FIA2 – The Extreme Wearable Art
Artist Statement Students have been asked by the “The Extreme” wearable art project to create a collection of two wearable art pieces that can be worn for the cast of the school musical ‘The Wiz’. ‘The Wiz’ is one of the most successful musical fantasy films, adapted from a fantasy novel. After exploring more about avant-garde and postmodernism, I have considered these art movements in this piece. I have created two gender-neutral pieces, both with a bodice corset and skirt with a set colour scheme of green and hints of purple and gold. Both are adjustable to suit different body shapes and sizes. Design processes such as sketching and annotating on my visual diary were some of the key aspects that provided insight into the final product. The corset styled bodice, inspired by Iris Van Herpen, a contemporary fashion designer and artist, has various materials used to establish movement, unity, repetition and texture. Use of recyclable and extravagance materials recommended by the artist, Claudia Williams, gold beads, green wool fleeces crunched and pinned with leaves, and cardboard as a base was used in this piece. The second piece, the skirt, has a base of a different skirt that was ripped and used by other students. On the base, I have used a hot glue gun to attach the shiny fabric and created the movement by cutting little stripes. In the front of the dress, the woven mesh was folded and pinned to the base. My wearable arts were inspired by Iris and Claudia’s use of elements and principles of arts including the repetition of materials, various texture, several movements with the materials, hints of other colours and the creation of a dynamic effect. Most importantly, with Claudia William, a contemporary artist’s help, my art pieces were able to look aesthetic and simple together with a variety of materials that create a lot of movements.
Details of Wearable Art piece #1
Details of Wearable Art #2
Supporting Evidence
The details in elements and principals of each pieces are planned and sketched on the visual art diary. Each pieces’ details are explained briefly later one.
After exploring the artist who has used the human figure to create 3D art that adds to the frame of the body, 10A Visual Art class started experimenting. The experiments were based on using various materials with different techniques, methods and manipulation such as repetition of cut shapes, tying, scrunching, folding, layering, weaving, knitting, wrapping, tearing and fraying. While completing four experiments, I have kept in mind to use recycling materials and to create a dynamic effect.
Firstly, I have used spray paint to paint the flowers into gold, however, it did not cover all the colours. The flowers could be used on one of the wearable art pieces as they suit the colour scheme. Secondly, white laces are attached to the green silky fabric by folding it and layering the two together. I tried to sew them together, however, the hole on the laces did not stable the threads. Thirdly, I have taped the two fabric that both have many holes. For the last one, I have stuck gutter guard into the visual art diary and coloured it with a gold pen. I do not have a photo of this, however the photo of the material I used is in figure4. The outcome of this experiment was pretty, however, the ink got rubbed off too easily, so it couldn’t be used on the final product. Experimenting with different materials and techniques have given me a deeper understanding of the methods of using the materials. After this experiment, I had to go back to my planning and sketching two wearable arts to fix it, so it is more realistically planned with more specific materials.
Figure 1
Figure 2
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Figure 4