CAMEL DRESS - IN DEVELOPMENT
Artist Grant
Early 2022, Welcome to the Brightside artist Katie Brightside received an Artist Grant from the the City of West Hollywood. The project took West Hollywood history and made a creative response.
The Salon - Invite
THE HISTORY
THE CAMELS ARE CUMMING!
The land south of Sunset Strip and east of La Cienega was acquired in 1860 by attorney and surveyor Henry Hancock.
Hancock, a major in the Army during the Civil War (1861-65), purchased six camels when the Army put the Camel Corp up for sale.
Originally the camels were imported by the U.S. Army in 1856 and 1857 as part of an experiment for military transport across the desert territories acquired b the USA as a result of the Mexican War.
Greek George Caralambo was the original camel driver for the Army, had travelled with the 74 camels from Tunisia and trekked with them from Texas to LA.
When Hancock bought the camels he hired Greek George to tend his camel at the pool of water around Melrose Place, 1864. This was also the site of West Hollywood’s first Adobe commissioned by Hancock, this made Greek George, WeHo’s, first non-native resident.
The stream ran down Kings Road and swung West which collected into a pool in the flat lands on Melrose Place. Willow and Sycamore trees shaded the water a perfect place for the camel to reside. Note the stream is still in existence, buried underground to prevent flooding.
After Hancock’s dromedary transport line plans failed, Greek George set the camels free, For decades the camels were spotted rummaging around Hollywood Hills.
THE DEEP DIVE
A huge thank you to Jon Ponder from West Hollywood History Centre for the original historical insight. For a detailed account of the camels, please check out his articles on the History Centre Website. Another fantastic source is The Gay History of Camels Podcast, from Not Past It created by Gimlet and produced by Julie Carli.
THE ARTWORK
47 uniquely handmade camels. Each plush camel took 2.5 hours to create from start to finish. Every camel wears a LGBTQIA+ flag, no camel alike or has the same identity. 44 were sewn together to make the camel dress.
CAMELFLAGE PRINT
Katie Brightside and Ryan K. Henisey, West Hollywood CBA award. Image courtesy of Jon Viscott and West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
Jacaranda and parrot PRINT
THE HISTORY
YELLOW CHEVRON PARAKEET - A BIRD OF WEST HOLLYWOOD
The Yellow-chevroned Parakeet (Brotogeris chiriri) have established self-sustaining populations through-out Los Angeles. A pandemonium of parrots can be found in and around West Hollywood. They are originate from Countries south of the Amazon River Basin.
The Parakeet is mostly light green in color with a trailing yellow edge on its folded wings.
JACARANDA TREE - KATE SESSIONS
Kate Sessions, in 1881, was one of the first women to graduate from Berkley with a B.S in Chemistry. She was responsible for the introduction of a large variety of plants to Southern California and the popularization of the Jacaranda Tree that line our streets. Though she may not have planted them with her own hands. The word of her transformation of landscapes of San Diego parks spread up the entire coast line and by 1920s and 1930s Jacarandas trees were planted extensively in Los Angeles.
West Hollywood has some of the most gorgeous Jacaranda treelined streets in LA.
