Hussein Chalayan

Does anyone else agree that Hussein Chalayan is the Damien Hirst of the fashion world??





'Hussein Chalayan' is at the Lisson Gallery, London, now and also at Spring Projects, 'B-Side' from 17th September

Cindy Sherman

An artist we need to consider for our ‘Matchbox’ shoot is Cindy Sherman.

Sherman is an American photographer and film director, she is well known for her conceptual portraits where she herself, is always the model. For each photographic project she seems to take on roles of different characters for her work. In 1981, a project named ‘Centerfolds’ questioned the idea of stereotyping women in films, magazines and TV. In discussion about this project, Cindy stated,

"In content I wanted a man opening up the magazine suddenly look at it with an expectation of something lascivious and then feel like the violator that they would be. Looking at this woman who is perhaps a victim. I didn't think of them as victims at the time... But I suppose... Obviously I'm trying to make someone feel bad for having a certain expectation."

In 2006 there was an exhibition, a retrospective for Sherman‘s work: a spokesperson for the exhibition spoke their thoughts on the pieces:

‘What emerges through these images is a subtle analysis of individual identity, both the fantasies that it generates and the forces that shape it. This immersion in the uncertain, conflictual zones where individual identity struggles with the collective imaginary, stereotypes and issues of symbolic power, can be either playful or—when it touches on horror and repulsion, on the decay and dismembering of the body—very dark’.

Sherman’s work seems to question roles and identity, specifically of women, this I think will naturally come through within our images for the matchbox photo shoot. When thinking about mass consumerism, it is usually women that seem to have the want and need to be ‘similar’ in society, yet somehow, women tend to want to be unique in society. Our images are created to question and highlight why we want to be a ‘mass consumer’ society. Not only does Sherman’s work have more complex meaning’s but, when looking at her imagery she commonly looks like a mannequin: her look isn’t heavily natural- this could be good for us to look at for make up ideas for the shoot. Sherman is very ironic and literal in her shoots, I like this.

Graham Dolphin

In our lecture the other day, where we discussed art and fashion: its crossovers and links, we were given plenty of names of creative people in creative industries and one man that stood out to me, when considering our ideas for the ‘matchbox’ shoot, was Graham Dolphin.

His name stuck out because Adam explained to us his projects and the work Dolphin creates: within his work he specialises in defacing beauty and fashion imagery, this is something I think we are wanting to consider in our shoot, whether it be on the day of the shoot or through post production. Dolphin's almost compulsion of re-presenting the objects, images, sounds and music of fashion as well as popular culture, is Dolphin's trademark in his work. Dolphin’s work focuses on objects and icons of the music and fashion industry, modernising them into constructed imagery that highlight obsessions with the progressive world of mass culture. In our shoot we want to highlight and look at ideas surrounding mass consumerism and ideas with complexities, rather than creating fashion imagery that just looks like ‘pretty’ and beautiful imagery. Each of us in the group prefer imagery that has underlining meaning.

I love the fact that Dolphin works onto his objects and images and adds layers to the imagery. His main way of introducing fashion in his work is through fashion advertisements- he kinda vandalizes the imagery and turns them into something else. Dolphin’s book, ‘Everything in Vogue’ mainly focuses on Dolphin’s fashion work but also portrays other projects he has been involved with.

Get Dressed

I came across an article about the artist Greg Lauren's latest work: a new installation opening today at the FIAF gallery which looks at the idea of dressing oneself and according to Lauren,"obsessing over the different aesthetics of a straight versus spread collar, perfecting the shape of a pocket square or the dimple in one’s tie."

The installation involves projecting imagery from the film, (of Alfred Hitchcock's) To Catch a Thief onto sculptured paper, origami-ish suits, and this obviously reminded me of the project we have just handed in with the kids fashion projection shoot. Although it kind of shows the complete opposite, when considering the concept of the shoot, of what we were showing, Lauren shows the faces and the full image of the person onto these suits, maybe to show another side to their character and we projected a persons clothing only, without their actual identity to pass their characteristics onto children, giving the kids another dimension.

Inspirational, Jenny Saville

Fashion is all around and you can find it in one of the most unusual places....

One of my favourite artists of all time has to be the British artist, Jenny Saville, best known for her amazing painting technique and her phenomenal paintings of women.

When I was studying in my foundation year at Wakefield college, I studied this artist a hell of a lot through my year. I just love the way she paints, the colours she users are stunning, although lots of her imagery is quite uncomfortabe to look at, because of the way she portrays these women, and is able to highlight there physique in such a graceful way, makes her inspirational to me.

I like to look at the human form, Im a bit of a people watcher really which links to the post below, its part of my job to look at people and understand there characteristics and persona.