MARKOCONNELLSTUDIO: Dr. Mark Joseph O’Connell Fashion History Lectures

From Medici Court to “Made in Italy”: Fashion, Power, and the Palazzo Pitti In this lecture, Dr. Mark Joseph O’Connell explores fashion as a system of power, memory, and cultural authority through one extraordinary institution: the Museo della Moda e del Costume in Florence’s Palazzo Pitti. Founded in 1983 as Italy’s first state museum devoted to fashion, the Museo della Moda e del Costume occupies a unique position in global fashion museology. Unlike institutions such as the Victoria and AlbertRead more

MARKOCONNELLSTUDIO: RECIPES

Snowy-Day Miso Red Curry Soup (Serves 2) Some days just call for soup (most days actually lol). The kind of day when the snow keeps coming down, and you’re grateful to be inside with something warm bubbling on the stove. This miso red curry soup is my answer to a very snowy January day in Toronto: comforting, deeply savoury, and just spicy enough to thaw you out from the inside. It’s simple, flexible, and made with pantry staples: exactly theRead more

The Ruins at Mitla, a Legacy of Proto Surface Design

On the advice of friends from the weaving community of Santa Ana del Valle, I visited the Zapotec architectural ruins at Mitla, about an hour from Oaxaca City, Mexico. Like many legacies of pre-Hispanic cultures much of the site was taken apart and used to build new buildings that supported the visual supremacy of conquering forces. What is significant however is what has been left. The walls of the ruins are made of decorative repeating motifs, or “grecas” in Spanish.Read more

Natural Dye Intensive: San Bartolo Coyotepec, Oaxaca, Mexico

In February of 2019 I participated in a natural dye intensive taught by sustainable fashion designer and master dyer Nereida Bonmati of Naive Slow Fashion, at the Tlapanochestli Grana Cochinillia in San Bartolo Coyotepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. During this fascinating and academically rigorous engagement with the practical application of natural dyes I learned about the following natural dyestuffs: pericone; brazilwood; huizache; cochineal; and añil (indigo). I also learned about the history of natural dyeing in Mexico, the history of cochineal (preRead more

Captive Animals

“Speed and efficiency are not in themselves signs of intelligence or capability or correctness. They do not carry with them any moral value. They don’t necessarily make any social contribution. The most horrifying, violent moments of the twentieth century have centered around regimes wedded to efficiency and to speed” (John Ralston Saul, 2013: 260). “Born Ready” @Mark O’Connell 2017 Michael Snow’s flock of Canada Geese perpetually take flight, their frustrated bid for freedom encased in a great glass ceilinged atriumRead more