The Bauhaus Project

   The Bauhaus Project involved picking two specialist subjects, then developing and creating a final piece for both within 7 weeks. The two subjects I picked were Fashion/Textiles and Fine Art.  My initial inspiration for my textiles garment was Marcel Breuer and his tubular steel chairs, since I loved the way the seat could be suspended in mid-air with the minimum support. However, in the end I decided to use a cube for both projects since, although I knew it would be difficult, I was intrigued by the properties of a cube.

       

My first idea for my cube textiles garment was to use a corner of a cube as my skirt and have two fans as my bodice. However, I found after making a prototype of this garment (see ‘My Corner Cube Dress’) that it did not fit appropriately as a skirt and the fans for the bodice were too flimsy.

 

My solution to these problems was to make a square based pyramid dress which wrapped around the body better. I made it out of Poly Cotton since it is tougher and more flowing than paper, and covered it with different sized paper cubes. For the bodice I made two paper aeroplanes and then folded them out and planned to attach them to the skirt. I then had another problem that this alone was too revealing, therefore I made a separate boob tube made out of poly cotton and attached my aeroplanes to it. This worked well and I was very pleased with the results

For Fine Art we looked at the Triadic Ballet by Oscar Schlemmar, and then began to look at how we could create our own geometric Bauhaus styled costumes for a shadow screen performance.

We also had to make two massive design sheets on parcel paper, exploring our ideas for the performance.

      

I continued with the idea of the cube in my Fine Art project and began to look further into different ways of using it. My final piece was strongly based on the idea of concealment (like a cage) within the cube and then breaking out of the box. I then started to think about how I could create the cage I would be breaking out of and the dance sequence I would use. After explaining my idea I discussed using wings which would represent freedom. I wanted the wings to be translucent, I was originally going to make these out of tissue or tracing paper, but found this was too delicate. After looking at Rebecca Horn’s work I decided to create my wings using 5 triangles cut out of muslin and then sew them together to make a quarter of a circle. I then decided for my Shadow Screen to make a half cube rather than a whole cube so that when viewed from the side, it looks as if it has split in half, setting me free.

Digital Photography

The main part of our Digital Photography course was to create a blog in which, like what I'm doing now, I had to upload all of my work and artist researches. For more info go to:

http://puppetofmischief.weebly.com

CAD - 4 Thought Animation

Our third and final CAD project involved making a Stop Motion Animation for the website '4 thought'. We had to randomly pick one of nine Equality and Diversity Issues which were; race; disability; gender; gender reassignment; sexual orientation; religion/belief; pregnancy/ maternity; marriage/ civil partnerships. My selection was Pregnancy / Maternity, so I decided to focus on pregnant women applying for jobs and the decisions they must make. In my animation when offered a job should a woman reveal that she is pregnant? She is scared to tell the truth, but in the end she does and her interviewer tells her that it's fine. The message behind my story is that honesty pays.

Here are some screen shots from my animation.

Fashion/Textiles

Our project in Fashion and Textiles involved a secret, and after we'd thought of our secret we had to create a journey of ideas which would eventually lead to creating a final garment. Anne Stokes was my main inspiration at the start of my journey since I love her illustrations of dragons.

My initial idea for this project was to make a garment which would transform me into an oriental dragon every Chinese New Year (my theme/ secret). I was going to make this originally as a dress/ kimono, with draped sleeves to act as the wings of my dragon. Whilst looking at other artists such as Tilleke Schwarz (http://www.tillekeschwarz.com/biography.html) and Rosie James (http://www.axisweb.org/p/rosiejames) I gained an idea of how I could show my journey throughout my sketchbook and the lead up to my final piece. Although it was Studio Ghibli’s  award winning anime, ’Spirited Away’ with its unusual transformation which was my main inspiration, especially the witch Yubaba who was able to change herself from woman to bird by using only a simple black ‘cape’. This got me thinking that if I have to transform into the dragon, then it should be a cloak that I use, not a dress.

      My garment was made using red lining, with a cowl hood and red organza over the top of it to add sheen to my cape. On the inside I had different images of iconic buildings of Birmingham on the left, with fireworks celebrating Chinese New Year; whereas on the right I had an image of my dragon, with an image of me transforming just below it; this was all done using heat transfer.    

I really enjoyed making this cloak and hand embroidering my secret on the inside.

Dark room photography

When I first started this project on Darkroom Practice I was clueless about how to use a darkroom camera. Ten weeks later I had a basic working knowledge of how to use a slow film in a film camera, and how to change the aperture and exposure time in order to take a successful picture. I now know how to develop my film properly and how to use the darkroom, with the different chemicals, and the projectors to help me print my photograph onto photographic paper. During the course we had to take pictures from around Birmingham using a Film Camera. I loved this part of the course since it taught you how to set a film camera up; how to develop your film and then  how to print your photographs from the negatives in the dark room.

The first images I created and then developed in the darkroom were photograms. We collected personal objects, mine was a worry doll, my necklace, a Shinedown wristband and a Shinedown keyring.  We placed them onto photo sensitive paper and exposed them to light.

Here is the first picture I took using a film camera and then developed it in the dark room. It is Sutton Coldfield Town Hall. Can you spot the deliberate mistake? After developing it, I noticed that the photo is the wrong way round- WHOOPS!!!

The next series of photographs I took were inspired by the artist Jo Gane. She took a series of photographs around Birmingham on a long exposure to blur out moving images in the picture and capture a Victorian feel. Her work focuses on Ghosts of the past which is why she uses old fashioned techniques to develop her photos.

I tried to create this effect in my photographs by using a long exposure to make the picture look grainy and old. However, the camera I used was faulty and the film snapped at the edge as I was taking it out. The chemicals caught in this crease as I was developing the film producing a white corner. A happy accident since I think that it adds an aged effect to the photograph.

 Our last exercise was to overlay two negatives one being a receipt form our favourite shop and the other an inspiring photograph that I have taken.   

I decided to overlay a negative of Holy Trinity Church, since it is beautiful, with a Blue Banana receipt, since I love this shop.  Yes, I know that it is upside down, just another perspective!!!

Yellow Week

During Yellow Week we were asked to create both drawings and sculptures of dead animals and various animal organs; see examples below.

There were three different sections to Yellow week, first we created wire sculptures of different animals or organs, mine was a heart. Then we drew them out on a big sheet of white paper using a projector to enlarge it.

The next section involved making massive collagraphs on cardboard of the dead animals, using a variety of different materials to create different textures. I used a duck's head, see final picture below far left.

The last thing we did was to create massive drawings of the animals and organs either on the floor or on the wall. 

Finally, at the end of the week we put all our pieces together in an exhibition. I think that the display looks really impressive, especially the way the path leads the visitors around the displays.