Mia Sabel - COFA1002

[miasabel]

Week 7: Uncreativity Experiment:

I re-appropriated my 'Silk Evening Gown' (plastic bag dress) from assignment 2 to dress the mannequin of a Myer department store.

The dressed mannequin now positions herself as unique, raw, rebellious and uncommercialised as she attempts to escape the expected aesthetics of popular culture.

[miasabel]

[oldcreaturesoftherevolution]

[miasabel]

💃? #cofa1002 #cofa #design #wearable #plasticdress #plasticcrochet #recycled #plasticbags #crochet #crochetplastic #resuse #recycleart #junkart #plasticclothes #plasticbagclothes (at Sabel’s Abode )

[miasabel]

‘Silk Evening Gown; the search for uniqueness in a world of predefines’

[miasabel]

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Assignment 2

‘Silk Evening Gown; the search for uniqueness in a world of predefines’

Bibliography

My work drew inspiration from my daily personal experiences and artistic desire to experimentally reclaim, reuse and repurpose as a method of generating new ideas and thoughts. The concepts and technical styles of the various material I have posted on my Tumblr have assisted me to realise my concept from its initial literal phase, adding personal value and meaning to my work to create a deeper conceptual response. The works discussed in my concept statement have been listed in my bibliography.  

 Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan, 1994. Print.

Gonzalez-Torres, Felix. "Untitled" (Perfect Lovers). 1991. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. MOMA. Web. 12 Sept. 2014.

  Hatoum, Mona. Interior Landscape. 2009. Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy. Nafas. Web. 12 Sept. 2014.

  Ortega, Damián. Cosmic Thing. 2002. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Gladstone Gallery. Web. 12 Sept. 2014.

  "Rosalie Gascoigne." MCA. Museum of Contemporary Art Limited, n.d. Web. 12 Sept. 2014.

Vitali, Ivano. Knitted Paper Art. 2005. Curious Doodles. Web. 12 Sept. 2014.

  Yukinori, Yanagi. The Flag World Ant Farm. 1989. Yanagi Studio. Web. 12 Sept. 2014.

[miasabel]

 ‘Silk Evening Gown; the search for uniqueness in a world of predefines’  

My initial poster explored how judgement of a stranger’s personality is solely based on the aesthetic political story created by the individual. This political story being their fashion and stylistic attributes, for instance the colours and brands in which they presented themselves in. This story becomes problematic as we read somebody not by their personal identity, but by the material consumer choices they make, and ultimately as Jean Baudrillard writes; the “hyperreality” or associated stereotypical signs and symbols of such consumables. As a result, unfortunately in a way, we ourselves are consumed by our consumables.

Realising this cultural social situation sparked me to question why individuals don’t make their own clothes; their own unique social identities. Thus, I have hand-crocheted a garment, titled ‘Silk Evening Gown’. By refusing the use of machine, a symbol of mass culture, to construct my garment this surely would exile my image from the social system of predefined politics? My work argues that this is not the case.

Silk Evening Gown addresses that our globalised culture does not exist in a vacuum, making it near impossible to aesthetically position the self as unique and independent. A designer or artist who creatively invents their own image is still bound by the materials in which they constructed their prospective garments or artworks in. As conveyed in Damian Ortega’s work; Cosmic Thing, our consumables too have an inherent hyperreality linked with the history of their production. For instance, cultural appreciation may be considered in the case of our llama wool scarf spun by the Peruvian woman of the Chincheros village. Yet, our society actively neglects the uncredited workers of fabric factories who slave to produce our designer jeans. I believe these factory workers should be equally valued for their efforts and that every consumable has an often overlooked inherent story, and in participating in our aesthetic-based mass-culture existence of ignorance, we somewhat become removed from our humanity.

I have taken technical inspiration from Rosalie Gascoigne’s artmaking practice and Ivano Vitali’s knitted newspaper yarn art that both embrace alien methods and the creation of value and beauty from worthless materials. Thus, to convey consumer culture’s ignorance, my crocheted garment refused the stale and conventional wool material in which crochet is traditionally practiced. Instead, in my work, over 50 different plastic bags have been experimentally cut and woven together to create the yarn for Silk Evening Gown. That is over 50 united different stories, some of which were directly once told. For instance one bag read “I am made with recycled plastic bags…” and others had various branding printed for example “Coles”. These once recognised stories now have been deliberately abstracted into a single strand.  This repurposed, now unidentifiable plastic strand evokes our lost awareness for the forgotten wider cultural frame in which we live in as we simply become self-focused and out of touch. A fragmentation similarly reflected in Felix Gonzales-Torres’ Untitled (Perfect Lovers), where two once in synch clocks grow seconds and slowly overtime minutes apart. In the creation of my yarn I was also inspired by Yanagi Yukinori’s The World Flag Ant Farm series which suggests that our distinctively unique cultures are slowly melding into one unidentifiable mass.

The holey nature of Silk Evening Gown intends to make the wearer feel exposed, discomforted and insecure. Much alike how I personally feel when judged daily on my aesthetic political story. For instance; my choice to dress in unfashionable, pyjama-like, comfortable clothes to university, or contrastingly, something branded, tight-fitted and supportive to exercise in surely doesn’t make me a slob or try-hard gym goer. My daily social experience proves that through self-comfort emerges a sense of alienation much alike in Mona Hatoum’s installation; Interior Landscape, which experiments  with this idea of discomfort. It is almost impossible to escape this victimisation, yet we all retain our active roles in society as the inflictors of judgment.  Thus, the almost unfinished, holey aesthetic of my work also evokes the incomplete and fragmented nature of aesthetics in judging a person for their individual identities.

The deceptively ironic title of my work and its actual material reality produces an oxymoron that encapsulates my response to question 5. That is, that society has evolved to become so fascinated with consumption, that we have become hypnotised by our consumables’ hyperrealities. So much so that our judgement is often blinded and misled to create an armour of mythical stereotypes which only push humanity further apart. Additionally, the artificial net-like form of the garment traps the wearer, denoting an inability to escape this pre-defined mass cultural system. If plastic bags are representative remnants of mass culture’s desire to consume, my piece alludes that humanity has been consumed by consumption.   

Mia Sabel, 13.09.14

[miasabel]

Silk Evening Gown 

test photograph edits

[junkculture]

Artist Transforms a Pile of Trash into a Mind-Bending Anamorphic Illusion

- seeing beyond the aesthetics.

[biancavitalecofa1002-blog]

Created by artists Greta Madline and Mike Williams, they describe the project like so:

"The objects represent the sentimental attachment to items that tell a story or hold a memory of a moment in time that is close to your heart. It doesn’t necessarily matter what the object is but rather whom it came from or how it was acquired."

Just because these things no longer have value doesn’t mean they’re not important on an emotional level, which is the theme for Sh*t We Don’t Need but Still Love, an art installation project that celebrates all the things people give, share, find, and love.

I like the way in which they have used everyday objects thats designed purpose isn’t what makes it important. Its the memories attached that make it sentiment. Linking it back to my experiments, our relationships with our phones are the complete opposite. We do not have any emotional connection to the physical object itself. It is hard, cold, universal and standardised with no personal aspects that can be altered. But it is the possibilities they offer, the opportunities to keep up with the virtual community, that provides us with a feeling of comfort and security. 

[keitholic]

From discarded wood, welded scrap metal, broken tools, cigarette packets, soda cans and piles of trash, Tim Noble and Sue Webster make assemblages and then point light to create projected shadows of people standing, sitting, smoking, drinking or anything easily recognizable. Every debris is precisely set in place, taking into consideration its distance from the wall, and its angle with the spotlight. The result is surprising and powerful as it redefines how abstract forms can transform into figurative ones. 

source: http://www.thisismarvelous.com/i/4-Amazing-Shadow-Sculptures-by-Tim-Noble-and-Sue-Webster

[lisastratigos]

COFA1002 Assessment two. Experiment five.

Lisa Kellner’s soft sculptures are rooted in the language of decay, erosion and disease. 

http://www.visualnews.com/2012/07/23/lisa-kellner/

For experiment five I wanted to create a visual representation of organic matter and I was inspired by Lisa Kellner’s soft sculptures. I took some soft, translucent fabric and hand coloured it using inks and dyes.

[keitholic]

Boltanski transforms concrete political and personal history into universal artworks with an apparent human dimension, in the widest sense of the word. Working mainly with large scale theatrical installations he animates the viewer to engage physically in them. After this first phenomenological experience it is difficult not to get caught up in an emotional involvement.

source: http://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/collections_and_research/absolute_installation/christian_boltanski/

[gloriamyoung]

ASSIGNMENT 2 RESEARCH AND INVESTIGATION

Kadının Evrimi

I found this through facebook and it’s all in a langauge i don’t know, but this was really cool and creative. The products of our desires in the physical and aesthetic bodily realm and the destruction it leads to if one becomes obsessed with “over fixing”

Really interesting and entertaining, I feel that all the artworks realted to desire have a common or similar point in pointing out the dangers and destruction of what desire can do to something or someone, it also questions our morals and mocks our values through sarcasm and hyper-emphasising, reaching limits.

[archiemcphee]

Denver, CO-based artists Deepti Nair and Harikrishnan Panicker, collectively known as Hari & Deepti (previously featured here), have created a brand new series of their fantastically-themed and exquisitely detailed paper light box sculptures. Entitled “Oh, The Places You Will Go!”, these pieces are currently being shown as part of an exhibition at the Black Book Gallery in Denver.

"The artist couple were inspired by recent travels through Moab, Utah and Yellowstone, Wyoming, and transformed elements of their adventures into delicately hand-cut paper sculptures infused with mythology and science fiction. Each piece is lit from behind or below with LED strips and the boxes are exhibited in dark rooms to enhance the effect."

Hari & Deepti will also be showing work this December at Art Basel Miami 2014 for the Scope International Contemporary Art Show.

To check out more of Hari & Deepti’s wonderful creations visit the Black Book Gallery website and keep up with their latest work on Instagram

[via Colossal]

[pssstla]

Sagmeister’s THE HAPPY SHOW at MOCA, til 6/9/13

[julienfoulatier]

Illustration by Noma Bar.

[emilycofa]

http://www.opusonemusic.net/visualmusic/Aleks/1000/1000.html 

In a thousand drops… refracted glances - Aleksandra Dulic

"By choosing the human body as the center of attention this work reflects multicultural fabric of our Canadian experience and points to the way we judge and gain a sense of both others and ourselves. The dynamic and interactive nature of the work becomes a symbolic of how we both construct and discover our identities.

The driving inspiration for this work is an idea that we are all part of one body, one ecology and one planet. We therefore create an image of a human body that reflects the notion of the whole humanity as one organism. Created Vancouver, British Columbia, which is characterized by its diverse social fabric, this work is reflective of our contemporary multi-ethnic reality, depicting, almost literally, the metaphor of cultural mosaic characteristic of our Canadian experiment. Here people from the variety of world cultures come together and share the same living environment. While the core idea of the work is that we are all one, in parallel this new organism points to the notion that we are also multiple. Each one of us is composed of many influences, memories, and histories swimming in this river of rich and diverse world cultures. Every day we are working with and interacting with people from everywhere in the world and this installation reflect this multiplicity that we live in today.”

This work comments on the construction of identity, and how we are multiple. Which is also a factor in my concept.