The idea of hammering flowers into fabric came across our minds as we thought about the pain witches had to go though centuries ago for who they were. They were considered outcasts of society and the need to annihilate them was always present. By using white fabric, which for us would symbolise purity, we will hammer different flowers into it to emphasise the reminiscing of the lost souls of witches.
VIRGINIA LUPU | WITCH FAMILY
In eastern culture, is believed that the witch powers are hereditary, so the cult is passed on to the next generations of young witches. Family and the purity of it are very significant.
PORTRAITS | LUCIA SEKERKOVA BLAHOVA
The most known connection in witchcraft is widely knows as the one between spells and potions, or more specifically between witches and nature. It's quite humorous how they are revolving their everyday lives around this symbol without realising it, from their work (spells) to the way they dress.
Moreover, as they state, witches must always go to isolated places, where absolutely no one sees them to pick the flowers and plants for the potions, whereas in this picture, they are just a few seconds from the busyness of Bucharest's streets. This shows how their traditional craft is somehow affected by the urbanisation.
In this exhibition, there were a number of sculptures depicting various symbols and myths of witchcrafts. This one emphasised what I was looking at in the other two galleries: feminine presence. It accentuates the fluidity, as both masculine and feminine elements are combined.
Moreover, this was the piece that supported our choice to base our project on witchcraft, but also on its relation with feminism and female empowerment.
MONA HATOUM
"Hatoum has developed a language in which familiar, domestic everyday objects are often transformed into foreign, threatening and dangerous things."
I feel like this quote is, in a way, the essence of what witchcraft is perceived as. Witches are known for using different common objects to cast spells, such as flowers, photographs of the ones that are going to put a spell on or vases. I will look into what kind of object they are using and see how the everyday purpose of them is recontextualized in their craft.
INSIDE OUT | MONA HATOUM
As she is using the human body as her prime material in her work, Hatoum created these two balls of "intestines", which represent the inside out. The textures were very appealing to the eye. The second ball is covered in iron fillings that stick to the ball with the helps of magnets, which is quite interesting to think that the only way this ball could take such textural shapes is with the help of magnets; without them, it would only be a ball covered in dust-like material. This makes me think of how us, as humans, need something to keep us together at all times; in the case of witches, it's the family, which is quite captivating to look into how their craft goes on for generations.
QUOD LIBET | 2015 | DORA MAURER
These paintings caught my attention in particular, first of all, for being the chromatic point of interest in the whole mono-chromatic gallery. I really like how Maurer used the idea of 2D shapes combined with different perspectives to trick the eye into believing it's 3D. Secondly, how she uses rectangular, rigid shapes and manipulates them into becoming floating, elastic forms it's very captivating. Also, the motif of transparency made me thin of Rhodes overlaying silk prints. For the project, I will use the idea of transparency and intersections of forms through colour, to see how they react with each other when they overlay and how they create new, beautiful shades of coloured grays.
Another aspect that interests me is the use of contrasts: cold-warm, rigid-fluid, clear-opaque and complementary; I will keep them in mind when inserting Rhodes prints, in order to emphasise each one as good as I can.
SKETCHBOOK PAGES | ZANDRA RHODES
On the short interview that was playing in the museum, Rhodes talks about how she pushes herself to do at least a drawing a day, even when she finds herself in places that don't inspire her.
PRINTS | Zandra Rhodes
The printed fabrics were by far the part of the exhibition that caught my eye the most. While observing each of the prints individually, I came to the realisation that the sheerness of the silk and the way they we're placed in the space made the fabrics overlay , and through the transparency, they created new prints. This will be one of the starting points in the making of the project: overlaying prints and seeing how they react to each other in colours and shapes wise.
MASKS | ZANDRA RHODES
For the masks, she is manipulating the human features, idealising them, deconstructing the idea of reality.
DETAILS | ZANDRA RHODES
An aspect that I will also keep in mind while working on the project is using 3D details to emphasise a monochrome garment idea. I was looking at this particular dress that had a number of fabrics, textures, materials and techniques used in the making of it, all being variations on the same colour, which enriched the feeling of the concept.
LUCIA SEKERKOVA BLAHOVA X VIRGINIA LUPU | WITCHCRAFT RITUALS
When it comes to casting spells, witches use potions to complete the rituals. Mostly, they are made from various plants and flowers they pick by hand and mixed together in a pot over an open fire. We liked the idea of using flowers as they represent what we depict feminism as: they symbolise fragility, but they also have the pewee to do both good or bad (through witchcraft) which gives them an element of invincibility through these contrasting elements.
EASTERN CULTURE X WESTERN CULTURE
While brainstorming ideas with Jannah, we ended up with 2 very different depictions on witches. Hers was based on how this cult has been seen historically in the western culture, and she looked into how women were persecuted centuries ago if they had witch powers. She talked about how women would often be murdered in tragical ways, such as being burned alive. On the other side, my approach to the subject was based on witchcraft culture in Easter Europe, with an emphasis on Romanian witches. The eastern approach is also connected with the gypsy roma community. I concentrated my attention towards the way they dress in relation to their craft. Flowers are a very common symbol in both their appearance and craft, as well as very bold, contrasting colours.
WEAVE | SERENA KUDRA
The wave itself didn't inspire us that much, but the way it is hanged and presented is one of the possible ways of displaying our final piece.
"A pivotal figure in the feminist art movement in New York during the 1970s, her early work combined gender politics with both a minimal and post-minimal understanding of materials and process, a focus that continues to this day. Frequently occupying a unique space between painting and sculpture, Hammond’s abstract, monochrome oil on canvas paintings incorporate additional materials such as fabrics, push pins, metal grommets and rope into their compositions, creating active, textural surfaces that appear to refute inherent notions of monochromatic purity."
In these overlaying fabrics, the focus is brought on the shapes rather than on the colour contrast, as all 3 of them have the same chromatic; but the way the print travels through all of them and how it gradually changes from one to the other is fascinating.
MASKS | ZANDRA RHODES
The masks on the mannequins were very detailed but also quite minimalist in shapes, bringing more attention to the garments. How she incorporated textiles in them is quite interesting, and also how the transparency of them create an interesting overlaying of the creative world (the mask) and the real, vulnerable world (the covered face).
After taking a detailed look at most of the exhibited garments, I noticed a particular technique that Rhodes often considers In order to bring attention to the prints: she uses different textural details, such as stones and gems to emphasise the lines and curves of the prints, giving them some sort of a 3D aspect, rather than just keeping it flat.
The first exhibition that I went to is dedicated to Zandra Rhodes, for her 50th Anniversary of her brand at the Fashion and Textiles Museum. It was captivating to see the evolution of her work and how she transpose her prints onto garments. The overlaying and overlapping of a number of prints and textures was one of my main points of interest in this exhibition, which I will incorporate in the project.
Bibliography
www.edition.cnn.com
www.video.vice.com
www.lensculture.com
www.youtube.com
Zandra Rhodes: 50 Years of Fabulous | Fashion and Textile Museum
Dora Maurer; Harmony Hammond; Mona Hatoum | White Cube Gallery