Christmas Decorations

25 December 2015

Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow

St Basil’s Cathedral, Red Square, Moscow

Karl Marx Monument, Teatralnaya Square, Moscow

Moscow looks amazing, dressed up for Christmas this year.  We have some slightly peculiar decorations up in London, especially the ones in Regent Street, featuring cogs and wheels (all bits of clockwork, I think) with hologram pictures playing on them.

There are some better pictures than mine on Regent Street’s own website. I think the decorations are intriguing and original, and – though it probably wasn’t the intention of the designer (!) – they immediately made me think of Russian Constructivist art, and Soviet images and designs featuring similar shapes relating to industry.  Not very Christmas-y – but here’s the sort of thing I mean –

‘Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge’: El Lissitzky. 1919

‘Production’. Fabric print, early 1930s

‘Weaving Workshop’: Alexandr Samokhvalov. 1934

A very happy Christmas and a joyful New Year to my readers!

P.S. Oh dear! Those Constructivist decorations have been causing problems. This report was in the London evening paper yesterday…