Dover street market, was one of the many shops I visited to explore the trend of today. I searched through shops looking for similarities, and repetition in shops, to focus on the trends and whats popular on the market. looking through Selfridges and a range of other shops, I noticed in street fashion their is typography on most of garments, words about the brand, logos, and statements about society, politics and slang used by the youth. In high end, pleats, bold colours and metallic material was apparent. I took a liking to Issey Miyake, when spotting her work in Selfridges. The lightness of her garments, and crimped look and when asking the assistant what technique is used to make the shape and delicacy of the garments, ‘steam stretch’ is the concept, and when researching I found out that that this method was applied to the weaving process to produce mathematically accurate three dimensional shapes.

Draping & paper workshop-

These workshops taught me to use materials to create a silhouette and drapes on a mannequin, this helped me to start thinking about designs and materials I may use for my garment, considering what material would match my concept and message. I related this to my ideas by listening to appropriate music and letting myself create a drape whilst listening, having a short period of time to do so, which created spontaneous movement within the drape and quick decisions. This taught me not complicate or overthink ideas, I was nervous at the start but loved it by the end. The paper manipulation helped me to incooperate shapes into my thinking and see how they would look as a garment. My favourite part of this workshop was pinning all shapes together and creating a pattern with all the pieces. Moving forward this will help me to widen my thinking when it comes to designing, and I started to think about materials would be appropriate for what I’m trying to create, as using muslin, jersey and calico mean I could experiment in this aspect.

I attended a life drawing workshop, I have done many in the past and will continue to do them every so often. The workshop taught me how to get the portion on the body onto a page, its all about practicing and getting use to drawing a figure, I found the key is to look at what your drawing 70% of the time and 30% drawing, I think it will be more accurate If I pay close attention to what I’m drawing. I focused on getting portions right and also did life drawing with different mediums and techniques. I find as the class was going on, I got more comfortable with drawing the figure and was more expressive, I tried not to be precious with my drawing and think big. I will take what I’ve learnt forward by experimenting with different materials, shapes, mediums, paper, collaging and more when developing ideas.

 

Descent into addiction, i watched many documentary’s on Kanopy, and TV regarding addition, it was mainly about celebrities, but searching into people that struggled with addicition and how it affects their body, mind and appearance. Amy Winehouse, Daniella Westbrook and Britney Spears, as examples, and with research i found out how each individual became addicted and how their life fell apart due to their addiction. This was an overview on addiction, and moving forward I will research and look further into a certain part of addiction.

I made a contact sheet of all the people I researched which helped me express through a mood board, noticing similarities between these people, and comparing their appearance before falling into an addiction.

‘ Drugs take you to hell disguised as heaven’

‘it takes everything you have and gives you nothing in return’

‘its everywhere but gets you no where’

Today I responded to the visuals I saw by Alex Prager at the photographers gallery for my current project descent, I decided to look at an object in its natural state, its orginial state, I then destroyed these objects to see an object descending, I took inspiration from the ‘House of fire; imagery, where something can go from its normal state to being destroyed. I experimented this with an orange to start, I then created a print to further develop the orange experiment, I also experimented with a candle, looking at it then seeing what its like after its lit. I then further explored using photoshop creating something pleasing out of the demolished orange. Focusing on the texture, layering and manipulating the original image. I will continue to further develop my research on descending and will now look into descending itself and how this can affect your life and descend.

My sketchbook shows my development and research into the 3 words I chose from the ‘girl in the green dress’ – Alex Prager is intoxication, health & beauty. I looked into each of these words, finding books that go into detail, they gave me inspiration for my responses, looking into photos, short poems, colour scheme, shapes and mood for each word. I then used images from my research  to create a concept board, I decided to go further with ‘intoxication’ as this unfortunately overpowers beauty and health, it can destroy both beauty and health, descending into intoxication. I will continue to further develop my research on descending, and how actions can affect you and your body, descending into addiction, I will continue to use resources from primary research and develop my concept.

Hi, I’m just going to start right away, just like my course at Ravensbourne. Meet at 10am at the Photographers Gallery, Soho. First room was exploring six major projects by Tish Murtha, interrogating a transition and social change against the background  of post war dereliction. These series of photographs gave me the feel of a troubled upbringing without stable guardians to lead these children in the right direction, meaning the downwards spiral is open for their fall. Young children holding cigarettes, surrounded by vandalised walls, almost with proud. This is wrong, so far from right. I felt empathy for the vulnerable children, is it their fault? Alex Prager is another photographer I looked into for research within our project descent. ‘Girl in the green dress’ this photo stood out for me, as the interpretation can be different each time you look at it, due to the angle of the photograph, I worked further into this, expressing my feelings through words.

Tate Britain was the next stop, where we walked through ‘sixty years’ art from the 1960s till the present day, the artists shown responded to issues and narratives in recent British history. I took a liking to art by Mary Kelly, presenting work that documents the relationship between her and her son over 6 years, reflecting on this, she can descent into her past, and even feel connections with her son through the work produced.

DRAGGGG. SO yes! loved this exhibition in the Hayward Gallery, sharing voices that explore cultural shifts of the past 50 years. Lynn Herman Leeson, ‘external transformation’ This photograph was layered with watercolour paint which portrayed a individual can be whoever they wish, you can transform yourself if you wish, and so you should. For me this gallery did not reflect descent, but ascent. These humans ascent into what they want to present themselves as, and even undertaking the role of this appearance they have created.