FIA2 – The Extreme Wearable Art
Artist Statement – 150 words The task was to individually create two wearable art pieces which can be worn as an adornment by cast members of the school musical ‘The Wiz’. As the production includes both male and female cast members the pieces have to be gender neutral and adjustable for different body types, styles and sizes. The creations must be green and can incorporate metallic colours – gold, silver, bronze – and/or purple. The artworks I created included a top hat and a chest plate for two chorus members singing and dancing as citizens of Emerald City. The first artwork created was designed around a top hat incorporating an old felt top hat pray painted gold, bright green feathers, black gutter guard, paper roses and flowers painted gold with green stems, leaves and vines, and an elastic strap to secure the artwork under the chin. The second wearable artwork was designed as a green chest plate made of bubble wrap and covered in green gaffa tape, green and gold painted flower ‘puffs’ made of butchers paper., there are also green shiny beads on the back of the artwork hot glued to the tape and black mesh ‘fans’ attached with butterfly pins. There are gold eyelets with ribbon to make the garment adjustable. Claudia Williams was inspiring and instructive one how to build a reliable, secure and flexible base for the chest plate. Bjork’s artworks influenced the textures and colours I used in my hat and chest plate as she used bright and vibrant colour and textures that attract the eye. Elements of colour and forms, through the use of feathers and textural designs, helped create emphasis and movement throughout the artworks.
Wearable Art piece #1
Details of Wearable Art piece #1
Wearable Art piece #2
Details of Wearable Art #2
Supporting Evidence
The top hat like adornment base was made of an old recycled felt top hat spray painted gold to make the base plain so colours don’t clash and the artwork can shine on stage – from a distance. The original idea to use broken CD’s and DVD’s was left behind as broken CD shards are sharp and can cut anyone who may hold the hat and it must be safe. The black mesh over the rim of the hat was an aesthetic concept to create more movement throughout the artwork. This idea was not used in the final work as the practicality of the mesh over the eyes of the dancer and the difficulty of fastening the mesh to the hat in a manner that would not hit the dancer in the face when moving.
Side view
The roses and feathers were used in the final design because of the contrasting colours and textures. The feathers were added in after the previous design to conform with the design brief to use green in the artwork. The hat had black gutter guard to incorporate a rough texture. This replaced the CD’s to make the hat safer for wearers and anyone touching it.
There are bright green feathers on along the side of the hat and integrated with the roses to bring bright and intense colours moving the eye along the top of the hat
The use of gutter guard allowed a new texture to be brought into the artwork. A fine detail that is only able to be noticed close up. The green ribbon woven through the gutter guard softened the edge of the gutter guard and made a base for the roses and feathers to sit.
There are gold painted flowers on a green vine wrapped around the base of the hat to the top in a spiral motion and gold painted roses made of paper and plastic with green stems and leaves to contrast the rough gutter guard with a soft texture and to build on top of the hat drawing the eye to the contrasting colours and textures.
This design abandoned most of the butchers paper puffs – because of the papercuts on dancers and crushing when moving – and replaced it with gold chains that swept over majority of the body and kept the bottom row of puffs to keep the rough texture and feminine design
This design included large petals across the back of the body to cover the blank space and add a soft texture to the artwork.
The first design of this artwork involved the folded butchers paper ‘puffs’. Covering the entirety of the body with two black mesh ruffles.
The final planning for this piece included two black mesh ruffles, one on each shoulder, gold chains through eyelets on the shoulders and over the body, one base row of the paper puffs and two puffs on the body. there was also the incorporation of eyelets on the side to make the artwork adjustable and flexible for dancers. The back of the artwork has an upside down drip like pattern of green shiny beads. This adds an element of shine to the artwork as well as creating a unique texture to the piece. The large paetal design across the back was discarded for practicality as they were to heavy.
The Gold chains were discarded because the base was too thick to put eyelet in therefore, the shoulder ruffles moved so one was on the shoulder and the other went under the puff on the other side of the artwork to add more movement to the piece by repeating the same texture.