The Brook Theatre Exhibition
My second exhibition during the length of this course will held at the Brook Theatre, Chatham; the exhibition will be held for the purpose of completing unit 5 and 6. The theme for this Unit is ‘My town’ which I will be entwining with textiles and other disciplines. As the theme is ‘My Town’ I will be primarily looking at Chatham where I have lived for a number of years. The exhibition although aimed at a wide audience will be primarily aimed at the age group of 13-19.
Before getting started, I first decided to create a mind map to break down the sections of my town into smaller, more approachable sections. The sections I found once I had broken down the theme of ‘My Town’ include politics, notable people, geography, history and entertainment amongst other subjects. Once I had finished the mind map I realised just how much work i had to do before even thinking about working on my initial ideas so I also created an action plan to help me keep my project organised and on time. The action plan will also work as a checklist to help me keep on task and on time.
After the mind map and action plan was finished I started to look at Chatham in great detail so as to gain as much inspiration and knowledge as I could. At first I thought that looking at Chatham was going to be extremely difficult for finding inspiration but once I started researching I discovered that Chatham is in fact an interesting and inspiring place, rich with history and full of inspiring and notable people. While researching I discovered that Chatham, an urban town, was home to fashion designer Zandra Rhodes and my favourite artist Tracey Emin, this inspired me to keep on researching. I also was lucky enough to expand my knowledge on the rich and vast amount of history Chatham has, especially the connections to the war were very interesting and inspiring. Learning so much I never knew about a place I have lived in for nearly ten year encouraged me to complete a detailed and large amount of research on Chatham.
When I had finished researching Chatham I then decided to look at three local artists who had managed to turn ‘My Town’ into a place of inspiration.
The first artist I researched was Zandra Rhodes, a British fashion designer who was born, lived and studied in Chatham for many years. Rhodes was one of the new wave of designers who managed to put London on the forefront of international fashion. I wanted to look at Rhodes because of her strong connection to Chatham, because of this connection I find Rhodes even more inspiring as she shows that no matter where you are from you can achieve anything. Rhodes also inspired me because of the brilliance and creativity her work shows making her work very enticing to her audience and holding their attention. Rhodes played a big part in a British fashion revolution and continues to play a big part in the industry. Rhodes also never sticks to just one style or material, experimenting with many textiles and creating pieces for anywhere from catwalk to opera costumes; this inspires me to not be afraid of trying something new.
After researching Zandra Rhodes I decided to then look at another local artist who experiments with his art and provokes a reaction in his audience, this is why I choose to look at Billy Childish. Childish is an English artist, painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist. Childish is brutally honest in his work detailing his love life and, in his early poetry days detailing his childhood sexual abuse in many of his poems and novels; although some argue Childish is to honest I think this is one of the reasons he is a great artist and an inspiration and by talking about something as horrific as child abuse he is airing the subject and stopping it from become so taboo that people can’t speak of it. Childish’s work is so honest that it is easy for the public to empathise with and to provoke an emotional reaction from the audience which is what art is about in my opinion, getting the audience involved and talking and breaking away the taboos and social boundaries and this is why Billy childish is an inspiration to me and encourages me to use my own feelings and emotions to add depth to my work.
Tracey Emin, Billy Childish’s ex girlfriend, is also an artist I decided to research as I felt that like Childish, Emin is also brutally honest in her work to the point where Emin has been publicly criticised for being to open and honest. Like Childish, Emin’s honesty is an inspiration to me and makes me want to produce an outcome that powerful that it draws the audience into a discussion. Both Childish and Emin are very controversial artist which is just another reason they are great artists and an inspiration. Emin also inspired me like Rhodes to work with textile as some of Emin’s most powerful pieces have been textile works.
As soon I will be moving on to my ideas as a group we felt it would be beneficial to attend the meeting being held at the Brook Theatre, this way we could all see the spaces and then decide on the most appropriate space. Unfortunately only another student and I attended so we made the decision on which space to use. The space we decided on was a dance studio which I suggested as it was smaller, learning from our previous exhibition we felt a large space would distract from the work and make the exhibition look unfinished. The dance studio was the perfect space as it had high windows and a mirror giving the illusion the room was bigger; I also suggested using black drapes and lights to give the room more atmosphere which was also agreed. The day turned out to be very useful as we had a tour, met the other groups and learnt about lighting. The Brook Theatre was also inspirational as it was a beautiful building with great little details, after this day the other student and i felt more confident about the exhibition and more inspired.
After researching artists and ‘My Town’ (Chatham) I had my first client meeting with Lindsey Strange; I choose to use my client meetings differently from the rest of the group because unfortunately I had hospital meetings to attend to, so I used each of my three clients to discuss different stages of my work. In my client meeting with Lindsey we discussed the research and agreed the depth of the research had been very useful for soon progressing onto ideas, we spoke briefly about the ideas and Lindsey Strange liked the idea of using textiles to attract an audience and hold their attention. I was very pleased with how the meeting went and revived positive feedback to which I was very pleased with.
Once the client meeting and research was completed I decided to now move on to my ideas so that I could keep on track with my action plan and the time scale.
My first idea was to design a dress which would symbolise Chatham. The top half will be in the style of a bandage dress, using real bandages dyed grey with white stripe to appear to be a road; the road will show that Chatham is an urban area suffering with congestion, it will also symbolise a journey. The bottom of the dress will be a skirt, similar to a tutu style, but it will be made of wire and made to look like a cage. The skirt will symbolise how society and class can cage you in. The resources I will use for this will be wire, bandages, fabric paint, fabric die, protective clothes, needle and thread, tailors dummy and pins. The disciplines used will be textiles, design and installation. The pros of this idea will be that it is a simple design so won’t be time consuming, the materials are easy to get as college can supply nearly all of the resources, and the range in texture will attract an audience. The cons of this idea are that although the dress may attract attention it will not hold it as the design is very simple, will be difficult to transport without ruining the bottom half, there is no clear message in this piece. Although i like the design I feel that this design is too simple and therefore will not look very effective at the exhibition.
My second idea was to create a tower block hat with chains tied around it and a lock attached far away from a key. I also wanted to make small cars that look as though they are driving around the brim of the hat. The tower block would be a reflection of urban town life whilst the cars symbolise wanting to get out and wanting a release. The chains show an inability to get out, forget and escape ones surroundings and life, the padlock and key are a symbol of hope. Resources I would need include scrap materials, cotton stuffing, felt squares, chains, padlock and keys, stiff cardboard, clay, paint, needle and thread and superglue. The disciplines I would use include design, textile, sculpture and installation. Pros of this design are that it would attract the audience, easy to transport and that it sends a clear message. Cons of this design include very fiddly and time consuming, wouldn’t look effective displayed at the exhibition and will be hard to make a hat from scratch strong enough to support all the sculptures and installations.
My third idea would be a mix between idea one and two and would include all the features for the same reasons. The resources would also be the same. In idea three I also wanted to add wings to my design to show the need for freedom. The wings could also be interpreted as angel wings showing the good in bad situations. I am also planning on changing the road and instead of white strips stitching a poem on the bandage; I will have written the poem myself about the area. The disciplines I will use are design, textile, installation and text. The pros of this idea are that is the most visually effective out of all my ideas, it uses a lot of different materials so will attract the audience attention quicker. The cons of this idea are that there may be too many messages within the art, it will be difficult to transport, the outcome will me very time consuming and be very fiddly.
After looking at the ideas I had another client meeting this time with Claire Griffins. During this meeting we discussed the ideas and I decided I was not completely happy with them and felt they could be improved. Claire Griffins agreed with this and together we decided to experiment with part of the idea and if I was still not satisfied then I would continue researching.
After the client meeting I experimented with the making of the hat which I decided I was really unhappy with. The base of the hat was very hard to make as it had to support a lot of weight and kept caving in. I then tried to make textile tower blocks which I also hated as they came out like patch work mars bars! In the end I decided to consult my client again.
Claire griffins and I had another meeting after experiment with samples and decided I still need to find more inspiration. Claire Griffins and I continued to talk about what I was passionate about and so from there we decided I would research the pub I work at and Carol Ann Duffy to try and be inspired.
When researching the pub I made primary sketches and took photos as well as writing a small amount about the building and the pub itself. As well as research I decided to talk to customers and staff about Chatham, it was here I was inspired again when my boss announced ‘Princes Park is like a bubble… once you’re in you won’t leave again’. It was this quote that got me out of my artistic block and made me feel quite passionate about the project again.
Next I researched Carol Ann Duffy and continued to be more and more inspired. The poem that most inspired me was the poem ‘Havisham’ which is a wonderfully raw and emotional poem showing the feelings of a jilted bride in a modern way whilst using, what I expect to be, Havisham out of the Charles Dickens book as the voice for this poem. The old and new, love and hate are contrasted expertly and interestingly in this poem and is one of the best poems I have ever read. The poem inspired me to write my own which I will use in my final outcome.
After researching the two new subjects I had a further meeting with Claire Griffin and it was here I suggested completely removing the hat and wings from my idea and just focusing on the dress. Claire Griffins was happy with this suggestion and the promise to re design the dress so this is how I continued.
The development of idea three involved getting rid of the hat and wings, and re designing the dress a bit. Underneath the caged skirt I wanted to add a variety of scrap material to symbolise diversity amongst a community as well diversity amongst the materials. I also want to use found objects such as bottles from the pub to show how people can bury their problems in alcohol and use alcohol as a way of escapism. The bottles also link with the quote about the Princes Park bubble.
My third client is the Brook Theatre where my exhibition will be held. Although we could not have any one to one meetings with the Brook Theatre people, the Brook made it known to our college tutors that they wished for the artistic outcome to be as creative as possible and strongly linked to ‘My Town’. The Brook also wanted each outcome to have at least two disciplines.
