WEEK#7&8 FINE ART

During the first couple of days of doing Fine Art, we did a lot of quick drawings in the studio, where four installations were set up. Each of us brought in an object which we placed on the installations, and we were encouraged to draw each of these installations by moving around them. Initially, my drawings were quite precise and controlled, which I realized then lacks a sense of dynamism and became much of a bore. I then changed my way of drawing into a sketchier, looser style which introduced dynamism into my drawings. I also moved around the four installations a lot, allowing me to complete a variety of drawings, mainly using charcoal and pencil.


On Tuesday and Wednesday, we were told to explore the city and take a series of sequential photographs of the busy and dynamic streets, where things are constantly moving around us. Oxford Circus being my destination of choice, I stood at a crossroad and took sequential photographs of moving buses, cars and people crossing the streets, using a streetlight as my point of focus - which was the only thing that stayed constantly still in all my photographs. I also did a few quick drawings there, although I thought this was difficult as things were moving by so quickly, therefore continued at home to draw from some of my photographs.
On the same day, I also visited the "Move" exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, which I found very different to any other gallery as this explores the relationship between art and dance, using sculptures or installations to guide sequences of movement. Here, I saw multiples of very interesting installations that required the participation of the viewer, such as to go inside it or walk through it, as well as dancers and choreography which made the exhibition seem full of life and movement.


We began drawing specific objects from the installations onto acetate with a permanent marker. Each of these objects have to be drawn three times from different angles and all together we each had 15 drawings. With these acetate drawings, we were encouraged to play around and experiment with them using our images taken from the previous days. Putting the images together, I used white acrylic paint to block out parts of the images which I wanted to remove and scanned them onto my computer to make a short animation. However, I'm not very pleased with this animation as the images put together don't look like they are moving but instead look like still shots to me...


During our last week, I took lots of photos from Portobello market of objects and places that interest me. Most of my photos are very colourful images of prints, patterns and objects, as well as vintage jewellry and decorations. I began experimenting with these photos by drawing from them and cutting them up, but what I want to focus on most was COLOUR. I began using watercolour and acrylic to paint objects, using colour non-descriptively in a more abstract sense.

WEEK#5 & 6 Fashion Textiles - Compress & Expand

On our first couple of days doing fashion textiles, we mainly did a lot of drawing and photographing. Collecting objects that can be manipulated by compressing and expanding, such as cans, bottles, balloons and rubber bands, we made models and drew from them. We experimented using different drawing materials, using different weights of line with the use of graphite, ink, marker etc. The main importance of these drawing exercises was composition and how we choose to place our drawings on a sheet of paper. Scale, weight of line, angle and placement were encouraged to be considered in our drawings.


We then moved on to experimenting with manipulation of our photographs, using these words as a guide - cut, fold & slide, detach & reattach, displace & replace, deface. It was interesting to see what some creative ideas people have come up with by introducing foreign materials into their photographs, and the use of scratching, folding, cutting and sewing. My images were of a crushing Coke can - and I must admit, they were quite boring images and I should've looked for something more interesting to photograph. However, I managed to make them look more interesting by scratching off the COKE signs and replacing them with newspaper, cut sections off and hanging them using thread, sewing into and drawing onto them. It was quite an enjoyable experience as we were encouraged to use our creativity by exploring different possibilities to manipulate these photographs.
Instead of developing further with the images themselves, we focused more on the shape these manipulations produced. I folded my images in a way that they produced interesting folded patterns, and when combined in multiples created beautiful pleat-like designs. I photographed this and developed further using different weights of material and different types of paper such as acetate, brown paper and tracing paper. I also enlarged the scale and manipulated the design further as I developed.

What I enjoyed doing most in this project was creating 3D structural ideas using the scanned images of our manipulations, by cutting a line into it, sticking its four corners to the wall and manipulating them by twisting, turning and folding it in a variety of ways. The scanned images themselves on the model contributed to their structures as they created an extraordinary colour effect with its soft greys and browns.

This was what helped me think of a concept for my project, as these manipulations reminded me of organic forms and soft curves that modern architects have begun introducing to their structures, contrasting in the idea of manufacture and industry with its use of material and the idea of nature with organic forms. Architects such as Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright designed structures which 'grew from their environments'. They think that it is important for structures to link with their surroundings and for the interior to link with nature, such as FLW's "Falling Water", which was made using stone and concrete, yet corresponds so well with its natural surroundings, with its protruding and recessing forms and cantilevers hovering over the falling water in the river below.



I then looked for materials that would fit in with my concept - materials that could represent manufacture and industrialisation, and that is not conventional and common. Looking in hardware stores and Shepherd's Bush Market, I finally found a type of material that was made of soft plastic, in which its surface texture mimics that of metal and marble flooring. Using these materials, I reinvented their appearance by painting over them using white paint and then scratching marks into them, giving them an unrefined modernistic appearance. I then proceeded to create two structures that contain organic curved forms, held together by pushing nails into them.