Action Stations - Part 1

Impressions 

I was sitting on a chair with my hand under my thigh and the knitted cardigan I was wearing left an impression on my hand. This could be seen as a gradual movement, after around 20 minutes my skin returned back to normal.   

The act of making
These baskets are created using a slow and repetitive motion called coiling.

For my last assignment I made sculptural forms out of metal triangles, I would like to further explore the movement of light. 

Movement when water is absorbed by another material

Expanding and contracting ball

Rebecca Horn

Rebecca Horn was born on on March 23, 1944 in Germany, she is best known for her body modifications. Horn was fist taught to draw by her Romanian governess & quickly became obsessed. She loved the way that drawing allowed her to express herself, it was not restrictive unlike oral language. She lived with her family in Germany after the end of World War II. She had to learn French & English because at the time Germans were hated. When she drew it didn't have to be in German, French or English, she could just draw.


At 19 Horn rebelled against her parents plans for her to study economics & instead attended Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts. After her first year she contracted severe lung poisoning & was hospitalised. She worked in her apartment without a mask, she was unaware of the dangers of breathing in glass fiber. During Horn's recovery, both of her parents died, she felt totally isolated. Despite her loss & extreme isolation she continued to find comfort in her art. She used softer materials & drew whilst recovering in bed. She slowly began to break out of her isolation by creating sculptures & strange body extensions. Horn was able to communicate her loneliness through body forms.

Horn has produced a large body of work, in a range of mediums including film, performances, sculptures, installations, drawings & photographs. In her earlier performative pieces she explores the connection between the human body & space by creating marks using body extensions. Her later work substitutes the human body with animated sculptures that have a life of their own. The objects that she uses in her work have been freed from their material form & are transformed into metaphors, which touch on mythical, historical, literary and spiritual imagery. In these two performance pieces Horn has used body extensions to make marks.

Scratching both walls at once (1974)

Pencil Mask (1972)

Iris Van Herpen - Magnetic Motion

                        

Watch here

Iris Van Herpens launched her third ready to wear collection Magnetic Motions, as part of Paris fashion week. This collection explores an interplay of the magnetic forces; attraction and repulsion.

"I find beauty in the continual shaping of chaos which clearly embodies the primordial power of nature's performance." - Iris Van Herpen 

There was so much intricate details and experimentation with a range of different materials, however I think that by having no sound the movements of the fabric looked awkward and clunky. An example of a really strong use of music would be Van Herpen's Hybrid Holism collection. The use of sound allowed the models to carry a persona.  I think that the music plays a significant role in runway shows, it gives them a performative aspect rather than people simply walking down a runway.  

In my last assignment I explored the use of metal triangles to create sculptures that could move much like a fabric. I believe that these applications such as these can be used for the purpose of art as well as practical pieces. This is what we have seen Van Herpen achieve in her ready to wear collections. 

New Textiles

Recently I came across the text Beyond Craft: the art fabric by Mildred Constantine & Jack Larsen. The thing that has stuck with me, was the idea that textiles can no longer be catagorised by their traditional  methods. I think that a textile says more about the way in which something has been constructed. Through the incorporation of contemporary materials and modern technology, new textiles can be created.  Much of wearable technology has been created to have additional features to benefit the wearer however I'm more interested in their aesthetic and visual impact, particularly when they're placed on the human body in motion. 


My body of work for jewellery, last semester was largely influenced by the work of Iris Van Herpen. Her body sculptures incorporate new textiles, which have incredible visual impact. The materials that she uses move in unusual ways. I am usually drawn towards her sculptures that play with light. When I was introduced to titanium, I immediately fell in love with the intrinsic colours and its iridescent quality of the metal. I thought that by using this material I might be able to create a similar visual response than that in Van Herpen's work. 

Laurence Coffrant, 2014, Moments in transition, titanium, yarn, resin, seed beads

When I first documented my work, I photographed them as still objects. Eventually I placed them on the body and then the human body in motion. I believe that the bangle below was the most successful as it had the sense of movement, which I was originally trying to capture by using the titanium. 

When photographing my work I began to see three levels of engagement where a new dynamic could be brought to each. 

object  > object placed on the human body > object on the human body in motion

If I wanted to go beyond this I would also like to see how the movement of the  bangle could be captured through film or a sequence of photographs. 

Laurence Coffrant, 2014, Moments in transition, titanium, yarn, resin

Maiko Takeda

Maiko Takeda

         

This is a perfect example of how a picture, cannot adequately capture the tactile nature of an artwork. Through the careful use of sound the experience of seeing these two objects in movement is heightened. These pieces by Maiko Takeda, work as extensions of the human body. As the people in the film come into close contact, their head garments gently brush one another. Seeing this triggers a strong emotional response. It reminds me of the sensation one might feel, when unexpectedly brushing the hair on someone else's arm and getting goosebumps. I'm interested in seeing art objects on the human body as their site of specification and seeing how they move and interact with light. I think that this play with light is important as it gives the pieces their own sense of energy and shows how it engages with space and the person wearing it.

From seeing the work of Takeda and Iris Van Herpen, it sparked my interest in fashion film, I found a lot of inspiring films on showstudio.com/

The importance of sound can be clearly distinguished in these two videos, which display the same footage of Takeda's work. Video B leaves a much stronger impact. The high pitch of the music has a good relationship to the material qualities of the object.   

Video A seen at 0:00 - 1:20

Video B seen at 2:30 - 3 minutes

MAIKO TAKEDA for POSTmatter - 2014

More More More part 4

The metal triangles are able to engage with the environment, creating a landscape of their own, where organic and man-made are combined. This piece gives reference to the unusual way in which crystals are formed. The triangles have been connected using sticky tape to create a fabric like structure that represents the faces of a gemstone. 

Regina Schwarzer

Regine Schwarzer 

One thing that I really admire about Regina's work is the way she respects the materials being used. A lot of jewellers try to give the stones a dazzling effect but Regine accepts them for what they are.  Often leaving the stone raw or faceting them in a way, that traps their geological past. Regine also creates pieces that mimic the forms of gemstones and the natural environment surrounding them.