Assignment 4: Contextual Studies Part 2

Stage 2: In depth Study Analysis of Work:

Comfort Blanket, 2014 by Grayson Perry.

Comfort Blanket 2014 

Comfort Blanket 2.9 x 8 m tapestry created by Grayson Perry and woven with digital technology. The artwork is a jacquard woven tapestry in wool, silk, cotton, acrylic and polyester, with cotton warp.

This blanket is designed as part of an exhibition entitled ‘Who are You?’ at the National Portrait Gallery. Each of the works in the show is an image about the nature of identity. It is also a part of the art documentary for hit Channel 4 series with the same name. Grayson interviews various personalities for his research. Art turns into permit to access people’s lives, thoughts and feelings and Perry encompasses these in the form of an art object.

Comfort Blanket, is a portrait of Britain in the form of a giant banknote, full of things we love to hate about Britain. The things comfort us, what we think of being British. When Perry is concerned, you need to take it all in with a pinch of salt. Like many of his work, the narrative oscillates between earnestness and satire.

Perry is interested in the uneasy relationship between individual and society at the boundaries where both entities are at odds. What makes us who we are, how we express it, how nationality, gender, religious identities shift all the time and make the collage of life.

His graphic style is light hearted; his wording is thought provoking. Historically tapestries were woven scenes from Bible, telling stories of importance. Perry is telling our modern story in the medium of cloth. Is the comforting us or poking us? Not quite sure.

British Library 2014 by Yinka Shonibare.

 

British Library Installation 2014

‘British Library’ installation was commissioned by Brighton Festival in 2014.

It consists of hardback books covered with artists trademark Dutch wax printed cotton textile, and gold foiled names, five wooden chairs, five iPads, iPad stands, headphones, interactive application and antique wind-up clock. Its dimensions vary.

Yinka Shonibare’s site-specific installation explores the impact of immigration on all aspects of British culture and cultural identity. The installation at the Brighton Museum’s Old Reference Library becomes a repository for those, immigrants to this country, who made unique contributions to what we regard as ‘British’ culture. Filled with books colourfully bound in Dutch wax cloth, the gold embossed spines identify individuals such as T.S. Eliot, Henry James, Hans Holbein, Kazuo Ishiguro, Zaha Hadid, Mick Jagger, Darcey Bussell, George Frideric Handel, Hammasa Kohistani, Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher, Amartya Sena, Anish Kapoor and many more. 
 
Yinka Shonibare’s work makes the cultural influences of colonisation visible and explores the rich complexity of post-colonial cultures. The British Library asks us to evaluate our attitudes to immigration and immigrants. 

Shobibare uses three references effectively: the books as a symbol of knowledge and power, the Dutch cloth as a symbol of the influence of the colonization on African identity and the British Library as a symbol of powerful institution. By placing the names of on the books artists not only offers recognition, but also questions the complexity of cultural identity.

The Lucid Dress –2016 by Iris Van Herpen

Lucid Dress -Fall 2016 

The Lucid Dress is a part of Iris Van Herpen’s Autumn Winter 2016. Van Herpen is famous for producing sculptural haute couture using cutting edge technology.

The Lucid dress results from the designer’s continuous collaboration with the artist and architect Philip Beesley. The dress is made from transparent hexagonal laser-cut elements that are connected with translucent flexible tubes. This forms a bubble-like exoskeleton around the body.

Harpen says with Lucid collection she refers to a dreamlike state where the dreamer is part conscious of the dream and therefore is able to exert a some of control on what is happening. She expresses that her design process is like lucid dreams.

Van Herper uses technology in abundance. The look she creates are out worldly. She constantly pushes boundaries of the fabric manipulation. In this work she created geometric baubles, and voluminous silhouettes. It feels like she is making fabric and dress out of any material, other then fiber. The cozy soft feeling of ordinary fabric is not seen here. Still these new techniques are exciting and they open up new ways of making clothes.