INITIAL SKETCHES/ IDEAS

So, after buying some new shoes I thought i'd sketch them

Still life with broad fineliner

 Vagabond shoe still life with charcoal.

Below are prints of the same shoe's sole using charcoal which I rubbed over the sole before pressing them onto the paper.

Really like the way these prints turned out. They represent the shoe but not in a traditional way. They show a  finer detail than the whole shoe, an intricate pattern. I could work into these further and experiment more...

INITIAL IDEA

This is my first initial design idea for my studio project. It's a photoshopped shop window style display involving previous artworks. Combining art, shopping and fashion. The image was originally a Dolce and Gabbana shop window display, changed to my own. 

BERLIN

A trip to Berlin was highly inspiring for my art. Berlin Wall and some shopping centers such as KaDeWe, The Q, Hackescher Markt were home to some amazing and unique art.

Above, Berlin Wall. Iconic artworks mainly political based. Below, Hackescher Markt.

 

Hackescher Markt above, home to some cool graffiti art collage styled walls, another nice shopping center and other cool shops. Also, some people in the square were making really huge cool bubbles so I managed to get this photograph, looks kind of sculptural!

The Q shopping centre - home to the below sculptural piece which looks as though it is made from crushed pieces of metal.

I really liked the shopping centre floor of The Q, it looks quite timeless/ expensive and could consider using this pattern and material when it comes to progressing my work next year. e.g. designing shop displays...

Above is KaDeWe, an AMAZING department store. It looked pristine. The bottom floors are Chanel, Prada, Lois Vuitton… with very inspiring shop displays, and the top floors are massive amazing food halls, definitely an entertaining place to see. I loved how the individual shops have been made to look like royal rooms complete with furnishings - enhancing the prestigious designer aura. This department store has sort of merged interior art with fashion and shopping.

I also visited some art galleries in Berlin - some were pretty boring showing the usual art, however I was intruiged by the art galleries showing innovative art that was new to me.

We passed a few art galleries, the images above were found in Art Center Berlin. I was quite intrigued by the metal gauze like sculptures molded into human form, by Gonzalo Medellin Herrera titled "Carmen's new chain" sculpture made ​​of aluminum wire 1.80 m high, 72 cm wide, 30 cm deep.

The transparency combined with 3D Form creates a fluidity which juxtaposes its material, a more contemporary style of art- which I find more inspiring. May be interested in using this material for future projects.

Carlier Gebauer (below) is a super small art gallery round the corner from Checkpoint Charlie, it’s pretty contemporary, and I found the metallic objects intriguing (of course). This is the Memory Palaces exhibition until 07.06.14, the below sculptures are Caroline Mesquita.

STUDIO 2A INITIAL PROPOSAL

The art world is a business and I want to delve into the consumeristic values associated with art and fashion. I am intrigued by the power materials can hold. I intend to investigate the social aspects behind what drives people’s desire to possess goods, and how power is formed and given to materials and clothing. What makes something aesthetically pleasing? What is ‘beauty’ in objects and why do we find ourselves attracted to it?

Jeff Koons has tapped into these values and used the power of seduction with his high shine sculptures to captivate audiences and earned the place of highest selling living artist by doing so. Designers are creating things with the idea of how they will look when they are photographed, adapting to this modern, fast sharing social network world. There is so much emphasis on how we are perceived in the modern world.

The contemporary shop window is used as a way to captivate a viewer, a potential customer. Fashion retailers present their ‘ideal’ image to their consumer through primarily through this method. It is an advertisement of a brand. There is so much space for creative opportunity in this window.

Looking at shop windows as art galleries, and garments as artworks, I want to create something innovative and contemporary. I want to turn ordinary objects into something ethereal and opulent. I intend to produce extravagant sculptural based creations that subvert the conventional. I will create an installation piece of a shop window display, with paintings as a backdrop and sculptural pieces in the foreground representing unwearable fashion pieces.

I am fascinated by Joel Morrison’s work – ‘Decline of Western Civilization’ 2011 in particular – which features a stainless steel cast of a denim jacket. The way this every day object has achieved a higher social/ aesthetical value simply by material used is what I want to explore further. I do not want to create things people would typically expect to see. Prada Marfa by Elmgreen and Dragset is quite illusionistic and unexpected given its location; it’s advertising something that isn’t really there (a high end shop). This idea of creating an illusion is something I wish to expand on during my studio practise. It relates back to what Sigmund Freud is talking about in ‘The Uncanny’ – through creating a slightly unsettling atmosphere for the viewer by misplacement of what is real. Using the more familiar set-up of a shop window to exhibit my sculptures will intrigue the viewer more when juxtaposed with the unusual setting of an exhibition. It works through advertising something that doesn’t really exist- like ‘unwearable garments’ which could be described as paradox art.

Through creating sculptures of extravagant, seductive garments which look like they could possibly be worn only feeds the human desire to want them more. A garments typical sole purpose is to be worn and therefore by subverting this creates a paradox and an interesting juxtaposition between the real and unreal. 

I will use magazines such as Vogue, Harpers Bazaar and W Magazine to get an idea of advertising and consumer values, and use internet sources as well as contemporary bloggers. I will also explore the medium of Film and Music videos such as Brooke Candy’s ‘Opulence’. Iconic people such as Lady Gaga are also relevant to my project. I will use the library to research and explore my subject further – particularly theorists such as Jean Baudrillard and John Armstrong.

The development of my work will be presented and evaluated through an on-going blog accompanied by a sketchbook.