The hand fan is not a costume accessory in Spain so much as an instrument, opened, closed, angled and held still. Flamenco Fan takes it as a subject and draws it in motion: fans overlapping across the drop at different angles, some fully open, some half-closed, with carnations and roses worked into their leaves. Some are drawn from the front and some edge-on, so the wall carries a sense of movement rather than a row of objects.
Both flowers carry meaning in the flamenco tradition, standing for love and admiration, and they are drawn small and repeatedly rather than as centrepieces, so they read as ornament on the fan rather than as a floral pattern in their own right. The ribs and edges are picked out in metallic, which gives the design its structure. The fans hold their shape under lamplight and the flowers recede into them; away from direct light the whole surface quietens into a dense worked field.
There is real theatre in it, and it needs a room prepared to take that: a dining room, a small bar, a dressing room, a cloakroom. Keep everything else severe, with plain upholstery, dark timber and one good light, and it reads as considered rather than as decoration for its own sake.
