The second years were assigned to explore two contrasting neighborhoods within London and begin researching in a 2D form such as photography and sketching and were then given the challenge of turning their 2D forms and knowledge into a 3D textile. Many of their briefs were describing a contrasting characteristic between two neighborhoods. They also had to convey the importance of colour in design. Elge Vaituelvicute observed Colliers Wood and China Town and from there created an amazing knit vest. She knitted stripes of yarn and then treated those knitted stripes as if they were yarn and knitted them together, which made the vest look braided and complex and very very chunky. I do not think I would ever produce anything like this but it was very beautiful and I would love to wear it. I also admired Henry Muller's work. The way he presented it was spectacular. He embossed geometric shapes into a material similar to wadding and covered a whole wall with these "distorted shadows" and then projected his work, which was geometric patterns, onto the white embossed wadding that looked like modern minimalistic sculptures. Trudi Hood also had impressive presentation skills. I did not think her actual work was that strong but the way she presented it was really interesting. She encased her woven samples in colored plexi glass and put lights onto them. I would never produce anything like her weaving samples but her presentation skills inspired me. Surprisingly all of the students I spoke with did not address sustainability. They said that right now they are more focused on improving their skills and technical competence. I was a bit disappointed because Chelsea is so focused on sustainability. It seemed to me that the people in stitch were the most sustainable, they used a lot of recycled plastics and that the printers were the least concerned with sustainability. It was very useful to speak with someone who knows where you are coming from and who can tell you a bit about what is about to come. I did not realize that you can change your specialization. It is nice to see also that we will be designing big important projects in the future that works up to the goal of the exhibition. In stage one it can be a bit annoying because you have a bunch of itty bitty projects.
A couple of the girls in print said that it was difficult to stay focused on their task because their ideas kept changing every week. That is where the tutors not only become good support but a resource tool: "They are meant to keep you on track and sort through your work and tell you what you should continue with and what should stay in the past," states Holly another student specializing in print.
Beautiful Soul was a clothing line whose head designer had a lot of strong options about sustainability, otherwise what we like to call morals in the real world. She seemed to have come to the conference in order to not only advertise her work of course but to also inspire students and set an example. Her company Beautiful Soul would take in Bangladesh women and teach them useful skills, such as sewing and draping, pattern cutting etc. So she basically taught them the necessary skills so they would be able to work for her and produce her garments. It also benefits them because they are new to London and they are able to met other women who speak their language and have a lot in common with them. It makes moving to a new city a lot easier. Her garments are now being sold at the shop in the V&A and she sells them to local boutiques in London. Her look is not really my style but it does have a timeless quality. The silhouettes are Japanese inspired and the fabrics look like modern tapestries. The market is for woman in their late 30s-60s, which is a very broad market and many women in that age group are aiming to be more environmentally and ethically conscious. Even big brands such as Nike are beginning to think more ethically. The founder of Beautiful Soul cannot accept huge orders right now due to her ethical process of creating clothing, unlike brands such as Joseph who sell their goods internationally and in big department stores such as John Lewis. Both brands do not have the same design aesthetic whatsoever but they are aiming to sell to the same age group of women and both have timeless qualities to them. The Beautiful Soul garments being sold at The V&A are meant to be a special artistic piece that someone can own forever due to their timeless qualities. But Joseph is meant to be something not so special, that solid blazer one must re buy every season. The women who buy Joseph buy it in excess. Designers have to realize that they have choices. They can either choose between money and selling internationally. Or maybe making a little less money and have to start selling just locally, yet have an intimate business that you know is making a difference- not on the world but on a group of women maybe. We all have to start somewhere.
When we had the discussion in class what the difference was between arts versus artifacts I was not entirely sure. Artifacts always seemed to cross over into the arts for these people had a skill that was a type of art. But when we were told to enter the museum (the V&A) and carefully study all of the textiles put on display that represent history throughout many different periods and cultures I started to study the names of the artists meant to be on the plaques besides these preserved artifacts and to my dismay did not see any. It is a large topic of debate with many worthy opinions: are these preserved objects in museums such as suits of Armor that the Samurais wore Art or Artifacts? And after truly observing and studying how these objects are displayed in museums I cannot see them as art anymore but only as artifacts. They are not meant to represent a group of artists or even a specific trade or craft but an entire culture and period of time. The artist is not even mentioned and most likely not known. I noticed that the process of the artifact being made is not mentioned either. It is funny to think that in 100-200 years they will put our clothing on display in museums. Our soldiers’ uniforms may be on a manikin behind a class case. We would never call our present soldiers’ uniforms art. Even uniforms put on display in army and science museums that are from World War 2 are not considered art. They are without argument artifacts. And to think that these uniforms would represent our whole period of time and culture would not be accurate either. However if a Prada were in a museum it would be considered art, it would give that individual brand credit. I think it is reasonable to say that the armor created for the Samurais in Japan may be considered a craft. For it took a lot of skill and craft to make these beautiful artifacts. Not only do we have to consider skill but tradition as well. Kimonos were never viewed as an art for they were made by a group of people rather than an individual. But a man whose name has escaped my mind spent many years in prison in Japan and when he was released he began creating kimonos with his bare two hands, as an individual. He hand dyed and embroidered each kimono with the setting and rising sunsets that kept him alive while imprisoned. This man’s kimonos were considered art and displayed in galleries. People rarely want to see art as a product made by a group of people or even by a factory, but a product created by an individual made by hand. I have concluded that an artifact is not about the people who made them but the people who wore and used them. If a Balenciaga dress was displayed in a museum, the plaque would not discuss the culture or go into great depth of the era but it would give Balenciaga recognition; it would represent his dress as a piece of art and him as the artist. However textiles and dresses from the Victorian era are represented as an artifact meant to give people in the present a sense and vision of people in the past. So things have changed. In the past mothers passed their craft and skill on to their daughters. It was not looked at as an art form but as a form of tradition. Embroidering was not considered a form of art but a desirable decorative skill. In present times however, art is about an individual’s uniqueness that they are very skeptical about sharing with other people. Artists have become very secretive and possessive about their work which has brought about copyright laws. And buyers have become very concerned with brands and names of artists. Even if Mercedes comes out with a cheaply made and affordable car, it doesn’t matter that Toyota makes a better quality; people will still want to buy the Mercedes in order to have that brand. We have to acknowledge how this argument has become a complicated debate because culture has changed how our mind sets have changed.
Notting Hill has always been known for Portobello market. In the past the the market was not as well known, but many of the locals loved it due to the ridiculously low process of products that had been stolen and were being re-sold at the market. Most of the shops now a days consist of antiques that are very over priced. The market is no longer a natives secret but very well known among the world due to the hit movie, "Notting Hill." On Saturdays, which is when the market is at its prime, it is almost impossible to walk down the street.
Another main attraction is the Notting Hill Carnival, which was started in 1964 by black immigrants mainly from The Caribbean as a form of Cultural Resistance. This carnival is said to be a celebration of anti-racism, the police try to shut it down and intervene. Many of these immigrants faced racism, lack of work opportunities, and poor housing conditions. The carnival was a chance for them to embrace a strong part of their cultural to feel proud of where they came from rather than always feeling suppressed. In present times the carnival has become so huge that about 1.5 million people attend it every year. And approximately £93 million is earned by the UK economy every year due to the carnival.
Notting Hill is also famous for the Notting Hill Race Riots, where activist Claudia Jones stated: " A peoples' art is the genesis of their freedom." I noticed while walking around the streets that the busy roads such as Portobello Road seem to draw artists with alternative life styles, especially towards the end the street. Yet the surrounding neighborhoods are very posh and wealthy. On the weekends the area is swarming with tourists, which make it hard to enjoy. Friday is the best day to visit Portobello Road if pushing through dense crowds is not your thing to do.
I managed to interview D.J. Alfie who DJs at a local pub on the corner of Tibet and Portobello. He spins funky music that will get your feet moving! Alfie says that Notting Hill used to be a place filled with artists, researching people, and taking photographs (activities we were assigned to do while in our neighborhood). He said that is used to be comprised of artists who appreciate the world, but now since it has become so well known it has lost some of its grit and original charm. He believes "Saturdays is when it is buzzing!" I also spoke with a man who sold beautifully exquisite jewelry from Tibet and Burma. His mother was from Tibet and his father from Burma. He would travel to each country for 6 months at a time and visit the homes of the native craftsmen. Due to his ability to speak both languages he was able to bargain with the locals. He then comes back and sells the jewelry at the market. I also met a man named Alex who is originally from Turkey. He paints traditional Turkish decorations, such as fancy plates and porcelain kittens. He explains that he does not have enough money or objects to start a shop so he just sells them on the street for some extra money.
These objects, if taken out of context and put into a gallery could make sense if placed with other objects. Yoko Ono did an installation, where she happened to meet her husband John Lennon. In the installation there was a ladder that led up to a some text and a magnifying glass. When the magnifying glass was put over the text it read- "Yes." I also saw a sculpture at the Firenze Exhibition in Regent's Park and the Sculpture consisted of many magnifying glass that cast abstract yet beautiful shadows onto the wall.
Object 2:
Image of grocery baskets (shopping basket) from a grocery Store in Notting Hill Metal Plastic Ordinary Colorful Beautiful
I think this image would be pretty in a gallery. It enlarges by-passed, ordinary objects and show how they are overlooked and beautiful from certain angles.
Object 3:
Barry Griffiths table which is little cubes made of wire and they keep piling on top of each other like a molecular structure which ultimately makes a transparent table, shown at the Flow Gallery.
Furniture solely made of wire and cubes. The artist states his goal in creating this table: "It is transparent in nature allowing space and light around them." If this table was taken out of context and put into a gallery it would not make sense to people, ordinary people who shop at John Lewis. The table is beautiful yet a bit disfunctional. Typically tables are solid forms which make them functional so the objects we lay on the table won't fall. Yet this table will not prevent small objects such a silver ware or even bits of food from falling through it.
1. The immediate feeling upon entering the gallery is fantasy. It is as if you are in a surreal world- an enchanted forest (as the title suggests). It feels like a place of innocence and childhood and one cannot help but feeling nostalgia for their lost days in childhood and innocence. It is as if you are looking through a foggy window, spectating the days when you were a child adventuring into the woods behind your house. The noises of birds and projected images of tree branches upon the walls make everything seem magical. As one continues into the gallery through the Enchanted Castle, it feels like one has begun a journey. It has traces of children's' books such as "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Narnia." My feelings of magic and innocence still remain as I leave The Forest Glade into the Enchanted Castle yet I start to feel something threatening. It is a Surreal Castle that stirs one's curiosity yet protrudes a feeling of eeriness. And in Heaven and Hell one can only feel like their fantasy has turned into a nightmare, yet it is still beautiful in a disturbing way. At one point you are trapped in a triangular space. The curators keep the spectators so busy, looking through all of the little port holes that they feel they must continue walking on to the next show case of objects, yet it abruptly ends in a dark sharp corner. A word that would summarize the exhibition would be intrigue.
2.The Forest Glade: A piece that caught my immediately was Made By Bees by Tomas GabzdilLibertiny. Libertiny made a metal structure that was shaped like a vase and placed it into a beehive, the bees built their honey comb around the metal structure. When the bees are completely finished building around the metal structure, Libertiny removed the metal, leaving us with a beautifully constructed vase, Made By Bees. the sculpture is not a perfectly symmetrical shape, which only adds to its beauty of not being man made (only to a certain extent). It is miraculous that nature is capable of making such things and that humans (artists) are capable of thinking of such ideas. The sculpture looks like fantasy, yet it is real. It is imagination and surrealism yet it truly does exist. The Enchanted Castle: Sebastian Brajkovic had a piece on display called the Lathe Chair VIII. Its frame was a Victorian style chair yet it was split into two pieces, in other words it was split into two chairs that were connected, as if it were siamese twins. The upholstery is a digital print that shows the movement of how the car was separated. It as if it is a specific moment in time that has been put on pause. Looking at this piece makes me feel as though I am stuck in a strange place in time- like a capsule where time does not truly exist. Heaven and Hell: I believe that in LucMerx's piece, The Fall of The Damned, the word fear is truly conveyed. He has created a chandelier that consists of 170 human figures tumbling and falling. It looks as if the figures are being sucked into a light which can be depicted as the flames of hell. On the V&A's description of this piece they state that Merx has been "[...]inspired by Peter Paul Ruben's depiction of the Fall of the Damned at the moment of God's last judgement." Human beings fear death. We fear things that are unknown. This piece is intriguing yet terrifying. One can imagine the end of the world, everyone being sucked into the depths of hell.
3. Each room focuses on a different feeling. In The Forest Glade the materials are natural, for example, wood, honey comb, and leaves, and all have some connection to nature. The walls are covered in projections of tree branches and the noises are of birds whistling in a Forest. All of these aspects evoke feelings of fantasy and childhood. Yet in the Enchanted Castle the objects have metallic surfaces and possess a grandiose manner to them. They are over sized and make you feel small, like a young child who does not belong there. The lighting is bright and much more intense than the Forest Glade. It feels as though you are the children in the story, Narnia, who are wandering around the evil queen's castle- it gives you a feeling of tension and suspense- like something bad is about to happen to you. And once you enter Heaven and Hell, the lighting is completely different. It is dark and there is a red glow of doom. The objects are hidden and it feels more like a labyrinth than a room. It is not as open, there is less space and two little passage ways that give you the feeling of being trapped. You must look into small compartments to see the objects which consists of stuffed animals which give the feeling that you are being watched. All the objects seem stuck in a time capsule, frozen and suspended between being dead and alive, for example the stuffed fox, or the mole slippers which still possess its feet and head. They are not living but seem to be some sort of imitation of living.
4. This gallery co insides with the Table Theater project by obviously curating a collection of objects. Something that it has taught me, which I will carry on into my own collection, is that the objects do not have to look exactly the same or all be used for the same activity, or even found in the same shops or all found on the street. There are other methods that can be used in order to connect the objects. In this exhibition the objects were placed in specific rooms in order to tell a story, in order to lead the audience through a journey. It engulfs its spectators into the exhibition because the journey is so personal, first leading into man kinds fantasies and then into our greatest fears- death and doom. Each room projects a different feeling and mood due to the objects. The objects in each room are connected by the way they make you feel, the materials they are made of (hard man made surfaces or collected from nature). We must act as curators, thinking of a story or a feeling the audience must recognize, they don't necessarily have to understand why they are feeling that way, but they must recognize that they are in fact feeling something specific.
5. One of the many titles that struck me as being interesting was: Sensory Deprivation Skull. This was a piece done by Joep Van Lieshout, which consisted of a giant white skull, the inside appeared to have a sitting room that was covered in fur. Sensory Deprivation, your senses are being deprived. But where? In your own skull or the skull that Lieshout has created? I believe that our senses do in fact deprive us. Just the other day one of the tutors made us imagine that we were blind and told us to draw a car through the mind of a blind child. Our senses deprive us of imagination, of touch, of the faintest sounds. This skull perhaps helps us clear our senses, due to the fact that they disable our mind to think clearly. This piece looks completely abstract yet the title tells its audience what the artist intended it to be: Storm Chair by Stephen Richards. The title gives the object more of a story rather than just viewing the object as an abstract sculpture. It more or less helps us imagine what has happened to this chair. The title substitutes as a story: Storm indicates destruction, another moment of time that is stopped in the gallery is the destruction of this chair. You can imagine a hurricane causing the chair to exploded into pieces, yet the explosion has been suspended in time.
6. The Made By Bees piece by Libertiny especially caught my eye. it stirs my imagination because it feels to me like a piece of the artist's imagination. I like the idea of not having control over something to a certain extent. Libertiny had control over the metal structure but could not direct the bees on how to form the structure. I reminds us of the beauty of nature. How complex it is and how inferior we are, even though we feel as though we are the superior species. It seems like such a simple procedure, the making of this vase, yet it is incredible that it was accomplished. Art does not have to be grandiose or made of expensive materials. It is all about an idea.
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The Made By Bees piece by 