Hussein Chalayan

British fashion designer, who has twice been crowned the british designer of the year.  He pushes the boundaries of products/architecture with fashion to give life to his garments.
I was interested in how he transforms other objects into designs and creations that people can wear.

www.husseinchalayan.com/blog

Use a Building as a Screen

"Use a Building as a Screen"




Artist Research:
Zaha Hadid
John Hutton & John Piper (Coventry Cathedral)


Other research:
LG Optimus advertising on the Kulturbrauerei building in Berlin:

I particularly liked the etchings on the screen of Saints & Angels - Coventry Cathedral, and the idea of using the windows/glass as way to use (part of) a building as a screen.  The idea of creating work that can be very subtle.

I thought that I could use a building to screen my own work.

This is an architectural model illustration - I have used the idea of eching my designs and projecting some of my pictures from the field guide project 'Create a work that moves from one place to another'.

I tried projecting a slide show of some of my ink photos onto the studio wall, to see if the ink patterns adapted a more 3D feel.  This could be better if the images were cropped to the same size to create a better flow.

After much discussion at my group crit, and trying various methods,techniques & ideas I felt as though I could not complete this project to achieve the results I wanted.  Originally it linked well with 'make a work that moves from one place to another' but as my ideas developed for that project I felt as though this project was no longer developing, and so decided to focus on my other 3 projects, leaving this as it stands.

100 Pieces of Gum

"Photograph 100 pieces of chewing gum, display them in a way that removes them from their original setting and re-arranges them by form, relationship or something else."


Artist research:
Ben Wilson
Maurizio Savini
Christopher Boffoli.


I researched some key facts about gum, and some of my ideas developed from the following:
- Singapore is the only country in the world where chewing gum is banned
- Seattle has an official tourist attraction of a 'gum wall':

This gave me the idea that the world is covered in gum - everywhere except Singapore

I decided to cover a blow up globe in gum - except Singapore

My thoughts then went down the route of: "If gum can't go to Singapore - then Singapore will go to the gum"

I tried to etch famous Singapore landmarks out of a stick of chewing gum.

 Singapore's Merlion

 Raffles Hotel Singapore

Using the Merlion as the main landmark for Singapore, I began to re-create this as a small salt dough statue and covered it in chewed chewing gum:

This idea proved to be unsuccessful and I felt as though I had reached a dead end with this idea. 

I began researching into different foods/items that are banned in parts of the world.  Foods/items that might seem odd/intriguing to people from our culture, England in particular.   I wanted to continue with the globe theme and using them as a base for sculptural representations.  

Tomato ketchup is banned in primary schools in France - as it is seen to be ruining French cuisine.

Marmite is banned in Denmark - as it is a fortified food with added vitamins & minerals.

Kinder Surprise eggs are banned in the United States of America - as they the toys inside are a choking hazard.

I feel this one hasn't worked as well as the wrappers were very difficult to cut to the correct size and they were difficult to give a neat finish to compared to the food products.  Using the actual kinder chocolate did not work as the melted product would not stick to the globe and once dried it cracked and fell off.  However I like this as a way of expanding the idea and starting a new route involving brands.

Final Installation:

Make a work that moves from one place to another

"Make a work that moves from one place to another."



Artist Research:
Wolfgang Tillmans
Tilleke Schwarz.


For this task I focused on the idea of movement, and what moves from one place to another - water, wind, time...

I particularly liked the work of Wolfgang Tillmans and how his photographs really capture movement.  This gave me inspiration to try a few photographs using water and inkjet dyes.  I felt some were more successful than others - the magenta ones worked particularly well.

I tried to project these as large as possible to one of the studios to see if they changed perspective and whether they created more 3D sculptural feel towards them.

I then took sections of these images and created vector drawings using adobe illustrator, and converted them into a short flash video.

After projecting my ink images onto the studio wall, and from discussion at my group crit, I liked how the projections became life size and took on a more sculptural feel.  I thought I should develop this further, and started thinking along the lines of sculptural installation - using fabrics as a another way to capture this frozen moment of time.   

I looked at several sculpture artists for inspiration:

Helmick & Schechter

Nike Savvas
Eva Hesse

I made a few samples to see whether they would be effective, and whether they captured the idea of freezing a moment in time.

Attempt 1:

Attempt 2: Fabrics have been dipped in plaster mix to make them rigid.  I did not think that this looked as effective - I like how the fabric moves with the cube and have a sense of floating.

Attempt 3:  Invisible thread moves your eye to the fabrics inside.  

Attempt 4:  When the frame is moved/handled/angled, the fabrics form slightly different folds/shapes almost like a kaleidoscope effect.

Attempt 5:

For my final sculpture I adapted a few ideas from my test pieces.  I wanted an interactive installation that reflected the photos I had taken - a cube which, when moved, would slightly alter that 'frozen moment in time'.  Unfortunately the final cube fell apart into 12 pieces 2 days before the deadline during the photo session, as a result I did not get as many photos as I intended.  In an attempt to re-create the cube the final product is not as neatly finished as I would have liked, however I have learnt that I would have to work on my skills & choice of materials to have an end product that could be picked up and interacted with.  

(2 days to go:)

Final Sculpture: