Plated by Shelley Norton

Artist list

Shelley Norton

“Camouflage has been said to have been the primary metaphor throughout Andy Warhol’s career.  Bob Colacello suggests Warhol’s camouflage paintings demonstrate “an almost effortless ability to summon up an entire range of art historical references from Chinese landscapes to Monet’s water lilies…Of course pretending he didn’t know anything about art history was one of the many ways in which Warhol camouflaged himself.”1

Traditionally in Pacific cultures, breastplates have been worn by a person of status for protection.  Warhol’s camouflage designs lie across the chest, protecting ‘what is most cherished. – Shelley Norton.

Shelley Norton’s practice is founded on the ideas of value and manufacture. The ubiquitous plastic bag is elevated from its humble, utilitarian origins through Norton’s transformative technique of knitting and melting. Norton creates a resulting material that belies the low grade status of the starting material. Norton is interested in the throw-away associations of the material and knows that someday soon when society bans the material she too will have to move on. Until that time it serves her exploration of pattern and the associated meanings. This latest series Plated is not just an exploration of camouflage, but the importance of camouflage in the Warhol’s art and life. Norton was surprised to discover the extent of Warhol’s camouflage works. The colours Norton uses in Plated link in with Warhol’s palette.  

The title of the series, Plated, not only references the history of early adornment, seen in the form of breastplates and the associated meanings of protection, both physical and of status, but also to the technique of plating, the coating of an often inferior material with a surface usually of higher value, such as gold-plating. Ideas of disguise and camouflage are reinforced here and link back to Warhol’s interest in the pattern.

1. Andy Warhol:365 Takes: The Andy Warhol Museum Collection. By The Andy Warhol Museum Staff. Thames & Hudson 2004.