down by the water front

Lives of Artists Series Three : Graphic Artists as Fashion Designers Right Here Right Now

 

 

Ok, I was going to call this post Lazy Hazy Days of Summer… or something…it being about Lazy Oafs Spring and Summer 11 collection and all things summery!. And, with it now being well on the way into early June, and also being very aware that winter, nay, spring is totally done and dusted in my current (shhhhh…for this post anyway!) location, which is somewhere deep in Southern Spain….this seemed far more appropriate. 

So it was, a few weeks back, with spring in the offing and ….yes….stranger things have happened here… (but not much!)….that I literally bumped into one of London's new stellar? dinky? can you be stellar and dinky at the same time?.. HELL! YES!… and very approachable fashion phenomena's on their fashion shoot…. 

And all this while waiting at the village bus stop. It really was a case of get with it, right here right now, not just because of the absurd timing (half an hour earlier/later I would have missed them). But not least because, of all the days and weeks to arrange a one off shoot here…the usually continuous ever-so-glorious-light of the micro climate had most definitely gone AWOL…..Put it this way all that was really needed to have transplanted the whole thing back to one of blighty’s more gloomier streets was a smattering of fog.

 

So it was, while perusing my time at said bus stop, that I noticed a girl wearing (it has to be said) a STUNNING print dress in what seemed like a special location-shoot.

Poppy in Lazy Oaf’s Big Pattern Tee Dress

 First up I thought, poor girl, stood there on what should be a glorious spring day shivering her (metaphorical) socks off (ok, it was Spain and wasn't exactly freezing!). Then it occurred to me WOAH !  how totally mega-rubbish for the photographer. Especially with proof… having tried very unsuccessfully to snap a couple of shots of That Dress myself. Finding them even more scuzzy, hazy or whatever than usual (see various mentions in previous posts for more graphic horror stories as to trials and tribs with my camera-phone)

 

It was then I noticed THE CAMERA…god knows what the name, number, or technical term for it was ( this is someone who describes cars by their colour… ) but I ‘clicked’ with the shape. The photographer had a neat and lens prominent, does-the-job-perfectly, like back when cameras had just evolved from Bolex and Box to David Bailey lens/light astute models that relied more on their user intuitive shape and film, than todays super chip n’ graphic card tech (there, I do know more than just colour codes!) …..And I WON’T be posting any of my attempts here…. suffice to say going by the shots in the look book I was in the presence of nothing short of a Photographic-Wizard-God.

 

Risking another hour at the bus stop I hopped over the road to one of the team ( it turned out he was one of the models, Marlee…..). And with split second timing and an exchange of my name/card. I discovered Lazy Oaf.

 

And what a cool Design team they are…with a core influence of illustration transposed into bright pop graphic T shirts, reversible sweats and numerous accessories (and in their words) fuelled by tea, hamburgers and Brian Blessed’s gnarley foot!.

Always being up for projects, exhibitions and events proving they are one of those new breed of totally accessible and thoroughly nice, switched-on-creatives who get involved, making stuff happen.

 

Earlier at the SS 11 Party

 

Having come about in 2001, started by Gemma Shiel with hand printed tees from a market stall in East London… 3 years later saw them ensconced in their Soho store while adding to their range by sourcing additional oddities from Japan and the US. All their designs are created in house by the Lazy Oaf Team from their HQ in Shoreditch ….. and now…without *Going Global* they occupy cool spaces in boutiques and shops all over the world.

 

Party time earlier this year at the store

 

And That Dress (as it has now become known to me). With its right here right now in-your-face graphic print, that is soooo wearable, the kind of wearable I’d addictively KEEP wearing till its threadbare!.

…more in store!

…and That Dress!

 

....If I wasn't out in non-residencia-sticks in Spain so to speak I too would P&P one right now!, and troll around on the local bus or down to the comida-shops, chiringuitos and the like…. forever and a day!.

 

Which also, in hindsight after receiving a copy of the look book & various photos, did I put two and two together with the nook and cranny vignettes and post card use of spaces by the photographer..... With cries of I’ve been there!

That and the fact the penny finally dropped when I realised the photographer was indeed non other than Viktor Vauthier……who’s style/use of camera and possibly, persona I had absorbed, by internet fashion osmosis of late. Not least with the fact he has also literally just done Urban Outfitters SS11 fashion shoot with his very own distinctive style!.

 

Lazy Oaf’s SS11 shoot

 
Nope, Lazy Oaf, most definitely are up there with that new breed of interesting, creative peeps totally motivated and involved with design and fashion and art.

 

 

So, with The Oaf’s… (can I call them that?).. refreshing attitudes to consumer experience, design and direction (I DARE you to be iffy or sad around their creations!). It didn't surprise me at all to find them recently taking a light hearted stab at unstuffing the stuffiness of art institutions. Collaborating not only with Tate Modern and Tate Britain, but taking their wares waaay up to The Baltic, Gateshead and Nottingham Contemporary (forgive me, but I do get a wee bit exited when art institutions get noticed further north in the UK!)…. With them producing a special fun bag to take all your precious art books and the like around in.... : ) ……

 

 
 

 

In the mean time I will never be able to look at That Rock again, while waiting for bus-urbano and its trusty driver…. without a smidgen of pinching myself at soooo being in the right place at the right time AND seeing the Right Here, Right Now that is Lazy Oaf!….

 

And thanks! Jerry of PR fame! for the all the help…+++xxxx! not least after all my internet dodgy emails! ….who made sure that I knew exactly where Lazy Oafs HQ is…..

View Larger Map

Lazy Oaf ltd Studio

Unit 6 New North House

Canonbury Business Centre

190A New North road

London

N1 7BJ

 

….And… guess where? ! which beach ! which club ! which bar ! (cant resist!)....cue…very un-subtle links!

...And ...... close by That Rock! where I'm sure the Lazy Oaf crew passed a pleasant respite or two ! the ever village-hub-and-omnipresent Bar Pavana !  

 

 

 

I promise I WILL get back with BTV’s new designs! (very very long overdue post I know!) , along with Man Bartlett's recent 140h Berlin installation including a big nod to Franklin the Turkey’s contribution to this 140 hour media streamed New-York-Beuys–Art-Trip-in-Reverse…… errrm complete with very loud turkey hiccups! (btw..no turkeys were harmed in the making of this piece : )…….

 

 

back in a couple!…..

 

 

Lives of Artists Series Two : The Photographer Zoe Boundry

 

 

Zoe Boundry

 

 

Lives of Artists seems to be gathering a momentum as the more artists who join in seem to want to share and give ideas on solutions to the various dilemmas that recur when it comes to the tricky business of creating.

 

One of these artists is Zoe Boundry, whom I first visited in June during her final Photographers Degree Show for RAW 2010 held in a light and airy space in Nottingham’s city centre.

Her work is very contemplatory, the feel of her pieces which are very much in the present also have a sense of timelessness;  a personal view point and whilst sharing that being almost documentary.

So nuff said, again you know what I’m like with letting images speak for themselves. Here are photos of Zoë’s exhibition:

Zoe Boundry : The Summerfield Series

This is my personal feeling, (an area in which I think the photographs do encourage you to explore):

 

I recognised an era, a gender, and being acutely aware that the Second World War child/teen generation is in demise, also a sense of time moving on.

And, it wasn’t until later when Zoe informed me this was her Grandma’s home, in which she took the photographs after she had passed away, that I then recognised what I had been feeling about them – the personal view – which became part of the wider presence of a collective passage of time.

 

 

The Summerfield Series

 

 

 

 

 

One of the things that came to me was how, as with many of this generations’ surroundings. The items and objects on display in the home, were looked at daily for nearly an entire life. A sense of permanence, a homely aesthetic; a solidness in the furniture, an expression of self through things of individual appeal and personal meaning.

My mum also died recently and she as a teenager during the war, drove ambulances across Manchester during the blitz. Something I believe she was still contemplating years later – something that had affected how she saw the world and her surroundings and wanted to believe other.

My neighbour too (without wanting to dwell on the dying side of things too much) also passed away last month, she was 84. And although I knew she was from Estonia, I had no idea until going to her funeral that she had come to the UK escaping from the camps, arriving alone with nothing. Never was there a more cheery, independent, down to earth, intelligent and lovely woman.

 

I say all this, not to detract from Zoe’s work but because of :

A generation who had been through an awful lot.

And yet their lives, surroundings and attitudes tried to show a solid belief in human spirit despite all that.  

 

Zoe’s photos for me on a very personal level, speak of those contemplations after what must have been the shock and personal horrors of that war, of which so many of that generation had no choice but to come to terms with.

 

 

Things placed with meaning and order, adaptations over time, objects from previous times and people.    

An entire essence of a personal but generational history in the home.

The Summerfield Series

 

I asked Zoe how she saw the practicalities of continuing now the transition from degree to finding her own space creatively was on the horizon.

“I see myself progressing into galleries, curating and also exhibiting. I will have to see how my work progresses; my aim next is to go back to the space I photographed and capture it without the objects and furniture. Another project I hope to develop is English gardens.”

“Money – the day job – debt (especially student debt), like I said above, day job; curating and hopefully this will help with my student debt. I see this debt as something that had to be for me to progress at something I want to succeed in, if I did not go to university, I would not have gained the knowledge I own today. How to look at things critically (my own work critically), how to research a subject, how to give a relevant contribution to writing and finally the experience I had at university is something once in a life time which could never be changed”.

 

And as for compromise?

“I am unsure I will have to compromise much in my photography as I have no interest in becoming a freelance photographer, my photography will be on my terms, I want to create what I am interested in. But I am fully aware that with the career I wish to pursue I may have to compromise at some points”.

 

The reflective calm in the way the images were conceived, I found beautiful, totally absorbing and enlightening. Take some time to view these and the other images on Zoe Boundry’s site.

 

I already feel I've said too much, in trying to describe a not altogether describable feeling – but in some ways the personal does become part of the projected view of these images.

 

And by way of another personal view of Zoe's view visit Heather Steele's look at Summerfields and how Zoe approached something which she felt she needed and wanted to do, but with that also brought its own questions.

 

 

 

Back next Thursday with more art and related stuff ohhhhh! including things like food, theatre and the old chestnut of dumbing down the arts for the wider social good? and also some trains on the horizon ! the romantic type like the Orient Express - you will not find me posting from a station while listing engine numbers for your delight! This too has a destination of arty intent while travelling on the romantically named Francisco de Goya overnight train to Madrid.

And we will be returning very shortly with more Lives of Artists in a new series starting soon!  

 

 

 

 

 

Lives of Artists Series Two

 

 

So after a rainy/sunny/sunny/rainy hiatus I’m leaving my brolly in the porch (for now!) and I'm back with a brand new series of Lives of Artists.

I have been hugely impressed and inspired by the tenacity and enthusiasm from the artists on board so far. And this next series proves no-less impassioned.

And so first up with his timely and positive contribution is from Independent film maker Russell Noon.

Part of Russells latest film : Lighthouse Scene from The Wizard and The Werewolf ; Ian Attfield and Sam Jarvis (Actors)

I say timely because while he was typing away on his keyboard joining in this series, the news broke about the closure of the UK Film Council. Without going into too much detail here about monies, funding and necessities like the NHS (very true). I am more than a wee bit gob-smacked at the thinking behind any council’s closure especially the arts, so this can’t help but create a woah!!!-stop-and-take-stock moment.

To hear more on this and Russell's thoughts along with his new independent film venture The Wizard and The Werewolf, which was filmed in the North of England and based in Sheffield; tune into the first in the series starting this Thursday 26th in a once-a-week-look at Lives of Artists.

Amongst the other artists who will be sharing their views and ideas on how they keep their own creative processes going with the impact of day jobs (please note; I'm saying the word job with tentative reassurance here), location, the different types of creative-business opportunities already in place or inspired by the artists themselves  -  and there are some pretty novel ideas! - there are some varied and interesting insights emerging. All of them tuned into what its like to be a creative today:  

Also included is Jennifer Dalton who first arrived on my metaphorical radar a few months ago when I noticed a blurb in an ArtNet tweet mentioning a project being launched called #class to be held at Ed Winklemans gallery in New York; the brief being all about artists and the chasm of social, and economic divides which could alienate or excluded large groups of artists outside art-centric cities such as the one Jennifer lives in, New York. The project was a huge success (as mentioned in previous posts!) in its ability to cut through those areas of gender, class, location and gatekeeper style exclusivity, through informed, positive and lively debates.

Are Times of Recession Good for Art? part of Jennifer Dalton is a Scientist - Not!

Smack Melon Gallery NY, March-April 2008

Jen and William (Powhida) amongst others put a lot of impassioned effort into the making of that project which is why I went straight to her when I initially started thinking of doing these posts about artists and how the reality of their lives impacted on creating their work.

So, Russell and Jen (who's latest here called Making Sense is at Flag Art Foundation) will be joined by;

Beyond the Valley the entrepreneurial St Martin’s Graduate’s fashion outlet-come-gallery-space in London’s Soho, 5 years on from inception.

Beyond The Valley's Newburgh Street, W1 (Soho) shop and gallery space

 

Fresh from degree photographer Zoe Boundry who is enthusiastic but at the same time anticipatory and pragmatic about her future.

Zoe Boundry's Summerfield's series

 

Sarah Turner’s innovative start-up in Nottingham recycling plastic bottles; an eco artist & designer making beautiful products from waste materials.  Her latest creations are decorative lighting products made from waste plastic drinks bottles. The bottles are collected from cafes and households then they are cleaned and sandblasted.  With some clever cutting they are then transformed into decorative forms, totally unrecognisable from their original state.

One of Sarah Turners lighting designs

And a new gallery owner also in Nottingham at Cuadros who has, after being involved in London's commercial art scene for 10 years started his own small outlet with a view to nurturing the artists he finds; having a direction which is artist driven rather than market led.

George Thornton's Cuadros Gallery in Hockley Nottingham

 

Along with these are more artists, including Errol, a Nottingham musician who has recently changed his music style and set up his own business selling insurance so he can work his studio time around that. An artist who designs theatre-sets as his day job. And Norwegian sculptor Gunnar Fretheim, who lectures at Trondheim's Art and Media Studies to keep family and art/work in balance along with the ideas he generates with his students. These and many more artists in the mix.......

 

 

Starting this Thursday 26th August with Russell Noon, Independent Film Maker

 

 

Hiatus Time!

 

Taking a bit of a hiatus over the next week(ish) and will be back starting with a brand new series of Lives of Artists.
I’m looking forward to this cos there are some really interesting people onboard with different and enlightening ways of how they manage to show their creativity.

So enjoy the rain/sun hopefully in equal proportions to your holiday/work /whatever status ie; rain’s fine when you’re not in it!

And I will back on Wednesday 18th August with some interesting stories!

 

Hasta!!

 

Chalk and Cheese

 

Stop Telling Me What I Should Be Wearing!

 

 

 

Having had the previous two posts going round in my head on beauty, fashion and design and its recent troll through celebrity aesthetic hell. I was pleasantly surprised to see my favourite fashion blogger Susie Bubble echo similar sentiments in one of her posts this week ; that is things like gender, size and age should be inclusive, mixed up and not fashionably-the-next-big-thing because you are size 16 so sod off all you has-been soooo last year skinny’s.

 

 

Exactly that fact I have noticed for a while now. It has been presenting itself in many forms other than the actual clothes themselves in an industry which is so concerned with its own fashionability; it seems there has to be the dumped fad in order for the new to *take its place*. Things like body shape, age and gender have been passed around like the new holy grail and so at the same time excluding the others.

 

But joy of joys I was even more chuffed to see this attitude is also being solidly and determinedly tackled in the ways that count.

 

Not only, as with Susie’s site, is fashion finally seeing a more creative personal touch imbued back with the wearer; (and all that copy-cat *get the look* *or look square* bullying pseudo creativity pushed by soooo many mags and media of late). But the fashion industry is also, 5 years-on, way up there with the grass roots education of sustainable fashion HurrrraH!.

 

The interview style here is a weee bit fashion-speak-cringey but gets the message across;

Susie Bubble has a more informative video-interview link on her post from London College of Fashion's Centre for Sustainable Fashion's  Esthetica  show at L F W

 

 

 

It was 5 years ago in November that I visited Fashioning an Ethical Industry held at the Fashion and Textile Museum on Bermondsey Street, London (designer Zandra Rhodes bought the building and founded it in ’95 and she lives on the top floor). I did a post about the discussions and ways people like Katherine Hamnett were sourcing and manufacturing (in her case from beginning to end by buying a factory in India) to ensure total fair-trade and organic production.

 

 

 

It was very refreshing to hear that the designers at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, who hold Esthetica were adapting in ways that were appropriate for them, as a decisive move toward sustainable fashion even if they couldn’t do it as totally as Hamnett has.

And so by not doing the whole ethical remit thing it didnt equate with failure; I was really pleased that this had taken on so quickly, as change takes time but the thinking is in place and is taking effect.

 

 

And as for the clothes themselves some of the ideas of longevity and adaptation in pieces really appeal to me especially as I have a habit of finding one item of clothing that I really like – and wear and wear till its threadbare.

 

I know it must have been a nice buzz if you were 16 a few years ago to buy a so-cheap top that said FASHION very loudly but was falling apart at the seams one night after you had worn it, hey-ho-no-matter-buy-a-new-one-next-Saturday attitude. But maybe the hugeness of all that cheap, cheap, and cheaper is waning.

 

The FEI also had a special appearance from Pierre Garroudi a designer who I love. His studio is a few doors down from The Textile Museum in a gallery like space. He was at the time cutting up pieces and remaking them.

 

image courtesy of fortunespawn

 

 

Pierre Garroudi's Gallery Space on Bermondsey Street

 

So again I was encouraged to hear others at esthetica, saying they were using end of line pieces and re-working them.

 

 

This is a far cry from the late nineties and early 2000’s emersion into a deeper and deeper projection by that heady mix of industry media and celebrity into a must have uniform-of-the-day rather than fashion as a source of creative inspiration for the end user.

 

This thing of creative expression in clothing especially, I first remember thinking about at the time I saw Kai Altoff’s exhibition at the Stedelijk in 1995.

An excerpt from the Exhibition Book of Wild Walls:

“ Kai Altoff has alluded to the notion of collectivity. Active as a member of the experimental group Workshop, which has a certain cult status in Germany, he has shown drawings of the fictitious music group The Ashleys at one of his first exhibitions in 1993. On the album covers, the members of the band pose, uniformly dressed in the *Biba* style of the early seventies. In a later series of drawings, he portraits three young women who are members of a commune. They wear their shoulder length hair with a part down the middle and look very much like each other. It is only by way of small detail in their dress, such as a different collar or the colour of a blouse that any individuality can be seen.

In the communal, self sufficient society, the individual became almost entirely absorbed in a group. The utopia of a shared, anti bourgeois life in a commune reached its prime at the start of the seventies. The desire for social change was accompanied by a withdrawal to a pre-modern form of cohabitation, which could give structure and direction to one’s personal life, albeit within a cooperative. It is this paradox of personal and at the same time, communal life that Altoff addresses in his work. His images, often situated at a particular point in German history, occupy the field of tension between collectivity and individuality.”

 

Kai Althoff's The Ashleys

The Ashleys ; A Coming-Out 1992

Apologies for the quality, as I have taken these straight from the original 1995 book Wild Walls which has been well thumbed and used!

 

 

Uniforms – no matter how well intentioned are just that – all the same. And although recent times have had a lets copy (design worn by x y z) aesthetic, down to the cheap sweat shop repo’s that came right back at the sensibilities of the original designers.

The results were similar in a way to Altoff’s perceptions, and I thought had a bit of a weird-scary feel, as any chance of a personal flourish wasn’t exactly encouraged.

Design/fashion/media industry as control freaks?

 

 

But anyways, at least the fashion police didn’t happen in real life proper, so all this new news is a refreshing change. Viva La difference!

 

 

And a new series of Lives of Artists is brewing......more details in the next post this Wednesday

 

 

 

Objects of Desire

 

 

It's Rude to Stare

 

 

 

So, Gay Pride has been and gone and no I am not going to rant on about the luvvie Conservative political embrace. That in my book will only bear fruit when they (the C's) walk the walk and not just talk the talk. Nuf said.

 

No, gender across the board has been leaping out at me from all angles recently (no it’s not my hormones either) – I don’t think.

 

 

Male Model Davo

image courtesy Polly Vernon's Guardian article ; Thin is In

 

Anyway the specifics I have noticed are; the objectification of women, emaciated men getting even skinnier, boys on the dole or jobless losing their get up and go, replacing with sit down and smoke (blow); apparently it’s easier to give up to relatively soft options of computer games and blow than stick heads above the parapet and fail.

 

And, as one who was briefly dole-isized last year after being without work for 12 months, not to mention being a lone parent, out of a too young marriage with a small baby, on a Thatcher sized benefit in the 80’s. I kind of get it.

Not fitting the pre-ordained *family unit – mum at home with the kids* aesthetic of the time. So at once stigmatized for that, and not able to help myself because no preschool care was available unless privately paid for which bluntly means; get a bloody good job = not bloody likely being OPF in the middle of a recession.

I completely understand the demoralising aspects of trying your best to get out of that situation and being thwarted at seemingly every turn.

It’s not easy to take, especially from a position of back to the wall in the first place. But apparently some adolescent post-education boys in particular are *giving up* without even *having a go*.

Although having a go is easier said than done in your 100^th *failed interview* stacked up with 100 other *competitive applicants*.

 

 

It seems all genders and demographs are having a crisis of identity born out of different social aspects. And for the most part I have an inclination toward the obvious women’s stance on ‘bout time too (for men to see what it’s like to feel the effects of objectification).

But really it’s just a rubbish thing to feel anyway; why should anyone have that forced on them through society’s glaring gaze.

 

 

Where did this entire stereo type super-aspirational-object-of-beauty thing come from?. The feminine shut up and look pretty & macho big strong and forceful images that for how many decades? have been flaw-tested to the max to prove serious hidden social pathologies. And what is it now with this swing of polemic proportions?.

Can’t we learn from one genders meander into a dodgy eating/fashion/sexual objectification area and all the *fail* at the starting post, unwanted and unnecessary inferior complexes that helped produce.

 

Surely the Kate Mosses and Beckhams of this world have had their day or at least as far as the heady days of follow-me-down-a-blind-alley of super-skinny and/or macho footballer with six-pack in Armani underpants. Even if you look at the fashion world's slow and painful embrace of larger models, the message is still one of copy-cat aesthetics.

 

Mark Fast Spring Summer 2010 - a step in redressing the cat walk balance

image courtesy Mark Fast.net

 

Umberto Eco had a book out a couple of years ago called On Beauty. And, on holding an interview at the largest Conference hall at the Alhambra, Granada. I found I was lucky to get a ticket, it was packed. It seems a lot of people are interested in this thing called beauty.

His book and talk were about beauty or loosely the things we humans find aesthetic. He charted with film and photographs how certain styles and shapes of human form have changed through the ranks of aesthetically pleasing, through time continents and cultures.

Umberto Eco

 

One of the problems we seem to have now is an imbalance? of even more general homogenisation, in the west at least. A super-aesthetic cultural flattening with some aspects through popular media getting the most exposure, and so, seeming to be the aesthetic of choice we follow.

 

Media/Film/TV Star? Footballer? Footballers wife? Money for nothing? Money and fame for the next *best aesthetic* lifestyle choice, through TV and media hype, plus spin offs.

 

XFactor Sisi and Big Brother's Charley aspirational celebs?

 

This type of product placement beauty and lifestyle aspiration is certainly taking a knocking as these lottery like goals are now glaringly not as-reach-for-the stars-at-whatever-cost achievable (although it’s good to have a dream – but maybe one of your own making?).

 

For many these dreams will be fading as the slow boring and dulling reality of cuts and unemployment takes hold (and it does) it’s like depression (well it is a depression physically and mentally) it can dull your senses and your get up and go, your spark of life.

 

But it needn't:

 

All genders potentially have this scenario if not facing them, then facing someone close by and not least the NEETS (not in employment education or training – a vast number being in their teens and twenties).

A lot of perceptions of how things *should* be, whether it is how people look at others demeanour, attitudes and how these things face up in the mirror of societies *norms* – a personal reflection of many will be out of sync in such a dramatically changing world.

It takes time for society to change; apartheid ended during 1990-93, but when I talked with some white SA surfers in their 20’s, even ten years on they were saying it was their parents who were slow to change and it would take a generation to alter attitudes.

 

Women speak of feeling objectified still. Men are feeling the same only as something new. Young boys are feeling emasculated. Gays (inc LBT), especially young and not out yet, in a still obviously *straight white male* society are continuing to feel stigma, things are changing though, aesthetics will too.

 

Is all this stifling airbrushed out, one step too far from reality, too expensive to reproduce image mongering finally losing its manipulatory steam roller like effect on the zeitgeist at last?. Or is the Industry of Beauty on the whole impervious to a dramatic social change?.

 

Beauty is and always will be a fleeting, and yes, aspirational but also a personal thing. And on that basis it becomes an inclusive thing.

When times are bad many aspects of society fall on tried and trusted ways of expression and it is already heavily influenced by beauty industry's tight grip of reassurance through encouraging emulation of celebrity confidence, by buying into it with product - a win win for the industry. And in that respect the confidence of those who would otherwise test the tried and trusted can falter or just don't evolve. So those that do seem more pioneering, more open to scrutiny.

 

 

It’s perhaps good for society, now especially, for the beauty industry not to metaphorically point the finger and stare at difference; by effectively carrying on as normal – by pushing the usual aesthetics through aspirations.

And in doing so excluding and alienating many who will also be going through forced and abrupt changes.

 

Super-Aesthetic-Beauty is, as the saying goes only skin deep, and a person’s true beauty has a way of shining; if it is allowed to.

 

 

And I have also to highlight this quote from the previous post  Li Edelkoort mentioned in her interview to Desigboom:

“Very early in our courses we have been working on social problems,
people who have leisure first, which is unemployment, which is streetchildren,
so it keeps coming up all the time, that to have freetime it's not necessary only positive,
in our institute I think that there is a great feeling, that we must as well design
for minorities, problem groups ... and not just working on beautiful chairs and lamps”.

 

 

Beautiful design with real people in mind – me thinks ‘bout time too!

 

 

 

Back Sunday.....

 

 

Colour Me Creative

 

 

This is the last world cup analogy *promise*!

 

 

Li Edelkoort, Colour and Creative Thinking in Industry

 

 

If you hadn’t noticed I’ve been following the WC (or World Cup for the uninitiated) – not just occasionally clocking the odd match but ...well put it this way I have a full size chart spread out on my coffee table complete with coloured pens to chart and fill. So boxes nearly all filled and finals on the horizon I left the summer breeze filled room and the TV alone for a few hours and headed into town to shop (a bit) and then literally drop into a chair at a cafe.

 

It was one of those summer days where even the most seasoned of mediterranean-ex-pats on sitting down at the same cafe could be heard saying while talking of the business troubles along the Costas...... “this is just like *home* - lovely weather if you don’t have to do anything”.

 

So the evening drew and I turned on the light in the living room, suddenly to be met with a half hearted buzz but a definite buzz which then buzzed around and around the light for a bit. It was a bee, and had been *resting* on the colourful map of the world cup – poor thing it probably had some weird tired last-chance-saloon reaction to the oranges blues and greens before it landed on the biggest bee trade descriptions calamity of its life.

A spoon of honey later and a waft in the right direction it hopefully got its bearings back and made a bee-type mental note that dwelling on images of Wayne Rooney et all is not the best route to survival (hmmmmm).

 

 

But colour has, in general been a bit strange of late. I have thought some of the evening skies have been quite full of almost surreal purple hazes with pinks and strange greyed-out azure blues in with the mix. A sort of summer fog, a dullness in the sky covering the vibrant colours highlighted by the sun.

A friend mentioned that some of Turner’s paintings had, at the time, quite literally captured a surreal sky fuelled by a volcanic eruption that year. So the current ash filled skies sprang to mind.

 

 

Chichester Canal : Turner 1828

The year without summer

 

When the sun is out it is bright and certainly hot, but as soon as a cloud appears the sky seems to have a film of diffused colour, muted but vibrant.

Maybe this unusual phenomenon had something to do with disorientated bee – probably not - but who knows. I can remember a similar summer in the 80’s when Mount St Helen’s erupted, which was equally hot with vibrantly muted shades.

 

 

Colour is certainly everywhere, from natural sources; through mineral and organic to synthesized. The whole planet reverberates with this heady mix and nature is absorbing our man made efforts.

Nature seems to have a less contrived approach toward evolving colour as it is intrinsically linked with its own survival. Us humans seem to evolve our uses of colour through evolutionary fashion, or trends in consumption.

 

You only have to look at the next batch of colour co-ordinated cars for example trend sourced to mix and match with the latest i-app so as to keep up and not clash with the colour of market forces. As far as human consumption goes our use of colour is really market led even if creatively produced. Fashion, design and art also have this going on, fashion perhaps more obviously than art but it’s still there none the less.

 

 

So, even at its core creativity has or seems to have an intense link with market forces; the thing that is selling or creating a buzz seems to pave the way for follow on creative use in the field of colour.

 

 

Li Edelkoort

links to View on Colour & Bloom : go to the editions/magazines page on her web

 

Li Edelkoort of View on Colour and Bloom *fame* is and has been a big player in our use of colour. If you subscribe and are in the industry or business of colour prediction she will no doubt be up there on your radar. Li works closely with Education in Design and has produced a range of publications and books documenting and predicting with her ideas.

 

 

Her books are, on that basis, a clear head and shoulders above basic predictions as she uses travel and thought, in her own right, as a creative sensibility to assemble collages of articles and interviews with whom she sees as being relevant people and things.

On her travels she uncovers plants and objects that fascinate her and builds up a picture of colour mixed with form and function.

 

Anna Wintour she is not – on the level that she is influential, well yes. But the methods to her conclusions, which are then taken and rethought out by other creative’s are used as inspirational ideas, which has given her the well earned name as mentor.

 

 

Li Edelkoort has been a shining light in an industry which so often gets bogged down with the less creative preoccupations of keeping up with the industry Jones’s. Leading everyone on the consumer –consumption train (hands up who isn’t on one of some description or other) of lacklustre ideas.

 

I am not saying that she is the queen of creativity – just that in an industry so caught up in what works financially (therefore giving creative ideas a second rating to that of form over function) she stands out.

She has injected inspiration over the years and played a leading role by believing in the necessity to be creative with our thinking before adding it to design. A very important concept especially in these times.

 

 

 

 

 

Interview at The Spazio Rossana Orlandi Designhuis Show part of the design academy Eindhoven

 

She emphasises natural elements being used in design in relation to a cash strapped time – a timely balance, but not a purist or non technological view of product development.

 

An excerpt from her Trend Union web site, the organisers of which specialise in audio visuals and publications, goes around the world giving lectures and talks.

 

“Expressing her increasing involvement in art and design, Li also curates exhibitions such as Armour: the fortification of man, in the Netherlands. And an installation as part of Skin Tight: the sensibility of the flesh at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and New York's Stephen Weiss Studio.”

 

 

 

View On Colour Magazine : Armour edition

 

 

Recently she received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Art at Nottingham Trent University, and as one of those hands on with the creative’s at educational level, she was until 2008 chairwoman at Eindhoven’s Design Academy:

Part of an interview in Designboom which I remember from early 2000

“You always consider ethical aspects, do your students carry attention
that freetime is often used in slogans of a conservative rhetoric,
used to hide social problems as unemployment?"

"Of course, very early in our courses we have been working on social problems,
people who have leisure first, which is unemployment, which is streetchildren,
so it keeps coming up all the time, that to have freetime it's not necessary only positive,
in our institute I think that there is a great feeling, that we must as well design
for minorities, problem groups ... and not just working on beautiful chairs and lamps.
for the future we are planning a department on humanitarian design and
I'm looking for sponsors for this course, because it's very expensive,
we have to send our students to the areas where are these problems.”

 

 

Her story is one of inspiration and as far as emulating goes, industrial creativity could go far wrong by not doing so.

 

One of her other projects is Heartwear:(go to the projects page of her web)

“In 1993, with a group of stylist friends, Li Edelkoort created Heartwear, a non-for-profit association that helps to sustain handcraft knowledge and so, collaborates with artisans to tailor their products for export, without compromising the skill, knowledge, culture and environment of the region involved. Design talent is coupled with marketing insight. Trend forecasting skills are balanced with historical and cultural knowledge.”

And her other projects are closely linked with big industry having clients from Coca Cola, Nissan, Siemens to Camper.

 

 

This small detail of creative thinking can so easily be lost or lose its meaning when money issues and social forces start to play a more political role in the outcome of events like global warming, ethical and human rights issues.

 

 

 

Thank gosh she is around and so obviously so, to make that difference clear!.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday's post is in the mix......

 

Scissor Sisters

 

 

 

Cuts,cuts and cuts

 

A few years ago fine art institutions all over were embracing a forward thinking idea of combining yes combining science with art – actively encouraging students to go out there and get scientific with their work.

That did of course lead to no end of highly sensitive health and safety issued pieces being thrown up left right and centre and probably single handedly prompted the health and safety surge and backlash a few years later.

Remember Hirst’s foray to the US with his cow? no pickling allowed without quarantine or no formaldehyde or something, but stopped in its tracks at customs under *was it art or was it food* and subsequent H&S problems with BSE and rotting corpses.

Even the lecturers got confused; one classically curated the final touches to a degree show and was told to take it down – she had blocked the fire doors – well that’s not scientific faux-par more ummm a lecturer-on-a-bad-curation-day, but hey! still pushing at the boundaries if only a door!

 

Those were some kind of days - it seems as a big planned cut is looming on the horizon for public sector Science in general and the Science Museum in London.

They have just put on a huge promotional show along with The Royal Society and The Arts Council, for Science and the Arts called See Further Festival which is being held at The South Bank Centre until 4th July

 

images courtesy See Further Festival

 

 

 

Cuts in science – an area that many would say is the main-stay for our economic future.

But hold on a minute. Only a slight observation here but this was collaboration no? a festival  where the scientists  and creative’s both came up with the ingredients; and have already been doing so for almost all creative and scientific input for most of the museum, if not just the promotional show.

 

 

If on a daily basis we were to try and hypothetically remove artisitc creativity from our world (this includes all our senses; taste, visual, touch, smell and hearing, and the creative industries that pioneer them) we are left with the basics. Cuts in Science will mean cuts in design, fashion, art and anything it touches.

Science also has an aesthetic side in application.

 

 

I still don’t get the way the arts and sciences are shoved into categories of good, bad, mediocre in terms of economic sense – they all make sense – they all rely on each other.

Not which departments (or museums) are spending more than others.  Science and technology do cost – we also have a heavily monetized industry - pharmacy for one, which is basing its future on our trending consumptions – so much so that we now need them – they have made sure the supply and demand is covered.

 

Is it maybe time that these industries put something back into public nurturing of these subjects, museums and event-interest gatherings ?

Some do; but as a rule when a field of research has so heavily and beneficially affected the economy of one particular industry shouldn’t they have some commitment to re-invest at a grass roots level?

This would be all the more balanced if re-investment went across the *groups* but science does touch so many areas this could only help.

 

It has a knock on effect both ways and to cut science is to cut design, is to cut art and all visual and aural media.

 

 

 

 

Liquid Crystal ; Living cells and Flat Screen TV's

 

It can’t solve all the woes nor balance everything in this public and private sector trauma; but surely a re-investment to the hands on hand-that-fed-it-in-the-first-place, from the industry would make some sense?

And here is a link to Susan Watts blog in which she discusses these and other issues surrounding the future of scienctific research.

 

 

Back Sunday.....after an ouch heavy dentist sesh, so I promise it won't be about teeth, even if the next greatest work of art ever is !