Object Analysis

For the Summer Term we have to write a 2000 word essay on a subject that interest us by choosing a object or a collection. Below is a short paragraph from the introduction of my essay and what i am going to be talking about.

Are religious symbols used as a fashion statement or a belief?

Religion dictates the majority of our lives weather It be current affairs, opinions on day to day occurrences and how we reset ourselves: this is what I am going to explore through out my essay.

Many people wear a cross on their necklace, but do they actually follow the Christian religion? Today many celebrities are depicted in the press wearing rosary beads, for instance Russsel Brand and Lindsay Lohan, but its questionable as to whether they are actually Catholic or are they trying to follow the latest trend.
The impact religion still has on fashion demonstrates that although religious belief might be declining, its inspirational ability hasn’t and John Galliano’s and Doirs new collections both support this theory. Religion is still highly prominent within fashion but this continued presence arouses questioning because the trend contrasts with the declining general faith in religion. The historical relevance of religion in fashion would suggest that religious symbolism in jewellery and on clothes was purely there to reinforce an individual’s support for that religion. However in our contemporary world this is arguably not the case. Individuals now might wear religious symbols regardless of their personal religious belief for example Russel Brand was seen wearing Rosary Beads even though he does not support the Catholic Faith. This essay shall focus on the religious orientated collections of John Galliano and Dior and analyse the thoughts these collections provoke, like are religious symbols purely for artistic benefit or are they there to reinforce personal belief.

Below are images I am using for my essay and going to study throughout. This is Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring Summer 2007 couture collection.

Neighbourhood Colour

Exhibition by Stage 2 BA Textiles Design Students.

During our first term the second years had a showcase of their work from the project title “Neighbourhood Colour’.

Their brief- Every neighbourhood has its own unique identity through colour. These colours represent the distinct quality of the community, capturing the social diversity, harmony, clashes, environmental traits and economic status. The city is made up of interlocking villages, all may have the same amenities but each has its own distinctive signature. Your project should identify a ‘neighbourhood colour palette’ and what affects it i.e. spatially, architecturally, historically, texturally.

This was really interesting to be able to see what second years where up to and what they where doing. It was also nice to see each pathways work and what they did. It was a chance for us to meet some of the students and talk to them.

There where some amazing work that really caught my eye when I was wondering around the exhibition for example ‘Jennifer Carson’ work called ‘Town House’.

Her description for the piece was:

‘The borough of Islington inspires my final piece. I played with the muted colours from town house in the area. My inspiration for the chair came from contemporary furniture and interior pieces, I used padding and geometric triangles to reflect the strong architecture of the area. ‘

I thought this was so clever, and looked so effective. Below are some pictures I took of the chair.

Environment Week

EFF-

Ethical Fashion Forum

In November at Chelsea we had Environment week. During this week we had a tent put up in the courtyard for EFF where stalls where put up and environmentally friendly company’s came and spoke about their work with the environment and what they did.

This was really interesting as there was a wide range of company’s who came to visit. All of these companies’s where brought together by EFF who are a industry body for ethical fashion. Fashion designers and business have set this up for the industry and have set up this company for challenges to sustainable practices.

Anyone can go onto this website ad join to stay updated on latest news and whats so good is you can promote your own business or project and post events, share ideas and links with other people and members in the fashion world who vary from press to buyers, manufactures to suppliers and students so it’s published to a huge range of people.

Below I have posted the link to their website for anyone to visit and even join.

http://www.ethicalfashionforum.com/about-eff

When I went around the tent I picked up lots of leaflets from individual company’s. One that really caught my eye was ‘ecoboard’ this company makes classic 5mm board with a shiny good quality finish and brown core for the centre.

What is so clever is the Centre core is made from supermarket packaging, newspaper and post-consumer waste all recycled in the UK.

The Outer lining is made from recycled paper for the white board and FSC accredited card for the grey boards.

Eco Board is helping EFF raise standards and reduce poverty and environmental damage in the fashion industry.

Again for more information I have posted their website for anyone to look at.

http://www.eco-boards.eu/

Chelsea Art School is also trying to do a lot to help the Fashion Industry. They have set up a company called TED Textiles Environment Design. We have had many lectures about TED and the company’s they work with to create a better more environmentally friendly fashion industry. Below I have also posted a link to university of arts website which has more details on TED.

http://www.chelsea.arts.ac.uk/22072.htm

The Chris Ofili Exhibition at the Tate Britain was a weird but could be classified as a wonderful exhibition to some people.

This exhibition was made up of a vast collection of his huge painting mostly made up of elephant dung. What I did find clever about his work was how it was presented. As the pieces of work where so vast and looked very heavy they where not placed up on the wall up where leaning against the wall, then to make sure the work was not damages on the floor both corners of the painting had little stilts, these where made of varnished elephant dung which I thought was very clever.

As you could probably tell from the first line that I am not the biggest fan of Ofili’s work as I just found it all so offensive. Going around the exhibition I was looking at all the names he has called the pieces and they ranged from ‘Popcorn Tits’ to ‘The Adoration of Captain Shit and the Legend of the black Stars’ which to me are very brash names.

However I did end up buying a lot of postcards from the shop after as if you look at his work from a distance it look beautiful, his use of color is incredible and I love that aspect of it, but when you go up close especially to his piece ‘Pimpin’ ain’t easy’ he has taken very pornographic images of black women with their legs wide open which to me I find very distrustful.

As I have found out Art and Fashion had no boundaries. When I got home from the exhibition I did some Google search on Chris Ofili and I found these amazing shoes made in inspiration from his artwork. He names them ‘anything goes when it comes to (s)hoes’ which is playing with the title of one of his paintings (above) ‘Pimpin; ain’t easy’.

Below I have got a link of anothet blog which found images of how they made the shoes so high reaching 10 inches!!!

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/9502/elephant-dung-shoes-by-insa.html

DeCode

Exhibition at

The Victoria and Albert Museum

Decode exhibition was a really interesting exhibition, I loved it. I had prepared myself for something different as I had heard from a few people who had been that it was not very exciting or inspiring but I thought the complete opposite.

This exhibition is very interactive, when you first walked into the room there where plastic sticks coming up from the ground so when you wiped past them on you way through they would light up. This exhibition was all very graphic which I loved as it was different.

One of my favorite pieces was the light activated screen that when you walked past a shadow of you would appear or whatever movement you where doing it would follow you. This piece was done by ‘Daniel Rozin’ called ‘Weave Mirror’

Another fun piece was the filmed clips of people who visit the exhibition. They where 2 second recorded clips of people doing any movement.

People would select a small screen where they wanted to be on the screen and press record to make a 2 second clip of them selves.

This was very comical as the public did so many different faces.

The artist of this piece was ‘Ross Phillips’ called ‘Video Grid’

What made the exhibition so fun was how interactive all the piece of work where, some were interactive for example making large movements in front of a large white screen created it created whirls of vibrant color which I loved! I felt like a child again, this instillation was done by artist ‘Mehmet Akten’ called ‘Body Paint’.

And then there where graphic images on the screen, which reminded me of, screen savers on window computers.

So overall this was an amazing exhibition that I really enjoyed and recommend anyone to go and visit!

Blyth House

Going to Visit Blythe House was an amazing experience as I never knew that the Victoria and Albert Museum has such an incredible building that stored so much amazing information.

Once arriving into Kensington Olympia I did not know what to expect, we arrived at this huge building that looked like a prison and felt like one when we got to the big metal gates where we had to say our names to be able to enter. I later found out that the building used to be a old bank.

Once going into a small room to leave all out bag behind we where able to go on further into the big building.

When visiting with Chelsea we got to see old archives of textiles prints for furnishings through to fashion textiles. The amount of books produced was incredible. Before being able to see all of these amazing books filled to the brim with exciting furnishing samples we got told Blyth House stores thousands of archives all of British based designers. They did not store any foreign designers, as the archive would then expand dramatically so they have tried to be quite limiting.

So overall this really was an amazing experience, as I never knew about Blyth House before this. They also sad if I ever needed to find out any information from a British based designers and they stored it anyone could come and visit and it was free of charge all you needed to do was call to book a appointment.

Below I have posted the link that goes onto the Victoria and Albert website that tells you more information about Blythe house and where you can book.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/resources/archives/index.html

Telling Tales Exhibition

At

The Victoria and Albert Museum

After having a lecture on how to set up a blog we had to go the new exhibition “Telling Tales” at the Victoria and Albert Museum where we would get set 6 Questions to answer at the exhibition and then upload them onto our blog.

Telling Tales exhibition showcases furniture, lighting and ceramic designs in the spirit of story telling, here are the works by a new generation of international designers, notably from the Netherlands, many of whom are under 40!

Question No 1.

What is your immediate feeling on entering the gallery and seeing the works? Is the work compelling, repelling, beautiful, confusing, moving, inspiring, strange or familiar?

When arriving into the exhibition I did not know what to expect. However when I entered into the room I could hear magical birds tweeting away in the music I looked around and each piece of furniture was an amazing piece of work.

There was some very strange work and pieces of furniture but to me that made the exhibition, as with out them it could have been very dull just looking at beautiful pieces of art.

Some of the work was also very creepy which made it seem exciting, as it was something to talk about during and after the exhibition.

Question No 2.

Chose a piece of work from each section “The Forest Glade”, “The Enchanted Castle” and “Haven and Hell” and list the feelings and response that the work generated in you and why.

Heaven and Hell:

The piece of work that really caught my eye in this section of the exhibition was the Moleskin slippers. These are by Niels Van Elyke and Minan Van Der Lubbe both born in the Netherlands.

I found these slippers really interesting, and what garbed my attention was the caption below them.

“ Moles are caught as pets, but here their fur had been used to make luxurious slippers. The designers invite us to question our attitudes to fur. It is a contest material in both fashion and design- for some luxury material, for others a product of cruelty to animal. “

This really made me question the slippers. The first thoughts that where coming to my head when I saw this piece of work was-

-Shocking

-Evil

-Cruel

All these words that came to my head straight away related to Hell and showed the complete opposite to heaven I think the main reason for this is because the art work is showing a death, not a natural death but a cruel one as someone would have killed these moles to make the slippers.

The Enchanted Castle:

In this section the piece that caught my eye was "Robber Baron- Jewel Safe" by Job Smeets and Nyke Tynagel.

The words that first came to my mind when I saw this was

-Cheeky

-Polished

-Disguised

I thought this work was very clever the way the safe was disguised; this makes the piece very magical and secretive as no one would ever know that it is used for something. What I loved about it was the use of color and the shiny surface of the piece.

The clown had been painted beautifully and then varnished so you just wanted to touch it.

The Forest Glade:

In the last section of the exhibition I loved all the furniture, I really thought it all related to the title of this section but the piece that really stood out was “Petit Jardin” chair by Tord Boontye also born in the Netherlands.

Looking at this the first thing that came to my head was

-Elegant

-Delicate

-Precious

-Magical

All of these words really relate to the furniture as it’s so exquisite and looks so delicate I really think it relates to the forest glade as the laser cutting is so intricate and magical making it look like a wild jungle.

Question No 3.

Notice the display of the objects, their relationship to each other and their lighting. How might these evoke feelings of drama, interest and tension?

In the “Forest Glade’ there was magical music playing of birds singing and tweeting which made the section of the exhibition seem wild an =d untouched. To divide the furniture they used forest twigs and the lighting was done in spot light. On each piece of furniture a spot light would be shining showing shadows where needed and reflecting patterns around them making it look like natural lighting trying to get through all the tree branches above trying to create a real forest effect so everywhere else around the room was dark apart from the spot lights on the furniture.

“Enchanted Castle” had mirrors around the room making an elusion, as every object was shiny, sharp edged and clean. They all showed reflection and richness, the room was a lot darker but the spot lights on each object was very sharp, clear and brighter than in the “Forest Glade”.

The Music in the Room was upbeat. On one section of the room was classic wallpaper showing tradition and boldness. The layout of the room and furniture is set like a sitting room and the colors are all well thought out having the dark furniture in the center and the lighter on either sides.

“Heaven and Hell” this room was very different to the other two sections. The room was angled like a tunnel. Going into Hell the section had red light above head and the object had a white spotlight on them and everywhere else was black so you could only see the object making it seem very creepy as you don’t know what else is around.

Question No 4.

How might these inspire aspects of your table theatre?

What inspired and gave me ideas for my table theatre from looking at this exhibition was the collection of pieces that where gathered together for each section and related to each title. This then gave me ideas on how to present my table theatre and what I could create with the collection. It also made me think about materials and colors as at the exhibition each category was made very clear, from the use of color to the use of material. For example in the Forest Glade section a lot of the furniture was made from woods relating it to the forests and woods.

Question No 5.

Take Notice of the title of the exhibition and choose to analyze and discuss under 300 words.

The title of the Exhibition ‘Telling Tales’ is a interesting title as its makes you question what the exhibition is about and what story it is going to be telling.

When I read further about the exhibition and found out it had three sections named ‘The Forest Glade’ ‘The Enchanted Castle’ and ‘Heaven and Hell’ I felt they connected to the title and made it clearer.

When I think of the title ‘Telling Tales’ to me I think tales means a short story, a enchanted story, for example Beatrice Potter, as to me I always knew Peter Rabbit as a short tale or Winny the Poo. So this then made me assume that the exhibition is made up of short exciting stories to be told. All of these stories are tales, made up of fantasies that got children like me excited and gripped, which suggest that this exhibition could be full of gripping story’s that cannot be missed.

Question No 6.

Which designers or pieces particularly caught your imagination and / or inspires you?

Picture

‘Do you hear what I hear?’ by Kelly Mccllum was defiantly my favorite piece out of the entire exhibition; it will be a piece that will not be forgotten in a long time.

The fox inspired me as I loved the gold shiny maggots coming out of the fox’s ears. I love the fact it has been taxi durmeed to look alive but actually it is very much dead not only because it is not moving but it has wiggly maggots coming out of its which suggests death as they are eating the fox’s insides. This is a real show of heaven and hell, which works well as, that’s the category the piece is showcased in.

I also love the fact the maggots are so shiny that they are gleaming in the bright spot light, they are also gold in color suggesting richness, heaven maybe yet they are eating something dead.

This has really inspired me as I think its so clever, to the use of color and the way the fox is positioned everything about it is a very clever piece of art.