BETHANY O'BRIEN//

Second year Fashion Communication and Promotion student// Nottingham Trent

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Nottingham Contemporary

An unexpected treasure, Nottingham Contemporary is a great asset to the city. 

Having opened in 2009, it is one of the largest contemporary arts centres in the UK, boasting of four galleries, a minimalist performance space, cafe and shop.

The architecture is an extraordinary contrast to its surroundings, consisting of a variety of shades of corrugated panels, giving the building a sense of raw honesty. Designed by renowned architects Caruso St John, inspiration was taken from artists warehouse spaces in New York during the 70′s, allowing it to stand out from the crowd and delivering it an extra edge.

Contemporary have regularly changing exhibitions of modern art where the works vary enormously, therefore giving regular incentives to return and see something different every single time.

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NEVER LET ME GO

Set in a dystopian reality, Never Let Me Go is a poignant film with touching performances from the central roles.

It succeeds in portraying a raw and miserable side to British life, with dreamlike elements. Heart rendering and distressing to watch, although I feel they could of shown us a lot more of their childhood- showing how they grew into the adults we see for the majority of the film and how Kathy and Ruth’s relationship changed over the years.

Director Mark Romanek maintains a mood of melancholia and holds an unsettling undertone throughout in a film which affirms what is truly valuable about life.

7/10

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NOTTINGHAM CONTEMPORARY

“Who makes profit from art and who gains from it honestly?”

Today I visited the Nottingham Contemporary to view their most recent exhibition, Monuments Should Not Be Trusted.

The exhibition begins with the rise of consumerism, midway through President Josip Broz Tito’s 37 year presidency of Yugoslavia, and ends a few years after his death in 1980. As well as artists’ works in moving image, collage, photography and painting, the exhibition also involves music, television and some really fascinating artefacts.

There is an immense volume of engaging work, which helped me to gain understanding of the complexities of Yugoslavia at that time.

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Berlin

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting one of the most stimulating creative and cultural centres in Europe, Berlin. It is fast paced and vibrant, filled with art, design and music- perfect for a university trip!

Not only is it the capital and biggest city in Germany, they have had a turbulent and eventful past and have overcome the challenges of rebuilding themselves, which makes it all the more interesting.

Here are some of my favourite places I visited in the five days I spent there:

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Prometheus

Ridley Scott returns to the genre he helped define with Alien prequel Prometheus.

Creating a groundbreaking mythology, in which the discovery of a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leads a team of explorers on a thrilling journey to the darkest corners of the universe. Scott steadily allows the tension to build, always aware that expectations aroused by Alien must be satisfied, yet Prometheus feels totally different- It is grittier, earthier and open; even the interiors have an epic scale in comparison to its predecessors’ narrow corridors and corners.

Prometheus is a strongly acted, superbly designed movie. The action moves so swiftly that the final couple of minutes are as gut-wrenching as anything we have seen by him before. His ambitious prequel to Alien may not answer all of its big questions, but it's redeemed by its visual magnificence and compelling performances (particularly Michael Fassbenders’ portrayal of a robot). 

8/10

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FANZINES- TEAL TRIGGS

A fascinating look into the D-I-Y strand of publishing, varying from its earliest existence in the 1950′s right up to modern day online e-zines. Dedicated to the history of fanzines, it’s a wonderful piece of visual art, choc-a-bloc full of photos of zines of all styles.

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Yesterday at Nottingham indie fashion fair.

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JEREMY SCOTT S/S 2016

Jeremy Scott blends American culture with art, turning fashion into more of a theatrical show.

The collection blended a 60s vibe with a very 80s feel. including early 80’s, beautiful cartoonish make-up, followed by a masterpiece of 1960’s inspired coloured bouffant wigs, each with an immense amount of height which bounced as they walked down the runway. Bright colors, outlandish prints and plain old kitsch looks followed, as models wore mini dresses made of perspex, plastic tunics, form-fitting skirts and matching crop tops with kitten heels.

The collection had a nostalgic feel to it- but the fun vibes that I love still remain. Lively and colourful, the clothes looked trademark Scott, keeping to his original aesthetic, but still showing signs of versatility.

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Tracey Emin- What do artists do all day?

Tracey Emin is currently one of the most successful artists working anywhere in the world. This documentary follows Emin at work in her studio as she prepares for an exhibition in Vienna, where her work is displayed alongside Egon Schiele, one of her artistic heroes.

A woman whom has been through far more tragedies than people do in their entire lifetime, she shows a childlike vulnerability and a lack of adult decision making that we grow up to have. For example- you see a canvas that she has been working on and re painting over since 2001 and is still not happy with fourteen years later.

Her autobiographical style of work is all about exposing the kind of things about herself that most people would be too ashamed to reveal and her confessional subjects include abortions, rape, self-neglect and promiscuity, sometimes expressed with the help of hand-sewn applique letters.

Tracey's work is unique, has power and connects to people. An interesting short and it is fascinating to see the process behind a major exhibition.

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Little something that I’m working on...

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The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference.

Malcolm Gladwell explains how social phenomena can suddenly and unexpectedly 'tip' - how products can suddenly become popular, how crime can dramatically fall and how information can spread like a virus. He suggests that central to tipping point situations are particular types of people - mainly connectors and salesmen.

The book contains a lot of interesting ideas, but he continues throughout to explain the concept in greater and greater depth, which I don’t feel is really necessary. It also shows how much faster the world is changing in a shorter amount of time, as for a book that is only fifteen years old it seems extremely dated.

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JK Rowling- The Casual Vacancy

in 2012 J.K. Rowling released a highly anticipated new novel set in a vast world away from Harry Potter- a small town in England called Pagford.

Although extremely sceptical at reading something she had written that actually wasn’t about wizards, I was also dying to see if the chances of her doing something different had paid off.

First things first, don’t expect any magic- this is a gritty novel about real life. When Councillor Barry Fairbrother dies suddenly, leaving his seat in the Parish Council open - otherwise known as a Casual Vacancy - old issues bubble beneath the surface and slowly rear their ugly heads. The council are divided by “pro-Fielders” and those who wish to see Pagford restored to its apparent former glory- with disastrous results. A brilliant, character driven novel, exposing Britain's society today.

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First Year Reflection

Looking back on a STOP, START, CONTINUE blog post I wrote several months ago- I feel I have addressed my initial issues well by enquiring more about things I am unsure of, enhancing my skills in my spare time such as creating small zines on in design (I’ll be talking more about these soon) and continuing to use more mixed media and write about things that I am passionate about.

I’m currently really enjoying the creative, more physical and hands on side of working. Blogging, painting, doodling, photography, writing about fashion and film- it only intensifies my love for this industry further.

From reading my creative networks feedback I feel I really need to improve on the layouts that I create. I need to find a balance between keeping it minimal and sophisticated yet also making it creative and thus enabling my personality to shine through.

To make these improvements I will take time to conduct some visual research paying close attention to existing professional publications and layouts that are more imaginative. I feel I could use them as inspiration and a guide to help raise the standard of my own layouts in future.  

To keep my creativity flowing for this summer I plan to either see or do something new in my free time once every two weeks. Something that would help enhance my work and my mind, whether that be visiting different galleries and exhibitions, going for a walk on a different route or watching an interesting programme. I am also working on creating some zines on In Design to help improve my layout skills and trying to paint at least once a week for half an hour.

In terms of actions that I’m taking to make sure that I reach my future goals, I am currently working full time at home- so this puts my goals on hold to an extent. Although I am working as hard as I possibly can at work, trying to train in all aspects of the store- hopefully I can get into healthcare before the end of the year (fingers crossed) I also started writing for an online newspaper which I intend to get a lot more stuck into in September.

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Keep your curiosity sacred.

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Graduate Exhibition

Before returning home for the summer I decided to have a look around the graduate exhibitions and see what was in store for me when I reach my final year. I’m excited to see how much I develop with my work and as a person over the next two years, although it has dawned on me that by how quick this year has gone, third year is really not that far away!

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Keeping creative on my days off work

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Millennium Gallery, Sheffield

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize

I traveled to Sheffield a few weeks ago to catch up with some friends and whilst there, came across this wonderful portrait exhibition. The photographs are taken from a competition with over 4000 entries, which were then shortlisted to the 59 on show today.

There’s something about portraits that really interests me- the fact that they can reveal so much about one person, but completely mask another- how some can be natural and others are staged, yet depending on the situation, you may never be able to tell the difference.

This exhibition is on show in Sheffield from 2 May- 16 August 2015