Tuesday, 28 December 2010

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.