Installation Piece

Although i do love everything fashion i appreciate that it would be naive of me to think that a transition into the fashion world would be simple. i am increasingly aware that opportunities rarely come around for the luckiest of people. you have to push yourself, push to get yourself heard. Think of how many people are studying fashion related degrees every year in all the universities across the uk?!?!?!?! Therefore i am constantly keeping my options open and look at other art forms for inspiration and interest.

textiles artists, sculptures, ceramics, instalation artists, photographer and illustrators frequently feature in my research as they can often bring organic shapes, materials, ideas and ways of working into my own creations

Whilst doing an Art foundation i decided for one of my projects to create a piece of installation art. I looked at artists such as Annette Messager and Christian Boltanski. In particular the sculpturasl pieces by christian boltanski and his use of shadows of light. The example shown above is taken from http://likovna-kultura.ufzg.hr/obrazovniweb/English/plane01.htm although i am sure this isn't where the original picture came from.

The title for my project was 'urban' and the final piece was a selection of clothing that i had solidified in human shapes (by soaking the things in pva and then hanging over college chairs etc due to lack of resources) and then burnt, painted, anything to dirty them up a bit. the clothing was representational of people within a community and the idea of destroying them came from the pictures i took of the local council estate i grew up in - parks graffittied, fences broken, bins burnt out, drugs, booze, cigarettes, etc etc. I projected a pen and ink drawing of a swing in one of the parks, symbolical, something we all must have done when we were kids... played on a swing.

Unfortunately these are the only 2 pictures i seem to have of the installation. they are close ups of some of the clothing i destroyed. I shall try to locate more and post them on here. The beauty of installation art is that it is around you, enticing. I feel that it gives the viewer more options. people can make their own assumptions of what the piece means. The thing i enjoyed most about this project was the freedom. The freedom to push your creativity. To push boundaries so effectively. I enjoyed this project much more than some of the fashion ones i have done. Any comments would greatly be appreciated or even recommendations or pictures of your own work.