DPM: Disruptive
Pattern Material: An Encyclopedia of Camouflage:
Nature, Military, Culture
by Hardy Blechman
and Alex Newman, Editors
DPM Limited, London, 2004
One-volume edition: Firefly Books Limited,
Richmond Hill, Ontario, CA
624 pp., illus. Trade, $125.00
ISBN: 1-5540701-1-2
Two-volume edition: Maharishi Hardy Blechman,
Ltd., London, UK
944 pp., illus. 5000 col. Trade, £100
Includes Swatch Viewer and Origami Papers
Distributors website: http://www.dpmhi.com
ISBN: 0-9543404-0-X.
Reviewed
by Roy R. Behrens
Department of Art, University of Northern
Iowa, USA
ballast@netins.net
I was sent an advance copy of the two-volume
slip-cased version of this highly unusual
volume because several texts I authored
are included in it. (This review is about
that edition, since I haven't yet seen
the one-volume version, the contents of
which are identical to the first volume
of the prior edition.) The book is so
out of the ordinary that for weeks after
it arrived, I carried it with me wherever
I went, in part to show it to my friends,
but also to share it with students, university
colleagues, and anyone else who would
likely be astonished by its bulk and remarkable
detail. Not being as young as I once was,
I now carry it less frequently, because,
in its slipcase, the two-volume U.K. edition
(with its retrieval ribbon, dust jackets,
inserts, and so on) weighs more than eight
pounds. I was not surprised to receive
an early copy, since I've known that the
book was being prepared for about six
years. About that many years ago, I received
an unexpected note from an upscale London
fashion firm called Maharishi (founded
and inspired by Hardy Blechman, its Creative
Director), asking if I would be willing
to be a contributing writer on a huge
encyclopedic book on camouflage clothing
and culture. I responded but not with
great fervor, for the simple reason that,
as an author of books and articles on
art and camouflage, I get e-mails weekly
from all over the world, few of which
have any result. Eventually I did contribute
to this projectby writing
and illustrating several sections on art
and camouflage, by lending historical
images from my own research files, and
by locating current U.S. artists whose
art pertains to camouflage. Otherwise,
I had little to do with its gestation,
so I really was fully and greatly amazed
by the book's complexity when I first
held it in my hands (or rather, given
its size, sat down and propped it on my
lap)
Months later, I am still propping it on
my lap (if any book, whatever scale, is
inexhaustible, this surely is) and savoring
each pleasurable moment as I gradually
acquaint myself with its many levels of
content, both visual and verbal (to view
online sample page layouts, go to http://www.dpmpublishing.com).
Having researched and written about camouflage
for more than forty years, I know the
territory. That said, what I find most
impressive about this gargantuan production
is the extent to which its contents are
all-encompassing, factually accurate,
and, in many cases, comprised of both
pictures and data that have rarely, if
ever, been published before. I was especially
pleased to find so much new information
on the World War I field camouflage of
French artists, who are most commonly
credited with its first systematic adoption;
on the changes that have taken place,
worldwide, in the design of field service
uniforms (the entire second volume is
a visual and verbal account of the military
camouflage patterns employed by 107 nations);
on the camouflage-based experiments of
a considerable number of contemporary
artists (visual and otherwise) from throughout
the world, including, for example, French
artist Laurant La Gamba (who paints his
sitters to blend in with product-laden
grocery shelves) and Wisconsin performance
artist Harvey Opgenorth (who visits art
museums dressed in colored clothing that
enables him to merge with the paintings
of Ellsworth Kelly [a camoufleur
in WWII], Mark Rothko, Henri Matisse and
others); and on the burgeoning popular
use of camouflage patterns on the wisest
range of commercial products, including
such items as clothing, toys, vehicles,
hunting equipment, dinnerware, furniture,
and even toilet paper.
Among the most striking examples of historic
camouflage applied to upscale fashion
is a collection of breathtaking fabrics
produced just this season by Maharishi,
called "Bamdazzle" (an allusion to WWI
ship camouflage, called "dazzle painting").
As is often pointed out, camouflage predates
human warfare, in the sense that sensational
models abound among animals and plants.
In addition, despite the stereotype, it
need not always be allied with the military,
and repeatedly throughout this book, as
explained in its publicity, "a strong
anti-war sentiment is expressed with the
emphasis on camouflage's natural and artistic
beauty." Indeed, one might even go further
and claim that the main value of this
extraordinary publication is the freshness
with which it informs us about the predilections
of human visionand the ease
with which we are beguiled.
(Reprinted by permission from Ballast
Quarterly Review, Vol. 20, No. 1,
Autumn 2004.)