Camouflage normally means blending into the background. But as a new exhibition at the Rhode Island School of Design shows, camouflage can also be "dazzling."
As visitors to "Bedazzled," at RISD's Fleet Library, learn, dazzle is "a disruptive type of camouflage used during World War I to camouflage ships against German U-boats," according to exhibition materials. The exhibition draws from RISD's collection of dazzle imagery, one of the largest such collections in the world. The exhibit showcases 455 plans and 20 photos of dazzled ships as well as information about the history of camouflage and original work by RISD students.
There are two basic types of camouflage found in nature - concealment and disruption, said Claudia Covert, readers' service librarian at the Fleet Library. Covert said concealment camouflage - used in army fatigues, for example - is so much a part of contemporary culture that people often don't think other forms of camouflage exist.
In nature, for instance, chameleons use concealment camouflage for protection, whereas zebras' stripes, a form of disruptive camouflage, have a distorting effect on the eye. Just as the zebra's predators have trouble distinguishing the shape of each individual, the U-boats were easily confused by the disruptive patterns - dizzying, multi-colored shapes arrayed at odd angles.
After the U.S. military began using this disorientation technique, more boats were able to survive combat, and the colorful ships were a "great morale booster," Covert said, adding that, even among scholars, little is known about dazzle camouflage because it was a war strategy and was therefore implemented in secrecy. The technique is also unfamiliar because the war ended soon after dazzle began being used.
By World War II, Covert said, air warfare and radar had become prevalent enough that dazzle wasn't considered as effective.
Covert, who organized the exhibition, first learned about dazzle when a student asked her about the "colorful ship drawings" in the library's collections. Not knowing what the student was referring to, Covert discovered the dazzle plans for the first time. They sparked her curiosity, and she began researching.
Through her research she learned about Maurice Freedman, a RISD alum who donated the plans and photos that now make up the exhibit. According to the exhibit's Web site, Freedman "was the district camoufleur for the 4th district of the U.S. Shipping Board." His job was to implement the dazzle plans by hiring and directing painters and making changes as needed.
RISD gave Covert a grant to continue her research. She used the funds to visit the Imperial War Museum in London where someone suggested she develop her own exhibit. The Imperial War Museum has the largest collection of dazzle plans in the world - about 700 - but they are all British plans, Covert said.
Covert said Britain and the U.S. weren't alone in developing dazzle ships. The Japanese, French, Italians and Germans also adopted the practice.
On Feb. 14, RISD held a symposium, "Artists at War," about the relationship between art and camouflage. Brown's Peter Harrington MA'84, curator of the John Hay Library's Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, was among the invited speakers. Covert described the symposium as a success, saying that more than 80 people - including students, current and former military personnel, parents with young children and art historians - attended.
"Bedazzled" runs through March 29 at the Fleet Library, 15 Westminster St.
