Week 3

This week was digital printing and we were asked to create three patterns that embodied who we are. Our starting point for inspiration was answering basic questions about our family history. Who am i? , what is my ethnic background? , what did my grandparents do?. I was brought up in a British household but the Nigerian values and expectations were always very heavily imposed. I my country and try to embrace it when i can and i thought this would be the perfect opportunity. Nigerian (African) textiles is rich, colourful and heavily detailed and correlates very well digital printing.

Having never used photoshop before I was dreading the first encounter. I head that it was very difficult and tricky to use and takes a long time to master. Surprisingly I found the tasks through out the week to be easier than expected and way more enjoyable. I found that I could simulate what I saw on African textiles in my house and what the teacher did to create my own modern take on basic African prints. When creating my repeats at home I was unable to mask the seams if my patterns. This was a problem that shared by my classmates and with more time and practice I will be able to create seamless patterns.

Rendering my patterns onto clothes was also easy for me, the challenge arose when I could see thin white lines around the different cut shapes. They may have been unnoticeable to some people but to me they were ruining the effect. Prime example of where my ability and my exceptions clash. I want to create seamless and professional illustrations but my ability is stunted.

The tutor for the week said that my work was okay and the colour scheme worked well together but to improve I could have varied the scale of the different prints to create more interesting garments. I thought that the outcome was successful as I was able to create three designs and render them onto garments and mount them ready to discuss my thought process.

Poetry and Dream Exhibition at the Tate Modern Museum

Upon entering the Poetry and Dream exhibition at the Tate Modern, Bankside, I was instantly overwhelmed with a large room packed with works and big crowds. My eyes were drawn everywhere all at once trying to take in the fantasy and dream seeping through each piece. They all deal with surrealism in different ways whether that is through sculpture or painting. The exhibition featured an array of practitioners both contemporary and succeeded from Jannis Kounellis, a Greek artist and Alberto Giacometti, a Swiss artist best known for his sculptures. The paintings are placed in the in the middle section of the room, around eye level, all the way round so there’s need to strain your neck looking.

The overall purpose of the exhibition was to the showcase the different way artists had dealt with the same subject, surrealism, throughout the years. Even though the subject matter has stayed the same, the outcomes have all been different and the thought behind each has been different as obviously no two people are the same.

My two favourite two pieces from the exhibition were Germaine Richier’s Water, 1953-4 and Man Ray’s Cadeau, 1921. Although both dealt with the same subject matter and are both sculptures they evoke differing emotions and thoughts.

Water depicts a female figure sitting down with her hands by her side. We conclude through the information available that the head of the women is a Roman or Greek terracotta amphora found on a beach (No Author, 2007, www.tate.org.uk,). Richier incorporating found objects in her work was a common occurrence as she lived in the countryside (No Author, 2007, www.tate.org.uk). Water looks as if it had been distressed and manipulated whilst drying resulting in a rough and prickly surface that resembles a rocky mountain. These textures arouse curiosity like what was Richier trying to convey about the women through the textures. There was only one more piece of important information available in terms of context and history. It is metaphorical or symbolic of both a female and water being sources of life (No Author, 2007, www.tate.org.uk,). But the fact that it is located in the Poetry and Dreams room we can only assume that it represents something bigger that a women sitting. It demonstrates her thought process and how she highly viewed women.

Man Ray’s Cadeau features an iron and fourteen gold coloured nails as part of a twentieth century art movement joining juxtaposing everyday objects. In turn rendering them useless in their original forms and transforming them into art pieces. The nails glued to the most important part of the iron eradicate its primary function making it purely visual. The one on show at the Tate Modern is a replica made in 1972 (No Author, 2007, www.tate.org.uk,). I find that it does challenge the boundaries of art and everyday life. It is a controversial piece that is visual as well as cerebral if you don’t accept it at face value.

 Bibliography

Website

No Author (2007) Germaine Richier. [online] London, (publisher). Available at http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/richier-water-t00075 (accessed 17/09/13)

No Author (2007) Man Ray. [online] London, (publisher). Available at http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/man-ray-cadeau-t07883 (accessed 17/09/13)

Exhibition

Tate Modern, Poetry and Dream,  02.09.13

Week 2

The week starting September 9th we were asked to create a collection of 5 ensembles that included at least 1 Dress, 1 Top/ Blouse, 1 Jacket, 1 pair of Trousers and 1 Skirt. The garments must coordinate as a set outfit as well as look good when worn with other pieces from the collection and they must range from luxury pieces to high street. We were also asked to produced a concept board that featured these designs as well as the flats to go along the side. I anticipated that this would be a challenge as soon I was told because I am used to being told to design anything, There's no thought of who's going to wear the garment or what shops will sale the garment.

we started off drawing our rough roughs. we had a few minutes to draw as many jackets we can incorporating our chosen object, I chose a ring, then we had a few minutes to draw as many trousers as we can, then tops, skirts, sleeves, pockets etc. I surprisingly didn't do as well as I thought in this challenge. I am an ideas kind of person and this exercise was about generating ideas and getting them down on paper as fast as you can. I was very slow, I averaged out at about 6 per sub heading when others were doing in the 20's. Maybe the pressure of the time limits stunted the flow of my thoughts or maybe I don't work as well as I thought I did under pressure. However I had enough work for me to use to create developmental drawings of my favourite roughs. We had to choose out favourite then develop it, add to it or change it 6 times.

When creating the final 5 outfits I found that it was easy and an enjoyable experience unlike the rough roughs. I have concluded that despite my experience the rough roughs helped this process greatly so I will not be giving up on it just yet. Creating the flats and putting the concept board together proved to take longer than expected (in essence I failed the task as I didn't have a finished concept board). Over the year I have found that I am a very slow worker, it takes me longer to do things compared to another person. Think I need to give my self more time limits so that I get used to working under a time limit. E.g set my self 5 minutes to do one drawing then 2 minutes to do another. Or go to bed later!

Overall I like my end collection however there is always room for improvement. I need to improve my drawing of the flats. I need to now start incorporating colour. I was told by a teacher that I need to practice my free hand drawing of the body. I need to improve my time management.

Over the weekend I managed to go to fashion week. I arrived there and looked around, my initial thoughts were disappointment and boredom. I expected much more than I saw as it was my first time and I always hear such great things and see such great things from the pictures. No exciting outfits, no exciting looking people. I was talking to a photographer I literally walked into about why I was there and a lady over heard our conversion and gave me her ticket. So said 'the show starts in 20 mins and its a walk a;ways to let's go'. I was in shock and awe but obviously accepted her invitation. We saw the Zeynep Tosun show and went backstage and saw a sneak preview of the Ashley Isham show. I was set back by the craftsmanship and dressmaking. Everything looked so pristine and clean. That is what I aspire to produce.

(photos I took back stage at the Ashley Isham Show)

Week 1 (Day 1 revised)

Getting adjusted to the new work load/ standard of work expected was hard and still is hard. I am used to the heavy work load but getting used to new teachers is always difficult and my desire to impress adds new layers of stress and pressure. I feel that due to my abstract brain storm I had a clear vision of the task at hand however I struggled to find a precise starting point to draw fron. I had idea's and concepts but no clear starting point to get my ideas down on paper.

I am happy with the amount of work I got done considering I worked 26 hours during the course of the week alongside my schooling. working 15+ hours is far from ideal but I have commitments I have to honour. Regardless, I worked hard to finish my Brainstorm.

We did a concept board presentation exercise where we had a chance to view others people concept board and rearrange them as well as get our own boards looked at. I found this exercise to be interesting. Everyone has their own very different opinion about what is visually pleasing to them. personally I prefer clean cut squares and rectangles (cut to the same size preferably) with small gaps separating them. Ultimately the teacher is right as they know the formula to success, I need to learn to be open minded. I learnt that this experience is a journey, not everything I will create will be perfect but I have to try in order to make an informed decision for myself. 

Day 1

Task: 100 Drawings
We were asked to draw 100 Images from 11am-2.30pm. It was our first 'assignment' and an ice breaker session to speed up the process of getting to know each other and the surrounding. The aim was to record as much of the campus using a range of materials and varying the speed of each drawing. It was a successful task as it forced me to looked beyond what I usually see when I visit the O2. However, my actual drawing were horrific to say the least. My teacher informed the class that these drawing will be the worst drawings we will do on the course.