Unit X - Superstitions

Zero Waste Lecture

I attended the Tuesday 16th April lecture, 'Zero Waste' which focused on the idea of no waste fabric when cutting patterns for garments, using as much fabric as possible, or using the 

waste fabric to create pockets and embellishments. I have never really done any pattern 

cutting before so at certain points in the lecture I started to become lost and confused as I didn't know what she was discussing, however pattern cutting is something I would be interested in doing in the future. 

The lecture focused on fashion designers that are bring 'Zero Waste' fashion into the limelight. I found the idea of 'Zero Fashion' very interesting as it is something I have never thought about before. I never realised how much fabric is wasted when cutting garments. 

What I liked most about the 'Zero Waste' pattern cutting was the idea that you had no control over the garment, that it controlled you. It made you think about the designs, whether they would fit perfectly or you'd have to tweek something in order to make it fit into the pattern. This is something I quite liked about the idea.

If I had more time in "Unit X' I would like to take this idea further to run alongside of my brief, creating garments with the idea of no waste in mind. 

Unit X - Superstitions

Research

During my last brief, I felt, which was agreed in my feedback, that I did not do enough research apart from basic research that I found on the internet. 

In this brief, I really want to push that idea and spend more time looking into what I wanted to focus on. For example, I have started to watch a lot of documentaries on David Bowie, from his 'Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture' to the critically acclaimed 'David Bowie; Cracked Actor' I found that watching things, rather than researching them on the internet was not only easier but I found that I learnt a lot more from the documentaries and I know that I can trust the information. Due to the recent comeback of Bowie, there has been a lot of information available about him, such as podcasts and radio interviews. Another part of my research was to look through books for photographs and interviews, buying such books as 'David Bowie Is; The Exhibition Guide' to 'Glam Rock; An Eyewitness Account' and even magazines such as "NME; The David Bowie Special." I am finding this way of researching really fun and interesting, going out looking for information rather than just typing it into google and hoping what comes up is useful. 

Unit X - Superstitions

Drawings + Fashion

 I've been focusing a lot on the fashion of the 70s, mainly on the change that David Bowie brought to the fashion world, introducing Japanese fashion to the British public. I have created some drawings focusing on Bowies fashion, but also looking at other fashion icons at the time, for example Debbie Harry, Elton John and Freddie Mercury. 

I have never really done any fashion drawings before and I found it very difficult at first, trying to make the fabric look right, for example leather. After I did my first one, I found that I really started to enjoy it and get into a routine of doing these drawings. I used felt-tip pens to add colour, however not colouring in fully as I thought that the full colour would be too overpowering on the figures, taking attention away from the flamboyant costumes. 

I took the clothes from the 'David Bowie Is' exhibition guide, as I found google images untrustworthy. I decided to draw the clothing on women's figures as, when reading up about Bowie's costume designers, they said that they use a woman's figure on their drawings as Bowie has a very slender figure like a woman. 

Unit X - Superstitions

Progression

After visiting lots of exhibitions during the start of 'Unit X' I have come to realise that there is a connection within everything that I haven't noticed before until I started posting on my blog and seeing all the work as a whole, rather than a sketchbook, blogs and exhibitions.

Having been researching about Paul McCartney and The Beatles and the conspiracy surround the idea that Paul McCartney died and was replaced by a look-a-like. I never researched about the time and culture surrounding The Beatles, only briefly looking to their fans and 'Beatle-Mania'. I never looked into what else was happening at the time, from, news stories, fashion and other artists and musicians that contributed to the culture. Looking though my research sketchbook, I realised that the 'Glam Rock', the 'David Bowie is' and  'Roy Lichtenstein' exhibitions all tie in with the research that I have already been doing. 

The connection being the era that they all were culturally relevant, the late 60's and throughout the 70s. Each artist contributed to the culture at the time. For example, Lichtenstein was creating art work, never before seen, Bowie for creating a new way of joining art, fashion and music into one thing, showing that men and women do not have to dress different, each gender being able to share clothes and experiment. 

This idea is something I am going to take and run with, collecting different bits of research. From family photographs, to fashion, music and artwork. This is something I think I could expand on and really make the most of my project.

Unit X - Superstitions

Research + Exhibitions - David Bowie Is

The Victoria and Albert Museum is currently showing an exhibition on the life, times and works of David Bowie. This exhibition is something i've been following during its set up and have been desperate to see. I managed to get tickets and went to see the exhibition (Wednesday 3rd April 2013)

Before seeing this exhibition, I wasn't a huge of a Bowie, music wise, as it was a bit before my time. However, I have always been interested in his style and personas, with celebs now taking inspiration, from Lady Gaga to Kate Moss to Noel Fielding. This just shows how relevant Bowie was and still is now.

 The exhibition itself featured everything and anything you would want to see about Bowies life. Walking round, you started from Bowie as a child/teen then all the way through his Ziggy Stardust era. The V&A displayed costumes and outfits that Bowie wore on stage and during photo shoots, handwritten lyrics, paintings, photographs and videos of interviews with Bowie and his friends and even artwork that Bowie had created himself (something I never knew before looking around the exhibition). 

What I really loved about the exhibition is how much I actually learnt walking round, each piece of memorabilia had a story to tell you about why it was relevant and the back story behind it. Each costume had the designer and influences, some even having the sketches of ideas from Bowie and the designers. This was very interesting as you could see how Bowies mind worked and how much time he spent putting effort into his costumes and keeping up the different characters he took on. 

The room that was most fascinating was the main room, which featured three huge screens, the size of the room, each playing stage performances from different stages in Bowies career. Behind these screens were mannequins each in their own box, showing the different, most famous, costumes of Bowies, only being visible and certain times throughout the performance. As soon I entered the room, I was instantly stopped in my tracks. The sheer volume of the room and screens was one reason but what was most amazing was the amount of people in the room, all watching the same performance ('Life on Mars' live) and how each person was instantly connected to this man. There were people of all ages watching the performance, from the people who remember Bowie in his prime or people like me, who are just learning about Bowie and his unusual style. I have never had a feeling like that when entering an exhibition before.

Overall, the 'David Bowie Is' exhibition is one of the best exhibitions I have ever seen, not only for the fact there has never been one like this before, but for the sheer volume of information and different objects on display. The exhibition was so busy, that it took three hours to get round, this just goes to shows how much of an influence Bowie still has. 

Unit X - Susperstitions

Research + Exhibitions - Roy Lichtenstein

This is an exhibitions I have been waiting to see for a long time. I have seen a few painting of Lichtenstein's but never as many as a full exhibition. I have been a huge fan of Lichtenstein since my GCSE'S. Lichtenstein's work was the first i was introduced to when learning how to drawn and about the different types of art. I have always been fascinatedby his style of work, about how it looks so graphic and animated but instead, it's a perfectly drawn out painting.

When looking through Lichtenstein's work, some had no glass case so you could view them up close, I was actually surprised to see how messy some of his work is, having always thought they were perfectly finished off. However when looking close, you could see the original pencil marks left underneath the paint, the dots smudged where his hand caught them and the paint drag lines on the canvas. This is something you would only see close up. As well as the untidiness, I noticed how bright the colours were. The paint was so smooth and even on the canvas which made the colour just pop. Throughout the pop art movement, Lichtenstein started using a stencil to create the dots, drilling into pieces of metal then using it as a stencil, instead of painstakingly painting each dot. You can see on the paintings, where he has dotted the whole canvas, then panting the picture over the top. 

  

What I found most unusual and quite unnerving, was the nudes that Licht
enstein created before his death in 1997. Lichtenstein did not use live model when creating this, but instead he used old comic book drawings of women and imagined them naked and worked from that. I found this a very weird method of working and I don't think it worked very well. His models looked very rigid and scary, there faces had no emotion or no movement in their bodies. They looked wooden and lifeless. 

The exhibition was set out in the different stages of Lichtenstein's life, starting from his famous pop art, to his then nudes. The exhibition was almost like walking through his art-life, seeing how his technique changed and the topics and influences changed. The paintings changed from bright, powerful, large pop art canvases to small tranquil landscape paintings.  

Unit X - Superstitions

Research + Exhibitions - Kurt Schwitters

During the time I spent in London, I decided to try and see as many different exhibitions as possible. The first one I when to see was 'Kurt Schwitters In Britain' at the Tate Britain. I was quite excited to see this exhibition as, during my A-Levels, I focused a lot on Schwitters method of working. 

  What I found interesting about the way the exhibition was set out was the contrast between all the different types of work Schwitters created. The works changed from his well known collages of scrap paper to very intricate paint portraits of his friends.  Schwitters mainly focused on his past in his work, escaping from numerous concentration camps in Nazi Germany. This is something that is very evident in his work, from the German text, to the ration books that were distributed throughout the war. In later life when Schwitters moved to the country, he was sent different types of materials from his friends, from old letters to stamps, which he then incorporated into his work. 

Overall, I found this exhibition quite exciting, as some of the work on display, I had never seen before as well as very fascinating stories about Schwitters life displayed all around the gallery.