3. Interior Design Project
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Below is a photographic tour of my apartment -- my first interior design project -- with excerpts from Out of Africa by Alex Newman* featured in the Toronto Star.
For a complete tour, please see Suite 505 under Published Works. |
The corridor of Doug Spencer’s ordinary North York apartment building is long and narrow with dark green carpet and a row of identical doors.
The back of a display case, covered in a Moroccon carpet, creates a passageway to the rest of the apartment.
Brilliant green, red, yellow and orange Kente cloths from Ghana adorn every inch of wall.
Arranged here and there — on side tables, on the fridge, in the bathroom — are native Indian mukluks, small framed appliquéd blankets from the Panamanian Kuna people, a Burmese offering bowl, a leather bag from the Tuareg people of Saharan Africa, a wedding hat from Afghanistan, boots from Mongolia, Bhutan and Uzbekistan, and piles of photo books.
Kilims in brilliant oranges, reds and golds from Morocco, Iran and Afghanistan cover every inch of floor space, sometimes two or three deep.
You could spend days exploring the technicolor world Spencer has created — Alice should have been so lucky to find a rabbit hole such as this.
Arranged into an 800-square-foot apartment, the collection is the culmination of Spencer’s 35 years of travel to 74 countries; down rivers, through jungles and into dusty markets. 
What draws Spencer into travelling the world, especially its lesser known corners, is a desire to capture on film the intrinsic beauty of people and the unique way they view the world.
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It's the very picture of drabness and temptingly anticlimatic to what lies in wait behind the door of suite 505.
The case is filled with a colossal array of travel artifacts: shoes, headgear and masks, carvings, baskets, bowls, hats, bags.
Layered over those are dresses from China, India and Vietnam, plus headdresses, masks, puppets shields and colour photos.
In the bedroom, there's a homage to 1800s explorers, as well as a corner devoted to early film-making.
Spencer calls the profusion of textiles as “a multicultural montage, Asia layered over Africa.”
Thanks to the visual sense that accompanies his experience as a photographer and videographer, Spencer understands composition and colour.
Combing the world, ostensibly searching for people to document, he cannot resist the physical reminders of their cultures and has amassed a cache of artifacts made by the hands of those he films.
Travelling not only broadens the mind, opening you to new experiences, Spencer maintains, it also teaches you things about yourself, because at every step of a voyage of discovery, one responds in different ways.
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Just inside the door it’s dark and shadowy.
Pressing past the case, and through a doorway Spencer fashioned himself, you enter a living room that explodes with light and exuberant colour.
Evening the ceiling is covered with vibrant textiles -- a camel cover from India, plus a crossbow Spencer purchased from Pygmy people in Africa, hats, arrows, spears, shields and even a zebra skin.
Draped over every chair are blankets given to Spencer from people in every Naga village he visited in northern India.
No wonder.
hile he occasionally moves things around, he knows when a piece has found its rightful resting place and there’s a meticulous rhythm to it all.
Spencer's own story is woven into it all.
Then there's the part about carrying back the artistic expressions of other peoples' everyday lives -- Spencer's unique way of stretching out the journey.
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*Alex Newman writes a weekly column for www.yourhome.ca on design and decor.
For the complete article, please see Out of Africa.
You can contact her through her website www.integritycommunications.ca.
For the complete article, please see Out of Africa.
You can contact her through her website www.integritycommunications.ca.