The Hoop

While traveling through India I was impressed by the 'glass' bracelets that many Hindu women wore on their wrists.  It was common to see some women wearing dozens of these colorful bracelets.  There seemed to me to be a correlation between age and number; younger women wore many bracelets while older women wore few.  I imagined some kind of natural progression whereby these bracelets, possibly given as gifts, would break or become discarded over time. The bracelets were uniquely colorful and a lovely part of the Hindu customary dress.

This memory was recently triggered by something I stumbled across: the Hula Hoop.  Up until now, my concept of a hula hoop has been akin to something that's bought at the local Wallmart, one size fits all and made of plastic (maybe with some BBs inside for sound effects), available in colors like 'hot pink' and 'Spandau Ballet Blue.'  I certainly haven't thought of the Hula Hoop as Art.  The Hula Hoop, like the Pet Rock, was a crazy American fad who's day has come and gone...or has it?

This is the link that changed my mind: Hula Hooping.  There's a great instructional video about how to fabricate your own hoop, including taping to customize colors and patterns.  It began to make me think of the hoop (Bangle) as a design accessory in a FitSpace, perhaps the same way we think about a throw pillow or window treatments.  This makes perfect sense if we think about FitSpaces as places that increase range of motion, flexibility and strength.  It's important to remember that FitSpaces are the places that we 'dwell' rather than a gym or health club.  They are designed to allow us to live our life while affecting positive change in our physical and mental well being.  FitSpaces are playful and fun places to be; the Hula Hoop may be a great addition.

I'm thinking now about the circle motif in art. The painter Ian Thomas writes: "The circles are a recurring theme that I've been working with for some time. Their meaning has changed for me over the years – sometimes denoting absence, sometimes denoting our social sphere and the way we interact with others, and in these recent paintings, they act as a means to delve beyond the surface to what lies below. I continue using circles because they are just a beautiful graphic shape to work with – the simplest, most perfect form."  

I suppose that the appeal to me is in the work's ambiguity; simple shapes arranged in a 'complex' way against a grid which may symbolize my world or an aspect of my life.

I haven't as of yet gone through the exercise of designing and making hoops; thinking about the significance of color or size and how they might be arranged on a wall or ceiling surface in my home.  But I can imagine an 'artful' display which might be cause for visitors to comment.  Such imaginings include an assorted array of monochromatic hoops suspended from a wall surface and lit to provide some interesting shadows on the wall behind.  And perhaps the 'installation' may engage me in a kind of three dimensional dance of sorts, I mean after all, they're just Hula Hoops.

In her Hula Hooping article, ShannonC comments, "once I started everyone wanted to join in, including my neighbors. My brother in laws 12 year old son picked up a hoop and can't stop! I have even sold 2 hoops after the word spread. I always keep about 5 hoops on hand so everyone can join when they visit and they always do!"

The sport of Hula Hooping is a true art in and of itself.  A little research will illuminate many styles of hooping in the same way one might think of differing styles of dance.  And of course it looks like a lot of fun: