final piece..

this picture is pretty poor but I have better ones saved. I'm pretty happy with my final piece with the frames. I feel the images are a bit too small for the background but that's something I could change towards the preparation for the exhibition..

George Adeagbo

I looked at this installation artist, George Adeagbo, he uses real objects to re live his story though this old objects and photos. This is the direction I want to go into for my final presentation.

more research

I've watched these videos again to help me write the little slip of text I will be putting in the photo frames..

Frames

Today I am starting to put together my frames. I feel that if I put drawings of the different trends in the frames alone against the wallpaper it will be a bit confusing the audience. so I experimented with tracing paper and my typewriter to put a little description to help direct the viewer and i feel it works quite well.

finished wallpaper

Im really proud of my wallpaper and probably the best thing I have done all year. I have tested the photo frames against this and they go together really well. All I have to do now is to create the illustrations to go inside them. I was thinking of extending the installation by adding a shelf and objects like old books and anything else to round up the scene.

influence?

I really love the story of the east end gangsters The Kray twins. I remember a clip from the film when they both stand in their living room talking to their mother violet. I really love that interior and I see the link with some the research I have done on the teddy boys. I want my final piece to have that feel from the film using my my photo frames etc.

Etching and screen printing fun

These past two days, I have been pretty productive on the printing front. Monday I managed to attend an etching workshop where I produced a plate of a Teddy Boy combing his hair and the prints were pretty successful! I set out to create this fading image and I tried this out and it works okay but probably best with the screen prints. here are my examples..

Today, I attended the screen printing workshop where I created the images below. After testing a few of these out, I felt that if I proceeded to make wallpaper it will be really successful. My idea is to buy plain (hopefully, second hand) wallpaper to print this pattern on and then staple to a wall. If all fails, I will print on brown wrapping paper or card. This all adds to the my idea of memories, fashion and history.

After talking to people, they mentioned that the frames I bought look as though they held family photos in the past. This I feel links to the trends makers' history. For example, teddy boys were created during the blitz, it was their way of creating their own family within friends that dressed like them and saw the world through the same eyes. This applies to the punks, mods... their own family away from relatives.

I really like this image I found on the Internet due to the strong feeling of memories and history. It reminds me of Andy Warhol's prints with the repetition of images and use of colours. This I feel could work well with my project, so I will try and produce something like this through etching and maybe screen printing. Due to my love for black and white photographs, screen printing the photos could be a great way of using them instead using of trying to get the same feel by drawing or photocopying them.

This is an image that gives alittle inspiration for my photographic patterns.. I want to keep it simple unlike the image.

worksheet..

Today I bought some photo frames from the charity shop and I feel I could add these to my idea of memories and the whole youth culture thing. I was thinking of putting my idea of fading images/photographs in them and maybe try the same thing with the photo album I bought recently.

I think I will look at some andy warhols prints for some inspiration and see the how they work for the audience

experiments..

Today, I managed to produce some visiual work that im quite happy with.
I really needed to start communicating my idea of repetition of youth cultures and trends, so I began to create the images below. I feel the first image works quite well and would like to produce something similar using the etching and screenprint technique. I also repeated images that could make patterns.

...

Today I have realised that I haven't really pushed my ideas forward during this project and I reeeally need to if I am to make this project successful and to solve the problems produced from my brief.
The strongest idea I have for this project is to focus on the repetition of trends from subcultures and attitudes produced during the years of 1950 right up to the 90s and how they are revisited to this present day.

I will continue to test out making a zine but I am seriously doubting if its the best way to communicate to my audience.
I was thinking of trying to represent this by creating patterns using portraits. I feel this could communicate my idea very well. On Monday, I will attend an etching workshop where I can easy transfer images on to paper and experiement with patterns.

I've always been a fan of David Foldvari but today looking at this image it made me realise something important...

leaving out the unnecessary and showing what is important. this could be applied to this fashion project by capturing the body language, items of clothing that tell the story of their history etc and blacking out things that don't particularly have a meanning. I tried this out in the photo below

development

I really want to give my zine an old and worn feel to it and these images of scrapbooks show actually what I mean. It makes it more precious and interesting than clean sheets of paper..

m/m paris

I've been loving M/M paris for a few years now and I want to somehow bring the stencil work into my own. As the cover to my album is type of window, I could move this over into the actual pages. This could communicate the progress of fashion through the years...

Well, Over the weekend I attended the London zine Symposium along with making progress with my work.

When I visited the symposium, I came across different genres along in different formats. By scanning the variety of stalls, I had noticed that people had a genuine passion for the subject of their zines and wanted to share these with anyone who took to time to look. I feel confident that the zine form is one of the best to communicate my ideas about fashion.

During the weekend I visited different charity shops for anything that could develop my zine and I came across a miniature photo album. I felt this could be a great way of making my zine. My idea to this project is to give the history of different fashion trends in the past right up to the present and the photo album could be a memory book to display this.

I also did some drawing..

I love my typewriter

I will type the text for my fanzine with my typewriter as it has an authentic look to it also fits with my zine name "STATEMENT"

At the beginning of the week, I haven't been as productive as I would like to but last night and today I feel I am making progress. I've been thinking of a title to my fanzine and the first good one is "STATEMENT". The reason for this is pretty self explanatory. But its based on the choices of how people decide to wear their clothes and make a statement no matter how small or big it might be.

I have also looked at different fanzine layouts/booklets and maybe want to represent a sort of cycle of different trends and how they come "back into fashion" so a sort of flip book that can have its pages continuously turned and have the feel of the trends being re visited throughout time.

I've been planning to go to the London zine Symposium for months (which is this week sunday) so I will attend that event. hopefully it will help me understand the whole zine culture even more and sparks new ideas...

Over the years I have been watching all sorts of documentaries ranging from World War 2 to fashion. Here is a clip I have watched in 2008, that has added to my early interests!

youth culture summary

the decades and their youth cultures are: 

+ 1920s/40s  - flapper girl culture

+1950s - rock n roll, teddy boys

+1960s - 'swinging 60's', bands such as The Beatles and The Who

+1970s - Punk, fashion and bands such as Sex pistols and heavy use of drugs

+1980s - Rave scene, hip hop and drug abuse

+1990s - boy bands, girl power

+2000/ present day - technology and re-visiting old youth cultures and creation of new cultures.. such as, nu rave.

I got these two books from LCC, and I'm reeeeeeally excited to read them as I feel they will help me immensely in this project!

Later on today I visited the Ray Johnson exhibtion at Raven Row where I really got inspired by the way the collages and prints were structured and produced.. Here are some images..

I may do my project on the fashion around Camberwell as its up to date on the latest trends etc. I feel my audience would be targeted  at art students around London and people who have an interest in fashion and history..

I really like this culture of Teddy boys. I found these great photos on the net that sums up part of the look from around 1950s. hopefully i will come across someone who expresses themselves through this clothes.

first issue of i-D magazine

From having a presentation today, some interesting things were raised. I now realize that I will stick to my fashion roots and expand on that by documenting trends, attitudes etc. This could be in the form of a zine! This way it allows me to do all the things i love doing.. photography, collage, drawings, printing etc.

Referring back to the book I have on 'Vienna 1900 and the heroes of modernism', there is a connection.. and that's with the publishing of their group and this will be a chance to look at it properly and could lead to something interesting..

I visited the William Morris gallery in Walthamstow and was really interested in the prints, patterns and artist group press. Here are some images I took while being there...