Today I braved the rain and managed to get to the V&A quite early. After visiting the disconcerting 'Tomorrow' installation by Elmgreen & Dragset, I took in as much as possible for inspiration before I got too hungry (the cafe was ridiculously busy and expensive and even though I had budgeted myself a captive audience priced snack I still balked). I started off sketching but resorted to taking snaps on my camera phone, hence why the pics aren't great quality. Charles Rennie Mackintosh fireplace around 1904. Iron with ceramic tiles. Pot by John Ward 1994 and Optical Pot by Elizabeth Fritsch 1980 Another pot by Elizabeth Fritsch (far right).
0 Comments
Whilst I'm on a 'work break' between VFX projects I thought I'd make myself busy and indulge in something a lot more creative. I've wanted to do this e-course for a while and finally bit the bullet and signed up. I'm into week 4 of Module 2 and it's really good to have briefs to work to. However I find it harder to get inspiration as soon as I have any limitations as to how to approach a new design. I've always loved 50's textiles and these 1950's tiles on Flickr that I just stumbled upon provide some ideas for motifs.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1596576@N21/pool/ On my recent trip to Barcelona a couple of weeks ago I discovered a great little fabric shop called Nunoya on Carrer de la Palla. It stocked mostly Japanese fabrics including this contemporary design for Kokka. It was hard to choose just one yard but I had to resist going crazy in there, so I chose this version of 'Stamped' by Ellen Luckett Baker. I love them all - so simple and fresh with great colours. So tonight I finally got around to smartening up this 1970's stool that I picked up for a tenner, which had a nasty stained khaki green velour seat. Re-upholstering is so satisfying, though I think this is about the limit of my capabilities, probably doesn't even count as re-upholstery, just re-covering really!
Last night I went to a documentary evening as part of the Nonclassical Electronic Pioneers Festival at the Hackney Picturehouse Attic. It was an in depth look at the pioneers of electronic music featuring three films. The first film The Same Trade as Mozart was a rarely seen 1969 BBC programme featuring Daphne Oram, Stockhausen and Tristram Carey. It featured a 10 minute long avant garde interpretation of a Samuel Beckett play with players randomly plucking and playing their string instruments and a soprano singing lines from the play in a posh building. I have to say that part was quite painful to sit through. More entertaining was the quirky illustrations and descriptions of fantasy instruments drawn by one of these pioneers (I can't remember his name or find any of his drawings online - yes I should take notes) which could have been used to produce some of these new electronic sounds. Then Brighton based film maker and composer Ian Helliwell presented his lovingly crafted film Practical Electronica, a fun experimental tribute using archive and cine film footage and tongue in cheek comic strips to illustrate the story of the little known British electronica pioneer and hobbyist F.C Judd, who amongst other things wrote the soundtrack for Space Patrol, an unintentionally hilarious sci-fi puppet series that is a must see. It's important because it was the first show on British TV to feature a full electronic score (but more importantly because it is hilarious). Here are some photos of Ian Helliwell and someone from Simonsound performing Tristram Cary's Trios. Admittedly I was pretty tired by this point (it was a 4 and 1/2 hour long event) so I don't really know what was going on but it involved 3 dice, a reel to reel and a slide projector and it looked cool. The final film The Delian Mode was a look at the work of Delia Derbyshire. I really didn't know much about her other than her involvement with the Doctor Who theme at the BBC Radiophonic workshop (for which she was uncredited) and that all the electronic music geeks worship her. I learnt she was an analytical mathematical genius and a perfectionist who suffered from manic depression and drank a lot. Like Daphne Oram she also left the BBC frustrated with the direction the Radiophonic workshop was going creatively. She didn't like the increased use of synthesizers and preferred to handcraft each sound from scratch. I have to say, banging metal lampshades and making a whole tune out of that one sound by splicing and playing about with tape speeds certainly looks more fun than simply pressing a key. My Lamps design on a Kitty Ferreira dress. I look forward to seeing an example of their 'unique prints and exclusive fabrics.'
I saw this photograph whilst watching Robert Hughes' American Visions and he was talking about the Statue of Liberty. Loved the surreal vision of her arm scooping up the workers.
Here is a sneak preview of some of the shades I am making. I'm really pleased with the colours and the cotton linen has a lovely texture. In the background you can see the painting that inspired one of the first patterns I created from my 50's textiles inspired artwork. My interest has gone full cycle and it is incredibly satisfying to finally have my own fabric and potential products to share. The bottom shade is made with my 50's lamp fabric which I have also had printed onto a silk scarf which I was wearing yesterday when out to meet a friend. After examining it he picked out 3 different lamps from the design that he actually owns! He named each designer and told me where in his house each lamp was which was rather coincidental (I have never been to his house - it's in LA). I didn't even know which designers lamps I had recreated in my doodle. I recall the day I drew that motif, I was scanning a book on Fifties design, closed it and put pen to paper to see what happened. I didn't want to risk doing a direct copy, it was always supposed to be a loose interpretation but it seems I stuck pretty close to the original designs.
Last Saturday I took a trip out of London to see an exhibition at Firstsite Gallery in Colchester showing the work of Nigel Henderson and Eduardo Paolozzi, who collaborated to form Hammer Prints Ltd in 1954. Hammer Prints produced silk screened prints, wallpaper, ceramics and textiles. The two artists were also involved with the Independent Group at that time and went against the fashion of the 50's for the neo romantic revival of the country's rural heritage to produce strong distorted abstract expressionistic imagery. As they stated: "It is the object of Hammer Prints Ltd that an attack be made on the craft field using the silk-screen as the media to be exploited."
I was struck by the boldness of the work and the heavy application of ink. Most of the designs were black and white. They applied a lighter touch to the ceramics and some of the textiles, incorporating botanical and marine illustrations. It's really quite a contrast to the 50's style I am familiar with and they weren't commercially successful which is probably why I had never heard of their collaboration. The exhibition which is free runs until March 3rd. If you go at the weekend you'll no doubt also see a large group of emo teenagers hanging out there las they obviously have nowhere else to go in Colchester town (my sister said she saw them there a few weeks earlier too!). |
AuthorLover of pattern and colour. I create my own designs, products and paintings. Archives
October 2020
Categories
All
|