Saatchi: Virgile Ittah

When I visited the Saatchi I was as always expecting to be inspired and love everything I came across as I have never been disappointed by any exhibition that has been on. When I went there was the 'Pangaea: New Art from Africa and Latin America' which was a great exhibition packed with graphic army paintings, boulders, and huge insects. 

What attracted me the most were the human wax sculptures upstairs which seemed perfectly formed from the head but seemed to deteriorate towards the bottom half of the body which inspired me so much for this project. 

The thought of 'deterioration' as a word and theme seems to work perfectly with what I am working towards or can become something more exciting and interesting. Looking at this sculpture alone springs millions of ideas to mind of how I can progress the theme of my project like the deterioration of the body alone can suggest the downfall of fame from good to bad. Therefore I might look in to decay and work out a way to involve it into this project which is an exciting new route for me.

Saatchi: Virgile Ittah - Dreams are guilty, absolute and silent by fire [own photography]

Fame and Misery

From the research I have done so far I have started to narrow down the themes to make it easier for me to concentrate on my project. Till now I had been looking at 'The Valley of the Dolls' which I enjoyed looking into through the book and movie then finding strong bonds through the Richard Hamilton exhibition which helped me move on to the next part of my project.

Fame and misery seems like a great place to carry on from as it was a main point within 'Valley of the Dolls'; seeing the rise and fall of these women through their similar journeys through fame and their downfall nearing the end. Which is why I want to move on and focus on fame and misery because I can literally find meaning and reason from so many places to expand my research from diamonds to coal I can run off anywhere with this new sub header which I look forward to expanding on.  

Own concept board

Highs and Lows

Keeping with the fame and misery I experimented with luxury leathers to sample with and create the contrast of both sides of the scale which dauntingly follows the main characters Neely, Anne, and Jennifer in Valley of the Dolls. 

Whilst at my work experience placement I managed to grab a few leather scraps which were being thrown away that I thought would work well with my concept of fame, luxury, popularity to misery, lows, torment. With those scraps I wanted to show the clear distinction between them by either glamming them up or ruining them. I done this by adding gems and jewels to the some and burning and tearing the other samples to suggest the difference in an obvious matter. 

Own sample photography

Own sample photography

Own sample photography

Own sample photography

I quite enjoyed putting the gems together and playing round with them since I've never worked with anything as feminine and sparkly which is why I mostly wanted to go down that route and slightly mix and explore a new aesthetic in this project. 

After sampling with the gems I begun using the gems to glam up and sharpen other pieces to kind of create a different feel on something that had a more sad appearance. 

  

Adding these gems almost brighten up and glamorise these miserable portraits which were originally album covers but couldn't find which band. Nevertheless I love the idea of playing about with creating different emotional connections and almost up-scaling images or fabrics to have a new appearance. 

Facing it

After visiting the Richard Hamilton exhibition at the Tate I was inspired to create portrait collages influenced by some of his work. I chose to do this as it linked well with the idea of looking into the lifestyles and 'many faces through fame' concept I had just looked into.

I knew I wanted to keep the collages glitzy but odd all at once because I want to separate the ups and downs of fame in most of what I will create. The glitter card is what helped keep the fame element in both collages because of the sparkle and glamorous connotations which come with glitter. I used images of the 'dolls' from the movies, cutting up their features to include into my collage such as the hair and eyes which I feel keeps the 60's vibe alive in both pieces.

The left collage is the one I feel more closer to the highs of fame with the diamond/jewelled mask and alluring eyes which represents fame in a more glossy way. Whereas the one on the right suggests a more depressing route with the drink being poured into the mouth with is a image I feel highly effective to the contrast I am trying to show. 

Using these collages I also created some prints for me to sample and play around with. Layering the images is almost a automatic route I go down whenever creating prints because I like mixing the scales and changing up the colours to create an interesting outcome. However because I feel my prints are almost repetitive and similar I have decided to maybe try a different technique for this project, or maybe only use print in a subtle way. 

Own collage photography

Own photoshop print screen shots

Own photoshop print screen shots

Own photoshop print screen shots

Richard Hamilton

To help me expand on ideas I visited the amazing Richard Hamilton exhibition at the Tate modern which was so packed with different installations, collages, paintings that we left the gallery buzzing from everything we had seen. 

The installation I enjoyed the most and spent the most time at was the weird hallucinogenic bright box room with spinning wheels and optical illusion like painted walls and soft floors which was a crazy piece that really helped me with maybe slightly gaining an insight of how it felt to be buzzed up like how the lady's in the book would be; but maybe not enjoying it as much as I did. 

The next few rooms weren't as enjoyable but nevertheless inspired me to grab a few ideas to try out myself as Hamiltion's art pieces seemed to be created from the 50's/60's onwards there were many pieces I could relate to my project. Such as collages and photography ideas and effects which really got me involved with thinking of how to present my work in more colourful and interesting ways.

 1. Illusion Box Room ( http://www.fadwebsite.com/2014/03/03/review-richard-hamilton-ica-tate-modern/ )

2. 'How Richard Hamilton went pop' ( http://wineandbowties.com/art/how-richard-hamilton-went-pop/ )

   3. Urbane Images ( http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/talks-and-lectures/urbane-images-richard-hamiltons-impact-today )

Fame. Comfort. Weak. Glamour.

Just a quick update of how I have started my project with this moodboard which I feel sums up 'The Valley of the Dolls' with a bit of everything temptation, New York, television, breakdowns and Hollywood; all connected in a strange manner. I have also added on the side the words which best describe everything about the book and these words will hopefully help me move on into different trails. 

One thing about this board that I have only noticed now is that it is very heavily based on the downside of their careers and not the glitz and the glamour which is also a very big part. Which is why I may need to change it up a bit and maybe add a balance of fame and downfall looking into maybe florals which I hate because its super cliche but I feel it can work if I look at it in a different light.

Own concept board

Doll Bent Introduction

When we were given the details of being able to decide for ourselves on what our final major project is to consist of; it excited me. Having the freedom to pick and choose your own subject lets you keep everything raw and fresh which is why I couldn't wait to start and pretty much begun researching for a theme as soon as I could.

I have chosen a book 'The Valley of the Dolls' as a base start of my project to help me grab and extend on ideas from this amazing book as there are so many interesting points I want to focus on. The author Jacqueline Susann focuses on three women who are on a rocky path to fame of which they all struggle with love, sleeping pills and alcohol as they rise and fall from fame in similar ways but all with different endings. From what I have researched so far I know I want to look at their struggle with drugs and alcohol as a start and hopefully it will blossom from there. 

I have also watched the 1960's movie on the book which I didn't feel captured the book well enough with the plot however the staging, costumes and lighting was enough for me to feed off of and get a certain feel of the time and era to help me with photoshoot and design ideas which is great. The glamour that the movie has perfectly invisioned from the book is something I want to focus on because it is something I haven't particularly been interested in before but being so involved with something I have enjoyed makes it a more fresh and enhanced experience for me to look into the glitz and the glamour. Especially with my favourite scene of Neely's mid fame stage of imitating the people around her 'sparkle neely sparkle'; it's the perfect quote for what I am to create with the mix of her mental breakdown and that great quote. 

However at the moment because I am so involved and excited about the book I am worried that I will stick to the same ideas and will find it difficult to move past the obvious points I want to work with. So keeping that in mind I'm also trying to figure out how to move on from the book but I'm sure it'll come alive soon enough. after I've finished the basic research on the book.

"Sparkle Neely Sparkle" (GIF)  http://www.tumblr.com/search/valley+of+the+dolls

Kovanlik Coding

This final two week project set on cultures was probably one of the more difficult projects for me. For me having to look into two different forms of cultures was difficult; as I had trouble trying to find cultures so different to one and other and then having to explore them again separately trying not to get the two involved. I chose to focus on computing culture vs village lifestyle; both important to me but equally hard to explore. Because of this I was constantly hitting a creative block and not being able to pass it made it more so stressful for me. 

Looking into computing for me was something I was excited and interested in as the possibilities are endless with coding, scans, typing, bar codes, wires, all sorts of genius creations. I initially really enjoyed the coding side to computing because of the same difference from the beginning of the computer age to now, as the coding and script always look a distinctive way; jumbled but important. 

Whereas looking into my mums village Kovanlik is more simplistic and organic compared to computing. Everything is done naturally, mountains, fields, farms, animals, much needed space and free energy. Unlike the slightly claustrophobic feel computing may give.

With these two cultures in mind I decided to go ahead on creating pages to do with both computing and my village. I wanted a variation of movement and stillness, hand gestures whilst typing but also whilst making bread, two different interesting methods. The feeling of coding against the simplicity of land; all these contrasts were made to help me create some prints. 

Throughout this process I did struggle with moving on from an idea as I felt I was more interested in coding which was hard to shake off, because finding primary sources for village lifestyle was limited and only made it harder for myself. However when it came to finally designing I feel I managed to pull the project together slightly by using the prints to create design collages which have a variation of sharp but round silhouettes to encounter for both computing and village cultures which I believe worked for the concept.

(Final collection images to be updated)

Fencing for sportswear

This sportswear project felt like a great opportunity to involve bold prints and wild colours which was something I hadn't done yet. I decided to look at the old historical side of fencing to incorporate with sportswear as I liked the quilting and padding involved with the old school fencing gear which would be a great aspect to include in future designs. 

For research I visited Selfridge's and found some amazing sportswear in the mens section with an overload of shiny fabrics, quilting and prints which inspired me instantly. Also because we were told to include a London landmark of which I chose the Lions in Trafalgar Square, I decided to do some observational drawings so I headed down and got some great colourful sketches in different styles and angles which I thought would be useful for creating some prints. 

With the lion sketches I done I used a kaleidoscope photo app to create prints which I thought were successful in that they had a striking effect in creating a bold prints. With these different takes of the lion kaleidoscope images I took to Photoshop to play with colour and repeating the patterns. To me sportswear has the potential to always be fun and colourful which is why I wanted to involve bright yellows and purples in the prints to make them stand out.

To incorporate fencing with the prints I created some designs heavily influenced by the shapes and padding originally found with fencing gear. With the designs I created  I had fun mixing and matching prints to do with the garments as I scanned the designs into Photoshop to filter in the prints to create the full final designs. 

I find my final collection successful as the designs and prints look consistent and I love that the colours are random but bold, even though there's no exact colour theme throughout I like the looseness of the collection and still feel it works as a whole. 

Deconstruct that knit

When we were first presented with this idea of using and recycling old garments to create a whole new piece it scared me a little; jumping into a project which seemed so odd to me. At first I did struggle a little with my concept, but once I had enough research my confidence grew a tad bit more. I decided to look at ruins and poverty which can be slightly obvious but it worked for me, and once I got into the flow I begun to really love this project.

The first thing we were to do was bring in a bunch of unwanted clothing to morph and manipulate on the stand. At first I wanted to work with denim, something out of my comfort zone but when I couldn't get hold of any I naturally gravitated towards knit. With my knits I created as many shapes on the form as possible to help me with the design process after. 

As well as using the stand for design development I also created some garment ideas through collaging. This was done by cutting bits from magazines as well as using photocopies of the knits I brought in to create two sets of collages which I thoroughly enjoyed doing and found them successful as they helped hugely with the design process of my final piece.

Using my knits I created some samples building up textures using acrylic paint, stitching, and torn photographs of buildings. With the samples I tried to create landscapes with the paint as well as with the stitching; I tried to keep a mix of clear landscapes and ruined stitches in the samples. Creating these samples make the project work better as a textile and fashion mix because I tried to explore both aspects. 

Creating my final piece came quite naturally as my ideas all lead up to creating a shredded cape like piece as I cut up the different coloured knits into squares and rectangles to which I then stitched together. Keeping in mind the samples I created before I tried to add paint onto the top half of my garment but it didn't look as great as I had imagined therefore at the photo shoot I decided on capturing the garment inside out because the paint nearly ruined the piece, plus i preferred how it looked inside out because looked more rough which suited my theme perfectly.

The photo shoot was one of my favourite parts because I loved the scenery so much that it almost just pulled the whole project together and it finally made sense. I done this shoot in my aunts back garden as the previous tenants left it extremely messy like a dump with mattresses and burnt trolleys about, it was a perfect opportunity and a great experience. 

All in all I would say that this project was maybe my favourite out of all the projects because I enjoyed all the different aspects of the projects from researching, working on the stand, sampling, designing, making the garment, photography and video. All of it was a great challenge for especially because I didn't like the concept of this project in the beginning, but I massively enjoyed the whole project and wouldn't change anything I done as I feel everything worked out great for my concept.