Assignment 4: Contextual Studies

Project 2: Research

Stage 1: Research Six Artists/Designers of your choosing

I opted for more contemporary artists/ designers for this stage. My list is as follows:

Grayson Perry:

The Annunciation of the Virgin Deal

Perry addresses gender, sex, taste, democracy, and identity in his work. He uses pottery, tapestry (the lesser arts) and rubs it up to the serious art world and he is loved for it.  He is fun and his alter egos he dresses up as are fun too. He films his processes as a part of Channel4 TV series. He develops a relationship with subject matter, in all these series, interview them and produce work on reflection. Intriguing watch.

I like his wok because probably he is one of the rarest artists who questions masculinity and gender identity constantly. He is playful with it and forthcoming. His textile work, tapestries are majestic. They tell the story in archaic ways on cloth. Yet have a comic book feel, un-seriousness, and a joke.  He is very entertaining.

Yinka Shonibare (MBE):

Shinobare -Butterfly Kid 2015

Yinka Shonibare first came to widespread attention through his use of Dutch wax fabric, which he has used both as the ground of his paintings and to clothe his sculptures. This bright and distinctive fabric with bold patterns was originally produced in Dutch Indonesia. But no market was found for it, and subsequently is copied and produced by the English, who eventually sold it to West Africans, for whom it became a popular everyday item of clothing. It also, crucially, became a sign of African identity bot in Africa and, later, for Africans in England. A colonial invention, Dutch wax fabric offers itself as both a fake and yet “authentic” sign of Africanness, and Shonibare’s use of it in his paintings and sculptures accentuates a politics of (in)authenticity by simultaneously presenting both the ideal of an “authentic” identity and identity as a “fabrication.”

Shonibare is not a textile artist. He is a painter, sculpture and film maker. However his use of fabric in historical, and political context enlightens our understanding of significance of the fabric within our culture. He underlines fabric as a medium where all the political/economical/social discourse happens and is carried through. And he challenges that within his work.

His work is seriously political but is playful as well.

Iris Van Herpen

Fall 2016 Collection - Phantom Dress

Dutch fashion designer is known for her sculptural haute couture designs made with cutting edge technology. Her designs are futuristic and look out of this world. It is not uncommon that fashion designers push the boundaries of wearable fashion, but Iris Van Herpen raised the game to new heights. She sees fashion as art form, its then a commercial requirements are un important. And her designs reflect that. 

She states that within her practice, the centuries old couture craft (delicate handmade work) fuses with new techniques enabled by technological advances: 3D printed polymers, magnetic resin, or laser cut details. All these enable her to unique look, and accurate detail. Like Issey Miyake she is a part of the designer league who pioneer new ways of making clothes.

She is a exciting designer but is the technology dominating her work?

Severija Incirauskaite

I find Severija Incirauskaite’s work is subversive. The obvious contrast of materials she puts together suggests that. She creates and undeniably beautiful aesthetics, rusting metal stitched with delicate cotton threads. I can offer my own interpretations of it, as they are exciting objects and arouse many thoughts however with this contrast Incirauskaite explores the cultural soul-searching of her nation Lithuanian identity after joining the EU.

She is a contemporary artist, who makes cross stich pretty cool and arty. It is refreshing to see young artists using textiles to explore contemporary issues and coming up with stunning visual outcomes. Her work also appeared in Dismaland Bemusement Park event by Bansky in 2015.

Alice Kettle

Alice Kettle 

Kettle’s stitched works are huge and figurative. She is trained as a painter and started to work with stich later. She is known for using stitched area like blocks of colour, almost painting with big brush but with intricate small stiches. She celebrates the relationship with craft, material and process and tries to exploit the textures and effects made possible through the harnessing of a mechanical process to instinctive ends.

Caroline Bartlett

Caroline Barlett- Backwards and Forwards

I am drawn to research Caroline Bartlett because her work looks very subtle with emotional thread marks. She incorporates many techniques: printing (imprinting), manipulating, erasing, reworking. But the end result looks and feels very content and intended. Her work created in response to historical collections or places is inspiring. She says:

“As a maker and visual artist, I think through textiles, a material with enormous varied behavioral properties, deeply culturally encoded, and which embodies memory in its history and associations in mythology. Fabric invites touch and touch invites certain ways of knowing and remembering.”