create early-morning rainbows across the street.  Lysander could feel the tingle of the Summer crown at his temples. June would come soon enough and the fiery crown would soon settle upon his golden head once again. For now, though, the…

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[yagodichjagodic]

Spring Queen Medallion 🌼

This is another personal piece & NFS. It features my self portrait enamel pin (with posts removed) on a background of dried flowers & crystals!

I’ve already worn this one out & it is an eye-catching piece! Lots of compliments that made my heart warm 💛

[miningthearchive]

Spring Queen, Staging of the Glittering Proletariat

“The Spring Queen pageant is one of the largest and longest standing pageants in history. It is a unique annual event in which female factory workers from the clothing and textile industry in the Western Cape take to the ramp and model. They showcase not only beauty, but also personality and style. The pageant began in the late 1970s and was at its height in the late 1980s. Even though its apotheosis may have waned, it remains a highlight on the Cape Town social calendar. There are up to 10 000 excited and jubilant supporters attending the final event which is hosted by the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) at the Good Hope Centre in Cape Town. Spring Queen fever begins around June/July each year. Thousands of women participate in in-house factory pageants. A factory Queen is then chosen along with a first and second princess. The factory Queens represent their factories and participate in the semi finals held at the SACTWU hall at its head offices in Salt River. The women who make it through the semi finals, anything between 40 and 60 women, go on to compete in the grand affair that is the SACTWU Spring Queen competition held in November. The coveted title of the SACTWU Spring Queen, the Queen of Queens, is awarded, along with a first and second Princess, as well as a Miss Personality and a Miss Best Dressed.” (From Sequins, Self and Struggle website).

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The CCA’s Archive comprises documentation on the exhibition itself, featuring gowns and of photographs of the Spring Queen winners from the past years; a Spring Queen Documentary that Premiered at Encounters South African International Documentary Festival 2014; an interview of Dr Siona O’Connell who curated the exhibition; and press coverage. All of these elements speak to the camaraderie, pride, craftsmanship and celebration of these women factory workers.

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In Dr O’Connell’s interview, she frames the exhibition’s ultimate aim to pay homage to women factory workers. Spring Queen is a way of honouring these workers, who have been overlooked in many ways, and inviting them to join UCT’s academic setting; she says “This project is for us to rethink what it means for an academic institution to engage with the ordinary, what does it mean to partner with people out there, not merely to use them as academic subjects or as an informant”.

In my view, the exhibition accomplishes what the curatorial statement sets out: it is an exhibition for these women, and representing these women. Their work and achievements are highlighted in an academic setting; the exhibition is an occasion to focus attention on and celebrate their humanity, beauty and creativity. As Dr O’Connell says, the pageant makes the participants feel like they could do anything in the world. It is a snapshot of their moment in the sun, and the exhibition aims to showcase their time in the spotlight.

Through my response, I am acknowledging the exhibitions’ aims and what it does - it’s meant to be fun and lighthearted; it is a place to acknowledge overlooked individuals, to celebrate them and the cathartic aspect of the Spring Queen show.

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By using the “yes, and” technique of improv - acknowledging, understanding and building on what has been done - I would like to reflect on the exhibition’s tougher underlying questions. This exhibition doesn’t present a hard-hitting dive into the context in which the Spring Queen pageant was born; it doesn’t dwell on the strikes, the unions, the workers' conditions, the underlying problematic foundations of beauty pageants and fashion shows, and how these translate in their work today.

These tough questions are present only on a surface level, because they don’t speak to the ultimate curatorial aims of this project. Dr O’Connell acknowledged this, by saying that she hoped this exhibition would raise questions and perhaps be a starting point for discussion and dialogue around these issues.

I would like take this opportunity to build on Dr O’Connell’s aims, to open the discussion to larger issues, in the hope of connecting to a broader audience than that of the original Spring Queen exhibition, and involving people who might not understand the implications and intricacies of working in the textile and clothing industry today, and the role that we, as consumers, indirectly play in it.

I began thinking about how to transmit more serious or educational information to people who aren’t necessarily prepared to hear it - who are expecting to engage with light-hearted content and feel-good narratives and don’t want to think about more difficult truths. I decided to use the format of a quiz, which is seen as a fun, lighthearted way of learning, and has become a big part of socialising under lockdown in many places; it speaks to popular culture in this moment.

The quiz format allows us to ask questions about the harder issues at hand (touching on labourer’s working conditions and wages, union rights, local manufacturers in South Africa, and the darker side of the fashion and textile industry, etc) and involve the participant in a more hands-on approach. With the quiz comes the notion of “winning”, which is itself a nod to the nature of the Spring Queen pageant, where one individual is crowned a winner.

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Spring Queen speaks to us about the people who make our clothes. As consumers of fashion, we should learn more about the lives of the people we are impacting though our consumer choices and actions.

Click here to see if you’re a winner.

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Curated by Lucie Panis-Jones

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Image Reference: Spring Queen pageant, ca 1995. Photo courtesy of the Centre for Curating the Archive and the SACTWU (South African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union) archive.

[screen-goddess]

My season is coming🌸🐝

[bellaanselmo]

Spring queen

[bellaanselmo]

Spring queen