Wednesday 9 November 2011

LECTURES 1,2+3!

So we have had three lectures so far and I havent blogged about them! Deary me! They have been really good I've just forgotten to blog!

First Lecture was 'Tartan, Postmodernism, and "the incredility to (textile) meta-narratives" by Dr Jonathan Faiers, and it was very interesting. Faiers is a lecturer from Winchester School of Art and he was interesting, he was passionate about his book and research which kept you interested. He was saying Tartan can be part of clanship, tradition and part of the monarchy. We found that there are many layers to tartan as postmodernism and modernism. He showed us a clip from 'Casino Royale, killer in the kilt' which showed the tradition that is scottland with the bagpipes but then one had a gun in 'the killer in the kilt'. This was interesting as it showed a different side to clanship.
" Simplifing to the extreme, I define postmodernism as incredulity toward metanarractives" Jean Francois Lyotard- the postmodern condition.


Above is a picture of 'Louise Gray's A/W 2011' show which she has included a modern interpretation of tartan. It shows bold colours, fringing and not tradional fabric, however she has the check pattern which shows the idea of tartan. Also she has a modern take on it, by adding dots to the models face in the tartan colours she is wearing, and its like tartan in the sense there is a pattern to the dots on the face, like a pattern in the tartan. I really like her work. I really love the boots too, which doesnt really have much to do with tartan.

Second Lecture was on the 'Power of Making' by Lucy Gundry. It was a very interesting Lecture however it was a tad long as we turned up 40minutes before the lecture actually started. However it was interesting.  She told us about different properties in the materials, nanotextiles, digital, geotextiles, biotextiles. Then she started talking about 'can man-made textiles be handmade?' and 'is the handmade ever handmade in the purest sense?' and 'to what extent can a tool be used and the outcome still be considered handmade?'. She basically disscused what can be classified as handmade and whats man made? According to David Pye (1995) 'techniques or apparatus doesnt give it a feeling of care'. This shows that handmade pieces have more care and feeling in them manmade. Also we found that handmade doesnt have the same recpect it used to, peolpe dont understand the care and patience that has gone into some of these pieces, Frayling 2011. We also disscused authenticity, about taking the fabric or the piece out of its culture and background and out of context and what effect this has on the piece. It losses its authencity was its mass produced in a warehouse, lacks its orginal context. 'The pressence of the orginal is NO, because at the heart of the hand made is authencity.
I thought this was a really interesting topic and it had some really good points added in a its such a wide topic lots can be disscused. An exhibition that she said to go to is at the V&A 'Power of Making' and she showed us images from this. My favourites are below.


Above is a dress by Sandra Buckland 2008. I love the gemoetric shapes handmade, you wouldnt get the same feeling if manmade!


Above is a dress by Susie MacMurray 2009, Widow Dressmaker pin dress. This is handmade and again it wouldnt be the same manmade you wouldnt get the feeling that it look like and feather like, when actually it would be horrible to wear as its sharp and covered in pins! OUCH!

Third Lecture was on 'Collecting Things, Collecting Peolpe' by Clare Rose. This was a much more historical lecture about artefacts and the background behind them. It was interesting. A fact I did not know the British museum was founded in 1753. She talked about a culture called 'Benin' which is in modern Nigeria, and it was a kingdom with natural resources of ivoy and metals, and we had been trading with them since 1600. She also said that artists and designers started getting inspiration and sources from alternative design like african masks. Picasso cherry picked what he thought primitive and classical from this culture.
We then went over to the Bristish Museum and we look at artefacts there and she talked about them, which was fantastic!

Below are three pictures of a piece of art called 'Otobo (Hippo) masquerade' made from steel, apint, wood and palm stem brooms, by Sokari Douglas Camp, 1995. This I love, its just something crazy and made about it which I love. The size, the compostion of materials and the colour of this piece I just love it!!!



Below are some pictures of 'The tree of life' which symbolises the dynamic creativity of Africa. Its made from guns and firearms in africa. They chopped them up and made them into a piece of art, trees and animals. It was a stand to stop the guns being used for what they were made for, so they put a stop to these ones ebing used for killing. I think its a brilliant storyline to this piece of art and culture and history. But then a thought pops into my head from Lucy Gundrys lecture, had this piece been tken out of context? Does it have the same meaning it would in africa here? Has it lost its charm? Its handmade quality? I think it still gives of the message its meant to, it being here allows us to know whats going on out there and makes us more aware.




Three lectures blogged about and I enjoyed them all!!!! Hope you like my thoughts about them!!!

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