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.