A twitch on the thread - Oliver Messel between past and present

This catalogue essay was commissioned by Matt Smith, Polly Harknett and Caitlin Heffernan, co-curators of Unravelling Nymans (4 May-31 October, 2012). The project is the first of three exhibitions by the Unravelled group of artists and designers staged within National Trust Properties. My essay focuses on three of the installations in the show and argues how, through the strategy of masquerade and transformation, they represent to one degree or another a mythological entwining of past and present in the work and life of one of Nyman's latterday inhabitants, the celebrated theatre and costume designer Oliver Messel