Gareth Pugh

I have said that I want at least one of my designs to have an architectural aspect. I have researched the English fashion designer Gareth Pugh, whose style is also very architectural. He experiments with form and volume a lot. I have analysed a select few of my favourite designs.

The shoulder pads and skirt are very sculptural. These forms are similar to my designs when I experimented with folding paper. The shoulder pads make the model look strong and defiant. The sculptural style has a huge impact.

The neck ruff makes the outfit look very theatrical. I like the way he has experimented with form by significantly exaggerating the hips. This is similar to one of my initial designs where I expanded the hips and shoulders.

I love the sharp angles and pyramid shapes incorporated into this design. I also experiment with pyramid shapes with folded paper. I think they give a very strong and fierce visual impact.

The edges are softer in this design. I like how he has experimented with unconventional methods of creating shape and volume (air filled bags). I like how he alters the human form with clothes while still creating a very attractive silhouette.

The structures in this design look very rigid. It reminds me of my scaffolding design as it uses stiff materials rather than conventional materials to create a solid structure. I like the way lines have been used to create a new form. I like the unconventional structures that have been added to the body.

Gaudi

My final "cancer patient" design will incorporate a scaffolding like structure. I also experimented with creating structures using folding techniques. I want at least one of my final designs to have an architectural aspect to them. I have looked at the famous Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi for his unique and distinct architectural style which I hope will influence my work. I am also visiting Barcelona next week where I will be visiting the Sagrada Familia and the Casa Museu Gaudi, two of Gaudi's most famous structures.

Sagrada Familia:

Casa Batllo (another famous building designed by Gaudi):

Research Analysis:

The forms in Gaudi's work are very organic and fluid. He uses minimal sharp angles. Almost all edges are smooth and curved. His designs are very balanced and symmetrical. He also includes lots of intricate details. His structures look very ethereal and ornate. I have sketched a few of the shapes and forms from Gaudi's work in my sketch book.

Research Resources:

http://architect.architecture.sk/antonio-gaudi-architect/antonio-gaudi-architect.php 

Frida Kahlo

Outfit design one , one of the 3 runaway designs I have chosen to develop, shows a set of what are supposed to represent umbilical chords, extending from the abdomen. This is supposed to symbolise the subject being painfully bound to her neglectful or abusive mother. No matter how much the subject tries to escape, she is still her mother and impacts her life, even if it's painful.

I have chosen to look at the Mexican surrealist painter, Frida Kahlo, who also portrays themes of mother and child and emotional pain.

Below is Frida's painting Henry Ford Hospital. When Frida was a teenager, she was involved in a terrible bus accident which fractured her pelvis and back, leaving her in great physical pain for the rest of her life. Her uterus was also damaged in the accident which left her unable to bear children. Frida often portrayed the heartbreak of not being able to have children in her paintings. The painting below, in which she is the subject, followed her second miscarriage. She lies naked on a bed, her belly slightly swollen and blood coming from her reproductive organs. A single tear comes from her left eye, portraying her sadness. Frida has painted herself holding 6 red extended pieces of string to her abdomen, which resemble umbilical chords. This is extremely similar to my design. Tied to the ends of the umbilical chords are things that relate to the miscarriage. An unborn foetus is attached to one string from its belly button, where a real umbilical chord would extend from. The foetus symbolises the child Frida is unable to have. The snail symbolises the slow process and heartbreak of the miscarriage. The pinkish object in the top left hand corner is Frida's portrayal of "the insides of a woman". The orchid was a gift given to her by her then husband, Diego Rivera. The machine represents the mechanical process of a miscarriage. Lastly, the shattered pelvis is meant to be Frida's own, the reason she cannot bear children. This piece relates to my design because it is highly emotive, portrays a troubling experience. It too uses the connection between mother and child and the umbilical chord as a theme, although the relationship between mother and child is portrayed differently in my design and Frida Kahlo's painting. I could possibly take inspiration from Frida Kahlo and on the ends of each umbilical chord in my design I could have objects that relate to the theme of runaway.


Henry Ford Hospital


Below is Frida's painting The Two Fridas. It followed her divorce from Mexican painter Diego Rivera, who had many affairs during their marriage. The painting depicts two versions of Frida. On the right, the Frida that was loved by and married to Diego, and on the left, the broken hearted Frida whom Diego abandoned. The Frida on the left wears traditional Mexican dress and holds a locket holding Diego's portrait from when he was a child, while the Frida on the left is dressed in a more European style. Kahlo wrote in her diary that the idea came from an imaginary friend she had as a child and the painting reflects the emotional distress of her marriage and divorce. Both Friedas' hearts are exposed. Frida Kahlo often included exposed internal body part in her paintings to express emotional pain. The heart on the right is whole, symbolising when she was in love with Diego. The heart on the left has been ripped open, symbolising her heart break. The clouds in the background look wild and unruly, symbolising the emotional turmoil of the whole experience. The two Frida's hold hands, showing that the artist is her only companion in these unfortunate circumstances. A single vein links the hearts together and is eventually cut off by the Frida on the left who is then unable to control the bleeding. This could express a desire to harm herself after the divorce. The way the hearts are exposed makes the piece very emotive. If I put a heart on the outside of my outfit, I think it would express a lot more emotion, and I am aiming for a highly emotive piece. I designed a few outfits for the cancer patient theme with exposed internal body part, hinting at the physical damage of cancer. If I incorporated these elements into my final design, I think the design would be more emotive and even more relevant to the theme. Blood is also very emotive and shocking too. The scenery also depicts Frida Kahlo's feelings. Once I have designed the final look I could start thinking about how the background could help express the theme and mood. The Frida on the right holds a portrait of Diego. I previously had the idea for the cancer patient photo shoot to fill the background with photos of friends and family because I want the support aspect of experiencing cancer to be strongly expressed in the photo shoot for a more optimistic outlook on the illness.


The Two Fridas

Research Resources:

http://arthistory.about.com/od/from_exhibitions/ig/frida_kahlo/Frida-Kahlo-Henry-Ford-Hospital-1932.htm
http://littleblackbookofart.com/2010/04/24/most-comprehensive-show-of-frida-kahlos-work-ever-staged-opens-in-berlin/
http://www.artinternationalwholesale.com/Frida-Kahlo-reproduction-oil-paintings.html
http://accordingtohind.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/frida-kahlo/
http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Frida_Kahlo_Philadelphia_Museum_Of_Art.html
http://www.fridakahlofans.com/c0090.html
http://www.fridakahlofans.com/c0290.htm

Style Research: Fashion Magazines

I found several fashion images that I liked in leading fashion magazines such as Love, Dazed and Confused, i-D and Vogue. These images relate to my work because I will be creating two looks for high fashion photo shoots to be printed in a fashion magazine for youths. I have annotated each image so I could possibly refer back to them take a few elements from these images and use them in my own work:

I love the bright block colour of the outfit. I also love the bright lighting used for the shot.

I like how this shot is slightly blurry. It makes the girl look myserious.

I like this makeup look and how the features are heavily defined.

I like the model's porcelain skin and how her features have been defined with red lips and a subtle smokey eye. This images has an innocent like quality to it.

I like the three images below and the contrast between the avant-garde/high fashion style of the costumes and and the run down surroundings. These images could relate to my runaway theme. The costume is to be in the style of high fashion and avant-garde. Locations shots like these would go well with the theme as they could relate to the run down abandoned places runaways often live in.

I love the series of shot below with the Joker theme. I like the quirky nature of the images. I think they relate to some of my runaway designs because the outfits look like they have been assembled using found items. I like how in some of the looks, the makeup has childish crayon-like scribbles included. This adds to the playful nature of the images. I like the pale skin coupled with pops of colour.

I love the ecclectic and colourfl style of this girl (above). I think it relates to some of my runaway designs in the way items look like they have been tossed together. I also think this ecclectic style also relates to my audience as it is very popular in fashion right now.

I like the blend of metallic colours on the eyes.

I like how the makeup is made up of stickers. This relates to my work as I am looking for unconcentional methods of creating a makeup look. I also like the blue lips.

I like the striking colour gradient around the eyes and the blue lips. I also quite like the grainy quality of the image. It makes the image intrigueing

I like the architecturak structure of this garment. I think it also looks quite sinister which I like.

I like the high tonal contrast in this image. I also think the headdress looks very interesting, I am interested in experimenting with hair/headgear.

I like the bold block colour swept across the eyes.

 

 I like the natural feel of these location shots (above).

I like the dark lighting and shadows.

 

 I like the foggy quality of the two images above. I think this style would suit my "cancer" photo shoot.

Orlan

I shall be researching the French artist Orlan to inform my project. She is another artist that is concerned with image, identity and transformation. As an artist, Orlan has worked in a range of different mediums including photography, video, sculpture, installations, mixed media, performance and even plastic surgery. For my research I shall just be focusing on her controversial work with plastic surgery. I feel this area is most relevant to my work as it raises challenging questions on transformation, identity and image.

In 1990 Orlan became the first and only artist to have explored plastic surgery as an artistic medium. From 1990 to 1995 she had 9 plastic surgery operations. Each operation altered a specific facial feature. She took elements from females portrayed in famous western art; she changed her mouth to resemble Francois Boucher's Europa, her chin to look like Botticelli's Venus, and her forehead to copy the protruding brow of Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, except she made this feature a lot more exaggerated with implants in her temples that look like horns.

She documented her operations in the form of disturbing photographs and videos. She turns her plastic surgery procedures into performances. Each "performance" is carefully choreographed. Famous designers such as Paco Rabanne and Issey Miyake have also designed costumed for Orlan to wear during the surgeries. Orlan reads poetry aloud during the procedures whilst music is played, fully conscious of the events taking place (only local anaesthetic is used). She uses all the waste from her operations to make new art. She has made blood drawings and has vials containing her flesh, fat and blood which have been displayed in exhibitions.

 In one of her performances she read out this extract from the book The Dress: "I have an angel's skin, but I am a jackal; a crocodile's skin, but I am a puppy; I have black skin, but I am white; a woman's skin, but I am a man. I never have the skin of what I really am. There is no exception to the rule, because I am never what I have". I interpret this as meaning what nature gave you physically does not truly reflect your soul" Orlan uses plastic surgery to create her “own inner portrait” on the outside.

Below is an interview with Orlan and a film of one of her plastic surgery performances:

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Research Analysis:

Women often use plastic surgery to be socially accepted. Orlan does not use plastic surgery to make herself more beautiful, but to challenge our narrow minded view of image and beauty. I am creating a fashion image. Increasingly in fashion today, the ideology of beauty is becoming more diverse, with different looks constantly being presented. In my styled photo shoot, I do not want to present a previously conceived ideology of beauty, but an image that is different to those regularly portrayed in the media. Orlan's work relates to mine as it is highly conceptual. Her work also relates to mine as it is very thematic; in one of her surgeries she is dressed as a Madonna figure, holding up a large black cross in one hand and a white cross in another. Her work is also a confrontation against nature; she does not settle for what nature gave her but explores and expresses the inner self through her exterior image. My work is very much the same in a way, although I am not going to the extremes of plastic surgery. I am altering and manipulating a person's exterior in the form of makeup, hair and dressing to form a new image and artistically express this person's inner self.

Research Resources:

http://www.orlan.net/
http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/whoisorlan.htm
http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/surgeries.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/jul/01/orlan-performance-artist-carnal-art
http://www.jolique.com/orlan/skin_deep.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4816435/ns/health-cosmetic_surgery/t/artists-plastic-surgeries-defy-beauty-standards/
http://theirishcritic.com/new-york-theatre/feminism-and-representation-an-interview-with-orlan/
http://www.izinsizgosteri.net/asalsayi37/Kubilay.Akman_ing.37.html
http://www.squidoo.com/Orlan

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is another artist I have researched for this project. Her work relates to my project because it deals with transforming the self through makeup and portraying different characters.

 Cindy Sherman is an artist from New York who has been working since the early 1980s. Her work involves inventing characters, making herself up as these characters and then photographing herself as these characters. Sometimes she used prosthetics and latex to turn herself into these characters. She rarely uses assistants and photographs herself with the help of mirrors in her studio. Throughout her career she has portrayed and explored an immense range of characters and visual genres. She developed her signature style in college where she studied photography. She was really into dressing up and started documenting her transformation into characters. Sherman says her work is rooted in her obsession with image as a teenager. Every time she makes herself up she says she really thinks about the character she is portraying and likes to pay attention to details. She has said she is very observant and notices subtle things about people that make them who they are.

Her first work as an artist was a set of 69 untitled black and white film stills (below). These were grainy shots of Cindy Sherman herself, portraying fictional female ingenues in made up films, in the style of B-movies foreign films and film noir. The shots are very convincing as film stills; the characters look familiar and the viewer believes they really have been taken from a film. I love the innocence, vulnerability and female sexuality of the characters she portrays in these stills. I love the first shot below; the camera angle makes the subject look important and the viewer insignificant. I also love the middle shot and how it crops the subject. I think this is a really interesting shot. The grainy quality was created by developing the film in chemicals that were too hot, which cracks the emulsion. Cindy Sherman said she wanted this effect because she "wanted them to look like cheap prints, not art".

Her next work was her iconic and controversial Centrefold series (below), inspired by the centre spreads found in fashion and pornographic magazines. They were shots of the artist herself portraying terrified, exposed and hunted women. The images were commissioned for the magazine Artforum but were instantly rejected due to the perceived pornographic nature of the images. Feminists argued that men could get aroused by the images but Sherman said the images were meant to be disturbing. Talking about one of her Centrefold images Sherman said "In content I wanted a man opening up the magazine suddenly look at it with an expectation of something lascivious and then feel like the violator that they would be, looking at this woman who is perhaps a victim ... I'm trying to make someone feel bad for having a certain expectation. I like the clear contrast of shadows and highlights in these shots.

Below is a selection of images from Cindy Sherman's career. They are just a small example of the diverse range of characters she has portrayed:

Below is a picture of the real Cindy Sherman (out of costume and character makeup):

Research Analysis:

In each transformation, Cindy Sherman is beyond recognition and is very believable in each of the characters she plays. Her work has shown me the immense possibilities of makeup and how we can change the face. As a makeup artist I am extremely interested in pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible with makeup. Her work also features a lot of prosthetics. Prosthetics are not typically used in fashion but artists such as Lady Gaga (below), who has worn prosthetic horns, are increasingly blurring the lines between art and fashion. Also fashion has always been about new and innovative ideas. Her work highlights how we are perceived based on our image and how easily we stereotype people. I am specialising in makeup and styling so my work relates very much to image. In my own work, I need the image of the subject to convey something specific. One outfit design I am developing explores form and exaggerates he shoulders and hips. In Sherman's work she also changes the form of the body, although she does this to look like a certain character and changes her form with prosthetics and latex. Although her work relates to mine, I am working in a different style. I want to create a fashion image, which presents new ideas, whereas she tries to portray specific existing stereotypes of women in society and in the media. Her shots are also head on, which I think is quite bland. I want to direct the photographer to take shots from different angles so I have a greater selection of perspectives to choose from.

Research Resources:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jan/15/cindy-sherman-interview
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/being-cindy-sherman-the-new-york-artist-dresses-up-as-a-trophy-wife-to-explore-her-fear-of-ageing-and-botox-1669187.html
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/22/10469638-cindy-sherman-exposed-three-decades-of-a-master-masqueraders-photos-on-display
http://lisathatcher.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/cindy-sherman-art-that-reveals-art-that-hides/
http://www.conchamayordomo.com/en/node/228
http://www.artelista.com/en/articles/2012/03/8824/moma-covers-cindy-sherman-career.html
http://artobserved.com/2011/02/ao-onsite-greenwich-ct-cindy-sherman-works-from-friends-of-the-bruce-museum-retrospective-at-the-bruce-museum-through-april-23rd-2011/
http://flavorwire.com/273653/10-famous-feminist-artworks?all=1
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/culture/2012/02/5340840/cindy-shermans-moma-retrospective-contains-many-guises-all-about-gaz
http://www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/sherman.shtml
http://www.webexhibits.org/colorart/sherman.html
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1170
http://sherman.cindy.tripod.com/sherman3.htm


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