JOURNAL
4
WEEK FOUR WAS BASED AROUND STIFFENERS AND MAKING SOMETHING BRITTLE. IN MONDAYS CLASS WE EXPERIMENTED WITH A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT TRIED AND TESTED STRACHES, AS WELL AS TESTING OUT SOME NEW METHODS. WE APPLIED THESE TO SWATCHES, TO OUR ICE DRESS AND TO SECOND HAND GARMENTS WE BROUGHT IN FROM HOME. ON THURSDAY WE LOOKED AT WAX AND PLASTER, WHICH REALLY RESONATED WELL WITH ME. DIPPING FABRICS INTO WAX AND APPLYING IT ONTO GARMENTS, WIPING PLASTER ONTO GARMENTS, OBSERIVING THE AMAZING EFFECTS WAX HAD ON TEXTILES AND THEIR TACTILE NATURE WAS AMAZING. I DECIDED TO DOCUMENT THE CRUSHING OF MY WAX TOP WITH SLR PHOTOS AND ANOTHER SHORT STOP MOTION. TOWARDS THE END OF THE WEEK I ALSO BEGAN LOOKING INTO SPACE AND LIGHT.
Inspired by director Jacques Tati’s film of the same title, Playtime lets the viewer reflect on appearances and the perception of objects in space. Compared to haute couture by French writer François Ede, the film presents a world where modern architecture and urban surveillance are overtly present, while using stylistic techniques to fool the viewer, such as trompe l’oeil and mirror effects. Taken into the world of fashion, this critical and playful point of view allows Ying Gao to explore the concept of transformation, like in Walking City and Living Pod. In the context of a fashion show with sounds and lighting, the possibility for the viewer to photograph or shoot the pieces on video is rendered difficult: the dresses will appear blurry in the recorded image. The first dress will appear blurry and the second dress, for example, will react to the flash of the camera, itself becoming a light source when a photo is taken.
YING GAO PLAYTIME
ANSELM KIEFER
Anselm Kiefer was born in Germany in March 1945, the year of the fall of the Third Reich; and brought up in a strongly Catholic milieu – after Nazism but haunted by it. He studied law, literature and linguistics before embarking on his career as an artist. From the 1970s onward, he addressed through his art the complexities of Germany’s largely repressed post-war inheritance; representing Germany quite controversially at the Venice Biennale of 1980. Since then, his themes and inspirations have ranged ever further: from ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology, to Jewish mysticism, to 19th-century Romanticism and contemporary exploration of the cosmos. He is a voracious reader but, he says, he reads only until he has grasped an image. ‘The book, the idea of a book or the image of a book, is a symbol of learning, of transmitting knowledge. The story of our beginnings always begins in the oral tradition, but eventually finds its way into the form of a book’. Here shelves of massive volumes made from lead are interspersed by jagged glass and seemingly rained down upon by countless shards, many bearing the astronomical number of a heavenly body (the numbers given to stars by NASA scientists). He has given the title Sternenfall – ‘falling stars’ – to a number of paintings and installations over the years. In his own words, ‘It encompasses the birth and death of the universe, with all the stars, which are born and die every day, like people. A hundred million years in the life of a star may be like one minute in a human life… Sternenfall explores this universal metabolism, the metabolism of nature and the stars. The title encompasses not only our human life, but also the whole universe’.
SACHIKO KODAMA & YASUSHI MIYAJIMA MORPHO TOWERS
Dynamic Ferrofluid Sculptures From ancient times, standing sculptures in Japan and elsewhere were made of materials such as clay, stones, wood, or metals. Materials were formed, modeled, modified, cut, and reshaped using processes appropriate for them, and the forms and textures of sculptures made from the materials did not change except by abrasion or surface corrosion. The invention of photography changed this world of unchanging art. Modern materials and electric and machine technology came to be used in art works and inspired kinetic art such as that by Naum Gabo and László Moholy-Nagy was created. Since then, numerous artists, designers, and architects have created moving, kinetic works. Since the introduction of the computer, e.g., in cybernetic art proposed by Nicolas Shöffer, a number of art works have been produced by processing external information from the environment or living beings through physical devices. However, it can be stated that there has been little work on expression through flexible changes of the surface texture controlled by a computer. My project’s goal is to create organic shape-changing art forms and figures whose three-dimensional form, surface structure, and color change dynamically and lively as if to reflect echoes of environmental music, light, and human communication. To create such three-dimensional organic forms and surfaces, in 2000, I started using ferrofluid in my interactive art project named “Protrude, Flow.”
INTERACTIVE AROMATIC ART Tubes of Lycra netting filled with spices hang from a glass ceiling in a soft sculpture called ‘While nothing Happens’ by Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto. The aromatic socks are suspended from the glass ceiling at the Macro Hall gallery in Rome, Italy. The interactive installation was designed to stir up memories of such things as travel and of one’s past. As visitors brush up against the spicy drops, some of which are only a few feet from the floor, the exotic fragrances mingle and fill the air.
ERNESTO NETO WHILE NOTHING HAPPENS
ELIZABETH MOORE GARMENT W
For her UBS 12 x 12 presentation, Moore presents Garment Work, a durational collective performance project in which the artist and visitors deconstruct a pair of jeans. Over the course of the month, in twice-weekly performance/workshop/discussions, Moore creates connections between Cambodia’s garment manufacturing industry, where the jeans were made, and Michigan Avenue, where the jeans were purchased. Together, Moore and visitors then take the jeans apart by hand. Research regarding the origins of the pants as well as the experiences of the makers and sellers is also presented. Garment Work is a meditation on the international garment trade and women’s issues in developing nations.
WORK
CAROL CHRISTIAN POELL
Carol Christian Poell lives and works in Milan. After having been trained as a men’s and a ladies’ tailor in Vienna, he studied fashion design at the Domus Academy where he also founded the production and distribution company C.C.P. Srl together with his partner Sergio Simone. After presenting his first men’s collection in 1995, he developed his ladies’ collection from classical elements of traditional menswear three years later. He quietly designs an ultra-niche, cult label that he doesn’t always produce and only shows to the public when he feels like it.
MONDAY STIFFENERS
IN MONDAYS CLASS WE EXPERIMENTED WITH A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT STIFFENING AGENTS. WE WORKED ON MAKING OUR OWN AND ALSO USING TRIED AND TRUSTED TECHNIQUES. WE ENDED UP WITH A RANGE, INCLUDING POTATO STARCH, CORN FLOUR AND WATER, WALLPAPER PASTE, SUGAR SYRUP, LAUNDRY STARCH SPRAY, VARNISH, PVA AND WATER ETC. WE SAMPLED THESE ON SWATCHES AND APPLIED TO A PLASTIC MANNEQUIN (SEE BELOW) BEFORE CHOOSING A METHOD AND APPLYING IT TO THE REMAINS OF OUR ICE EXPERIMENT GARMENT (SEE LEFT). THE STARCHES HELD THE SHAPE VERY WELL. THE LOWER THREE ELEVATIONS STRUGGLED BUT MOST OF THE OTHERS HELD VERY STRONGLY. THE GARMENT IS NOW ON DISPLAY IN THE ENTRANCE DISPLAY WINDOW FOR LEVEL 10.
I STARCHED THIS SHIRT WITH A CORNFLOUR STARCH AND LET IT DRY. YOU CAN SEE IN THESE PHOTOS THE UNUSUAL SHAPES IT’S CREATED, AND AS A GARMENT, OBSTICLES THAT HAVE BEEN CREATED. A FEW CLOSE UPS FOLLOW ON THE NEXT TWO PAGES. I REALLY ENJOYED THIS WORKSHOP.
STARCH
THURSDAY WAX AND PLAS
STER
THURSDAYS CLASS WITH WAX WAS A REAL BREAKTHROUGH FOR ME. AS SOON AS I BEGAN DIPPING ORGANZA, TULLE AND CLEAR PLASTICS INTO THE WAX I FOUND AN IMMEDIATE AFFILIATION. THE ORGANIZA, SIMILARLY TO WITH THE SUGAR STARCH MORPHED INTO AN AMAZING FIBRELESS GLASS LIKE SUFACE, BUT MORE EXCITINGLY FOR ME, THE CLEAR PLASTIC, WHICH I’D BEEN VERY INTERESTED IN WORKING WITH FROM THE START, BECAME A KIND OF FROSTED GLASS, AND WHEN MOVED, DEVELOPED LEATHER LIKE TRADEMARKS AESTHETICALLY AND ALSO IN A TACTILE SENSE. IT’S BEAUTIFUL. I REALLY WANT TO MAKE USE OF THIS AS A FINAL AND I FINALLY FEEL LIKE I AM SWARMING WITH INSPIRATION THAT I REALLY WANT TO PURSUE AS A FINAL INDEPENDENT PROJECT. SO HAPPY.
WITH THE BELOW PIECE, I DIPPED AN OLD JERSEY TSHIRT INTO THE PARAPHIN WAX AND IT SET IN A TWO TONE WAY, APPEARING TO BE WET EVEN AFTER DRYING, BELOW ARE SOME PHOTOS AS I CRUSHED THE STRUCTURE DOWN, WHICH CREATED AMAZING WHITE ‘VEIN’ PATTERNS IN THE CRACKS AND CREASES AND FOLD LINES. LIKE STRESS FRACTURES, IN A VISIBLE WAY. VERY PRETTY.
SPACE & LIGHT
I’VE PUT TOGETHER A VERY BRIEF, VERY ROUGH LITTLE STOP MOTION TO BEGIN LOOKING AT THE IDEO OF SPACE AND LIGHT, I SUPPOSE TO INTRODUCE IT TO MY DEVELOPMENTAL WORK. A SHORT ANIMATION TO BEGIN UNDERSTANDING DOCUMENTATION VS PRESENTATION AND WAYS OF PRESENTING FOR ALL ARENAS. THESE SHOTS ARE OF LIGHT MOVING THROUGH THE OLD VENTS IN MY HOUSE AS THE SUN RISES. THE LIGHT IS DIRECTED AND MAGNIFIED BY THE SHAPES OF THE VENT. I’M ALSO BECOMING VERY INTERESTED IN THE MUSIC THAT GOES WITH THESE STOP MOTIONS. THE IDEA OF SOUND PLAYING A PART IS SOMETHING I’D ALSO REALLY LIKE TO DISCOVER MORE. VERY INTERESTED IN INCLUDING MY LOVE OF JAZZ TO THESE VIDEOS.