As you enter room 11 in the Transformed Vision floor at the Tate Modern you are instantly towered over by these large canvases lashed and scratched with paint which injects you with a weird dose of fulfillment.
Fig 1 - Gerhard Richter - Tate Modern - 26/09/13 (Own photography)
The placement/curation of these large art works may have been why I was overwhelmed by the art; even though the art speaks for itself as the harsh squeegee paint lines are what overpowers the artists emotions through his piece. There was 6 pieces overall covering each wall with his work which is why I felt so strong by it because of the amount and largeness of the work in general which gives you more to enjoy.
Capturing the feeling and state of mind of Richter at the time was quite difficult but it didn't take me too long to make out some understanding. What I got from the piece was a sense of impatience as the thick lines seemed to strike with irritence. However it seems that these paint lashings were influenced by music which best describes Rcihters constant harshness of paint against blank parts of the canvas as he has been interested in "sound and silence" which is shown within his work. This is a great collection to simply enjoy for the sake of art as it suggests a lot of movement and thought behind each canvas and can inspire almost anyone from any age which is the effect every artist wants to have on their audience and I definitely believe that Gerhard Richter's work radiates this positiveness to inspire.
Fig 2 - Gerhard Richter - Tate Modern - 26/09/13 (Own photography)
Fig 3 - Gerhard Richter - Tate Modern - 26/09/13 (Own photography)
Bibliography
"sound and silence" - Tate Modern description board- Curated by Mark Godfrey- 26/09/13
The idea of styling always seemed quite normal to me when it comes to my own personal style as it does for everyone. However when we were told to style another person using our own props it wasn't so easy as I thought it'd be and I found this out through the styling exorcise that I really wasn't so comfortable with, however I think it can be something that I can progress on.
This week was quite hectic in that the tasks set were all quite big from portrait polaroids to trend reports to photo-shoots. The trend report was a scary one as we had to photograph current trends in stores and since myself and Nina nominated ourselves for the high-end stores and we were instantly nervous about whether we'd be allowed to photograph especially in Selfridges. But oddly enough I had no stares, no one even said a word, therefore I just simply waved my phone about snapping up any print and garment which looked right for the trend report; so by the end of it we were quite pleased with our findings and our ability to not get rumbled by the staff at Selfridge's. Looking through the high end collections we found that boyish androgynous shapes were key throughout with boxy fits and round shoulders dominating the displays. However feminin prints were also at bay with digital printing being presented at its best with Katranzou's wild collection and Erdem's yellow floral prints all over the rails were quite uplifting on the rainy day. When we regrouped the next day to gather eachothers trends we found quite a great collection of opposites and similarities within high-street and high-end. in that prints were infectious and that bold geometric designs were cohesive with boxy shapes to match. After a lot of research and printing credit lost we finished up with 4 trend boards which all linked one way or another Geometrics, Floral Digital Prints, Metallic Iridescence, and Texture. By the end of this task I found I learnt how to edit down a lot by scrapping some trends, and how to cooperate in a group whilst completing a challenge such as this however I feel we functioned pretty well together which was great. Also being part of such a diverse group with many different ideas I felt our boards were very different and slightly more original compared to the other groups, but everyone presented in their own style which was amazing to see and great to feed off of.
My photo-shoot was a whole other bundle of craziness. My main theme was based off of my love for Matilda and the particular scene of when Matilda and Ms Honey hid in Ms Trunchball's garden, and I just loved to fear and secretive and innocence to that scene which is why I wanted to use it as an initial theme in my photo-shoot. Using my mini mood boards I decided on a hyper-reality based scenery which reflected on the innocence of the model through the props of bubbles and gum. It was amazing going through this whole process from a small influence, to mood-boards to the actual shoot and I really enjoyed organizing and creating such a fun piece. One of the mild difficulties I had was painting the leaves in my garden as it was pouring with London's sadness of rain once again therefore by the end of the shoot my garden was dripping with pink and purple, however it was totally worth it as the photos were a great turnout and for the sake of fashion it wasn't really a huge bother. After editing the photos and enhancing colours and making it seem very 'alice in wonderland' everything just came together and made sense; especially with the video of the whole process which I believe makes the experience more enjoyable especially since I loved editing the video and making it seem urban in the way it's presented which I'm quite proud of.
This whole week has been a very fast tiresome blur and I probably wouldn't have been able to recall this all without my sketchbook but overall it was a very messy and crazy week but with wonderful outcomes which is always rewarding. Bring on Design Development Week! I also filmed the process of the shoot which I'm so glad I did as it shows each step and everything I went through to get the final shots and feel it is a successful addition to my project and a different side to fashion. I really did enjoy the editing process of the video also because I quite enjoy trying out new things and ever since creating this video it has made me eager to video more of my work which I hope to do.
"Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous."
The process of accessories week was quite a fun journey of exploration, creating a piece inspired by our special object that we were told to bring in. I chose my dream catcher which was gifted to me by sister so I thought it would be a fun personal object to work with.
From our single object we were told to draw, photocopy and create a mini sculpture which all worked towards our final accessory which we made at the end of the week. For the mini prototype sculpture I used the lines within the sketches to create a 3D card cube of lines and shapes which was a great start as I played about with the placement and appearance of it by placing it on the stand in different places which sited best. Even though I didn't quite want to use card for the mini prototype and would've preferred wire, I felt it was still a very successful piece which allowed me to challenge my comfort zone as I made something pretty substantial and I probably wouldn't have the final outcome without it which I am pleased with. I also played with layers as I used Photoshop to explore the idea of negative spaces and to possibly influence a greater idea of which I believe it did. From these we created our final accessory of which I decided to create an extra large pendant for a necklace out of wire which has many lines in between. To have a connection with my mood-board I tried to make it in the physicality of a heart and the largeness of it was because of the link to heart failure which usually means having a larger heart than normal, which I thought would be an interesting creation and to hold a true connection throughout my project.
From my the collection of work I created this week my favourite has to be the layered Photoshop images as I feel they look professional and were a huge part of helping me move on to deciding on the shapes and make my sketchbook look a lot more varied in terms of mediums. I also feel my accessory collages were quite a fun task to complete as I enjoyed creating different accessories but I did find it difficult to come up with an almost unique idea each time as I felt I was quite limited with creativity at the time as I only had 3 collages by the end of it, however they were the best I could do and I'm pleased at how my final pendant turned out from the collage. Actually making the large pendant came quite easy to me as I felt using wire was an easy medium to get used to even though I've never used it before and as I kept going the more natural it became and the more I added the more it progressed and I'm extremely happy about the overall piece.
I feel like sometimes once I am caught in what I'm doing I work too fast and maybe rush my work therefore I feel I'm not allowing myself enough time to come up with more designs but I do think I can work on that by pacing myself slightly, however despite that I can have some strong ideas at times. This week I have explored different mediums with card to wire to create similar objects which feed off each others appearances with the clear connection; working with wire really got me interested in maybe using it in the future for a design since I believe it worked well for me. I really did have a good time experiencing a different sector of the fashion world and feel that creating an accessory will help me be more creative and slightly more imaginative when it comes to designing and styling in particular.
This isn't the first time I've done identity, but it's the first time I've actually enjoyed the given tasks; mainly because I feel I have gone for a more personal subjects over an obvious theme. The week stormed by like a flash; as it would once you are given tasks which come manageable to you as I had felt with the tasks such as mind-mapping 'Who Am I?' and creating a mood board from photocopied images which were linked to my identity mind map. My main chosen words were Obscure, Restrictive, Intrusive, Genetics; which linked strongly to my family life, culture, and current situations such as visiting cardiologists for genetic testing which lead me to look at barbed wire, heart scans, handcuffs and funky architecture. I feel that through the tasks I have been challenged to not be so straight forward with results such as not picking the first idea written on my mind map and instead look way further out to the more abstract words on the edges of my mind map. I have also had to change my way of completing sketchbook work as I am to be more visual and creatively free as to being overly analytical which will be a refreshing change but maybe slightly hard to let go of. However I am hoping these new challenges and way of presenting my work will help me be more independent with my own choices and not rely completely on the ruler way that I have been taught in the past, which will be another identity challenge in itself 'the new ways of sketchbook and creative independence'.
Already, with my current collection of work, I feel I have matured creatively as I am more open to ideas which are more unconventional and not so fashion based as my mood board is very dark and moody based on my varied images of wire and handcuffs but I also love the simplicity of it as its not too packed with ideas and images; which is also something new I have learnt to adapt to, editing down. I really enjoyed creating my mood board as I felt it came natural to me, from finding images in the library to placing them into the layout; it was an overall lively task.
I have definitely spent more time doing homework/sketchbook work over watching movies on my laptop which already shows my high dose of motivation at this point which I hope will keep me on a high till the end of the academic year. I feel that because every week we are set to do very different tasks it motivates me to catch up my sketchbook and to not be left behind; therefore I have like usual dedicated my spare time to creativity and feel my planning and time management is at the stage I want it to be at at this current moment of time.
