A Brave New World

 “Yours is a history frequently marked by the greatest of trials and the deepest of sorrow. But yours is also a history of proud and defiant endurance. Of a nation that kept alive the flame of knowledge in dark ages; that overcame occupation and outlived fallow fields; that triumphed over its Troubles - of a resilient people who beat all the odds.
And, Ireland, as trying as these times are, I know our future is still as big and as bright as our children expect it to be. I know that because I know it is precisely in times like these - in times of great challenge, in times of great change - when we remember who we truly are.” – Barrack Obama addressing Ireland, 23^rd May 2011

It is no word of lie that in recent years Ireland has hit a bought of depression. Our green isle has run a ground. The economy has been brought to its knees and its angry and frustrated citizens have lost faith in the leaders. Ireland was in need of a desperate revival, to restore the faith. This change came slowly and it firstly began by a fresh set of faces, a new government. This unique power-sharing government set about the arduous task of restoring hope within the people. They brought new methods and new attitudes so that the corruption of the past years would be nothing but a thing of the past. 2012 represents a change, a fresh start. The encouragement of this new positive attitude is everywhere to be seen; and to a recent discovery of mine, especially within the fashion world so it seems.

Showcase is an annual event that promotes the talented craft market of Ireland. It is a four day show that exhibits the hottest new designers and artists in Ireland. It attracts many consumers from all over the world therefore helping the exhibitors to catch their big break. It is also helpful in the manner that showcase offers a list of seminars. They operate through-out the day and offer business advice on what is new in the world of craft. However it was a seminar given on the fashion trends for 2012 that grabbed my attention. I found it a truly inspiring moment as I suddenly became aware of the influence and importance of the fashion world. I have been pretentiously ignorant of the influence that fashion wields in society. I can now see how this new positive, strength that is been induced by the political world is also eminent in this year’s fashion trends. As each of the four trends are described a pattern within them all can be seen.

Savage Beauty

This trend is of a botanical theme. With the tribal flare of geometric bold prints it hails the excitement of the idea; ‘The Savage New World’. Bright, bold and blary; it resonates an influence of South America. There is a play with colour, clashing strong hues of yellow and orange against rich, leafy emerald green. There is an infectious excitement within this trend that entices us to explore the weird and the wonderful. One is encouraged to explore this new and vibrant world.

Ordinary Hero 

This trend explores the subdued. It carries a romantic feel delving in to the subtle nudes and dusty pinks and greys with a natural delicate look. It celebrates the underdog, the average Joe. A hero inspires hope and encourages a positive attitude that grows and develops through many.

Twisted punk 

This colour clashing trend dominates the Autumn/Winter collection. It uses the traditional tweed and Aran knits and a ‘twisted’ flare to them. It revives street culture, an Irish street culture as it explores clashing bold red and yellows with subdued mustard yellow. This edgy look adds a flare of confidence and gives courage to be different and innovative. It celebrates 'Irishness' with a fresh new look.

True sophisticate 

With its use of warm metallics a sophisticated air of luxury is created within this trend; luxury without being ostentatious.  It celebrates the classical look but now with a new found simplicity; giving a strong image of solidity and humbly simplistic. Its sleekness gives a smooth grounded ‘sophisticated’ confidence which is the powerful image that we want to promote to countries whose faith in Irelands success has wavered.

 

 

There is an overall injection of confidence and power as is the suggestion of strength within them all; ‘savage’, ‘hero’ and ‘true’. There is a clear push to inspire hope within the people which reflects the rebirth and revival of our Irish politics. It is a new start, but instead of being fresh and beautiful, its promotes strength and confidence to jump into this new year and only look forward. Like the reformation with the political world, the fashion world also commands a new fresh positive attitude to be brave and face the tough times ahead with faith in each other, faith in a better time, faith in a new world. Only time, patience, faith and baby steps will return our nation to its former glory and the confidence and positivity will make this happen.

“In dreams begin responsibility. And embracing that responsibility, working toward it, overcoming the cynics and the naysayers and those who say "you can't" - that's what makes dreams real.” –Barrack Obama

Milliners in the Making!

The ladies on fibre art had the wonderful opportunity to learn the art of millinery. Under the instruction of the very talented Jamie Mc Eleney they took part in one-day workshop on the 14^th of January. It was a very constructive day that gave a focused crash course on the basics of millinery, showing them how to make fascinators and sinamay hats.

The girls saw the introduction of a new fabric called sinamay which they worked with for the entire day. This is a fabric traditionally used for hat making due to its manipulative properties. Sinamay comes from the abaca plant which is then woven to give a gaped straw fabric. A photo of which can be seen below.

 

The fabric is first wettened which loosens the fibres so that it can be manipulated and moulded. There is natural glue within sinamay that means that when the wet reshaped fabric is then dried it regains its stiffness. When it is used for millinery purposes the sinamay is sculpted over a head. This process was taught t the ladies by Jamie and can be seen step by step below.

Here we can see Jamie pin a wet piece of 10” by 10” sinamay to a polystyrene head. The fabric was pulled and stretched over the head without over-warping and distressing the fabric too much.

He then placed another piece of wet sinamay in the opposite direction stretching and pinning it into place.

The layered sinamay was then pinned in an oval shape, which can be seen below.

Once the pins were secured he then dried the fabric using a hairdryer.

Once the sinamay was dry and stiff he cut around the oval shape and hemmed it with bias-binding.

 Bias binding is a strip of fabric that has been cut on the bias and folded. It is ideal for hemming hats due to its natural bend. However it is also used for decoration in millinery.

Jamie also showed the girls how to make their own bias binding. To make a standard sized bias binding he cut a 2” strip of sinamay on the bias. He then folded edges in towards the centre so that the two edges met. This can be seen in the photo below.

The strip was then folded along the centre line and the binding was complete. This binding has a finished edge and carries a lot of structure and bounce. Therefore it is ideal to create some ‘drama’ in a hat or fascinator. Examples of Jamie’s use of bias binding as decoration can be seen in the following photographs.

 

 

An enjoyable day was had by all and it is fair to say that a lot was learned. 

They only need someone to get married now so that they can show off they’re talented work!

Christmas Craft Fair

On the 13^th of December eleven little ladies from fibre art rolled into their beds at an unsavoury hour. There they lay, tucked into the covers fighting a crisp wintery cold, and a feeling of satisfaction washed over them. Resting their sleepy heads, they knew those weeks of work was soon to come into fruition as tomorrow was craft sale day. 

BCFE’s Christmas Craft Fair is an annual event organised by the second year students from Fibre art and Illustration. The fair is held in order to raise funds to pay for the graduate show. Therefore as part of Professional Practice we, the students, are assigned the task of producing a series of hand-made crafts to be sold to the tutors and students of BCFE.

And so we, the fibre artists, began our mission as we were pushed to be innovative yet, business smart. There was much to consider when designing a product; that perhaps wasn’t fully ‘appreciated’ once we begun the task. Of the utmost importance was to consider our target market which was not the easiest of markets. As students ourselves we understood the story of purses that only seemed to ever carry the €1.20 needed for the bus. But at the same time we had a sly advantage of knowing what our peers would be willing to part cash with for. 

So as the different ideas flooded in it was organised that each member of fibre art submitted a proposal and a prototype. From this, a daunting panel of experienced critics peered, pricked and prodded at the prototypes to decide what where worthy of production. Well it was actually not that dramatic as we were grouped into three teams based on what products where similar to each other. Therefore everyone had their own individual input. 

Here we saw the birth of three incredible forces:  TEAM FELT

        TEAM THREAD

                                                                                TEAM PRINT

Each team worked together combining their ideas and techniques and threw in endless hours of arduous labour. There were many aching arms from felting; many fingertips sliced from scalpels, many hands numbed by needle prods, which we all endured and sacrificed for the sake of the production line. However as ‘treacherous’ as it was, the teams stayed strong and pulled through to create a series of exceptionally beautiful crafts for the Christmas fair. 

On offer to the ‘oh so lucky students and tutors’ was everything from coil and wrap bracelets to daringly brilliant brooches and fascinators. From bead embellished felt ball earrings to cosy knitted collars and cuffs (and for an equally cosy phone; iphone holders). Also the classic Christmas card that had been hand painted, stitched, printed and embellished. A photo of such cards can be seen below.

And finally the day came. We congregated at 9 o’clock in the arts block; here we were divided into 2 groups; one to sell their pieces in the arts block and other team to flog their gems to the prey in the main building. The 2 teams then switched after lunch. This is the only fault I had with the craft fair. It would have been more effective if there had been a small selection of all the products in one stand and merely swap the people at the lunchtime break.

Heads and hands were busy in the morning to set up an enticing display. It took roughly half an hour to set everything up and organise the presentation.

A tad messy as the display slowly came together.

The stress bringing out a vicious side to the team print leader . . .

 . . . and the sleepy side in others!

Then with Shauna’s finishing touches and Sarah’s beaming smile the presentation was complete and there was nothing left to do but SELL, SELL, SELL!!!! Tutors and students alike were enticed with curiosity and once they were in sniffing distance we would subtly close in on them. They didn’t stand a chance against the ladies of fibre art.

There was a steady paced trail of customers in the morning but both teams found that in the afternoon sales began to slow up. However the fibre art class alone had a target of €400 to earn, this was exceeded as a grand total of €435 was achieved. The craft sale was a success! The hard work had paid and we felt more than the money was earned.

Each of us feels that we have learned a lot from this experience. The craft fair gave us an idea of survival in the business world; learning the importance of marketing, good quality production and acting in a professional manner. We have all learned and gained skills that will definitely be used throughout our careers as artists. And this, was the greatest achievement to come from the fair. It truly was a success.

The Search for Identity in Contrasting Times

Often in our lives we find ourselves thrust into journeys of self discovery. This is due to an aching throb within us all to be aware and affirmative in who you are. A sense of Identity is crucially important for sheer contentment and confidence with one’s self. There is no more beautiful way to communicate ones identity than through the medium of art. Art from the heart can only be honest. It causes our most subconscious feelings to be unearthed through mere brushstrokes of passion.

Therefore it is can be damaging when a sense of Identity is ripped from an artist; such was the case for Felix Nussbaum. He was a Jewish painter born in 1904 and studied at Berlin Academy of Arts. However his career took off in conjunction with the Second World War which hindered him significantly. Like most Jews he was in hiding. During these perilous years of living in fear Nussbaum still managed to paint. A painting he executed in hiding in 1943 was ‘Self Portrait with Jewish Pass’ which can be seen below.

‘Self Portrait with Jewish Identity Pass’

Image 1 (Felix Nussbaum Haus, no date)

The painting echoes the turmoil that Nussbaum endured regarding his identity; the uncertainty within as he was being punished for his religious identity yet still proud to show it.

            There was no firm sense of belonging during these perilous years of wars and the communist rule. There was no clear knowledge of one’s identity and so the minds of the people dulled dangerously. However with the final fall of communism in 1989 there came an inspirational new lease on life. A new freedom gripped the people and there was now room for a person to express themselves and fully explore and unearth their individuality.

 This freedom ignited sparks within conceptual artists such as Jackson Pollock. Pollock in particular pushed and tested the boundaries of this seemily boundless revival of art. In an anti-conventional method he dribbled and dripped, slashed and stained paint over canvases affixed to the ground. He abandoned rule allowing his individuality to run and hence Pollock released his innermost expressions. As Nicholous Pioch so beautifully puts it;

‘He danced in semi-ecstasy over canvases spread across the floor, lost in his patternings, dripping and dribbling with total control.’ (Pioch, 2002)

Despite rejoicing about the end of the morbid years there came another problem due to the thriving economy that was making up for the preceding years of conserving. Society in a bid to earn a firm establishment of identity fell into a false identity of Materialism. The post modern artist Barbara Kruger explores and questions this existence of materialism and modernity through a technique of layering photographs and using striking slogans (see figure three below). She caused us to question the falseness of our culture.

‘I Shop Therefore I Am’

Image four (Barbara Kruger, 2003)

Throughout the different times, catastrophic or prosperous, there was always a pursuit of an identity. Even with reference to Nussbaum, despite all the consequences of being a Jew he explored the turmoil in his head and expressed it through his work. Emma Mullin has come to the conclusion that art has not just aesthetic uses but, as all three artists have used it for, is the boundless medium where one’s true self can be sincerely expressed.

Bibliography

Page from Website

Barbara Kruger. (2003). ‘Biography – Barbara Kruger - Photography Collage – Advertising – Slogan Arts’. [Internet]. Available from http://www.barbarakruger.com/biography.shtml

Website

Osnabrück City of Peace. (no date). ‘Felix-Nussbaum-Haus/Museum of Cultural History’. [Internet]. City of Osnabrück, The Lord Mayor Boris Pistorius. Available from http://www.osnabrueck.de/fnh/english/default.asp 

Page on Website

Pioch, N. (2002)a. ‘Webmuseum: Pollock, Jackson’. [Internet]. Available from  http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/