ba3creativeproject

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Evaluation

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Video drawing experiments

Vienna - Ultravox

Dancing with Tears in My Eyes - Ultravox 

I wasn’t feeling too confident in making a costume like piece that I like the look of, so I decided to experiment more digitally. First, I did some animation experiments to get a feel for the way clothes move and the vibe of New Romantics music videos since they’re a very important aesthetic part of the movement. I then moved on to these drawing experiments where I’d simply draw horizontal lines with slight contours over frames of New Romantic music videos. I decided that the overall aesthetic of the videos showed this theme of feminine appropriation best. In the end I decided to base my final piece on the frame I drew from Vienna by Ultravox.

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Karma Chameleon - Culture Club animation clothes study.

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Girls on Film - Duran Duran animation clothes study.

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Corset on clay torso development - Wire torso experiments

I did a corset piece that was inspired by the spandex face experiments. I like how the corset came out, but I felt it was a little lacking in something. I thought to put it on a mannequin or torso sculpture. The sculpture came out interesting in these photos but in the end, it wasn’t stable enough and the wire would come out, so I never used it when displaying my work.

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Faces piece

The result of my experimentation. I think I’d like to do a costume piece including these types of spandex faces or a larger piece with these faces.

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Faces piece experimentation and process

My idea here was to experiment futhur with the paints on spandex using inspiration from the AI generated images. I decided this was the best way to move on with the theme of feminine appropriation in tangent with New Romanticism.

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Costume ideas - digital experiment

Here are some digital experiments I did on some pictures I took of barbie dolls to explore some possible costume ideas inspired by various looks that celebrities and models in the movement at the time pulled off. I would like to experiment further by making some costume pieces.

With appropriation in mind, I decided to cut the dolls’ hair in such a way that was similar to some of the styles I saw in the visual research and AI generation I had done. Going into this project I thought it would be interesting to focus on the appropriation of past fashion movements like the Victorian styles or ancient Egyptian dress that you could see in some fashion from the New Romanic movement. Another thought I had that could be quite interesting was the appropriation of feminine culture at the time. There was an emphasis on appearing genderless ad New Romantics would often borrow from more feminine aesthetics to appear this way, this is why I decided to have the dolls’ hair short. I decided I will move forward with more feminine aesthetics to go along with these themes of appropriation.  

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Yinka Shonibare - Artist Research

Yinka Shonibare is British Nigerian artist whose iconic mannequin costume pieces consist of bright Ankara fabric. Ankara fabric is African wax prints which is commonly seen in west and central African cloths and garments and were introduced by Dutch merchants in the 1800s.

The Swing (After Fragonard) 2001

The Swing by Yinka Shonibare is a life-size female mannequin installation that is suspended from a branch attached to the ceiling. It draws inspiration from Jean-Honoré Fragonard's Rococo painting. 

The African print fabric contrasts with the silk and lace of the original painting. With this piece, Shonibare wants viewers to look at the sculpture straight on, like in the painting, but the 3D installation allows the viewer to walk around the piece and become immerses in the nature of the original painting.

Shonibare’s work came into mind when I was experiment with my stretched faces and how I could compose using a mannequin to make a costume like piece. New romanticism is all about costume and fashion and naturally Shonibares pieces come into mind.

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AI generation experiment

Continuing from my acrylic painting on spandex experiments, I wanted to generate some faces and makeup styles from the New Romantic era for inspiration when painting faces on the spandex. Here are a few pictures AI generated for me.

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Inspiration and relevant info

The New Romantics (Documentary BBC):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idkdr1s64HA

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Kahn and Bell

Kahn and Bell was a British fashion label created by Jane Kahn and Patti Bell in 1978 Birmingham. Kahn and Bell were one of the pioneers of the New Romantic movement. They were quite notable in the New Romantic era designing clothes for Duran Duran. Their flamboyant theatrical style of clothing borrowed influence from Victorian, Egyptian, African and far east art. Their styles featured large padded shoulders, tassels, dangling diamantes, corsets, feathers, silks and ribbons and many other things.

Due to being located in Birmingham and the fashion capital being located in London, it was theorized by many fashion magazines that the company missed a chance for true success as they had not moved to London and never licensed their brand.

Kahn went on to move to London and find some success there but never on the same scale and inspiration as the duo did together.

Bell went on to find success with her unique collections with clients all over Europe and Asia.

Kahn and Bell will be used as visual inspiration throughout my creative processes for this module along with other icons of the movement. I especially love the outrageous fashion and the links to many influential and legendary bands of the time including Duran Duran, whom I'm a big fan of.  

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An experiment for a developmental piece I have in mind. Left was done with Caran D'ache crayon which lays on smoothly and not rubbery like Crayola crayon or cheaper alternatives, right was done in acrylic. I prefer the vividness of the acrylic but it doesn't allow from much stretch when being stretched out, I think stretching it out whilst wet will work though. The crayon work best from stretching as it doesn’t alter the structure of the elastic material of the stockings. I used styrofoam balls because I would like to stretch this material over a styrofoam head to paint on and stretch out. I find the makeup and fashion in new romanticism fascinating and would like to do a little piece about the makeup and the gender fluidity of it all. In conclusion I'll experiment with both on a larger scale as planned, perhaps alternating materials could have a nice effect if the pieces are installed together.

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Initial mind map with cultural impacts, people and groups to research. 

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Further ideas for experiments: 

- Classicism - Dancing with tears in my eyes, first piece to set the mood and theme of the project? 

- Girls on film digi edit

- Song related pieces

- Artist analysis of NR album covers, recreating the album aesthetic as a series. Digital or printmaking. 

- Stocking and styrofoam head painting and stretching onto white panel. 

- Nail head sculpture idea. Maybe a series and make and installation piece. 

- Fashion pieces - Victorian style new romanticism 

- Sound experiments with songs from bands and artists in the scene 

- Silicon face molds and some sort of painting with the makeup style of the scene? 

- Video replicating the style of NR music videos like Krama Chameleon etc... 

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Researching: 

- Classicism 1800s 

- David Bowies fashion 

X Kahn and Bell fashion label 

- Vivienne Westwood's involvement in NR and punk aesthetics 

- Boy George 

- Appropriation of feminine looks for male use to market toward women 

- Drag culture at the time and makeup influences 

- Harry Styles controversy, queer baiting but does he also have to be out to express the way he is?