Culture + Crisis: Culture

CULTURE + CRISIS VOLUME #1/3 | CULTURE

architectural do2 unit 2 - culture + crisis

cover savage beauty by alexander mcqueen

CULTURE The Irish curator and critic, Declan McGonagle, promotes the idea that: “Art is a verb not a noun” which, although open to a multiplicity of interpretations, is intended to engender a more inclusive approach to art production.

Architects have traditionally looked to artists for inspiration and ideas to inform and enrich their work. Indeed, the history ofWestern culture has been shaped by a number of influential artists.

Edinburgh University can claim a number of distinguished alumni who have shaped the art scene, including Anthony d’Offay, who studied art here in the early 1960s. He later established his own gallery in London and showcased influential artists such as Joseph Beuys, Ed Ruscha, Bill Viola, Jeff Koons, and Bruce Nauman. He recently donated his personal collection (comprising over 700 works) jointly to the National Galleries of Scotland and the Tate. This generous gift allows institutions the scope to rethink their approach to bridging the gulf between the public and modern art.

This collection now acts as national resource for museums and galleries across the UK.

murdomcdermid + zoerigg husseinchalayan

chrisnicholson + willweber alexandermcqueen

florencedonaldson + mariettagalazka viviennewestwood

siobhano’boyle alisonwatt

+ wynnemcleish

millietennant + heidiwakefield clairebarclay

koukoitamura + suemacaulay richardlong

grahamblack + paulkenny richardserra

drewgillespie aiweiwei

+ georgesinclair

HusseinChalayan photographed by Chris Moore

HUSSEINCHALAYAN

“I feel that my work somehow lies in a gap between reality and fantasy.”

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British/Turkish Cypriot fashion designer, born in 1970 Nicosia, Cyprus, Hussein Chalayan is renowned for his wide-ranging, atypical influences, experimental application of technologies, unfamiliar material choices and the unconventional methods in which he treats these. Chalayan began his fashion training at Warwickshire School of Arts, later going on to study at Central St. Martin’s School of Art, London, from which he graduated in 1993. It was indeed with his graduation project, entitled ‘The Tangent Flows’, that Chalayan first found acclaim, with the full collection being purchased for the window display of Browns, an independent, yet highly well established fashion boutique based in London. (Incidentally Browns also showed John Gulliano’s degree collection in their windows and can also be credited with discoveringAlexander McQueen) Chalayans graduation project is also a fantastic example of his unconventional treatment of materials, where a number of dresses, once created, were buried with iron filings for six weeks and later unearthed, displaying the effects of degradation, yet at the same time, creating an aesthetically interesting and ‘rustic’ look. From this we see that, even from the inception of his professional career, Chalayan was, and is, a rather progressive and uniquely abstract practitioner within his industry.

‘Sometimes technology is required, but sometimes it’s just not about that.’

Throughout his career to date, Chalayan has enjoyed the bestowal of a number of accolades, murdo mcdermid

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including twice being named ‘British Designer of the Year’ in 1999 and 2000 and receiving an MBE for his contribution to fashion in 2006.

Despite Chalayan’s early and numerous achievements, he has not been without his troubles. Being let go by the cashmere brand TSE New York in 2001 after a threeyear contract, left his company Cartesia Ltd., who produced Chalayan’s own line, with an estimated £250,00 worth of debt, forcing him into liquidation.

However, Chalayan soon reestablished himself with a small comeback display in 2001 after a company restructure and can be quoted saying in an interview with Hint Magazine ‘A lack of money makes people more inventive and passionate.’

This determination kept Chlayan on-track throughfashionshows in Paris to remarkable collaborations with

Swarovski. Currently Chalayan is employed as creative director of Puma whilst running and designing his own independent lines.

Editorial shot from ‘The Tangent Flows’ 1993

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Aeroplane Dress - Films stills

by Marcus Tomlinson

In many interviews and articles we find Chalayan being referred to as an ‘intellectual’ or at least portraying a sense of ‘intellectual rigor’ through his designs, which the authors are also quick to point out, is not commonplace among the fashion industry.

For multiple interviewers to make comments akin to this is somewhat odd as, with many of them being dedicated fashion writers, they are essentially calling their own profession shallow.

Nevertheless, it is in fact the case that the fashion industry mainly revolves around selling aesthetics rather than ideologies, giving one the opportunity to express just how unique Chalayan’s concepts, methods and designs are.

Chalayan has a unique approach to design in general and is not constrained by medium or the genre of fashion.A prevalent theme throughout his work is the juxtaposition between his desires to explore new technologies with his strong Turkish-Cypriot heritage both coinciding with a strong architectural influence.This approach to design is reflected in his use of materials as he likes to challenge the conventions of traditional material choices. He is meticulous when it comes to the choice of material; his pattern cutting and is renowned and for his pioneering and progressive attitude to material and technology. Chalayan’s choice of material is viewed to be unconventional and channels industrial and architectural connotations with the use of plastics, glass, wood, fibre glass and even on occasion resin.The materials allow for interesting texture combinations with the use of these architectural based materials alongside more traditional hand crafted fabrics.There are 3

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juxtapositions in his work in terms of material; there are items that are rigid and forms around the body where others are looser and are freer flowing. The architectural material choices allow for interesting forms that constrict the body, in particular glass, wood, fibre glass and resin. In his earlier experiments with materials wood was used to make a corset to control the body, he has also constructed a glass dress.

These material choices restrict movement and allow for a smooth surface that is unable to fold and crease like in traditional fabrics. He later continued with this concept of smooth surfaced materials with resin and fibre glass.

His Geotropics spring/summer collection in 1999 was the first glimpse of his use of fibre glass and resin. The two finale pieces were resin based designs; one incorporated a chair into the garment and the other was a structured basic version of a dress. However, his two most noted uses of fibre glass and resin were in his ‘Before Minus Now’ spring/ summer 2000 show with his remote control dress and his Aeroplane dress in his autumn/ winter 1999 show/art project ‘echoforum’.

Both of these dresses have a rigid structure that mould to the shape of the body creating a strong hourglass shape. They both address the theme of technology, which is explored through his works, with the incorporation of movable panels that allow for movement.

With the use of such unconventional materials Chalyan is able to extend the boundaries of what is the norm for fabric choices in fashion.

The pieces also concern themselves with the idea of control and the body as these movable pieces are controlled remotely.

The remote control dress highlights this in particular as in the show was operated by a young boy, it hinted at the notion that as humans we want to have control and our high expectations of what technology can offer

‘it would be too glib to simply attribute Chalayan’s facility for boarder-crossings to his personal history.’

Remote control Dress Runway shot from ‘Before Minus now’ 2000

To gain an understanding of Chalayan clothing, art shows, films and architecture one must first look back to investigate how and where murdo mcdermid

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Finale sequence from ‘Afterwords’ 2000

his influences were formed. As mentioned, Chalayan was born in Cyprus and studied in London. This was actually a rather back-andforth exchange throughout his childhood, studying at different levels of education, primary, secondary school etc., in London and Cyprus respectively.With this knowledge, one may assume a theme of travel or that Chalayan would combine cultural aesthetic influences from these countries, and it is true that there are elements of this involved. However, as Caroline Evans of Central St. Martin’s points out, ‘it would be too glib to simply attribute Chalayan’s facility for boarder-crossings to his personal history.’ Evans then goes on to highlight that this due to our modern ‘footloose’ culture where technology and ease of travel and access have created a society where

Invitation card for ‘Afterwords’ 2000

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attributing oneself solely to a specific homeculture is a somewhat outmoded reality.What one finds in Chalayan’s work then, is that his journeyed life and cultural inspirations possess somewhat of a more sinister character.

‘Afterwords’, Chalayan’s Autumn/Winter 2000 collection, is perhaps where one can most profoundly explore, the darker side of his cultural influences. During Chalayan’s early childhood, July to August 1974, Cyprus played host to a Turkish invasion resulting in an island split between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

With ‘Afterwords’ we see a direct reaction to both the idea of conflict and notion of what creates a home. The collection, centered on the idea of hurriedly escaping ones home under the immediate danger of war, then

uses this as context to explore the notion of removing possession from the home when fleeing. To initially set the scene, the show presents what appears to be a despondent family unit set against the hollowing songs of a female Bulgarian quartet, initiating and affirming the theme of home and adversity.

The ‘family’ exit and, the traditional element of any fashion show, the catwalk, begins. The final element of the show, after the catwalk, are where Chalayan’s influences are displayed most potently. Here we see four models enter, dressed in reserved, mutual, dresses and footwear, instantly conjuring up the somber feelings evoked by the initial ‘family’ unit.The models then proceed to remove the chair covers, converting them into pinaforeesque garments as they put them on, perhaps

‘Family’ as part of the ‘Afterwords’ runway show 2000

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Series of shots from ‘One Hundred and Eleven’ 2007

suggesting a need to be protected from the imagined dust of war. The mute colours of the grays and lavender stand in stark contrast to the red, perhaps signaling danger. Upon completing the chair-cover pinafores, the chairs are then folded into suitcases which, of course, suggest travel and the packing of belongings, the suitcases, as items themselves, continuing the formal aspect of the show.

Whilst the four models remain standing in a line, each next to their respective suitcase, a fifth model enters, removing the centerpiece from the coffee table, stepping inside and transforming it into a dress. Exiting the stage, the models then leave behind a stark,empty and rather eerie, white space, of what was formally a family ‘living-room’. The space left behind evokes a sense of emptiness and bleakness one may associate with a desolate city, town

Invitation card for ‘Place/Non-Place’ 2003 5

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or village overwhelmed by conflict. From the carefully selected clothing designs, colours used and household items selected a very definitive atmosphere is created which clearly speaks of Chalayan’s past and how this past has influenced and informed not just his designs but the message he is aiming to encapsulate.

Thus, we see past the simple guise of travel to a fashion designed to speak through the industry norms really displaying the ‘intellectualrigor’ imbedded into all of Chalayan’s pieces.

‘Chalayan is a thinker who refutes the premise that fashion and the other creative industries are separate entities.’

If one is to further explore the premise surrounding ‘Afterwords’, in terms that Chalayan’s designs display more than a visual aesthetic, rather a mesh of thought, rigor, intellectual thinking and deep influence.

What is also clear from looking at Chalayan’s concept designs on a whole is that, year on year, he draws on the techniques and skillsets of professions out-with the regular perceptions and expectations of the fashion industry. “Chalayan is a thinker who refutes the premise that fashion and the other creative industries are separate entities.” In the pieces ‘Before Minus Now’ and ‘Place/Non-Place’ we see inspiration borrowed from aviation, in terms of technology, appearance and overtones. In ‘Echoform’ we see inspiration through mechanics and automotive elements.

‘One Hundred And Eleven’ displayed fashion

innovations in mechanics and engineering where ‘Ventriloquy’ makes use of digital visuals and technology to set the character of the show.

‘everything has been done in one way or another’ Chalyan enjoys making a project, whether it is his art projects or catwalk shows like ‘Afterwords’, as a performance. The fashion show is the important event for all fashion designers as it is the first chance people are able to see the designer’s new creations. Chalayan has his own unique take on the catwalk show. It is thought that he has designed a new language in which fashion shows are undertaken.There is a balance in his shows with themes and ideas that remain as a constant coupled with new concepts and images. A continuous theme throughout his shows is the notion of a journey.

The journey of the collection will form new identities from the locations that have been used to inspire. Chalayan comments saying “I am interested in identifying the details that bind a garment to a location and the dialogue between identity and place, which are ongoing themes in my work.” In all shows they will exhibit the new image of the body and focus on the self image, as that is what essentially fashion and design are. The classic notion of fashion has changed and he views the show to be a ‘live version of a pop video’, something that is disposable, displaying the new image of the body with a ‘popularist aura’ surrounding it. He incorporates art and performance alongside the accepted norms of the catwalk show by which the models walk to display murdo mcdermid

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Digital intoduction sequence to ‘Ventriloquy’ 2001

the clothes. As with all areas of his work he enjoys incorporating new technology he says “Technology is really the only thing through which you can do new things...everything has been done in one way or another...it allows you to create new combinations, new relationships, new interactions” However, Chalayan creates his ideas and then incorporates a technology that is suitable for the performance rather than letting technology be the driving force of the collection and over power his collections. His recent fashion show for his spring/summer collection entitled ‘Sip’ explores his desire to incorporate technology with his work.

The show is a comment on contemporary culture and how we look at art. We have

aspirations to have a cultural insight but do not always appreciate or understand what we are looking at in a gallery context. As with all shows the success, in Chalayans view, is to outdo the previous performance and exceed the expectations of the audience. He does this with technology. He uses technology to further extend the theme of the self image by using small LED cameras in champagne glasses and when the model takes a sip from the cup a projection of themselves are projected on the screen. It is a comment on art, implying we are more concerned about our self image and appearing to be cultured in a gallery environment rather than understanding and appreciating the art that is put before us.

Models ‘sipping’ drinks while looking at the artwork during ‘Sip’ 2012

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Although there is this performance element in his shows; Chalayan insists that they are about the clothes and he just creates an environment that enhances the idea of the project and is an extension of the themes created by the clothes rather than being a distraction.

Chalayans pieces are not only fashion based the Aeroplane dress was also an art project combining art and fashion. He views himself as a cross-disciplinary artist and does not wish to be compartmentalised by his fashion work. He explores other medium to express his philosophies and does so through his Art Projects. Chalayan delves into the themes and subjects he wants to portray and chooses a

Runway shot with the three models in the background, ‘Sip’ 2012

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Series of images from ‘I Am Sad Leyla’ 2010

medium that fits the philosophy instead of being constrained by fashion. The projects allow him to explore, through alternative methods, themes and issues that inspire him which include technology, music, synaesthesia and his cultural heritage. One of Chalayan’s recent exhibitions was I am sad Leyla (Üzgünüm Leyla). This was an art and fashion cross-over installation with an accompanying film that was exhibited at the Lisson Gallery in London. It consisted of a multi-room exhibition using a combination of audio, video, sculpture and fashion in order to deconstruct Chalayan’s Turkish music heritage.

Chalayan, throughout his works incorporates his rich cultural heritage exploring different elements and using a variety of medium to help express this. The concept behind this exhibition was to take the genre of classical Turkish music and put it into a new context.

This genre of music has been through many musical structures due to the unstructured nature of Turkish history. In order to achieve this vision, Chalayan deconstructs the piece through in these rooms in order to explore the evolving nature of his home land; commenting on the country’s political reforms, conquests and its geo political and cultural relations. He recontexturalises this piece further by putting it in an unfamiliar environment, this further extended the shifting and evolving nature of the piece; his Turkish heritage and reiterates its power. It is journey of progression with the first room only exhibiting the voice; followed by the next space which displayed a life size sculpture of the singer, Sertab Erener. The journey was then continued to the main zone on the lower floor which showed the whole 7

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performance; followed by the final room a performance enhancing with music and which played the score with a projection of staging. His aim is to extend the theme the solo orchestra.This exhibition addresses onto the setting that surrounds the pieces. the notion of synaesthesia by exploring the Chalayan’s work also often portrays a self separation of the elements into individual descried ‘architectonic’ influence. However, components the viewers desire is to fuse one must make the distinction between them together in the space. Chalayan allows architectural and architectonic as fashion, a cross over between his works commenting technology and architectural author Bradley that the art projects and fashion collections Quinn highlights when he quotes Chalayan as work together ‘It’s created a richer platform saying;‘Describing my clothes as“architectural” for its existence, and many times sales of is too simplistic,because there is a big difference my art works have between designing enabled production ‘Describing my clothes buildings and doing of my collections.’ as “architectural” is too what I do, and I have simplistic, because there is never lookd specifically His art projects and a big difference between at architecture for collections are not designing buildings and inspiration, […] One separate entities he doing what I do, and I have thing to keep in mind is tries to intertwine them never lookd specifically at that, when fashion looks so one feeds off of the architecture for inspiration, modular and structured, other an example is his […] One thing to keep in mind people automatically art project Afterwords is that, when fashion looks call it architectural which later became part modular and structured, when it isn’t’ It is the of his Autumn/Winter people automatically call it design process itself 2000 collection. As architectural when it isn’t’ that provides the key with most of Chalayan’s relationship between work it comments on what is going on Chalayan’s pieces and architecture. Quinn in society but coupled it with his Turkish again quotes Chalayan as saying ‘The idea is the Cypriot roots. At the time of the collection epicenter of the process’. From this, one can the conflict in Kosovo was prominent in the easily liken Chalayan’s design process with that news. It is inspired by the horror and turmoil of the architect’s, a physical element, without that comes with leaving your home at times fully predefined shape, form or structure of war.As we have seen, the concept of being growing from an idea or concept, developing a refugee is transferred to his collection the idea as it forms to create the final piece. through the idea of camouflage and hiding.

Chalyan enjoys making a project, whether it is his art projects or catwalk shows, as murdo mcdermid

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Bibliography Books: Evans, Caroline, Suzy Menkes, Ted Polhemus, and Bradley Quinn.

Hussein Chalayan.

Rotterdam: NAI, 2005.

Hodge, Brooke, Patricia Mears, and Susan Sidlauskas. Skin + Bones.

Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2006.

Websites: Hussein Chalayan: www.husseinchalayan.com Hussein Chalayan: designmuseum.org/ exhibitions/2009/husseinchalayan The world of Hussein Chalayan: fashion.telegraph.co.uk/ columns/hilary-alexander/ TMG8459305/The-worldof-Hussein-Chalayan.html Designer Profile: Hussein Chalayan http://www. londonfashionweek. co.uk/designer_profile. aspx?DesignerID=1532 Turkish-Cypriot Online Museum of Fine Arts http://www.cypnet.co.uk/ ncyprus/culture/mofa/ design/chalayan/ Felix Burrichter Interviews Hussein Chalayan Interview Magazine www.interviewmagazine. com/fashion/felixburrichter-interviewshussein-chalayan#_ Hint Fashion Magazine -- Hinterview: Hussein Chalayan www.hintmag. com/hinterview/ husseinchalayan/ husseinchalayan01.php THE ART OBJECT: Hussein Chalayan at the Design Museum theartobject.blogspot. com/2009/02/husseinchalayan-at-designmuseum.html Chalayan Fashion Shows: Designer Directory on Style.com http://www.style. com/fashionshows/ designerdirectory/ HCHALAYA/seasons/ murdo mcdermid

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AlexanderMcQueen ‘The Haute Collective’

ALEXANDERMCQUEEN

“The hooligan of British fashion.”

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lexander McQueen was Born in London in 1969, to a working class family. He designed dresses for his three sisters starting at a young age and went on to receive an O level in art. Instead of going to college he went straight into work. His mother pushed him to get a job on Savile Row as an apprentice for two British tailors, Anderson + Sheppard & Gieves + Hawkes. He also worked for costume designersAngels & Bermans.Unlike the majority of designers he got the technical education of this trade in the traditional manner giving him extensive knowledge of bespoke and traditional men’s tailoring and design. However extreme his designs may be they are executed with all the precision of bespoke menswear.

Clients during his apprenticeships included Prince Charles and Mikhail Gorbachev. He famously put “I am a cunt” in the lining of the Prince of Wales jacket. After leaving London he worked for Japanese designer, Koji Tatsuno and Romeo Gigli in Milan. It was while working with Gigli that he learnt the power of the press and he wanted to know why he had all the attention. It had little to do with the clothes and more to do with the person. He realized this is fundamentally true of anybody.

Any interest in the clothes is secondary to the interest in the designer. Buzz around the person is just as important to generate the buzz about the clothes.Alexander returned to London to teach at Central Saint Martins as a pattern cutter tutor. His portfolio of work since leaving school was so strong the Head of the Masters course convinced him to enrol and get his masters degree in fashion design. His graduation collection was bought in its entirety chris nicholson

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by Vogue fashion editor Isabella Blow, (now fashion director of the Sunday Times) who is labelled as launching his career by wearing the collection in a Vogue shoot. She was the one who told him to drop his first name Lee and label the brand as Alexander, more exotic. It was during his 2nd collection, McQueen’s Theatre of Cruelty, when he met Katy England Fashion Director at Dazed & Confused Magazine.Alexander McQueen was inspired by her personal style and this relationship led to her becoming his right hand woman.

Thus, Katy England joined Alexander in his third collection, “The Birds” as “creative director.”

She worked with McQueen thereafter, greatly influencing his work and also served her creative consultancy during his tenure at Givenchy. McQueen

style developed a reputation for controversy and shock tactics. He was called by many as the hooligan of English Fashion and is

‘Fall Collection’ -2009

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Resort Collection - 2001

known for his unconventional approach to runway shows. They are lavish and usually theatrical performances, which bring drama and extravagance to catwalk. He used new technology to shock audience by adding fantasy and rebellion to fashion. McQueen was notorious for runway acts such as pulling chains through the crotch, blank eyed hit and run victims, fake blood, tire tracks across the face, models bound in cello tape. 2003’s Shipwreck and 2005’s Human chess game are great examples of shock performances. During his 2006 Collection, “Widows of Culloden”

‘Everything I’ve done since then was for the purpose of making women look stronger, not naïve. When people called me a misogynist I was angry. They didn’t know me.

That was the first thing about fashion that I hated, people labelling me without knowing me. I am constantly reflecting the way women re treated.’

Kate Moss was displayed as a hologram dressed in yards of rippling fabric. McQueen expressed his ideas about women and violence in his runway shows. This stemmed from his rough childhood of violence in his family.When he was 8 he witnessed one of his older sisters husbands beat her to near death. Wanted to get the motherly look of women out of the picture. Liberation is a big part of his image.

The press could insult him about anything but he wasn’t bothered. However when he was called a misogynist you saw the anger and determination that drove him. His signature

‘Fall Collection’ - 1999 11

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Finale sequence‘Givenchy’ from ‘Afterwords’ - Spring 2000 1999

collection, The Overlook included models with painted white stripes across their eyes rendering them anonymous and expressionless.

Models during the runway show were painted by robots as they spun to demonstrate how man is in control of society. In 1996 McQueen was appointed head designer at Givenchy upon John Gallianos move to Christian Dior.

McQueen famously insulted the founder for being irrelevant, however his first collection at Givenchy was unsuccessful. It was later toned down but he still added his rebellious streak to the companies look. He left Givenchy in 2001 because it was constraining his creativity. In retrospect he claimed that he was too young to take on Givenchy, however it could not have been handled differently. McQueen had six major impact son the fashion world. He developed the bumster trouser in his 1996 collection, Highland Rape. This first hit, which exposed the upper part of the rear end commented on England’s political rape over Scotland using dark and tortured imagery of Scottish history. The bumster was a sensation

Invitation card for ‘Afterwords’ 2000

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and his name became known throughout the fashion world. This spawned a trend in lowrise jeans. He was also famous for utilizing mould-breaking models.Amputees, obese, and dark skinned models were present in most of his runway shows. He caused controversy

‘I don’t think you can become a good designer, or a great designer, or whatever. To me, you just are one. I think to know about colour, proportion, shape, cut, balance is part of a gene.’ in 1998 by celebrating amputee victims with Aimmee Mullins by painting her white with intricately carved wooden legs. McQueen’s impeccable tailoring skills are what allowed him to flourish in upper class markets.“He also created beautiful, beautiful wearable clothes… the razor-sharp suit, the pencil skirts, the beautiful prints in the spring and summer collection.” Runway models also included extreme accessorizing and silhouettes, such as headpieces, high-heeled shoes and dense makeup. His silhouettes have been credited for adding a sense of fantasy, rebellion and edge to fashion. He said his working class route were attractive to people because they can connect with him. Skull prints became a popular motif of his. The McQueen trademark scarf bearing this design became a most have among the rich and famous. His ttheatrical catwalk shows were pushing the limits of a runway production adding political statements to dramatic performances. He made shows that

‘Bad Romance’ 2000

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Sarah Burton Dress ‘Royal Wedding’ 2011

people not only watched, but thought about.

Alexander McQueen was the recipient of many awards such as the British Designer of the Year Award, four times from 1996 to 2003 and the 2003 International Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers.

In 2005 he designed a line for Puma and in 2006 he launched McQ, a younger, cheaper line launched for men and women as well as a dress line called Manta. He outfits have become a staple label at celebrity red carpet

events.Although McQueen is now a household name, it is one of the ironies of the designer fashion industry that you see very few people actually wearing his high fashion clothes.

McQueen understood this and did both during his career. McQueen used fashion to make political statements while also designing luxury brands.“If you want a starving Ethiopian on a jacket, then come to McQueen in London, If you want luxury come to Givenchy. I do both.

I’m a fashion schizophrenic” – Vogue 1997. He

has inspired the likes of Lady Gaga who wore McQueen in her 2009 video “Bad Romance.”

Gaga wore 12 inch heels, head silhouettes, various outfits and displayed themes of violence towards women. As of February 2010 following McQueens death, his long time assistant Sarah Burton took over as creative director. She has since debuted various lines from the brand and dressed the likes of Michelle Obama and most famously Kate Middleton. In 2011 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New

‘Savage Beauty’ 2009 13

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Bibliography Books: Frankel, Susannah.

“Alexander McQueen.”

Visionaries: Interviews with Fashion Designers.

London: V&A, 2001. 10-23.

Print.

Watson, Linda. Twentieth Century Fashion. London: Carlton, 2008. 298-99.

Print.

‘Visionaries’ 2001

Browne, Alix. “Alexander McQueen.” Visionaire’s Fashion 2000: Designers at the Turn of the Millennium.

By Stephen Gan. London: Laurence King, 1997. Print.

Websites: How McQueen Impacted Fashion. http:// news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ magazine/8511404.stm

York featured “Savage Beauty.” The exhibition was the most viewed in museum history, which expresses the huge interest and love of the McQueen brand following his death.

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VivienneWestwood

VIVIENNEWESTWOOD

“We expect clothes to say more than ‘I am wearing a smart outfit.’ Which is why we have Vivienne Westwood.”

V

ivienne Westwood is a famous fashion designer who brings historical elements into current fashion culture. In particular she is accredited for the invention of punk fashion which displayed a great understand of the need for expression through clothes. In this presentation we aim to provide a critique of her role and inventions within the fashion industry.

“We weren’t only rejecting the values of the older...” Vivienne Westwood’s early interest with crafts was encouraged by her family; her mother was a cotton weaver and her father’s family were shoe-makers. Westwood studied Fashion and Silversmithing at the Harrow School of Art, however she left after only one semester. She soon realised there was no money to be made in the world of art and instead studied to become a teacher.

She continually designed clothes, for herself and her husband Derek Westwood, while she taught until 1971. After divorcing her husband and meeting Malcolm McLaren she opened her own boutique called “Let it Rock”.A short while after McLaren, became the manager of the punk band the Sex Pistols who wore Vivienne and Malcolm’s designs. Vivienne is well known for her interest in the 1970’s punk phenomenon and was awarded an OBE in 1992 and the Queens Award for Export in 1998.

There were a number of influences which played a role throughout Westwood’s fashion career.

From a young age, Westwood was strongly inspired by Dior. She admired the masculinefeminine designs, where the masculine looks were adapted in feminine bodies. Dior’s exaggeration of the female figure inspired her florence donaldson

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own interestsin the human body. Westwood was particularly influenced by Royalty. As a young adult she was astounded that the Royal family would entertain presidents or leaders of countries who were torturing their people on a daily basis. She believed royalty was at the very heart of the fashion industry and they should exploit their potential influence.

Malcolm McLaren studied in many colleges and his interests were fashion, politics, music and graphic design. His role within the Punk band the Sex Pistols was a huge influence to Westwood, in her opinion music and fashion go side by side. His political attitude helped Westwood too, as she called it, “align herself”.

McLaren inspired Westwood to believe in her individual and different clothes while making her brave enough to explore beyond the norm:

“Lock into a historical narrative..” Westwood’s way of working involved looking into the past, taking parts of clothes she liked and giving them a modern edge. She took inspiration from the chaos of the past; she believed chaos is continually discovered and filled with beautiful surprises.The Classical Greek period, French art and literature and violent images of art were of great interest to Westwood.

The elegant and sexy looks taken from the past show Westwood’s respect for tradition, culture and dignity.Westwood found paintings very inspirational, mainly because of their

“We weren’t only rejecting the values of the older generation, we were rejecting their taboos as well” When Westwood was worried about things, like wearing a swastika on her arm, McLaren assured her she should. McLaren made Westwood realise the things she was missing, for example she would only look at cultures and rebelliousness she had personally experienced, but he encouraged her to do something more romantic,looking deeper into history to realise clothes used to be about changing the shape of the body and experimenting with sex appeal.

Westwood saw McLaren as a good person who used and abused existing ideas; a person who would edit her work and support her.

Photograph from ‘London Fashion Week 2011

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Historical Influences - Paintings

rhythm and harmony, which she wanted to express through her clothes. Vivienne not only reproduced images on fabrics, she also took inspiration from portraits emulating the quality of brushwork. An example is Gainsborough’s blouse with heavy layers and deep flounces falling into a deep point. Also the painting “The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus” by Peter Paul Rubens which is used on a large shawl, demonstrating her fascination with the unclothed body and ever-changing ideas of female beauty:

saw a crucifix. She was stunned this image had been kept from her and a sweeter image of religion had been portrayed. Soon after she lost her faith in religion and along with that her trust in adults for portraying an inaccurate picture of the world. This could be a leading factor in why Westwood rebelled against the ordinary.

The idea of rock’n’roll and kids running crazy in the 50s drove the couple to create clothes from unusual materials that people wouldn’t normally buy, such as mohair. Such anti- fashion clothes were initially collaged, through the process of ripping, knotting, cutting and rolling, to create nipple-revealing zippers, filled with

“Lock into a historical narrative that transcends nostalgia, which they subvert, through manipulation of the form and structure of clothing.”

Gary Ness, a Canadian painter and reader, had a great influence on Westwood’s work, mainly by introducing her to European paintings, writers Bertrand Russell and Aldous Huxley and music by Chopin and Ravel. Westwood felt that Ness could point out areas of study and lead her in the right direction with regards to her fashion research.

He helped to derive the titles for Vivienne’s collections and any accompanying statements.

McLaren andWestwood opened the store “Let it Rock” in the 1970s which introduced Punk to fashion. This was then copied by other stores.

Westwood first realised there was a much grimmer world than had been portrayed to her as a child. Around the age of eight Westwood 17

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The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus Autumn/Winter 1993

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‘Britain Must Go Pagan’ 1988 - 1990

chains, studs, and feathers. Westwood used unusual techniques to create such clothes, for example ripping the material with bike tyres or using boiled chicken bones to emphasise style was born from the kids running crazy.

Westwood incorporated fabrics and colours others had previously missed.She chose natural fabrics which required high maintenance at a time when fashion was focusing on ease of care and wear. These clothes combined all the things McLaren and Westwood were interested in. Her designs were the beginning of Punk, creating outrage on a larger scale than previously seen in the 50’s. For people rebelling against the authority of a state, Punk was a transformation of obscure zips,straps and sexual fetishism into fashion, making it a modern look.

During 60s and early 70s Hippie style was most common around the world. Wearing bright colours with psychedelic patterns which contrasted the darker patterns of Punk.

Hippies rejected work except in their own communes to avoid responsibility and get closer to nature. Hippies were very peaceful and restrictive towards marriage and sex, however eventually they rebelled against their believes which planted a seed for Punk to flourish, a fashion which contrasted their popular style.

To them the psychedelic patterns meant peace, quietness and love and the vivid, bright colours had hypnotic intensions. Unlike Punks who seemed aggressive and rebellious. The dark colours, processes the clothes went through and the final outcome of ripped parts, zips and pins all created a feeling of anger and aggression.

Westwood’s and McLaren’s work of normative gender and class coding brought working florence donaldson

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class issues into clothes. They influenced fashion designers like Raf Simons and Martin Margiela. People started analysing Punk, taking the simple square shapes from Westwood’s designs, and using inexpensive fabrics to create their own designs in art schools.

Sexuality can be seen in all of Westwood’s collections. The Punk and Pirate themed catwalk shows and “Britain must go Pagan” collection all explore her interest in sex. She uses special cuts and proportion of detail to add flirting to her designs, like a bow which is easily undone. The idea of woman wearing tight and small clothes gives a sense of sexuality.

Westwood’s understanding of a female body started in her teenage years, when she customised her school uniform and started wearing pencil skirts to emphasise her body shape and symbolise sexuality. Westwood wanted to explore freedom through clothes, and in the process she rebelled against the establishment with sexuality in her fashion.

She encountered limits when she launched a series of pornographic T-shirts during her Punk period, her and McLaren got prosecuted for “exposing to public view an indecent exhibition”. Westwood tried to incorporate sex into fashion by simply bringing sex appeal into her ideas for clothes.

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Series of shots from ‘One Hundred and Eleven’ 2007

She looked for sex appeal in clothes of the past, which she found shockingly different and tried to recreate it with a modern tweek. She was particularly interested in using undergarments to change the shape of women’s clothes, for a more feminine feeling. Undergarments gives a balletic, elegant posture, swinging in a sexy way.Vivienne strongly believed that to achieve a sexy female look you’re required to reveal areas of flesh.The emphasis on hips, shoulders, waist and bust were very important and had to be contrasting to masculine styles. She was concerned about many little details, especially about a woman’s posture and movement, which she tried to alter through specially designed shoes. Westwood understands women very well which makes her designs so successful. Her clothes express women’s moods,while conveying beauty and intelligence.

In the mid 80’s Vivienne reintroduced the corset as outerwear, to highlight the female figure, which had previously been worn as underwear. The idea of wearing underwear as outerwear gave not only the sense of being watched but also revealed flesh.The intention of the revival of the corset was to make women feel ultra-feminine, sexually empowered and to make the garment appropriate to modern day. In time, corsets began to symbolise female sexual empowerment. An example of fabric Westwood liked using for female clothes is plastic whalebone, as it was hard to notice and was very comfortable. The impression of barely wearing anything appealed to Westwood as it gave sex appeal and absurdity.

The understanding of a female figure helped Vivienne’s interpretation of the male body, she believed male sexuality should be expressed

with some feminine looks. SometimesVivienne preferred showing pieces of clothing without any trousers on, but with knitted tights, to highlight a jacket or a top. This image was created from the classical proportions of nudity.

Sexuality was not considered important in clothes, therefore the development of Punk by other designers did not continue its sex appeal.

The style was carried on through plain, mute colours with minimal adornment, baggy jeans or work pants, athletic wear, cargo or military shorts; slightly different from what Westwood was designing. During 60s and early 70s loose clothes lacking sex appeal were most popular,for example long, loose peasant or granny dresses.

“Vivienne Westwood’s involvement in the radical world of punk culture had reshaped the creative direction of a whole generation.”

“Vivienne Westwood’s involvement in the radical...” Radical Fashion incorporates ideas of the changing world, shifting patterns of consumerism and ideas of public image. This said, there is more to fashion than clothes; the fashion industry opens a realm for video, sound, light, musicians, poets, architects and fine artists. Certain clothes, like buildings, become associated with time and clothes are essentially a representation of your inner self: The renewal of fashions is driven by commercial importance, the customer and fascination.Westwood’s work is an expression of her thought - her work and personality are

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Different people wearing Westwood’s designs

complex, she sees fashion and clothes as a “key to other ways of experiencing the world”.

All fashion has a connection with past and future, ultimately truly radical work is original. The British have a reputation for being unfashionable and even hating fashion and lack a strong fashion industry compared to the likes of France of Italy. The education of fashion, however, is considered highly.

Westwood’s shopes were not really about selling things, she was more interested in the theatrical appearance. Her clothes may be bought and hung as pieces of art, rather than worn which suggests her clothes had a much deeper meaning to a number of people.

Westwood was most famous for pornographic T-shirts and bondage trousers within the punk culture of the 1970-80’s. As punk evolved so too did Westwood’s work, she is known for challenging conventional forms of dress however she always has respect for traditional methods,she uses her historic dress knowledge to create a rapport between the clothes and the body which ultimately informs her choice of fabric, trimmings and decorations. For example her use of denim and stretch fabrics is inspired by her interest in 16th and 17th century fashion.

The definition of “Radical” Fashion is not entirely clear, it can be noted that some fashion designers go beyond conventional design and create an unwritten, unpredictable future for the fashion industry, and this is what we could define as “radical”.

“No one is supposed to stand out anymore...”

Westwood is an iconic designer for young aspiring fashion designers as she knows all florence donaldson

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too well the troubles they are faced with.

Westwood believes the need for money is only for materialistic things which is probably a result of her own struggles financially, before she was able to capatilise on her designs. It did not help that the media were not particularly supportive of her role within the fashion industry and the influence her designs had on the vulnerably young in particular. Westwood’s designs are created in London and reflect the citys’ edgy creativity and the energy generated by the citys’ innovative designers, musicians and artists.

The media portrays Westwood’s designs as interesting but unwearable, she is continually criticised for being too controversial. However her opinion was that if people cannot see the funny side of her work then she cannot help it.Westwood’s clothes can be seen worn by a huge variety of different people, who each make her elements of clothing their own. To highlight her dislike for the media and the poor way in which it portrayed her designs Westwood does not own a television and rarely buys any magazines or newspapers:.

“No one is supposed to stand out anymore and everyone is supposed to be no better than anyone else. For the same reasons I also hate magazines and I hate television.”

John Galliano was an up and coming fashion designer in the 90’s. His work, alike to Westwood’s is considered “Radical”. Galliano attended a private school for boys where

he was always immaculately dressed by his mother in clothes which lacked creativity and colour. It wasn’t until he moved to study design in London that he found people who dressed more like he wanted to. In 1984 he graduated and successfully sold his collection. In 1995 he became head designer of Givency and after two years he moved to Christian Dior. With financial backing from Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy he was able to continue his own fashion line. Similar to Westwood Galliano seeks inspiration from historical fashion, however his interests are rooted within Native American fashion, for example the Indians in Peter Pan. UnlikeWestwood, Galliano’s alliance does not lie with Britain, he is based in Paris however it is often suggested that his designs have something particularly British about them. Galliano believes his work is a hybrid of historical and cultural elements and invents a new contemporary, where “Creativity has no nationality”. Unlike Westwood, Galliano received a lot of support from the fashion industry and media. After his successful first collection he was given the window of Browns, owned by Joan Burstein, who was extremely impressed with his collection. He quickly discovered running a fashion company in Britain would prove economically difficult and moved to Paris where Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vogue, took him under her wing and secured him a backer.

He received huge praise from the French media and his designs were licensed for Vogue Patterns. Ultimately the work of Westwood and Galliano could be noted as quite similar.

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fashion history and enjoyed experimenting with romanticism, however the way in which they got to their current status in the fashion industry could not be more different.

Dissimilar to Westwood, Hussein Chalayan is a designer whose work is described as difficult and intellectual. Within his designs the concepts are more important to him than the clothes, a completely different approach to that taken by Westwood, where the figure informs the clothes. His fashion creations are inspired by religion, isolation and oppression. Chalayah didn’t particularly research current and historical fashion and was more interested in ideas, in particular, religion. He is interested in the impact religion has on people’s lives and wants to force people to consider it. Unlike Westwood, Chalayan is not interested in sex, his clothes are not to

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be envisaged as sexy and nor does he want them to be. Where Westwood typically creates sexy corsets to highlight the female figure, Chalayan creates surgical corsets which imply the body is wounded and vulnerable.

Space is also an important consideration for Chalayan, he sees clothing as an intimate zone around the body, then architecture as a larger one, where clothes exist as a territory.

Westwood’s way of working can be easily compared to other artists who lived in times of Vivienne. Madeleine Vionnet had a similar method of working to Westwood. Both were skilled in craftsmanship and preferred dressing dummies rather than drawing their ideas, like most designers did. Westwood and Vionnet saw the meaning of material as both humans and clothes, where clothes give expressions to the body. They played with materials and used the same cutting techniques to employ geometric principles.Both designers understood good design as beautiful form.

Similarly to the fashion designer Jean Muir, Westwood learned needlework at an early age, valuing the craftsmanship their whole lives.

Their curiosity and willingness to experiment, allowed them to invent and try out various ways of knitting, embroidering and sewing.

This allowed both Westwood and Muir to understand their clothes and how they are put together.The fact they,themselves,put together all their clothes engaged them closer to their designs,gaining a better understanding of a body.

Above all Vivienne believes fashion should be frivolous and fun.The influence Westwood had on fashion from the 1960’s was unprecedented,

she brought the new culture Punk to fashion which contrasted with the current fashion ideologies of the time. This made other designers consider the body and sexuality in a manner never done before. Her understanding of the female and male figure, which in turn give emphasis to hips, shoulders, waist and bust, are shown throughout her collections. Some of Westwood’s basic ideas for her designs have similarities with the likes of Madeleine Vionnet and Jean Muir but it is the way in which she was brought up and her disbelieve in materialistic things which sets her apart from John Galliano.

However she would not have achieved all she did without the influence of Gary Ness, The Royal Family, Sexuality, the history of fashion and in particular Malcolm McLaren, he ultimately gave Westwood bravery to push her ideas to the extreme by believing in her own work even when she received little support from the media. Ultimately Westwood designs for people who do not know they want something until they see it, she had strong support from a very rebellious group of people which is one of the reasons why Westwood’s designs could be seen as Radical. Westwood is now more famous for combining elements and fabrics of typically British uniforms, for example the tartan from a kilt, and giving them an edgy London style to create something truly unique. Westwood does and others follow.

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Bibliography Books: Vermorel, Fred. Fashion and Perversity: A life of Vivenne Westwood and the sixties laid bare.

Bloomsbury Publishing.

1996.

Wilson, Philip. Vivienne Westwood: A London Fashion. Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd. Lon- don.

2000.

Wilcox, Claire. Radical Fashion. V&A Publications.

London. 2001.

Wilcox, Claire. Vivienne Westwood. V & A Publications. First Edition.

London. 2004.

Krell, Gene. Vivienne Westwood. Thames and Hudson Ltd. First Edition.

London. 1997.

Websites: www.retrowow.co.uk/ retro_style/60s/60s_ fashion.html www.womens-fashion. lovetoknow.com/1960s_ Hippie_Fashion Film: Greenwood, Gillian.

Vivienne Westwood.

A London Weekend Production for ITV. London. 1990.

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HusseinChalayan AlisonWatt in herphotographed studio

by Chris Moore 23

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ALISONWATT

“I love the challenge of painting something white.”

A

lison Watt OBE, born 1966 in Greenock, has become one of Scotland’s leading contevmporary artists. She continuously rouses her audience through her obdurate traditionalist painting methods, whilst each exhibition she produces can be seen as another phase in her correlation and advancement towards modernist and abstract art. Her controlled manner and precision successfully demonstrates her concern for classical art and masters, such as French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, who have been the catalytic inspirations to many of her solo exhibitions.

Her portfolio of work has progressed from nudes in desolate surroundings, to nudes surrounded by and shrouded in cloth (often self-portraits), on to diptychs of figures complementing and contrasting with fabric.

As a student of Glasgow School of Art, she was one of last major figurative artists to have graduated in the 80s. Her career took off at the tender age of 21 after winning the John Player Portrait Award in 1989, with her austere self-portrait in which she is seen with a plain white teacup upon her head. This exposure channelled her career towards the commission of painting Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in which case she again deliberately chose to include an upside down teacup in the foreground of her composition.

She defended her piece claiming that;

‘It’s good to use everyday objects in an unsual way.’

“It’s good to use everyday objects in an unusual wynne mcleish

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way. I like my pictures to be humorous; taken light heartedly but holding your attention. I hate boring; traditional still lives and I love the

would even acknowledge his influence by titling her paintings similar to his.

Examples such as J. A. D. Ingres’s La Source,

challenge of painting something white.”

However, like many artists before, her work sparked tabloid controversy.

From this, she showed promise by defending her work and maturely dealing with the media mistreatment and the doubt with humor and decorum.

Through the nineties Watt’s preliminary work began to converge around lighthearted, imaginative scenarios that mainly depicted bathers posed in front of a flat architectural backdrop.

She would often reinterpret classical compositions in her modernist style. In many of her works she

‘The Queen Mother ’ 1989

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Fold ‘Fragment VII’ 1997

Aeroplane Dress - Films stills

by Marcus Watt.

A ‘The Tomlinson Source’

and Watt’s The Source as seen above.

Gradually she became more absorbed and investigative in conveying the quality of fabric, austere bleached interior compositions and cropped anatomy. Her exhibition Fold in 1996-7, displayed at the Fruit Market gallery in Edinburgh, enabled the public to witness first hand, her drapery fascination, simultaneously alongside cropped nudes.The appeal had sprung from her extensive studying of Ingres and his approach to painting cloth. This predominant focus was based on his handling of the lush and furrowed folds, examples such as his painting of Odalisque with Slave (1842) and Madame Riviere, a title which she gives to one of her abstract fabric pieces later on, in which to define the human presence absent in her work.

J. A. D. Ingres ‘La Source’

purity and sensuality. Watt’s new paintings possess a meditative or spiritual quality, their huge scale inviting the viewer’s physical participation, his or her willingness to be ‘enveloped’. This was a remarkable series of new works, carefully considered and meticulously crafted and is imbued with a sense of maturity and assurance, something that contradicts Watt’s age at the time.

As a student, her extensive use of brown paint was a habit she was stubborn to break.

It carried on throughout her early work such as in the bather’s antique costumes and

By the time her Shift exhibition was completed in 2000,Watt had pushed the human form out of the frame entirely, painting monumental canvases of cascading, pleated and ruched fabric, patterned and plain. This exhibition led her to become the youngest artist to be offered a solo exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. These exquisitely painted canvases edged further towards the abstract yet had a peculiar property, which suggested a human presence, or at least implicitly. She has even admitted that her fabric paintings were, in a way, her most human.

In their emptying of explicit figurative content and rejection of allegory and conceit, Watt’s latest ‘white paintings’ also recall modernist abstraction: the combination of 25

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Fold ‘A Serpentine Line’ 1997

other objects that provided her submissive tonal leverage. However, as she began to become expressive with documenting fabric, her fascination grew for painting white cloth.

Despite their appearance, her ‘white paintings’ were an array of colour amalgamated together to form the shades and folds of the subject.

In 2004, Watt’s ‘white paintings’ reached immense size with a 12ft painting displayed in Old St. Paul’s church in Edinburgh during the Festival. As well as paintings, also attributed to this exhibition, displayed in the Ingleby gallery, this piece was carefully considered to resonate the stillness and serenity of its architectural surroundings. Cleverly divided into four separate canvases it created a distinct cross between to reflect her catholic upbringing. Watt handpicked exhibition space, after carefully searching the city and wanted her work to attribute to the beauty and absorption of building, ‘I wanted to reflect my feeling about this space,’’ she explains. ‘’And it is a feeling of overwhelming sadness.’’

Shortly after ‘Still’ was exhibited at the memorial chapel at St. Paul’s in Edinburgh,

‘i wanted to feelings about and it is a overwhelming

‘Flat nude’ 1995

reflect my this space feeling of sadness .’

Alison Watt accepted an invitation to become an associate artist at the National Gallery in London. In 2006, she moved into the studio, and started to produce new work.Watt herself wynne mcleish

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Alison Watt ‘Shift’ Old St. Paul’s Church, Edinburgh 2004

admits that she became paralysed during her first four months at the National Gallery.

She felt so overwhelmed by the artists that were enclosed within the gallery walls; thus found it extremely difficult to start painting.

In 2008, Watt exhibited the paintings she had been working towards during her time as an associate artist, in an exhibition named ‘Phantom’. She had been heavily influenced by Zurbaran’s ‘Saint Francis in Meditation’. Watt became obsessed; there was a magnetism that drew her in each time she viewed it.

The painting is a riddle of light and shade; His battered sleeve, with a hole below the elbow, is brightly lit. His hood plunges the upper part of his face into darkness, and he holds a skull behind his praying hands. It

Invitation‘Saint card for ‘Afterwords’ 2000 Zurbaran’s Francis in Meditation’

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sent her work in a direction that she was not expecting, becoming the source of her creativity, and the springboard for her new art. It inspired her to pursue her love of fabric Her obsession with cloth and fabric, as seen in her previous works had now developed into something extraordinary; the cloth now appears to be animate. The canvases in this exhibition appear at first to be overwhelmingly white, but surprisingly, Watt uses a very varied palette that includes grey, burnt sienna, reds and yellows. She chooses titles for her works during their creation, or shortly after, selecting words with an ambiguity that allow spectators to find their own interpretations.

There is a distinct progression in the paintings;

‘Echo’

the first two Pulse and Echo have the common feature of a large knotted form. Both began with something real and tangible; generated partly from two photographs of carefully arranged swathes of fabric that Watt had taken.

(Change Slide) In contrast to the works found in Still, there is an aggressive thrust of material, compared to the light and delicate folds that were found in her previous exhibition.There is a forceful and physical property of the knots;the open folds at the top suggest a point of entry.

In the spring of 2010, Alison Watt was commissioned by the Uffizi Gallery, Florence to make a self-portrait to join their celebrated collections. This was very unusual, for Watt had moved away from painting the human figure, and was now edging

‘Family’ as part of the ‘Afterwords’Phantom2007 runway show‘Pulse’ 2000

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Phantom 2007 ‘Root’

more towards abstraction, as seen in the Phantom collection at the National Gallery.

However, during her time working towards the piece for the commission, Watt’s attention turned towards the young photographer Francesca Woodman.

Francesca Woodman was a photographer from NewYork, whose work consists of a body of approximately 800 photographs. At the age of 13, Woodman took her first photograph, entitled ‘Self Portrait at 13’. It demonstrated a way of hiding behind a camera, and found her abiding theme. Her works continued to be proactive and playful, with a mischievous yet very dark imagination. She often depicted herself nude, using herself organically to display a motive. Woodman played heavily with the

‘Vowel’

themes of identity;how a portrait can construct a fixed, false identity, reminding the viewer that photographs flatten and distort – they never offer the full truth of an image.The photography is an interplay of contradiction; hiding yet revealing, exposure yet disguising herself. At the age of 22, Woodman committed suicide in New York, and her work is often impinged by her early death. Watt became fascinated

by Woodman’s photography; yet found it disturbing, frightening and difficult to interpret.

Watt finds herself haunted by Woodman’s photography,in its ghostly and complicated form.

Watt became particularly interested in Woodman’s use of object in her self-portraits, and how the two elements of self and object emerge. Watt’s self portrait was titled ‘Angel’, named after the title ofWoodman’s photograph, and together they hung in the Uffizi exhibition.

This progressed towards Watt’s latest exhibition at the Ingleby Gallery Edinburgh, entitled ‘Hiding in full view’. It is a series of six pieces, and is collaboration between the poet, Don Paterson and again, Francesca Woodman.

F. Woodman ‘Fallen An’ 2003 27

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Don Paterson is a professor of poetry at the University of St.Andrews,and is highly regarded as the best Scottish contemporary poet. Both Watt and Paterson show an extraordinary attention to detail,and an obsessive personality in their art form. The poetry incorporated into the exhibition was written at the same time that Watt was painting, neither were a catalyst for one another. Both artists concealed their work until the final exhibition.

‘Eye’

The walls at the Ingleby gallery have been painted a dovetail grey. For Watt, it was important that the paintings were not enclosed within pure white gallery walls. It goes away from the modernist white cube, and towards more traditionalist ideals. Grey was chosen for its calming, sensual qualities, and it allows the full colour of the paintings to stand out. It was also the chosen colour for her exhibition at the National Gallery in London.

‘Hiding in full view’ relates to Watt’s own childhood memories of being enveloped in fabric. Watt herself does not know what the meanings are to her paintings, or what they are about. To Watt, the paintings already make her feel very exposed; to explain the meaning behind the paintings would take her down a conversational route that fills her with dread and exposure.

Watt believes this exhibition shows the most humanlike paintings she has ever completed, yet not a single image of a human face can be found. The human figure is still very important to her; she finds it ‘proportionately satisfying’.

It demonstrates a deep fascination with the possibilities of the suggestive power of fabric.

The images are deliberately unframed, as Watt believes that it allows the viewer to imagine the fabric sliding down to reveal more and to think outside of the painting. Some of her paintings in this exhibition are diptych, divided into two.The two diptych pieces were the first created and each would work on its own as a solo panel. The two diptychs reveal the same image but slipped down to reveal another view. wynne mcleish

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Alison Watt Hiding in full view ‘Rubicon’ 2011

Watts’ paintings show a progression in her work; she became more obsessed with the surface of her paintings. The paint surface is thicker, more solid with a greater texture that can be found in her previous pieces. The format is intended to be cinescope, instead of landscape, as Watt believes that this creates tension,and has a greater sense of composition.

Alison Watt is a woman and artist in control.

It has been intriguing to study Watt’s development of imagery through examining her work over the past decades. From bleached interiors filled with figures (often eccentric self-portraits) and humorous or emblematic objects; through to austere

nudes or cropped anatomy, isolated against neutral grounds; and finally to her current fascination in the properties of fabric itself and its power to induce the human form and emotion. Her devotion to the exhibition space and gallery colour her pieces are displayed in also make her an interesting artist as she is considerate of not only the impact of her paintings but the atmosphere and experience the public encounter when they view them.

Her inspiration and devotion to painters such as Ingres, truly displays her passion to preserve the compassion and jurisdiction evoked by classical oil painting, while simultaneously giving them a contemporary twist to cater for today’s modernist world.

Initially by her depiction of highly patterned material, and latterly plain cream material, in various semblances from taut tucks to cascading folds, Watt subtly and successfully suggests feelings from high tension to serenity

.

Alison Watt ‘Hiding in full view’ Ingelby Gallery, Edinburgh 2011

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Bibliography Books: Calcutt.J ‘Alison Watt: Paintings’ Momentum Publishing 1995 Keller.C ‘Francesca Woodman’ Distrubuted Art Publishers 2011 Paterson.D and Wiggins.C ‘Alison Watt: Phantom’ Yale University Press 2008 Paterson.D and Watt.A ‘Hiding in full view’ Ingleby Gallery 2011 Ingleby. R ‘Alison Watt’ Ingleby Gallery 2004 Townsend.R ‘Francesca Woodman’ Phaidon Press LTD 2006 Watt.A ‘Alison Watt: Fold (New Paintings 1996-97)’ Fruitmarket Gallery Press 1997 Watt.A ‘Shift’ SNGMA 2000 Watt.A ‘Still’ Ingleby Gallery 2004 Articles: Jones S.U Coming back into the fold The Herald 5.11.11 Mansfield S. Exploring hidden voids The Scotsman 15.12.11 Massie C. Hiding in full view The Spectator 28.11.11 Miller P. The dark angel The Sunday Herald 30.10.11 Sutherland G. Revelatory poetics of absence implying presence of sensuality The Times, 1.12.11 Wade M. Touching portrait of humanity in all its tender beauty and sadness The Times 5.11.11 Exhibitions – Alison Watt The Guardian Guide 5-11.11.11 Websites: www.ingelby.com

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CLAIREBARCLAY

“I’m trying to create a second skin within the gallery ... the sculptural details in the work are encountered within a particular environment rather than the neutral space.”

C

laire Barclay is a contemporary, Scottish visual artist. She creates temporary, insitu interventions, specific to the spaces in which they are exhibited and often made. We will discuss how her work operates at different scales in relation to the viewer, from the larger gallery and structural pieces to the smaller and more detailed handcrafted objects.We will examine the relationships between context, material, form and technique in Barclay’s work.

installations, which hint at the partial divisions between the internal and the external, are juxtaposed against the exposed brickwork of the gallery spaces, reminiscent of its streetscape. Every day objects, such as gloves and hats, are positioned in amongst these framing devices, which draw references to transitory spaces such as ‘the porch,’ where for a brief moment, the notion of ‘threshold’ is blurred.

Claire Barclay’s work seeks to establish a direct connection with the context in which it is exhibited, and the nature of the exhibition space plays a significant role in the artist’s work.

The content and materiality of her sculptural installations and spatial interventions are informed by the fabric of the gallery, with the intention of setting up spatial and psychological relationships between the various elements and their environment. As a result, Barclay creates complex spaces that cannot be readily transferred to different contexts without an entire re-working of the exhibition.

In the exhibition Material Intelligence, Barclay interprets the gallery space at Kettle’s Yard to be a kind of still life. In an interview, she comments on how“the arrangement of objects on a shelf is very much an echo of the way both artworks and everyday objects are placed, in conversation with one another, in the House.”

‘I worry that galleries are often places where there are expected and accepted conclusions on view.

Why shouldn’t they also exhibit things in a state of transition and chaos?’

For example, Barclay’s exhibition Shadow Spans at the Whitechapel Gallery suggests a response to the gallery’s sense of being ‘inside out.’ Barclay’s door and window-like emilie tennant

| heidi wakefield

with its gallery context, each element has a relationship to the human body and each level of scale offers a new form of interaction: the larger structures encourage movement through and within, while the tactility of smaller objects encourages physical contact. The individual components of Barclay’s work are positioned in such a way that the overall composition could be viewed as an installation in itself.Claire Barclay suggests a sense of habitat through her use of structural forms, which encourage the viewer to explore the exhibition from

Barclay’s careful placement of structure and objects imbues them with a significance that communicates a set of relationships, which in turn evokes an atmosphere around the work that is exhibited.

For example the placement of of hand woven textiles in front of a window, where it is flooded with light and appears almost to disintegrate evokes an ephemeral atmosphere.

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‘Shadow Spans’ 2010

different perspectives. Even the very small selfcontained objects have a connection with the broader embedded spatial framework that the larger elements establish.These images show a collaboration with dancers, who demonstrate alternative interpretations of Barclay’s space.

Claire Barclay plays with the idea of the

‘I think something happens when you put work in a gallery; it ceases to move or adapt in the ways it did within the studio or making process.’

gallery being like a ‘shop window’ through her experiments with the suggestion of the viewer being a voyeur. In her exhibitions at the Stephen Friedman Gallery, and also at the Longside Gallery in Yorkshire, Barclay creates a kind of sculptural intervention, which reverses the notion of the gallery being a space to observe rather than to be observed.A layer of reflective paint is applied unevenly to the gallery windows, which allows the passer-by a juxtaposition of glimpses into the exhibition space, and reflections of the viewer and the outside world.

Intended interaction with Barclay’s work is not entirely physical. Barclay states, “I am

interested in both physical and psychological responses.” Her work is provocative, reliant on the viewer’s instinctual reaction towards certain forms and materials. Elements prompt imaginary interactions, suggestive of something past and familiar or of future potential. For example, these brass bowl-like forms in Venge. The empty bowl seems ready for use, while in the other bowl, finger marks in the grease leave a trace of preceding activity.

Barclay’s approach to making is experimental and she remains open to changes as she works on an installation. She sees all her work as unfinished, referring to each installation as

Installation view at ‘Flat Peach’ Stephen Friedman Gallery, 2010 33

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emilie tennant

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‘Venge’ 2007

a ‘pause’ in the process. Often works are deliberately made to suggest foregone human interaction and objects are precariously placed to suggest impermanence. In IllGotten Gains, Barclay exhibits ripped fabric hinting at the activity that has gone before.

Barclay uses each process as a way of exploring and understanding the space in which she is exhibiting. During creation, the gallery takes on the role of a studio.The form of each creation is therefore the evidence of this developed understanding. The objects are instruments for expressing conceptual ideas, often relating to the exhibition space. The arrangement of

‘Untitled’ 2003

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the work within each space is part of the process of each installation’s creation. The positioning and combination of objects creates tension and uncertainty, feelings, which are intensified by the juxtaposition of contrasting industrial and craft processes.

Barclay combines forms at different scales, created using different techniques and materials. She designs or hand-makes all of her objects, stressing the significance of the ‘endeavour’ of each creation, which, she says, gives her ownership of the object.

Rather than refine her skills at a particular craft, Barclay experiments with a variety of techniques. For her, the making of each

‘Foul Play’ 2005

object is as much about the process as what is produced; she states that she tries, “to use the process of making sculpture to investigate how meaning comes through form.”

In these drawings, Barclay shows a pair of hands working in different ways. The watercolour blurs the definition between the hands and the tools that are used for making. In the line drawing, the material, the maker and what is made are all intermingled. She sees the process of making as her own experience of tension, between thinking and making. She says, “when I begin to experiment through a hands-on process, the concept becomes less formulaic

‘Untitled’ 2007

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‘Let Loose’ 2007

and I allow the process to direct what I make.”

Claire Barclay’s work is provocative, reliant on the viewers’ instinctual reactions towards particular forms and materials. The small

aspects of each object; a commonplace material, the evidence of human interaction, while other aspects are entirely unfamiliar; an unusual technique, an illogical function.

‘The work can seem like an illustration rather than having a possibility of transcending a rational interpretation’

In her use of certain materials, Barclay exploits the dichotomy between the familiar and the unfamiliar. Barclay’s work seeks to undermine the connotations of omni-present materials.

For example, also in Shifting Ground at the Camden Arts Centre, Barclay inserts a straw bale structure, rendered with lime, alongside the use of woven straw and wheatsheves.

The use of straw is typically polarising: in this installation it is both fragile and strong and both traditional and cutting-edge.

objects Barclay handcrafts are not functional, though their form may trigger a reminder.

However, all first instincts are soon ruled out. In Shifting Ground, Barclay’s machined stainless steel objects recall a bowl-like, domestic utensil and seem poised, ready for use. They are in fact solid and unmoving and Barclay once again generates an awkward ambiguity. The viewer can relate to certain

for detailed objects, akin to props on a stage. Her creative process, therefore, is a ‘performance of the production’.

Barclay believes that her exhibits ‘have a relationship to the way she lives, not to the world of art.’ Her work never sits on plinths, but instead requires a degree of interaction from the viewer. It could be said that Barclay’s exhibitions are in a state of flux; there is a sense that her installations are not fixed and final, but are in a way precarious. It would be difficult to examine individual objects in isolation, as the meaning of Claire Barclay’s work is in the most part determined through the co-existing nature of its elements.

Barclay sees a resemblance in her work to a theatrical scene: The larger structures are interventions, which create a backdrop

‘Shifting Ground 2’ 2008 35

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emilie tennant

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Bibliography Books: Dundee Contemporary Arts, ‘Claire Barclay – Ideal Pursuits.’ Die Keure, Belgium, 2003.

Eccles, Tom, and Eva Schmidt, ‘Claire Barclay, Henry Bond & Liam Gillick, Roderick Buchanan, Ross Sinclair.’ Gesellschaft fur Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen, 1993.

Bradley, Fiona, ‘Claire Barclay – Open Wide.’

Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 2009.

Fortnum, Rebecca, ‘Contemporary British Women Artists: In their Own Words,’ IB Tauris & Co. London, 2006.

Websites: Claire Barclay: www.kettlesyard.com www.art.yorkshire.com/ artists/claire-barclay Claire Barclay: www.tate.org.uk www.whitechapelgallery. org www.stephenfriedman. com/artists/claire-barclay www.frieze.com/issue/ article/dark_matter/

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RichardLong 37

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kouko itamura

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RICHARD LONG

“My work is real not illusory or conceptual.”

A

n English sculptor, photographer and painter, Richard Long is known as one of the best land artists of Britain, having won the Turner Prize with his work, ‘White Water Line’ in 1990, after four consecutive nominations. In his early life,Long studied at the St.Martin’s School ofArt and Design in London in which the ethos of the school was an “analysis of the creative process rather than the form of the finished object”. Long and other contemporary artists engaged in strategies to rethink the role of the artist and the form of the art object and invented new categories such as the Anti Form, Art Povera, Body Art, Conceptualism, Land Art, Minimalism, Performance Art and Process Art. Although critics often labelled his work as land art, Long himself does not regard his work in this category. Long states,“My work is real not illusory or conceptual. It is about real stones, real time, real actions. I use the world as I find it.”

‘White Water Line’ 1990

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Beginnings: In the spring of 1967 long created, ‘a line made By Walking, England.’ His method was to repeatedly, tread a path in a field, wearing down the grass and then documenting this line in a photograph. Following on from this he walked a ten-mile line across moorland and documented this with a line on a map.

Over the years, Long has documented his work continuously with the use of photography, mapping and through the imaginative and connected use of text.

The titles of his photographic and textual work, imbue a rich contextual significance.

Longs’ main concern is to explore the relationship between man and nature.

Influences: One of his major influences was the works of a Japanese American artist and landscape architect called Isamu Noguchi. In particular, the idea of the floor sculptures was inspired by Noguchi’s floor sculpture works, “(..)Seeing one particular Isamu Noguchi work not only gave Long his first ideas for the floor sculptures that continue to appear in his work to the present day (the first sculptures ‘In That Vein’ were made in 1965), but also decisively diverted his attention towards the floor as such - towards the surface of the earth upon which we walk.”

- from “A Line Made by Walking” by Dieter Roelstraete.

Apart from Isamu Noguchi’s floor sculptures that inspired Long to work on the floor of an enclosed space (instead of using the natural landscape as a vast canvas), his influences also

extends to the “Zen view, which recognizes human nature as one with objective nature, in the sense that nature inhabit us and we nature and, unless we remove all artificial barriers between nature and ourselves, we can neither see into the real heart of it nor dwell their with love and understanding”.

‘I use nature with respect and freedom [...] I hope to make work for the land, not against it.’

Long’s work, which is often set in the natural landscape,conveys a sense of respect for the natural surroundings through the way he presents his work.He does not disrupt nor alter anything in the landscape, but he subtly leaves a ‘mark’ or trace of the path he took by using natural materials such as stone, wood, and any materials he can find at hand.

‘A Line Made by Walking’1967

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One Chase Manhattan Plaza New York 1964 by Isamu Noguchi

As Long comments, ‘I use nature with respect and freedom [...] I hope to make work for the land, not against it.’ His views on nature and how he values the notion of freedom in his work also corresponds with the Zen idea of perceiving art as a total way of life, and art being a form of free expression and movement.

According to Zen, beauty is found when there is freedom of movement and freedom of expression for both the artist and nature.

Although, Long’s contact with Zen Buddhism came much later in his career, when his form of art was already established, the Zen Buddhist ideas re-confirmed Long’s ideas and his views on the relationship between nature and reality.

Through his works, Long wishes to portray the eternal and constant change or movement of nature, which is central to the idea of Zen as of the movement and act of walking is central to Long’s art. Moreover, Long regards his own works as “a part of timeless continuum of marks, not just something to do with a specific present.” In fact,Long wishes his work to reflect the “impermanence and constant change of processes of nature; {as} a water drawing disappears as it dries, while other works are reabsorbed into nature in their own time.”

One of the works that reflects Long’s understanding of how nature can be incorporated as a fundamental source or inspiration for his work is portrayed clearly in his photographic work,‘Reflections in the Little Pigeon River’,Great Smokey Mountains,Tennesee (1970). In Reflections in the Little Pigeon River, Great Smokey Mountains,Tennesee, Long created 39

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Map Drawing

a cross out of the stones in the riverbed, and placed them within them.At the bottom of the photo, he printed Johnny Cash’s famous lyrics: “I keep a close watch on this heart of mine I keep my eyes wide open all the time I keep the ends out for the tie that binds Because you’re mine I walk the line.”

The famous line from Johnny Cash’s song, ‘I Walk the Line’ conveys the principal element of Long’s works, which evolves around the simple act of walking. Moreover, the act of walking serves as Long’s medium to portray and draw out his ideas and the natural landscape serves as his vast canvas. ‘Walking is Richard Long’s basic artistic act, and all his work - the

‘Hemisphere Circle’ Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo 1996

text and photographs, the sculpture in the landscape, the floor sculpture and wall work in interior spaces - flows from this elemental universal activity.’ (Friis–Hansen,D. 1996) His respect towards nature coincides with the belief of Zen Buddhism and how they value nature and the natural surroundings around us. Moreover, critics praised Long’s work, ‘In penetrating beneath the surface of nature [...] in a sense, doing something similar to Cezanne, or Modrian, Henry Moore, de

‘A sculpture feeds the senses at a place, whereas a photograph or text work (from another place) feeds the imagination.’

‘Reflections in the Little Pigeon River’ Great Smokey Mountains, Tennesee 1970

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Kooning, Picasso, Pollock or Johns, in looking beyond the outward appearance of things, at all the unseeable sensualities of life as well as the invisible energies and patterns beneath it.’

Text: Long comments on his use of text works, “[Text-works] could sometimes render the idea of a walk (or even a sculpture) more precisely, more simply, and also more generally [than photographs].

I have conceived many particular walks because I can use the text-work as the best, purest, and most appropriate form to represent them.” (Friis–Hansen,D.1996).

One such title ’ A Thousand Stones Moved One Step Forward Along a Seventy Four Mile Walk in County Claire Ireland’(1974) illustrates the richness and the complexity of Long’s journeys through the Land and through time.

range of works. One example of Long’s use of stone in his work is the piece titled Delabole Slate Circle, a solid circle made on the floor with slate orginally from the Delabole quarry in Cornwall. The piece captures the essence of the material, in which he constructed from slate stones, roughly cut to retain as much of its natural quality as possible. Although the circular form is in a fixed controlled order or shape, the flatness of each piece is a natural quality of the slate, reflecting the natural order in nature. Furthermore, Long uses nature as a ‘whole’ unaltered and as a primary resource for inspiration. ‘The wild, pure substances he works with, stones, sticks, mud, water, fire, can suggest freedom (and life) in themselves,

but they also impose the pattern which he finds for them’ (Friis–Hansen,D.1996).

‘The wild, pure substances he works with, stones, sticks, mud, water, fire, can suggest freedom (and life) in themselves, but they also impose the pattern which he finds for them.’

Long uses nature as a medium to express his ideas or conceptions of the place.

Essentially, he grasps the essense of a place or space,as architecture does phenomenologically, and expresses his perception of a place through the use of different forms and natural materials.

Materlality: Long prefers using organic materials such as stone, slate, wood, mud, earth, pigment and mud, in his work, which he collected and gathered from his countless walks around the world. However, out of all the materials he uses, Long prefers to use stone as his favorite medium and extensively uses them throughout his vast

‘A Straight Hundred Mile Walk in Japan’ ‘Delabole Slate Circle’ 1997

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Honshu, Japan 1976

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Long often uses local materials or materials that are relevant to the place, and in response to the place, arranges them in geometrical forms such as circles, rectangles, squares or in linear forms to comprehend the sense of space in a building or to enhance the sensory quality of a space.

‘A circle outdoors focuses our attention on the environment it is in, while when indoors, the circle and its materials demand the attention.’

Making: Long usually works privately and intuitively, using temporary wilderness “studio” to inspire and define the anonymous work he creates. In his outdoor installation work, Long often stops to mark a spot by subtly rearranging the elements of a place. He marks paths or crossways with repeated footprints and make lines by removing rocks, creates circles of upturned or extracted stones or directs the drippings of water. Then, he photographs his process or the outcome of his process and combines them with short written descriptions.

Spaces: Long’s sense of space is extraordinary in a sense that he seems to master the porportions and scale of things in which he places materials in what seems to be a ‘correct’ placement and alignment, blending in effortlessly with the surrounding natural or enclosed environment. Long displays his work not only in outdoor spaces, but also in an enclosed space in galleries in which he responds to these spaces based on 41

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his past experiences in the natural landscape and of natural forms.

When asked about the difference in viewing his works outdoors and indoors, in an enclosed space, Long comments, ‘A circle outdoors focuses our attention on the environment it is in, while when indoors, the circle and its materials demand the attention’. Moreover, Long states, ‘the outdoor and indoor works are complementary, although I would have to say that nature, the landscape, the walking, is at the heart of my work and informs the indoor works. But the art world is usually received ‘indoors’ and I do have a desire to present real work in public time and space, as opposed to photos, maps and texts, which are by definition ‘second hand’ works. […] For me, these different forms of my work represent freedom and richness – it’s not possible to say “everything” in one way” (Friis-Hansen, D. 1996).

The simplicity and the scale of Long’s works strikes the viewer on a grand scale and enhances or feeds into the imagination as well as to the five senses. In other words, Richard Long’s work engages with the viewer on a subconscious level, feeding into both the perceptive conscious level and the unconscious sensory mind. Long’s work portrays the dynamic and boundless quality of nature through his scale of work, and presents to us a distillation of the sensory qualities that he picked up through his journey and during his walks through the natural landscape. Furthermore, through

the use of various natural raw materials, forms and figures, Long succeeds to convey the sensory qualities of nature and subtly portrays the essence of nature. Long states, ‘Nature has more effect than I on it.’ From this statement, one can grasp the great influence that nature has on Long himself and subsequently, on his works.

In conclusion, Richard Long’s work can be described as solitary, strong and bold. Long encourages the viewers to imagine and open themselves up to nature through a creative engagement with his works. Moreover, Long thrusts his creativity upon the viewer on a great scale, and the simple voyeurism creates an interaction with the work Long presents to us. The archetypal symbols he employs strike a response in the viewer, resonating on a subconscious level. Long’s exterior works are the creations that appear through his interaction with the environment.

‘Nature has more effect on me than I on it.’

kouko itamura

| sue macaulay

Bibliography Books: Brettell, R. Friis –Hansen, D. Richard Long Circles Cycles Mud Stones. Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum, 1996.

Long, R. Old World New World. London: Anthony d’Offay.

Roelstraete, D. 2010. Richard Long: A Line Made by Walking. One work. London: Cambridge, Mass: Afterall Books; Distribution by MIT Press Websites: Richard Long: www.richardlong.org/ Richard Long: Heaven and Earth: http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/ exhibitions/richardlong/ Richard Long: Six Stone Circles: http://www.sculpture.org.uk/ RichardLong/sculpture/sixstone-circles/ THE ART OBJECT: Long, R. A Circle in Alaska [Installation]. In: BERING STRAIT DRIFTWOOD ON THE ARTCTIC CIRCLE. Walking in Circles. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.,1977.

Long, R. Berlin Circle [Installation].

In: HAMBURGER BAHNHOF MUSEUM FUR GEGENWART BERLIN. Walking the Line. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2002.

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RichardSerra photographed by Frederick Charles for TIME

RICHARDSERRA

“Don’t start telling me buildings are works of art, because I don’t buy it.”

R

ichard Serra was born in San Francisco in 1939 and spent the earlier years of his adult life working in the steel mills in order to put himself through school. It was from these experiences that he gained his initial appreciation of steel and seemed to plant the seed in his mind for his future artwork.

“All the raw material that I needed is contained in the reserve of this memory which has become a reoccurring dream” He is now considered as the defining sculptor in steel and has said himself that he is ‘working at the edge of what’s possible’. After graduating from the University of California with a BA in English literature he moved to the East coast to study FineArt at theYale University School ofArt and Architecture. Here he received a Fulbright grant and travelled to Europe for a few years, predominantly staying in Paris and Florence while he tried to figure out his direction as an artist.

It was on a brief trip to Spain where he had his big epiphany. Upon viewing Diego Velazquez’s amazing painting ‘Las Meninas’ (in which Velazquez had painted himself in the background with his easel, staring back at the viewer) Serra realised that the artist was in fact an extension of the painting. To him, the viewer would now become the subject of the piece. However, it took a few rather interesting pieces before Serra found the direction he was looking for, including stuffed animals and even a live pig in one installation. graham black

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The reaction toVelazquez’s painting is something that he says he ‘still grapples with today’2, with his later work becoming increasingly dependant on the viewer. ‘If you don’t walk into the work and engage with it, there isn’t any content’.

One of the ideas that we can generate from this thought is the difference in Serra’s work to architecture itself. I find it deceptive at times to talk about his work as sculpture as it is often on such an imposing scale that it appears more like architecture than sculpture. When is it that an object or group of objects stop being sculpture and instead are recognised as architecture?

His work curves and twists to create spaces to explore and investigate, spaces that both conceal and reveal their context.

Serra of course would probably not appreciate this comparison as he said in a recent interview with Artinfo that ‘people who move into architecture most likely find sculpture difficult’ .

However, he

also stated that sculpture was ‘purposefully useless’ in terms of its function compared with that of architecture.

I think Serra better defines this difference earlier on in the same interview, explaining his thoughts on what defines architecture as architecture and sculpture as sculpture.

This quote comes from Serra talking predominantly about the ‘Cycle’ and ‘Junction’

Diego Velazquez’s ‘Las Meninas’ 1656

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‘Open Ended’ at the Gagosian, 2008

‘Junction’ at the Gagosian, 2011

pieces in the Gagosian Gallery,which ultimately require the viewer to interact and engage with the art in order to fully experience it. The approach to have multiple entrances and exits to the spaces comes from the realisation of his earlier work often becoming too complex and disorientating (Open-Ended for example) – viewers were seldom able to reconstruct the plan upon exiting the space and so by introducing a choice for the viewer, Serra could maintain this complexity and further distance himself from the field of architecture. The interval he talks about at the end of the quote is what really forces the issue of ‘this is not architecture’. In most cases of architecture we are able to predict and anticipate where we are being directed, in Serra’s sculpture the interval is intended to unsettle your thinking and force you into a moment of choice. By offering the viewer a decision to go this way or that way, they have to pause and consider where they are, where they want to go and how to get there. It is important to note that Serra sees this interval, as opposed to the actual choice, as the focal point of the work. It seems to be a rather fitting definition for this argument.

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‘Matter of Time’ exhibition at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, 2008

“In most architecture you’re directed here, there, up, down, left, right, either by signage or by the openness of the architecture. In these works, you find yourself in an interior where the inside could also be the outside of the inside you were just in, and then you have to make a decision about whether to go right or left, and as soon as you do that, you find yourself having to make a decision about whether to enter or exit again. These pieces leave you at a moment of loss, in a void where you have to make a decision, a decision that occurs at the interval where you have to make a choice.”

government in 1981, suffered through almost a decade of controversy and rowing before being taken down in 1989 and destroyed. It currently sits in three pieces in a New York warehouse.

The original piece stood 12 feet high and 120 feet long with a slight curvature as the name suggests. The arguments against the sculpture were that it blocked movement across the plaza, it attracted graffiti and the sheer cost of what was effectively a block of steel – it was $175,000. Serra’s counter was that it was a site prescribed piece of art and therefore would not work in any other context other than the Federal Plaza in Manhattan. This is a common theme with Serra’s work but was not enough to maintain the Tilted Arc in its location, even though the funding body had told him it would

His work has not always been accepted by the general public though. His piece for the Federal Plaza in New York, commissioned by the

‘Vortex’ MoMA, Ft Worth Texas and a timber cabin - Sou Fujimoto Architects

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‘Cycle’ at the Gagoosian Gallery, 2010

be there forever when it was commissioned. A comment made at the time of the rowing did little to help his cause with the public but was by all accounts true,‘Art is not democratic. It is not for the people.’ Contemporary art wasn’t understood as intended by the artist and to this day we still see an element of outrage from the public regarding a ‘work of art’.

Another one of Serra’s themes that emphasises this argument is that he didn’t see the function of art to be pleasing. With his work, it was very much the space that was created that was the art. Unlike conventional ‘sculpture’,

‘Tilted Arc’ in New York, 1981-9

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‘Blind Spot’ and ‘Open-Ended’ at the Gagosian

you are not expected to simply look at the object but encouraged to further investigate such as ‘To reenter where you exited’, ’To reenter the other passage’, ‘to walk round the outside in either direction’, ‘to walk around

‘Snake’ at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, 1994-7 47

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the outside (in either direction) and reenter either passage’, or ‘simply to walk away (in any direction)’ this gives over ten options. Can you have experienced the piece fully unless you have explored all these options? Whilst walking the pathways the steel twists and turns on all three axes. This provokes a feeling of dizziness and disorientation in the viewer as the steel appears to be a malleable material rather than solid steel.

Blind Spot and Open Ended are two ‘eye’ shaped pieces, constructed in 2002 - 2003 and 2007 - 2008 respectively. Similar in construction to Snake and other work by and‘go inside it’, to experience the space it forms. In the case of the Tilted Arc it was about the perception of the object and of the environment as the viewer moved around the plaza.

Altering the viewing

angles would incur varying observations about both of these components. Just like in Velazquez’s Las Meninas painting where Serra saw himself as a subject of the piece, the viewer in Serra’s work had become the content.

‘I consider space to be a material. The articulation of space has come to take precedence over other concerns. I attempt to use sculptural form to make space distinct.’

These themes are also evident in Serra’s other work. To further explore these we will consider a small selection of his other work.

Snake which is a permanent exhibit at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Blind Spot & Open Ended and Cycle & Junction at the Gagosian in New York, Band, Sequence & choices Torqued Torus Inversion at the MoMA in New York, and Promenade at Paris’ Grande Palais.

Snake was created in 1994 to 1997 for the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum, in Bilbao. It is three enormous weathering, hot rolled, steel ribbons. It is permanently on display in the Guggenheim’s ‘Fish’ gallery. The 180 ton structure creates two tilted, snaking paths. As Graham indicated Serra’s work is experienced by interaction, walking through and around it, and experiencing the negative spaces it creates. This suggests the actual sculpture is not the art, but rather the art is the feelings and experience of the viewer caused by the piece and so the sculpture becomes a graham black

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‘Junction’ and ‘Cycle’ at the Gagosian in 2010/11

vehicle to the actual art. When you reach an end of a path you are left with a number of Serra. Blind Spot and Open Ended can only be properly experienced by entering them, this addresses the perception that his work seems too rough and intimidating to engage with.

These works establish a dialectic between the experience of the work imposing itself on

the viewers space, and the viewer having to enter the space created by the work. Blind Spot in essence is a spiral, while the other is a twisting path. As with Snake it is the work itself that creates the negative space that is the actual piece of art. The experience becomes more important than the ‘look’ of the piece.

at the middle on opposite sides, again creating spaces, and leading the viewer around whilst leaving the viewer choices about direction

Richard Serra has said ‘I consider space to be a material. The articulation of space has come to take precedence over other concerns. I attempt to use sculptural form to make space distinct.‘ Cycle (2010) and Junction (2011) in the Gagosian creates numerous pathways and spaces for viewers to experience and explore.

Both Cycle and Junction have more options and possibilities than Snake and Blind Sport & Open Ended, with additional spaces being created on the outside and sides of the work.

‘... the second floor of the Museum of Modern Art... was designed with the sheer weight of his work in mind.’

‘Band’ at the MoMa, 2006

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Three pieces created in 2006 which also demand the viewer to interact with them are Band, Sequence and Torqued Torus Inversion. These are housed in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and whilst size and weight are not considerations of Serra, the designers of the MoMA had to consider this in the design of the building.

Band is an undulating ribbon, which belies the material, the form suggests that the material is fluid and soft but it is the negative space that is fluid. Sequence is a figure of eight with access

‘Sequence’ and ‘Torqued Torus Inversion’ at the MoMA, 2007

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‘Promenade’ at the Grande Palais, Paris 2008

and time spent. Torqued Torus Inversion is two minimalistic distorted cylinders with access to the space created in the centre, on opposite sides of the same axis.

Promenade is Serra’s most recent work. It is an installation of five steel elements each 14m x 4m and 13cm thick. Each element is at slightly different angles to the ground.

The work is for the Monumenta exhibition at Paris’ Grande Palais. As with Serra’s other work the physically installed elements are not the entire piece of art, but rather the way the piece interacts with outside entities. From the architecture of the building and the way the light moves through the glass roof and plays on the elements to the shadows the elements themselves create and the people who are coincidentally viewing the work or just passing through whilst the viewer is experiencing the work. This is similar to the way the viewer experienced Tilted Arc in that the view and experience changes as the viewer moves.

In conclusion, Serra doesn’t create ‘art’ he creates experiences, these experiences lead to the opinion that the viewer actually creates the experience due to the way the piece changes and looks different from each aspect.

The aim of Serra’s work is different to the majority of other artists. He aims to provide a new perception for the viewer rather than to represent an idea of something.

On the subject of whether it is art or architecture, we have to remember while Serra objects to this comparison, he 49

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studied at an Art and Architecture school so was in the presence of architects and whilst not deliberate he would have been unable to avoid a positive or negative influence from them. With Serra’s work the viewer becomes the subject of the piece, whereas in architecture the user of the building is but one of a number of important parts.

So this leaves us with the question is Richard Serra an architect or a sculptor? And as architects we deal with creating spaces as well so if Serra is a sculptor, are we?

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Bibliography Magazines: Art Review -- Feature June 2007 Websites: Artinfo Q&A with Richard Serra: http://www.artinfo.com/ news/story/38696/ you-have-to-makea-choice-a-qa-withrichard-serra-on-his-newsculptures-at-gagosian/ BBC Radio 3 -- Interview: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ radio3/johntusainterview/ serra_transcript.shtml BOMB Magazine -Interview: http://bombsite.com/ issues/42/articles/1605 The Observer -Interview: http://www.guardian.co.uk/ artanddesign/2008/oct/05/ serra.art MoMA Interactive -- Forty Years Exhibition http://www.moma. org/interactives/ exhibitions/2007/serra/ flash.html Richard Serra -- Verb List http://www.demec.ufmg. br/port/d_online/diario/ Ema101/AnalisePCriativo/ SobreObraDe/ RichardSerra/VerbList.htm Culture Shock - Tilted Arc: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/ cultureshock/flashpoints/ visualarts/tiltedarc_a.html

‘RIchard Serra’ by Robert Frank, 2002

graham black

| paul kenny

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AiWeiwei photographed by Dan Chung 51

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andrew gillespie

| george sinclair

AIWEIWEI

“If to express oneself one needs a reason, let me say that to express oneself is the reason”

A

n important aspect to Ai Weiwei is his background. He is the son of a distinguished national known poet; who when condemned by the Chinese Communist Party was banished to live in the remote Chinese regions of Manchuria and Xinjiang.

Ai Weiwei as a very young boy moved with him in exile. As a result of Mao’s cultural revolution and of strong political control, his father was forced to clean the public toilets; the lowest of all jobs within China.

When Mao died in 1976,AI Qing,AiWeiwei father was reinstated moving the fanily back to Beijing.

Inspired by Picasso, Ai Weiwei set out for New York city in 1981. During his 12 year stay he attended Parsons School of Design and also documented his entire experience with thousands of photographs.

In 1993 he returned to China to be with his dying father. It was at this time he became a vital contributor to a new art scene in China, curating with Feng Boyi, the ‘fuck off’ exhibition in 2000, which exhibited some his most famous photographs entitled a study of perspectives.

against the state and their unwillingness to celebrate the individual. The Chinese system means he is under constant investigations, but this just seems to amplify his popularity in the west as well as becoming a spokesperson for a seemingly growing restless Chinese generation. Of expressing his idea’s via Fan Fou, he says, [quote bottom left]. His extreme liberal views seem to have been engrained within him almost inevitably from childhood.

This celebration of the individual is clarified in works such as Fairytale.While his celebration of the plight of the common person is unveiled within his remembering project. He confronts

the communist ideal in an adaptation of Tatlin’s Monument to the 3rd International.

Additionally, he is not without Architectural projects. His magnum opus culminating in his collaboration with Herzog and de Meuron for Beijing Olympics’ Bird’s Nest Stadium. Without formal architectural training, his design practice fake design has completed 60 different projects, but now concentrate solely on artistic endeavors.

Of leaving the art world completely for politics he says is impossible. Everything is an artistic expression to him and that he would definitely use his art to a political end.

Ai Weiwei’s work personifies his character and his desire for using his art for deep political ends.

Distributing his ideas now via Fan Fou, a chinese version of Twitter, he has extreme reservations

‘Its sad what is happening in China, because our society is lacking platforms.

It is very different from Europe: you have public and private.we have neither a public or a private life. we don’t have a choice - we’re always ignored.’ andrew gillespie

| george sinclair

Ai Weiwei at Tate Modern Map of China 2004

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Remebering -Kunst, Munich, 2009

Remembering: In 2008, there was an earthquake in Sichuan, China. Everyone knew a school had collapsed but indepth facts were never revealed. So ai weiwei started an investigation to find out what happened and record it on his Fanfou blog. He discovered over 5000 names of students by having 200 civil volunteers going from door to door talking to parents. Some volunteers were even arrest as the police deemed it a state secret due to mistakes in the construction of the school buildings.

Ai went there to experience the feeling of the ruins and realized that everywhere there were school bags scattered around. “you could see a lot of pencils, little mirrors and school books all over. And nobody picked them up, nobody cared.”

They were part of the ruins, bags so vivid and colourful made a strong impression and closely related to physical condition of the kids, that was all they had except their names.

For the façade of Haus der Kunst, he used the bags to form a sentence which was stated by a dead student’s mother. She had a desire that all she wanted was for daughter to be remembered.

That there are a lot of tragedies in this world but worst tragedy is the disrespect for life.

It says “she lived happily in this world for seven years” Ai uses artistic skill or craftsmanship to expose injustice, make it visible and so clear, an act that an artist can do well. He has educated an entire nation, everyone has started thinking, questioning their own positions, examing their means and what could be within their power.

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Fairytale: Fairytale is the story of bringing 1,001 Chinese people who had never left china to Kassel, Germany and documenting it with photos, film and interviews.

The individual stories of; a mountain lady trying to get permission for a passport. To see how she was worried about spending 5 yuan to go to the next town to take a passport photo and how nervous she was taking that photo It was to see those ordinary citizens in Kasel, jumping off their bikes to talk to ai and tell him that they don’t know anything about art.He deemed it a beautiful thing. That nobody is a genius.

Ai believes art as an initiation, which means you want to be the innocent one: you want to reach out your hand so somebody can lead you. The event can lead you somewhere and you can say, ‘let’s go.’ The

artists always play with people who want to walk into unknown areas, into uncertainty.

Studies of perspective: Studies of perspectives show rebellious reactions to big iconic buildings like the White house, the Eiffel Tower, Tiananmen Square or the Reichstag in Berlin. It was called study of perspectives because in the late 90s, after the downfall of eastern European communism, Ai started to realize that the struggle in the future is this clash of ideology and religions. That communism isn’t the answer but to declare individual rights means to protect humanity.

Tatlin’s Monument to the third International: AiWeiwei modified tatlin’s tower and used its shape as a lighting element.

Tatlin’s phenomenon reflects a human

Fairytale 1001

andrew gillespie

| george sinclair

Study of Perspectives 1995 - 2003

utopian dream about ourselves. When weiwei used it as a lighting element, he furthered the meaning into a literally illumination of the metaphor for a new reality.

Ai however deemed it a tragedy of Tatlin because he saw it rather as a reality, like the Chinese Government. They thought this monument for communism could be built in reality. This is essentially the tragedy of every artist. They have to have their own reality.

That reality can be one stroke on canvas, one push on the mud or a building or a city plan.

possible. Of course, because of their varying life experiences and understandings of life, people will look at the reasons from many different angles and that’s why so many different conclusions are reached. Ai Weiwei describes it as part of the struggle and explanation of why we are here and it is always arguable.

Ai weiwei philosophy of design is inscribed in an act of understanding. The design is already contained within itself, so the lesson to be learnt should already exist in the reason itself.

The architect is the one who has to identify those reasons and make them clear and

A Varied Approach; Making Room for Possibilities: Ai Weiwei works with a range of different mediums and techniques, including - photography, film, sculpture, installation, performance as well as curating, architecture, publishing and activism. The

Ai Weiwei Monument to the Third International 2007

andrew gillespie

| george sinclair

“Instead of putting your personal mark on something as an artist, you set up a structure, you make room for possibilities.”

Birds Nest Stadium 2007

breadth of Ai’s artistic practice makes him difficult to define or characterise. His variety of methods allows him to broaden the definition of art – extending it beyond its usual parameters. Through the use of conceptual frameworks, collaborative process, participatory events or internet networks, Ai develops a structure from which possibilities beyond his control can take place.

One example of this is Fairytale 1001 – Chinese visitors, a piece devised for Documenta 12.

Documenta 12 is international art show held every 5 years in the small town of Kassel,

“One thing Ludwig Wittgenstain, the austrian british philosopher said about a good architect [is] ’somebody who insists not on what he wants to do, but rather on what he doesn’t.’ and I share that attitude because I see so many architects that always want to see the next development in architecture, they always jump on the next wagon. The architect acts as a smart asshole. He is always trapped by the desire to think and act like God: to make something from nothing, and for that to become a reality. But the pity is that architecture is never an act of the architect alone, but rather a result of different political, social and technical aspects. Of course, there are also intelligent individuals making a difference within those processes showing intelligence.” -Ai Weiwei culture space nexus

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Fairytale 1001 Document 12 2007

Germany. In 2007 Ai invited 1001 Chinese citizens to the town. The piece was conceived as a living installation, in which each of the1001 Chinese travellers was simultaneously tourist, viewer and component part of the art work itself. The 1001 were selected from more than 3,000 people who reacted to an open call published by Ai Weiwe on his blog over a three-day period. The demographic was varied, consisting of people of different ages and social backgrounds. There were people from the art world as well as those from a remote villages, who before participating, had The trip was paid for by Ai. The participants were accommodated in an old textile mill, that had been transformed into a communal dorm. Ai designed the whole experience, from the bed sheets, outfits and suitcases to the planning of the tourist and educational activities and the recruiting of personnel cooks.

Though he takes a conceptual approach he also engages directly with materials.Besides Chinese visitors, Fairytale-1001 also consisted of other works, including Template, a huge installation

Birds Nest Stadium 2007

piece,comprised of late Ming and Qing Dynasty wooden windows and doors. Joined together in five layers per side to form an open vertical structure having. The massive, regular external framework is shaped according to the volume of a hypothetical Chinese traditional temple.

In second piece as for Fairytale, Ai transported 1001 Qing Dynasty wooden chairs, which were scattered throughout the site, serving as points of reflection.

“Arts power is a psychological power. It’s not about how big the work is or how many years you spend on a work, or how far you have travelled. The question instead is how these things take effect in your psyche.”

“…what we really want to emphasize is “1,” not “1001.” Each participant is a single person, and that’s why our logo is 1=1000 -- that means that in this project 1001 is not represented by one project, but by 1001 projects, as each individual will have his or her own independent experience.”

Sunflower Seeds: Over 100 million sunflower seeds were made by hand by specialists working in the city of Jingdezhen in southern China. A region which is historically famed for the production of the highest quality Imperial porcelain. The same traditional methods of production – which have a history of over 1200 years were used in the making of this piece.

Fairytale 1001 Suitcases 2007 55

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Sunflower seeds – simultaneously about material precence and a process of creation.

It’s about process and has a strong conceptual idea but also has an immediate physical and visual impact. This is the power of much of Ai’s work, visual impact grounded in strong theoretical and conceptual framework.

Ai talks about the uselessness of the sunflower seeds, that they have no practical purpose. The idea of uselessness can be traced back to Ai’s furniture works, in which he alters existing stools and tables, taking away there original use. He comments; “You don’t know it’s usage, but it’s made to such a high quality that you can’t ignore its purpose… I feel it’s very interesting to put tremendous effort or art or craftsmanship into something useless or even nameless.”

“Sunflower seed is an accumulation of the repeated efforts of many individuals.”

Jinhua Architecture Park: J i n h u a Architecture park is dedicated to the memory of his father, the poet Ai Qing, who was born In Jinhua. Ai worked as a master planner on the Jinhua Architecture park, along with Herzog and De Meuron. They invited 16 emergent practices from around the world ( 5 chineese and 11 international) and asked them to design a pavilion on the site.A lottery was used in order to assign each practice a different function.The architecture a park is another example in which Ai sets up a structure or framework under which individual possibilities can take place.

Architecture does direct and to an extent, impose on it’s users, this is inevitable. But there should always be space for possibility. In this andrew gillespie

| george sinclair

Fairytale 1001 Germany, Template 2007

Sunflower Seeds Tate Modern

Bibliography

sense Architecture can be seen as a ‘structure’ to allow for possibility, rather than an artistic expression.This is perhaps a more interesting way of approaching the design of a cultural venue.

Books: Orbist, H. (2011) Ai Weiwei Speaks, Penguin, London Ai, Weiwei. Ai Weiwei : sunflower seeds. Tate, 2010, London Ai Weiwei / London ; New York : Phaidon, 2009.

Ai Weiwei’s blog : writings, interviews, and digital rants, 2006-2009 On the edge : ten architects from China, New York : Rizzoli, 2006 Ai WeiWei: Architecture.

Caroline Klein. 2011, London mono.kultur #22, Autumn 2009, Ai Weiwei, Portrait of a Critical Mind, Kai von Rabenau, Berlin Video Recordings: BBC One, Imagine : Ai Weiwei : without fear or favour, 11 July 2011 Architecture Park, Yiwu Riverbank, Jinhua, Zhejang, China 2003

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| george sinclair

BBC Twom Frieze : The Culture Show : a contemporary art special.

17 October 2010 culture space nexus

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culture

+ crisis

2012 the university of edinburgh