Examples of macrame and lace , and also because I just love his work.
http://madame.lefigaro.fr/mode/defiles/femmes/9/466-jean-paul-gaultier/collectionmore especially slides 11, 22, 25, 30, 34, 38.
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Kniting: fashion, craft, art and technology by Sandy Blackk
Even though I have chosen print CAD as my specialization, I really like knit and this lecture was really interesting.
Knit, some aspects:
- duality, universality
- 2D and 3D
- underwear to outwear ( 1st seamless knit: socks and stockings)
- engineering knit
- craft and technology
Some examples:
- first punk knit by Vivienne Westwood
- hand knitted Jean Paul Gaultier Collection (not found)
- Julien MacDonald revolutionary hand knit and lace
- Freddie Robins , the knitted wedding blog and Freddie Robins interview on knitting.
- Louise Gouldin, very young and refreshing knit
- Kenzo 2008, amazing knit
- Sandy Black
Knitwear in Fashion
Fashioning Fabric, Contemporary Textiles in Fashion
Chris Ofili at the Tate Britain - Titles
Popcorn Tits
Blind Popcorn
7 bitches tossing their pussies
Before the Divine Dung
Spaces Hit
Blossom
No women, no cry
Afrodizzia
The Adoration of Capitan and the Legend of the Black Star
Foxy Roxy
Pimpin ain't easy
Two Doo Voodoo
The Holy Virgin Mary
She
Prince amongst Thieves
Third Eye Vision
Afro Love and Unity
Afro Sunrise
Triple Beam Dreamer
Afro Daze
Afrovoid
Albinos and Bros with Afros
Afro
Afro nude
The Healer
Thursday, 27 May 2010
TED Lecture Impact Lectures 1
The Beginning of the Life Cycle
"out of all industries, the textile industry is the second more polluting in the world."
The key issues:
- chemical pollution
- energy inefficiency
- unethical production
- transporation
- consumer use
- over consumption and waste ( fast fashion)
What are the issues in the different stages of the textile production:
grow/ manufacturer: labour, chemical, water
ship to spinner: transportation
dye fabrics: labour, chemicals, water, package
dye, finish, embellish: labour, package
cut and sew product: labour, package
different fibers:
naturals: plant: cotton, ramie, hemp( interesting in the UK as self sufficient), raffia, sisal, jute
animal: silk, alpaca, cashmere, mohair, angora, place silk
celluloses regenerated ( wood pulp): viscose, rayon, cupro, lycell(tencell), bamboo, acetate, tricaetate
synthetic petroleum based: nylon, Lycra, acrylic, polyester
new fiber: starch ( ingeo) genetically modified corn - nothing really has the perfect answer
We have this ideas that cotton is GOOD and polyester is BAD but it is much more complicated than that, if we look at the whole cycles of either cotton production or polyester production.
This fact actually changes a lot of things for designer as there is much more freedom in fabric use and we can find more idea for a more eco-friendly textile industry.
natural dyes, yes or no?
- good for small and craft industry but more complex for bigger industries, the quality of the dye is not always as hoped for.
- if using synthetic dye, choose your colour well, as they all have different level of impact on the environment.
- solution: close water loop, constantly re using the same water.
The problem might be somewhere else...
- production and finishing
- offcuts, where do they go?
- etc.. find your own issue and work on it
good website and books:
- www.climatex.com textile and environment issues
- cradle to cradle industry and environnment
- http://fashioninganethicalindustry.org/home/ ethical fashion, courses and etc...
- http://www.pan-uk.org/ cotton production issues
AO TEXTILES LTD.
Karen Purgin diverse work
Emma D'arcey marbelling
Penny Walsh natural dyes
Spike money
Aveda sustainable project; great outfit and production, interesting that Aveda cares about environment
!!! Important to have someone looking at the financial part of your business!!!
Friday, 5 March 2010
Chris Ofili exhibition at the Tate Britain
The titles and descriptions of Chris Ofili work was a first seen for me, his exhibition was bright and catchy, unique. It was more than beautiful colours and innovative use of materials, I quickly realized that Chris Ofili was playing with identity, female identity, Afro-Caribbean and Caucasian identity, the difference and the stereotypes.
Space Hit
1995
Acrylic oil, polyester resin,
map pins and elephant dung on linen - I love it!
Some aspect of Cris Ofili's work:
- Collage of faces, black people
- Faces made of elephant dung
- Collage of women faces with sexual expressions
- Faces with added afro hair style
- Nudity
- Picture of women asses and vaginas
- adoration, men-women The adoration of captain shit and the legend of the black stars
- White woman,blond hair blue eyes, showing her breast Foxy Roxy
- Famous black faces Afrodizzia
- Pornographic images Prince amongst thieves
- Red black and green Afro love and unity
- Black woman with a banana in her mouth
- Stephen Laurence tribute
3 Questions:
- When does expressing identity represent racism?
- Is Chris Ofili stereotyping his own culture?
- Do these work represent a black man identity in the 20th century
I come from Switzerland and the integration of other cultures has never been as smooth as in England. In Switzerland it is not cool to be Swiss, the new generation is not at all patriotic and if we dare to be, we will be called racist. why? The same happens in France, when a Moroccan say go Morocco he is cool when a Frenchman says go France he is racist. I think that expressing your identity is never a racist thing, it only depends on the self esteem of the people that listen to you.
I think that Chris Ofili is not only stereotyping his own culture but the other cultures, it is obvious that in many of his paintings he uses Afro-Caribbean stereotypes, such as physical features, but his painting Foxy Roxy where it is a white woman pictured with blond hair and blue eyes, which his also a Caucasian stereotype.
I think his work is definitely representing 20th century art, and it is fresh and appealing. It does represent a black man identity as his work is based on it. Then could this work represent a black woman identity? I think that except some pieces, it could. so I would say that this work represent a black person identity in the 20th century.
I really liked this exhibition and the conversation it provoked. in terms of the aesthetics of his pieces I found them beautiful i loved the dots technique and the shine of many pieces, in the last room the paintings were a feast for the eyes, the colours were amazing.
Identity in Art- Women Only!!!
Lecture by Wendy Meakins
"One was not born a woman, one becomes a woman." Simone DeBeauvoir
On that day we talked about art and women, following the theme of identity.
Identity in art is very present, and a lot of artist use their identity or their story in their work( is it sometimes a bit therapeutic?).
Can we say that the environment you are brought up in , determines your identity?
I think that it does, recently in the news it was the horrid story of those two boys who tortured two other boys , apparently, there had a toxic home life and watched many horror and pornographic movies and their parents were violent, would have they done what they have done if they had live a different life style? I think so. I do not believe in the murderer, psychopath gene.
Now in terms of female and male identity, is it an environmental thing or a genetic thing that girls like to play with dolls and wear jewellery and little boys like cars and Bob the builder?
I think that society has given us a model and that if a girl doesn't wear pretty pink dresses she will be called a tomboy, and boys playing with dolls might be criticised...
Maybe there is a little percentage of genetics but most of the identity is created by the society and environment we live in.
the following artists are women who used or played with identity in their art.
ORLAN 1947 France
She used her own body and self-performed plastic surgery on her face and body and recorded it.
Self-hybridization
Even though her way of playing with identity is strange and probably pretty dangerous it make me think that she pushes the boundaries of plastic surgery, does what she do is really different than what Michael Jackson or Silvester Stallone do? does she look worst?
MADONNA 1958 USA
Madonna during all her career played with sexuality, female and male issues very controversially.
her SEX book is a way she used.
what space does she really inhabits?
she seems to be more of an object that anything else.
CLAUDE CAHUN 1894-1954 France
Born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob she intentionally choose a sexually ambigous name.
Claude Cahun in a series of photographs plays very much with male and female identity, teh viewer can really be confused if it is a man or a women.
her work was really political and personal.
The other artist that is very controversial and plays with her identity is TRACEY EMIN, she is touching women issues in a very interesting and powerful way e.g. the bed and Everyone I have ever slept with 1963- 1995.
it is very interesting to notice that women seem to always have self referential work, is it because we need to prove something? or are we more able and more sensitive to play a with ourself and our histories?
Some other artists and writers that are interesting to look at:
SUSAN SONNTAG 1933- 2004 USA
BARBARA KRUGER 1944 USA
VIRGINIA WOLF 188201941 England
LISA LYONS 1953 USA ( body-builder)
Friday, 19 February 2010
Empire
Lecture by Wendy Meakins, my personal notes..
This day we mainly talked about Africa indigenous technology, Black bodies in relation to empire
The starting point is the western creation, point of view that Africa is a single entity; even though it is made of 53 countries and that they are 2,000 languages spoken.
The first colonial contact with Africa was made by the Portuguese but bartering, they wanted gold so they brought other products...
The English and the French colonised in a more violent way and suck out everything they could from the countries.
We had interesting exchanges between us, about the races and the ideas we had about them.
We talked about the colonisation heritage in art and about artist who work closely to their origins and also those who push the social boundaries, to open our minds.
Josephine Baker, the author of Negrophilia played with stereotype in her association with Paul Collin who did sketches for the French magazine "Negre" he sketched Josephine baker accentuating her physical features and using prejudice that people have.
The Harlem Renaissance was also a big artistic revolution for black artist and the Jazz was its big star, being a avant-garde way of dealing with Music, very ingenious.
Here are some other artist that participated to this "breaking the European art" movement:
Nancy Cunard, who was the heiress of the Cunard Line shipping businesses, in 1928 she married Henry Crowder and Afro-American Jazz musician, she wanted to be part of the African culture and fought against racism.
Aaron Douglas, a painter who is closely linked to the Harlem Renaissance by his painting, a very explicit work is The Crisis
James Van der Zee, a photographer in Harlem he photographer Jean Michel Basquiat
Kieth Piper, an artist from the West-Indies, whose picture of the world hold by black hands express his reality,
I particularly like it because it is very explicit about our own personal representation of the world and the colonialist and "superior" attitude a lot of Westerner adopt.
Sonia Boyce, a British Afro-Caribbean artist with her work "we are English"
Yinka Shonibare 1962, African textiles
What I will remember from this lecture and the previous one is that art is closely linked with identity, and that the artist that are using their identity in their work always end up with a very touching sometime shocking outcome which provoke a reflexion to the viewer.
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