Film Studies - Slacker 1991 - Richard Linklater

The story of this film is set in his hometown in Austin, and in his film Linklater has based his scripts on the people he saw on the streets of Austin, showing us the multiple personalities and their freedom of expression and thought.
The film opens with a young man, played by Linklater, hailing a ride and spends most of the journey explaining to the driver the idea of how when a choice is made, all those other possible alternatives become separate realities, different destinies. This is the basic concept of this film, as the focus shifts from one subject to the next, enabling the audience to catch just a glimpse into each individual's life, as if we were eavesdropping halfway into a conversation, intruding into someone's home or walking into an unexpected scenario. It focuses on a specific character, shows us just enough for us to question who they are and what is happening, then the focus shifts to another character, who may merely be a passerby from the previous scene. The entire film consists of hundreds of different stories strung together, floating freely between realities. In total, the film focuses on 97 individuals, none of which appears in more than one scene. The selection of these scenes are almost arbitrary, random and confusing, and doesn't provide the audience with the full narrative, which forces us to create our own to try and make sense of it - we are the ones who fill in the gap and decide what happens before and after the specific scenes that have been presented to us.
The structure of this film is somewhat dream-like because of its arbitrary selection. The beginning of the film depicts the same young man, who is played by Linklater, asleep leaning against the bus window. The story then sets into motion once he awakens and gets into the car, almost as if the whole story is just a creation of his subconscious mind. There is no specific story-line, plot or climax in this film. The closest the film gets to a dramatic incident is the scene where we witness a hit and run, which then shifts the focus onto the driver and allows us to follow him into his home, waiting for the police to come and arrest him.
The entire film focuses on moments in life that we encounter every day, of which we never really notice in great detail as different unknown individuals pass us by on the streets. Every stranger that we encounter has their own narrative, their own unique life story. It is a joy to watch the different personalities, lifestyles and choices made by each person that lead to the next reality.

Damien Hirst

In relation to my project, I have done some research on Damien Hirst. Similar to the concept of my project, Hirst's works examines the processes of life and death, by preserving animals such as sharks and cows, sometimes dissected, placed in large tanks. By preserving these, he is rejecting the concept of transience and addressing the inevitable mortality of all living things.

Research! Jean Shin

Installations involving deconstruction processes and changing form and appearance. Jean Shin has made use of disposed/donated objects and gave them new meaning by changing their aesthetic quality through mutating, deconstructing and reassembling.

Dress code (2008) 

Military uniforms and citizen's clothing have been deconstructed and made into an aesthetic piece/ installation. It has been rearranged to form a mosaic like fabric mural. This reflects the authority of clothing and how clothing can reflect an individual's identity or status, as well as reflects the diverse community of people, revealing the many faces of American identity.

Armed (05-09)

Similarly, this installation consists of deconstructed military uniforms donated by American soldiers. This has historical significance as it reminds us of the community of soldiers and veterans that have served various wars and that have served their country. 

Penumbra (2003)

Abandoned umbrellas on the streets have been collected and taken apart. They have been reassembled and reintroduced to outdoor elements by threading these umbrellas together to create a large scale canopy of umbrellas, providing a passageway of shade in the park, whilst casting beautiful shadows on the ground.

TEXTile (2006)

Deconstruction of disposed keyboards and reassembling recycled keycaps by embedding them into a continuous textile. This piece narrates its own making as the keys spell out the entire transcript of the email correspondence between the artist and the fabricators regarding the creation of this piece. This piece also allows viewers to participate as they are able to type their own messages on the active keys in the last 3 rows. These messages are projected onto the opposite end of the fabric, continuing a virtual dialogue. This project examines the effect technology and email have on our lives. 

Tate Britain - Naum Gabo exhibition

Naum gabo prototypes for sculpture, experimenting with 3D forms in space

the stringing method
linear construction in space no 1&2 (1942)

Exploring the idea of space and time - he aimed to produce a self-contained object that would suggest the universal and infinite. It hovered ‘between the visible and the invisible, the material and the immaterial’, becoming ‘the crystallization of the purest sensibility’.

Looking at the balance between form and space, what is solid and the free flowing space in between. The strings and the different panels create a beautiful 3D silhouette.

the stereometric method

The two cubes show two ways of defining space in sculpture – one uses solid mass while the other expresses the form’s ‘inner space’. The latter was the key concept behind Gabo’s constructions; he sought to make the space occupied by an object visible without enclosing it.

Torsion (project for a fountain) 1928-36

Creating a sense of defined space without enclosing or delimiting it. The transparent material helps to achieve this. Space and form share equal importance in this piece and is infinite.

Model for Constructed torso (1917)
Protruding and recessing planes that intersect each other to create a 3D female figure with the play of form and space. The structure appears to be light and carries very little weight or solidity as it mostly consists of free flowing space through and around the sculpture. It has a sense of dynamism as volume is indicated through being bisected rather than surrounded.

Art Fashion Identity Exhibition @ Royal Academy

Clothing can represent individual and social identity.  Clothing can be effective in celebrating identity and indicating allegiance or highlighting importance and status of the individual. This exhibition brings together a group of contemporary artists and innovative fashion designers who share common interests by responding to contemporary issues and needs and yet are rooted in history. The artist’s particular interpretation uses clothing to explore identity. This exhibition explores the different interpretations, beginning with recognizing the role of clothing in personal and cultural histories, examining clothing as a form of protection, clothing as a form of political conflict and questions of nationality.

Gillian Wearing RA – “Sixty Minute Silence” 1996
Video piece examining the authority of clothing and dynamic of the group. People wearing police uniforms are arranged in a formal photograph. As time passes by, the individuality of each person begins to emerge as they begin to fidget, diminishing the authority of their uniforms that conceals their individual identity.

Yohji Yamamoto – “Autumn/Winter” from the Yohji Yamamoto Femme Collection (1991-2)
A wooden framework is moulded into the form of a dress, suggesting a human skeleton, an architectural structure and armour. Its shape also recalls the constraining corsets that women used to wear, as well as assorts the strength of the person that might wear it. Here Yamamoto feels the need to regain respect for clothing and promote women’s independence.

 Mella Jaarsma – “Shelter Me” 2005

interesting structural form consisting of a temple shape and mobile protective covering, inspired by the lifestyle and traditions of Indonesia, reflecting the culture of the place in which it was made.  This highlights the symbols of individuality and social identity – clothing and habitat.

Week 12-13 Migrate

There are many definitions to this word, whether it is literally taking an object and moving it to a different location, metaphorphisis - changing shape and form, mutation or reinvention. The first thing I thought of when given this brief was changing the concept of an object by removing it from its original use and putting it in a different context to change its meaning or purpose. Therefore, I began collecting objects and making changes to them to change their concept for my installation. I took a bicycle wheel from its original use and covered it with black lace, making it into an aesthetic instead of a functional object. Then a gravy boat with blue velvet, medicine boxes taken apart and put together again and onion peels dipped in wax, which created beautiful silhouette shapes. 

The following studio class, we did figurative drawing which I most enjoyed doing. We took turns being the model which we drew from, while two of us dressed this person using the clothing we had with us. Some of these outfits looked outrageous and interesting, which produced interesting silhouette shapes when we drew from them. The most important thing in our drawings should be the quality of line and the silhouette, not focusing on sketchy lines and shading or any other visual information. 

Using these drawings, we photocopied them and blown them up into much larger proportions, as well as colour inverted them so that a large proportion of our drawings are black with a simple white line that outlines the silhouette of the figure. With these photocopies, we cut and mutated them, putting together very simplistic shapes, the purpose was to reinvent and mutate the silhouette. We continued experimenting by making slits in the shapes and twisting it around to mutate and reinvent its form and shape. This can represent garments that can be altered - slits that aren't meant to be there which challenge and push boundaries of proportion.

Fashion Textiles Week 10-11 Overwhelm

Given this title as our new brief, we began looking for objects around us that are overwhelming and 'over the top'. We were required to bring in these objects to create an installation. Initially, l used 'burlesque and showgirl' as my concept as my objects were dramatic, brightly coloured and feathery. Our installations consisted of a background and a foreground, in relation to our concept.  The purpose of this installation was so that we could collect enough visual information to allow our work to develop by generating ideas from it. This was the problem with my installation. My objects were not solid enough to draw from and did not provide enough visual information, which led me to run out of ideas fairly quickly and I was stuck.

Of course then, it was probably a better option to change my concept. Therefore, I was suggested to consider using the idea of flight as my concept. We had been experimenting with some wet media as well, such as using ink, paint and monoprinting, which produced ideas that also suggested flight or random placement. Eventually, my concept changed to the idea of displacing and replacing. Experimenting with monoprint, I cut out simplistic shapes from these prints and replaced with the overloading of stripe or stitch. I also introduced a little colour with the use of light blue against grey, black or white. I had also photocopied some of these and stitched over them.

During my crit, I presented with a wide range of ideas after struggling on my first week. Although I could have developed by using a wider variety of shapes and colour palette, again because there was insufficient visual information provided by my installation.