Wrapping

Wrapping

under..over..around...through...left...right...bottom...top

The textile designer will choose a hard medium to be covered: maybe a board, some card, a stick, an old cotton real..the possibilities are endless. Then with their choosen medium normally threads or wools can be used to create a pattern across the surface. This allows the designer to get an idea of colour and proportion. But Budding Textile designers such as RCA ex Chelsea student have progressed this technique into an art form and have produced large scale pieces which are a delight for any onlooker.

My attempts...

Precision.

Box covered then cut

Material base layer

Different directions

Cutting into

Plain colour study

Weave...

Above shows five examples of my weave work over the two week induction period. Keeping it simple with the pattern I wanted to see how the different materials influenced the design.

Designer Analysis - Schwitters, Kurt

Schwitters, Kurt

Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was born in 1887 in Hanover, Germany. His work involved many different medias: poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as installation art. His work can be considered examples of constructivism and surrealism, however Schwitter considered himself mainly a progresser of Dada art. But when he was denied entry into the Dada group in Berlin he worked to create a new movement: Merz. The above collage is a demonstrative example of Merz art.

The Dada movement began as a reaction to the First World War, based in neutral Switzerland, and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The work inhaled anti-war politics. Angry, with what was happening within the world, the artists rejected standard, traditional approaches and produced anti-art cultural works. Refusing to accept what was happening without protest. Challenging the existing, accepted and admired definitions of art. They wanted to be ridiculed to be anarchistic.

Art plays a large part in a countries cultural identity, often supported by government funding, it is a valuable form politicians can flaunt (especially in times of war when legal tender loses value and any form of positive propaganda is a bonus.) For artist to present work which was bad, was the most productive way they could protest against the unprecedented horror of war, or in the artists opinion: 'meaninglessness of the modern world' Tate Gallery London. The movement involved visual arts, public gatherings, literature, poetry, demonstrations, art manifestoes, publicity, theory, theatre and graphic design. The movement natural spread internationally and eventually provided a platform form which the next generation of artists (surrealists) grew.

Schwitters was an enthusiast and devoted to the Dada movement, he agreed with anti-art cultural work and rebelling against the war; his work proved this, it was connected to society. When the war was over and the protest against it complete his work could progress, this progression was Merz, started in Hanover in 1919. From 1918, Germany was a complete mess: economically, politically and the military had collapsed. No one was unaffected by the war, with the vast death and destruction people were left unorganised and weak.

His own movement, Merz, was the artists contribution to portraying the collective mess that the world was left with. He described his work, at the time, in the following sentence:

"In the war, things were in terrible turmoil. What I had learned at the academy was of no use to me and the useful new ideas were still unready.... Everything had broken down and new things had to be made out of the fragments; and this is Merz. It was like a revolution within me, not as it was, but as it should have been." Kurt Schwitters. He collages and assembled, scavenging scrap materials, making large assemblages, small collages, using a medium that beautifully portrayed recovery. Even the name was part of his reconstructions; it was said he extracted the word Merz from the name Commerz Bank which appeared on a piece of paper in one of his collages.

Schwitters, Kurt

Picture of Spatial Growth - Picture with Two Small Dogs

Schwitter started the assemblage titled: Picture of Spatial Growth - Picture with Two Small Dogs, in 1920 in Germany. It consisted of an assortment of items: discarded rubbish, used postcards, packaging, postcards, bus tickets and printed ephemera; all of which were attached to a board.

In 1937 some of his work were then included in the Degenerate Art exhibition, curated by the Nazis in Munih, it consisted of modernist artworks hung chaotically, accompanied by degrading text labels. The exhibition was designed to inflame public opinion against modernism. The Artist included were in great danger and wanted by the government.

Shwitters fled Nazi Germany and went to Norway. From there the art work was given a new direction. He added layers of Norwegian material more: theatre tickets, receipts, newspaper cuttings, scraps of lace, and a box with two china dogs. Layered in a balanced abstract compositions, fragmented but meaningful.

The different layers of collage reflect the artist's journey. A movement in exile. A beautiful example of urban civilization and the extremes of life during the second world war. All composed in what the Tate Gallery describes as 'detritus in a highly ordered composition' Tate London

Schwitters, Kurt
Merzbau

He later created Merz Buildings (Merzbau. )The first was within his own house in Germany, which he filled with about forty 'grottoes' constructions attached to the interior fabrics of the building. They extended trailing throughout the house even poking out the windows. In 1937 His work was destroyed.

Schwitters fled Germany for Norway. There he continued his work, creating a second Merzbau but this again was destroyed, this time by fire. In 1940 he finally found refuge in England where he started a third Merzbau, but left unfinished, now preserved in the Hatton Gallery of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Designer Analysis - Sheeler, Charles

Sheeler, Charles

Windows

Exhibition - Threads of Feeling

The Foundling museum

14 October 2010 - 6 March 2011

Threads of Feeling

Fabric swatches from the 18th century tell stories of mother and babies parting.

Threads of Feeling will showcase fabrics never shown before to illustrate the moment of parting as mothers left their babies at the original Foundling Hospital, which continues today as the children’s charity Coram.

In the cases of more than 4,000 babies left between 1741 and 1760, a small object or token, usually a piece of fabric, was kept as an identifying record. The fabric was either provided by the mother or cut from the child’s clothing by the hospital's nurses. Attached to registration forms and bound up into ledgers, these pieces of fabric form the largest collection of everyday textiles surviving in Britain from the 18th Century.

A selection of the textiles and the stories tell us about individual babies, their mothers and their lives forms the focus of the Threads of Feeling exhibition.

The exhibition also examine artist William Hogarth’s depictions of the clothes, ribbons, embroidery and fabrics worn in the 18th Century as represented by the textile tokens.

John Styles Research Professor in History at the University of Hertfordshire received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to curate the exhibition. John comments:

“The process of giving over a baby to the hospital was anonymous. It was a form of adoption, whereby the hospital became the infant’s parent and its previous identity was effaced. The mother’s name was not recorded, but many left personal notes or letters exhorting the hospital to care for their child. Occasionally children were reclaimed. The pieces of fabric in the ledgers were kept, with the expectation that they could be used to identify the child if it was returned to its mother.

The textiles are both beautiful and poignant, embedded in a rich social history. Each swatch reflects the life of a single infant child. But the textiles also tell us about the clothes their mothers wore, because baby clothes were usually made up from worn-out adult clothing. The fabrics reveal how working women struggled to be fashionable in the 18th Century.”

http://www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk/exhibit_temp.php

Unit 1 title: Pop Up - Textile Display -Exhibit Present Flaunt

Chelsea Collage of Art and Design
Unit 1 title: Pop Up

Textile Display
Exhibit Present Flaunt

Textiles defined: cloth or fabric that is woven, knitted, or otherwise manufactured.


Textiles or fabrics are an intimate and common ingredient in every person’s life. It seems strange that for the occurrence and obligatory existence the pinnacle and elite of the designs have only recently been given the valuable spaces in London’s top galleries. ‘Exhibit Present Flaunt -Textile display’ as a project is designed to explore this new pop-up trend of textiles as a serious and popular art form and see how human intimacies with fabric can provide a base from which we can relate to the new gallery projections.

In opinion, there are three main motivations for someone to display and presents textiles, this is incorporated with the function. In an art gallery a curator has the job and purpose to exhibit. Commercial projections range according to scale, but both a window dresser in a department store and market stall owner has the same trade interests and can be summarised as devoted to present. And on personal levels within a person’s home and or even a company’s work environment a textile on display is there to flaunt. All three different motivations can provide this project with inspiration for the ‘pop up space’ outcome.

Exhibit

To exhibit textiles can be difficult because of their two dimensional tendencies and lifeless characteristics. Textiles exhibitions and displays of high design are Popping up all over the capital. Curators are now developing new and exciting techniques to present the form in a promising appeal. For a gallery to devote there main temporary exhibit space to a textile collection means that they are achieving an attractive aesthetic. It also shows that there is now a admiration that both art critics and public have for the art form. The following exhibitions are examples of major contributors to this conjecture
· Summerset house: SHOWstudio: Fashion Revolution, 17 Sep - 23 Dec 2009
· V&A: Quilts: 1700 – 2010 , 20 Mar - 4 Jul 2010
· The Barbican:Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion, 15 Oct - 6 Feb 2011

Present

Presenting textiles is a key part to the multi million pound uk clothing industry. Getting it right or wrong can alter companies profit margins to such an extent that big companies spend hundreds of thousands employing people to solely design the area of sale, ideally creating an illusion of wonder and attraction that promotes the sales. Shops renowned for their window displays include London’s Harrods and Selfridges, as well as the more mainstream Topshop, Zara and John Lewis. Even when money isn’t there to support a business enterprise, creativity can still deliver an imaginative presentation, often market stall vendors provide parades of interest that you can not walk past before having a look. It is the commercial transitions from a space to stage that can provide an interesting inspiration for a pop-up presentation.

Flaunt

Textiles play an intimate part in every person’s life. We can not escape avoiding intimacy with fabric. When we are born we are immediately placed into the warmth of a blanket and when we die the majority do so in the comfort of a woven bed sheet. We develop a love and desire for the fabrics because of their comforting and warming qualities extending both practically and emotionally which is why our homes are full of textiles. It is exciting to see what forms they take in this context and the part they play to add ornament that can then be socially applauded in a performance of flaunting or personally appreciated.

Objects of inspiration

Inspiration so far is concentrated on textile display, all this focus questions the worth and value of the textiles we are presenting. As a connection I feel my objects used as inspiration should be selected based on there material value.

My own strongest emotional relationship with a textile is with my childhood teddy bear. It went everywhere and now shows the effects: battered, bruised, worn, torn and even disintegrating. The fabric made toy still sits in a special place, displayed proudly for no one interests beside my own. Its now individual form, pattern ,colour and textures are unique to its journey. I feel if I use a collection of fabric toys that are worn, fractured, loved and broken to provide inspiration for my designs I may be able to connect similar feeling of adoration and care into the new textile techniques shown in Chelsea’s eight week workshop programme. In which we be shown how we can construct, design and enterprise textile processes in knit, weave, print (including digital) and stitch.

Brief - Pop Up - Recommended Texts

FOR REFERENCE -

Look for artists who work with Space and collections and/or narrative actively in their work:

• Damien Hurst,
• Tracy Emin,
• Christian Boltanski,
• Joseph Beuys,
• Fluxus,
• Mark Dion,
• Rachel Whiteread,
• Sarah Lucas,
• Joseph Cornell,
• Cornelia Parker,
• Kyoichi Tsuzuki,
• Jimmy Durham,
• Peter Fischli and David Weiss,
• Susan Hillier,
• Robert Rauschenberg,
• Rebecca Horn,
• Hans Stoffer,
• Lisa Milroy,
• Matthew Barney,
• Noble and Webster,
• Jeremy Deller,
• Hans-Peter Feldmann, ,
• Jan Svankmajer animations,
• Hip hop,
• Alexander Mc Queen,
• Tim Walker – fashion photographer. www.jamesplumb.co.uk – Projected discarded objects creating new forms plus designed objects using obsolete paraphernalia.
• Committee – product designers work together to ‘assemble, adapt and juxtapose discarded objects, the leftovers from the retail world. Their signature Kebab Lamps are ‘totems' for today’s material culture, painstakingly constructed by skewering different objects together to create standing lights.’ www.jerwoodvisualarts.org/appliedarts/EXHIBITIONS

Look at Display, how museums relate objects to tell histories and stories:

• Museum of Childhood - Bethnal Green Rd
• British Museum- Museum Street,
• Flow gallery,
• Sir John Soanes Museum

Also look at contemporary retail display:

• – Dover Street Market , Dover street

Brief - Pop Up

BA (Hons) TEXTILE DESIGN

STAGE 1
AUTUMN TERM: 2010/2011
Project: POPUP
UNIT 2: Concept & Process
Date:18th October -10th December
40 credits

POPUP

Popup spaces are a new, exciting and sometimes anarchic way of transforming disused space.
Do-it yourself culture is taking over
Shops, galleries, restaurants, cinemas appearing in empty and unloved spaces.
Your desk is your space
Create a dramatic, visually exciting Popup collection of objects that interconnect in a variety of ways to illuminate some aspect of your contemporary experience. We are asking you to create Two POPUPS. Popup1 will inform your first two technical blocks (Autumn term) and Popup2 will inform the remaining two technical blocks Spring term (see timetables on blackboard).

Consider representing a Place or a Sequence

POPUP PLACE

For example - Popup Peckham popup fridge /garden shed.
Objects which describe a particular environment which you may have an interest in or a personal connection to ,scale and breadth of space are an important consideration – could be an investigation of a very tiny world in microscopic detail, from a patch of ground to street level to locality to universe

POPUP SEQUENCE

Connections between objects, storytelling, back stories, free association, family histories,
reflecting on an experience. Objects relating to an issue you are really concerned about. A political issue. A Joke. A secret. Something mysterious. A juxtaposition of unlikely elements. a sequence…a transformation, a metamorphosis. Synecdoche (where the part stands in for the whole or the whole for the part).

The POPUP, although a piece of work in its own right, is also an image bank for future development; a source of inspiration for you to draw on in the coming weeks. It will also act as a starting point for the work you will make in the forthcoming technical workshops. We are asking you to respond to your collection developing your own visual language, responding to colour, contrast , juxtapositions, narratives, texture, form, mood.

PROGRAMME OF STUDY
18th October – Assemble your Popup on your desk consider your arrangement carefully to convey your particular story or mood.

Independent Study & Taught Sessions
The next two weeks in the studio will be spent recording through drawing, cataloguing, painting constructing, inventing, wrapping, photography. This will include independent study and taught sessions. You will be introduced to a variety of approaches to drawing in day workshops run by specific tutors.

TUTORIALS

Monday 25h October - One to One Tutorial
You will be assigned a Personal Tutor and have one tutorial to discuss your progress and any issues.

Thursday 9th December – One to One Tutorial on progress

Monday 21st February – Unit feedback tutorials – one to one

UNIT ASSESSMENT DEADLINE – Monday 14th February – display your work in your studio space by 10am DG17. You will then use this day as an independent study day whilst tutors assess your work in the studio. No access to studios on this day after 10am.

Learning Outcomes – In order to pass the unit you are expected to:

1. demonstrate knowledge of the key principles of textile design and design processes.
2. present, evaluate and interpret information through your practical visual research, and use this to develop design work that is translated into your samples.
3. evaluate the appropriateness of processes, skills and methods of textile design in order to explore your ideas through knitted, woven, stitched, printed and digital samples.
4. use self-reflection and critical evaluation as part of the learning process.
5. communicate your ideas and findings using structured and coherent arguments. Present samples professionally appropriately to textile design.
6. demonstrate transferable skills and qualities such as initiative and problem solving

The learning outcomes will be assessed through the marking criteria listed in below.

Marking criteria

• Research : Systematic identification and investigation of a range of academic and cultural sources
• Analysis : Examination and interpretation of resources
  Subject Knowledge : Understanding and application of subject knowledge and underlying principles
• Experimentation: Problem solving, risk taking, experimentation and testing of ideas and materials in the realisation of concepts
• Technical Competence : Skills to enable the execution of ideas appropriate to the medium
• Communication and Presentation : Clarity of purpose; skills in the selected media; awareness and adoption of appropriate conventions; sensitivity to the needs of diverse audiences
• Personal and Professional Development : Management of learning through reflection, planning, self direction, subject engagement & commitment
• Collaborative and/or Independent Professional Working : Demonstration of suitable behaviour for working in a professional context alone, or in diverse teams

Pages 59 and 60 of the Course Handbook 2009/10 (available on Blackboard) explain in detail the levels of achievement indicators for each of the marking criteria.

Assessment evidence

• Evidence of design research and development.
• Presentation of a collection of design work reflecting specific themes related to the project.
• Fabric samples for each textile technical block.
• Technical notebook
• Presentation of research material related to study tasks for theory.
Self-evaluation form

Designer Analysis - Beuys, Josef

Beuys, Josef

Josef Beuys is regarded as one of the most influential artist of the late twentieth century, born in 1921 in Germany, a passionate political and social activist and educator. A philosophic man; he was an optimistic believer in positive social change. Art, available to all, could be a social engine, which would power a revolutionary change. He believed that: "Everyone is an artist." Beuys, Josef

His work was focused on concepts of humanism and social philosophy; centred on social ideas of anthroposophy, work by Rudolf Steiner who Josef was an advocate. Steiner’s belief was that, a spiritual movement could free the individual from any external authority and this spiritual world could be accessed directly from a sensory experience of inner development. Beuys then interpreted this with his own idea of Social Sculpture. He wanted to shape society and politics.

Social Sculpture was Beuys’s term to illustrate art's potential to transform society. Society, as a whole, was to be regarded as one great work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk), to which each person can contribute creatively.

His vast body of art referred to as social sculpture then took shape in many forms including: performance, drawing, print-making, sculpture and installation; using language, thought, action, and object. They were considered his ‘actions’ from which he encouraged audiences to incorporate the political and social messages into their everyday lives.

He once said: “It was simply impossible for human beings to bring their creative intention into the world any other way than through action." Beuys, Josef Align that with he belief of all of us as artists leads us to his belief for his own artistic revolution.

Beuys, Josef
Entwurf für ein FilzenvironmentModel for a Felt Environment

The Sculpture (pictured above), Model for a Felt Environment, has neat rolls of grey felt sitting on painted wood inside a vitrine, as suggest by the title is intended as a model for an ‘environment’.

Vitrines are normally used as display cases commonly found in museums to present objects which are significant for example because of their value or historical influence. Beuys use of common object in this scenario allows the audience to question their signification from when Beuys can answer philosophically.

Beuys, Josef
felt suit

The sculpture is a stitched brown suit (jacket and trousers) lengthen at the arms and legs, made from felt, suspended from a wooden hanger. It is a replica of a suit Beuys wore to an anti-Vietnam event in 1971 conducted by the group Fluxus, which Beuys was a passionate member.

The suit can be seen as an icon of safety and a medium of shelter. A suit in reality can give humans physical warmth in a practical sense. However Beuys goes on to explain this as: ‘Not even physical warmth is meant... Actually I meant a completely different kind of warmth, namely spiritual or evolutionary warmth or the beginning of an evolution’ Therefore using the art as a social sculpture, a medium for social and political converse.

He wore to suit in order to keep warm during his protest against war, an obviously devastating life taken affair. On that day in 1971 the suit was more then warm protective clothing for Beuys; if the protest was successful, it is a symbol of life and protection for the civilians that would have entered battle I Vietnam.

Beuys choice or action to reproduce the suit and promote a common place object as art is an exciting, energetic, medium as the new meaning becomes powerful.

There are connotations of the suits worn by prisoners, in particular those in Nazi concentration camps. This imprisonment link can then acts as a symbol of the isolation of human beings. Although isolated, I like the idea: the prisoners although striped bare of so much, physically and emotionally, they still have or have been given this suits to keep them warm. And Beuys promotion against war may give them hope, for those wrongly imprisoned, that justice is still being fort for. A though they can be reminded of every time they feel the snugness of the suit.

He worked with felt because he believed them to be of universal relevance to the human struggle for survival. Felt itself is both insulating, protective within it’s properties making it an ideal choice to suit the overall themes. Below are two more examples of Beuys work to show the relevance of using felt as a material:

Beuys, Josef

Plight

Felt rolls comprise to produce the work ‘Plight’ meaning environment. The walls and ceiling are covered completely with the rolls to create a stifling atmosphere.

Beuys, Josef

The Chief

Beuys produced a performance or an ‘action’ when reffering to his Social Sculpture concepts, called ‘The Chief’. The artist was wrapped in a felt blanket, during the nine hour performance he has to fighting claustrophobia by lying practically still, as if in a coffin.

The use of felt is important because, as a material, its properties mean it can both insulates and absorbs. This allows the artist to represent both protection and a sense of constriction or almost suffocation.

It is believed a childhood interest in the natural sciences gave Beuys his desire to explore and experiment with the properties of materials. As well as felt he regularly worked with animal fat copper and wax believing them to be of universal relevance to the human struggle for survival because they can be seen as proposing: insulating, conductive, protective, transmitting and transforming properties.

Designer Analysis - Vasarely, Victor

Vasarely, Victor

Pal-Ket

Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian, French artist born in 1906. His work is considered an early example of the Op Art movement. Optical illusions are abstract images. The interactions between the pictures plains are manipulated to create the illusions. the viewer is entertained by their understanding and what they are actually seeing. Illusions include movement, flashing, swelling, warping, hidden images and patterns. Mainly in black and white, but later artist progressed with colour.

It is our own vision and human ability to see that makes exploring techniques within this movement so interesting, the retina for example records colour input differently as it receives the different light inputs. Manipulating this can create an interesting study.

In the Painting Pal-Ket Vasarely demonstrates beautifully how using optical art techniques can create an illusion of a sphere appearing to bulge from a flat surface. The image consists of a chessboard style of a square grid which is manipulated according to the movement. In the centre of the page, the central four squares have been enlarged, acting as if they are closer to the audience. From the center the grid then takes 8 different proportionate directions until it reaches the edge of the sphere boundary line. From there the grid almost melts back into the proportionate, flat, chessboard.

The fundamental achievement of the ambiguous image and the audiences perception is the measurement of the grid. Between the center, as the grid declines, towards the corners in an affair of cubic growth until it has reached it's original size from there it reduces in a linear manner until it either falls from perspective or rejoins the flat background.

Colour has been included to add depth to the illusion. Purples, blues, greens, white and black sits to fill each of the geometric shapes. Black and white forms the background in sence that where either is dominate it affects it's combination with the primary pigments. White is found around the edge of the sphere acting as a light source or reflection. Black then makes home in the centre and on the outskirts of te image. Colour is divided in the four: top left is green with a purpal background; top right blue with a green background; bottom left blue with a black background; bottom right purpel with a blue background. Like with the grid measurements as the colours change saturation changes with a tinted or shaded effect it results in an illusion of change.

Each box contains a circle which gives the surface a pattern. This emphasises the movement of the grid and has the potential to clarify the direction of the movement.

Designer Analysis - Pollock, Jackson

Pollock, Jackson
Number 1A, 1948

Paul Jackson Pollock was born in 1912, an American painter, he became a major figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement. The movement was developed by American painters, mainly in New York, in the 1940s and 50s. The name suggests a rebellious, disordered, and lawless craze, a feeling you would expect from a post-war community. The focus of the art involved producing or expressing an emotional effect. Like surrealist concepts, expressionist felt art should come from the unconscious mind. There was two broad groups within the concept: action or colour-field. Action painters were spontaneously, improvising as they went along in an automatic, subconscious manner. The Colour-Field painters instead had interests in religion and myth, using simple compositions of colour in blocks in an attempt to engage the viewer as well as provoking a meditation response from the viewer, thoughtful and reflective.

Number 1A, 1948, created by Pollock is a large canvas smeared with paint, from drippings of paint in large dramatic brush strokes and sweeping marks. To do this he would pour and fling the paint, using sticks and knives. A childish action that is hard to control. This technique was enhanced by the scale, which requires a large input of an energetic application which would be hard for someone of inferior strength. it is this exertion that gives the finished effect it's energy, a buzz, an electricity of power that sits almost off the canvas. I feel if the initial input had been less aggressive the finish wouldn't be so kinetic. He also had to pouring paint direct from the can or trailing it from the brush or a stick to directly placed their inner impulses on the canvas.

He worked on the canvas either on the floor or tacked to a hard wall in order to freely move around it's edges. Removing the easel gave him freedom and changes the idea of a traditional perspective. It is this freedom of expression that was so relieving for the artists having been controlled for so long by war censorship.

Each stroke is individual, it can not be repeated or copied, and the nature of the painting means there is no mistakes. The page is infinite in respect of there being no beginning or end, instead a seemed endless overlaying of beauty.

Within the picture you can see -in order of the dominance- the following colours : pure black citric pale green turquoise, florescent highlighter orange, bleached white, melon red, deep dry blood red, and a chocolate brown. This eclectic mix sits on top of the background colour of a light antique brown that holds reference to an old piece of paper.

Designer Analysis - Rauschenberg, Robert

Rauschenberg, Robert

Reservoir

Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist born in 1925. His work was popular in the 1950s when he made the transition to Pop Art. He is known for combining non-traditional materials and objects to make innovative combinations

The Pop Art movement draws from sources in popular and commercial culture, such as movies, advertising, packaging, pop music and comic books, to form the perspective of fine art. Often using objects to represent the subject then engage with an combine to produce contemplations. but the subject itself isn't about the techniques it is about the attitude of challenging tradition. It is one of the first examples of postmodernism. Often the artists used low subject matter and treated it uncritically. New modern topic matters or themes were explored.

In the painting, Reservoir (pictured above),Rauschenberg has used common placed objects over a splattered background. The main objects are the two clocks placed near the top and the bottom left corners. They read two different hours which suggests movement. The higher shows the time Rauschenberg started the painting, and bottom when it was completed. If you conclude that the time did not run over a period of days it can be assumed that it took only an hour and five minutes. Time is a nice niggle for art critics, who could suggest that great art must have labour hours invested into it to make it valuable. I feel that this is a small stand promoting post-modern art.

A number of materials have been used to form the image: oil, wood, graphite, fabric, metal, and rubber, as well as the additional rounded objects. Putting 'Fat over Lean' as it can be described produces new lustful textures and effects. When playing with materials you often get a unique desirable results that produce questions for the viewer. Rauschenberg using objects instead of paint works as a Pop art idealisim and fills the gap between art and life. It breaks away from traditional picture space as the objects extend away from the canvas.

The painting technique are erratic. Bold thick strokes have been used to rush around the painting. There are drip marks. No efforts have been made to integrate the bold colour patches. the edges of the colouring are jagged as each brush stroke finishes in a different place. All theses factors collate to an exciting energy of hast and add quality to the theme of movement.

The colour and main compositional additions are at the top of the page, bellow a dirty level white subsides, with the clock leveled upon a bold red splatter. The centre is covered in a textured brown and consists from objects and the paint. It flows to the left into a black with navy highlights the settle a base for the higher clock. Above this floats a purple and white mixture. All colours mentioned are clumped separately with whiter versions of the strongest hue pasted within. In the remaining top area above the mentioned arc is a more pastel collection including a blue and a peachy red clump. Primary colours with no secondary colours to assist an analogous ease. the top right edge trails into a weak soft brown created from the red cluster.

It is unclear what subject, objects or scene the artist was painting, or if there was indeed a objective at all, but as an onlooker I feel there is a collection because of the strong colour divides. The wood placed above the clock confirms this and gives the image structure as a beam would within a house. The arc of browns and black holds the foreground and the pastel colours rest as background.

Designer Analysis - Jones, Allen

Jones, Allen
Man Woman, 'Hermaphrodite' series

Allen Jones a British Sculpture born in 1937. His worked revolved around the Jungian psychology and the philosophy of Nietzche. He focused on the creation of art and the ability to integrate male and female elements. His work can be seen as part of the British Pop Art movement which started in the mid 1950s and peaked in the 1960s.


The Pop Art movement draws from sources in popular and commercial culture, such as movies, advertising, packaging, pop music and comic books, to form the perspective of fine art. Often using objects to represent the subject then engage with an combine to produce contemplations. but the subject itself isn't about the techniques it is about the attitude of challenging tradition. It is one of the first examples of postmodernism. Often the artists used low subject matter and treated it uncritically. Jones exploring the topic of hermaphrodites in this manner is an example of how new subject matter can be developed in new ways when presenting art.


Jones's Man Woman painting from his 'Hermaphrodite' series is a self portrait, the mans body is Jones and he is connected to an unknown woman, The word Hermaphrodite can mean male and female bodies melting into each other. Jones is portraying the unity of a sexual act.


Within the picture there is a representation of a male and female then body connected as if he has his arm around her as they are sitting down, an innocent act of affection.


The bodies do not have heads, which takes away most of their identity emphasising there choice of clothing to discover any characteristics. The man is wearing a typical everyday brown suit worn by most of the British office users in 1960 when they head. She appears less professional but very femine, a v-cut neck forms part of her dress or skirt arrangement; it appears ruffled, designed, colourful and exciting. In the scene it has been hitched up to reveal the whole of her right leg: tights, suggested stockings and heels. If I was to read into the story told by the painting and make my own subjective assumptions I would guess that this was an office love story of lust, affection and betrayal as the employee has an affair with the sectary.


Block colour has been used to create the image; appearing almost cut out. A mixture of about ten pastels. On her evenly distributed to make up her dress: a brown dirty and a lighter sunnier shade of yellow, two soft lake greens and a sky blue. Then an almost violet blue for her covered leg, and for the reveled, a fresh, skin, peach and a soft, deep, velvet, purple for her thigh. On him less colour is used: a pinkie, peachy chest, then a brown trouser and shirt, and a dirtier, darker brown for his jacket. His tie however is thinly striped and echos colours from her dress. she is sitting on a navy seat and he is perched on her which is emphasised but the gap between his legs and body where there is nothing. Although cutout, the colours disperse slightly at the edges and there is occasional blurring.

Designer Analysis - Hayter, Stanley William

Hayter, Stanley William

Claduegne

Stanley William Hayter was a British Painter and printmaker born in London in 1901, who set up the Atelier17 studio. His work in the 1930 was associated with the Surrealist movement, launched in Paris in 1924. The aim of surrealism was to reveal the unconscious and translate it into art. There was no single style of Surrealist art but two broad types can be assumed: (i) oneiric (dream-like) (ii) automatism. The work features the element of surprise, juxtapositions and the unexpected. He then developed his work and became renown as an innovator of printmaking and engraving.

The picture above shows one of Hayters Prints, Claduegne. The picture is of a collection of ribbon like bands that form a grid structure. The grid isn't flat, the ribbons run at an angle facing down from the bottom left to almost the top right. but instead finish in the top corner with a sleep incline. Each line appears interwoven at a 45 0 angle. It isn't rigid, although I have described the page as a grid, the ribbons appear to flow across the page making slight wave like curving movements from left to right.

More interesting then the form is how it relates to the colours. Fluorescent, sharp almost electric seems to be the theme for the colour pallet. Four colours are primary. the background a carpeted deep purple with a vertical lines of a very faded turquoise. As the ribbons descend this purple is covered with a soft red that appears as a light rather then a colour. areas have been scraped away or worn and parts of the carpet is reveled. The ribbons on this surface are the same electric turquoise blue that runs through the purple. As they twist or overlap the colour is removed to produce a checked pattern. The ribbons running upright look to have a colour descended from the red, they are a fluorescent pink and produce the same transparent pattern as they cross another subject. All the colours are acidic.

On a whole there is a grubby, uncleaned sanded texture as if the colours have been overlapped in the wrong order and had to undergo a peeling procedure to readjust the image; parts therefore worn off or stuck in the process.

There is no beginning or end to the study, it looks instead as if it is a snapshot of a larger sample study.

Designer Analysis - Gabo, Naum

Gabo, Naum
Linear Construction in Space No. 2

Naum Gabo was a sculpture born in Russia in 1890 he then moved in 1922 spent time in Berlin and Paris before becoming an American Citizen. His work is seen as part of the Constructivist movement because he can capture the idear of the infinite expansion of space. Constructivism originated in Russia from 1919 until around 1934, artist and architects rejected the idea of "art for art's sake" instead used art as a practice directed towards social purposes.

Gabo's Sculpture Linear Construction in Space No.2 is made using a curved perspex frame and nylon string. There are four Perspex arms joined at the bottom in a small stand, connected to the table surface to keep it stable. Each arm goes in a different compass direction but upright so they connect directly above the original standing position. Within this stretched oblong frame there is a reduced version floating. There appears also to be a central pole. this structural set up make the sculpture look as if it's floating or balancing in it's upright position as if an invisible cord is it's secret.

Looking at the picture (above) it gives a clear perspective of looking directly at one of the 4 arms. parallel you can see it's east and west counterparts. The Nylon string is wrapped around every edge of the arms and then directs towards the central cadge, where it is redirected towards another edge. Twisting, turning almost fighting the other cords to get there, the strings forms beautiful concave and convex folds. None of the cords are overlapped or tangled, they are all tight, aligned and organised.


The materials used are clear, thin, and light so the overall structure has a delicate, transparent finish which appears almost weightless. There is no beginning or end to the sculpture, and because of the extent or number of cords used you cannot unconsciously tract or follow it's direction. It appears infinite.

Designer Analysis - Christo Javacheff

Christo Javacheff
The Pont Neuf, Paris

Christo Javacheff was born in 1935 in Bulgeria. He is famous for his works he often did with list late wife Jeanne-Claude Christo where they would wrap up structures and landscapes on a large scale using materials and rope. The work can be described as similar to the work of New realists (Nouveaux Réalistes) a French movement founded in 1960 by Pierre Restany. The movement is famously described as new ways of perceiving the real. and is closely associated with the European Pop art movement. Artists use collage and assemblage or real objects in their work. this incorporation allows the artist to see the world as an image, from which they would then take objects from or as Christo does take his work to a real life subject both situation allow the artists to bring art and life closer together.

The above photograph shows a sculpture piece created 1985 and left for two weeks before it was dismantled. Christo wrapped up- The Pont Neuf - Paris's oldest bridge, in a thick canvas and secured it with rope. This was considered an exciting new way to create a sculpture.
The odd temporary engagement allows the viewer to be drawn in to the sculptural details of the bridge and engage with the new surface.

The work can be considered as holding a theme of preserving and restoration. The only other time you may see something covered in a similar textile would be if restoration work was taking place. Christo work may spark this association. Or similarly the beauty captured by his work argues reason for the preservation of the historical structure. The attention also creates a refreshed media hype to something sceptical but maybe forgotten because of it's historical construction date, reviving the original beauty.

Designer Analysis - Moholy-Nagy Laszlo

Moholy-Nagy Laszlo

CHX

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was a Jewish-Hungarian painter between 1895 and 1946. He worked as a lecturer in the Bauhaus school. His work is considered as part of the Constructivism movement. Constructivism originated in Russia from 1919 until around 1934, artist and architects rejected the idea of "art for art's sake" instead used art as a practice directed towards social purposes.

In CHX Laszlo has drawn four shapes and then surrounded them within the space using four geometric lined grids. This gives the illusion of them being suspended within the space. The environment appears infinite.
The main shape comprises two Z shaped bubbles connected by a rectangular textured box the top Z is misshaped to appear reaching upwards. The other three shapes can be described as rectangles warped into position and the corners rounded, they sit in three different corners of the page.

The grids do not follow the same horizons; each one is adjusted according to its shapes direction. As you focus on each different shape, I find you naturally twist your head so can view it on its natural plain. This I feel is the main contributor to the shapes appearing within their own space.
Only the three primary colours have been used, however their strength is altered. The most prominent is the red that almost surrounds the main shape. At first sight I would describe it as a bleeding texture. Prominent in the centre and them equally diffusing at the edges in a splutter of fragmented but soft droplets. As it spreads to wards two of the other shapes it curls around their edges as if affected by them.

The red also combines with white to make the streaky pattern within the main shapes box. Pictured like a zebra stripe or a scientific magnified image of a voluntary muscle found in human biology books. The pattern doesn't fit with the overall themes of constructivism, adding form to the almost scientific study.

The bottom Z is coloured yellow with the red blotching its bottom corner. The top Z is coloured white with a deep navy blue lining the top right side diffusing across to the white side. Blue is also found with top right box contained within a curved block.

I think the most influential colouring within the image is the yellow surrounded by the larger red. This creating a Simultaneous contrast effect and propels the yellow shape away from the page to create an illusion of its direction. This is them emphasised by the misshaped top Z the top corner which is misshaped and highlighted blue which gives the illusion of it propelling upwards.

Overall the image is a brilliant example of a successful study into the form and colour can be simplified to explore space and volume.

Designer Analysis - Riley Bridget

Riley, Bridget

Cataract 3

Bridget Riley is a painter from London who work was recognised since the mid 1960's. Her work has been associated with the Op Art movement. Optical illusions are abstract images. The interactions between the pictures plains are manipulated to create the illusions. The viewer is entertained by their understanding and what they are actually seeing. Illusions include movement, flashing, swelling, warping, hidden images and patterns. Mainly in black and white, Riley is on of the front artist who progressed with colour.

It is our own vision and human ability to see that makes exploring techniques within this movement so interesting, the retina for example records colour input differently as it receives the different light inputs. Manipulating this can create an interesting study.

In Cataract 3 waves horizontally drawn across the page by combining a wide arc with a very steep front to create hills sliding down the page in a south east direction. A uniform sequence with no mistakes.

Initially a black and white colour pallet is apparent that alternates between each block of wave. However within the image there is a red tinge diffused vertically and subtly across the eye line. The back turns more to a grey, then both initial colours make room for a new red line that echoes exactly the same movement. The intensity of the red changes, I think it has been mixed slightly with a black to change it's darkness as it gets closer to the top and bottom of the eye line. Resulting in an assimilation contrast.

Initially the images may remind the current generation of a faulty computer inject printout where the ink is low that gives red colour interruptions.

The artist has limited herself to a few elements a basic lines and a pattern. She therefore arguably has to be creative to produce a painting.

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Colour interaction
(i) Simultaneous contrast
When one area of colour is surrounded by another area of a different colour. Initially it enhances the difference in brightness and/or colour. Also if the surround area is larger or more intense than the area it encloses, then the contrast is out of balance, resulting in exerting one of the colours.
(ii) In successive contrast.
One colour is viewed and then another, achieved by shifting fixation from one colour to another.
(iii) Assimilation contrast
The lightness of white or the darkness of black may seem to spread into neighbouring regions. Similarly, colours may appear to spread into or become assimilated into neighbouring areas. Resulting in neighbouring areas appear more alike

Designer analysis - Schiele Egon

Schiel, Egon

Seated Woman with Bent Knee

Egon Schiele was an Austrian painter during the early 19th century. His work has been associated as part of the expressionism movement that originated in German at the start of the 20th century. The ideals of expressionism are to present a subjective perspective, distorting a subject for emotional effect, promoting a response and ignoring the physical reality. I think this movement description is important in analysing this piece of his works.

The painting is a portrait of a young and beautiful woman, as titled; she is seated in an informal position with her knee bent on the ground. Her head resting upon it as she loosely curls her arms around her leg. The other leg opens out her body position exposing herself. This accompanied with the head facing towards the artist expands the woman's body language and allows the viewer to feel engaged with the subject.

Many of her features suggest personality traits of a vibrant, adventurous, unafraid, and mischievous person; distinctively her short, thick, uncontrollable, bouncy, albany curls.

Her facial expression is serious but also flirty. The raised eyebrows and pouting lips contribute to the erotic salutations but it is the gaze that is most exciting, I feel as if her wide eyes are almost asking a question and demanding the answer. This gaze could feels almost threatening.

The body proportions aren't exact. the neck is elongated and her legs and hips look larger then a normal perspective, this allows her body to sit comfortably in the lounged position.

The pallet is purposely limited in the painting upon the white background. The colour is focused on the orange albany hair, the turquoise green sleeveless top and black leggings. The rest of the image is comprised of her pale cream skin, muffled white shorts and unpainted shoes. The only other colour focus point is her red lips.
Upon the bright colours of her hair, top and leggings, the brush strokes are exaggerated almost scraped onto the canvas creating dense, long, thick irrigated lines.

The softer parts of the painting have mainly, unnoticeable brush marks. Her skin has instead a blotchy texture of occasional browns and albans creating blemishes, dirt marks or shading, giving an unwashed finished. The shorts look almost unpainted the outlines are a strong array or thin lines and the fill is merely a white speckle.

The two colour differences create a balance between the positive and negative spaces in the image. if the figure had been entirely finished it would not seat into the background comfortably.