4. Living a Life

Dale Holmes, Lecturer in Fine Art, uses the exhaustion of riding his ‘bicycle’ studio at extreme length, as performance, to produce, postscript, written ramblings of self-induced psychosis – an attempt to portray vulnerability of endurance through experience. This experimental work is synonymous with the automatic writing of the DADA movement, the stream of consciousness iterated in the book ‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac, or Hunter S. Thomson’s diary of narcotic toxic psychedelia veiled as journalism in ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’.  But his work is obscure if not obtuse, without the retrospective wordy academic justification of practice. To have the opportunity to indulge on the whims of the ‘light bulb’ moments of tangential enquiry raises the question – is this an artistic practice or a hierarchical entitlement of Male Artistic Privilege?

In this age of hyper digital manifestation of artwork through technology and media, the digital necessity to upload, may frustratingly detract from the essence of creativity – to make. Dale Holmes continues in his materiality of analogue practice. On his residency in a tennis club studio space, he paints the daily visual absorptions of experience of physical activity, and adrenaline-fueled competitive jeopardy, the potential injury being the aesthetic impetus. The sensorial daubing of cartoonic pain onto larger than the life canvases, complete with drips and smudges, grace the walls of the exhibition for the culmination of the residency.

Is it the privilege of creative indulgence of context that means he can present these works and others, such as his commentary on merged nostalgic sports branding, a printed sweatshirt – as a piece of art? Or is it simply strength of purpose to follow the mind’s flow of eclectic tangents through no fixed media, infused with humour and justified with intellect?

Yet to have such a creative indulgence, is at the core of the A-Z project of Andrea Zittel. A creative hub where artists and students can stay, at no cost, in the buildings or pods that Zittel designed herself, to unplug the demands and intrusions of daily life. To a point where the habitants wear a uniform, removing the decision-making process of self-expression through clothing. Making a point of art practice being a ‘discipline’, focus is key – requiring a work ethic to research and absorb the inspiration surrounding us, to live creativity as your life.

The transdisciplinary models of creativity of the early modernist era embraced egality across disciplines. The surrealists collaborated with designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli to embrace instinct and sensorial autonomy (Wilcox, 2001). The Russian constructivists rejected the ‘emotional and spiritual’ of conventional artistic practice as too subjective and embraced the design and industry of manufacture to ‘construct’ their artwork (Da Hyung, 2022). This merging of practices creates a richness of creativity embodied by this era. As a creative pattern cutter, I wish to merge the sensorial and constructivist principles, with an egalitarian approach to both ideologies. Fashion itself is transdisciplinary, involving concept, design, pattern-cutting, textiles, production, photography, marketing, graphics, interiors, and theatre, works as much as, a well-functioning creative device as the Olafur Eliasson studio, but not given the pedestal status of hierarchy in the world of Fine Art.

My piece from 2002 ‘This shirt is not a shirt’ was based around the surrealist displaced context of Duchamp’s ‘The Ready-Mades’ exemplified by The Fountain a urinal turned on its side and placed in a gallery, now found to have been created by Baroness Elsa Von Freytag (Hustvedt, 2019). The simplicity of a shirt was extended, distorted, repeated and subverted with alternative materials. But the creativity cannot cease with the finished garment. As a creative pattern cutter, the concept cannot simply remain in the clothing on the body. To effectively display the garment, a visual justification through evocative presentation is necessary to conjugate the work and concept.

I decided to utilise facilities to document this garment and familiarise myself with the process in preparation for future sessions. Influenced by the atmospheric photography of Cecil Beaton, viewed at the exhibition at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield, 2021. The background, accentuated with lighting, props and setting is as much a part of the composition as the subject being photographed.

To frame the work to be photographed, Initially I wished to use projected photographs as studio back-drops, a collection of accidental abstractions – random aesthetic shots taken with the ‘off’ button of smartphone. Unfortunately, the limitations within the studio meant couldn’t project images large enough to use for the backdrop. Looking at Beaton’s use of shadow and light, colour contrasts and compositional framing, I improvised with studio lights and mannequins to create the atmosphere I desired. The twisted and dismembered ‘human but not human’ limbs of the chrome and gloss white mannequins were used to frame the surrealist reference. Pleased with the effects of the shoot and with limited resources and technology I had available, this shoot emphasizes the need for vision and resourcefulness and to take on the transdisciplinary practice to effectively convey meaning and metaphor of the end-product.

Images

  1. Zittel.org. (2022). Homepage [Website]. Z | Projects (zittel.org).
  2. Sivinska McCartan , C. (2002). ‘Readymades’ Moodboards. [Photographs and transparencies]. Beatson, C. (1936). Homage to Dali: Shiparellui’s suits with ‘Bureau Drawer’ [Photograph]. In Ross, J. (1986). Beatson in Vogue (p.168). Thames & Hudson
  3. Beatson, C. (1941) Black tulle dotted dresswith sequins Molyneaux [Photograph]. In Ross, J. (1986). Beatson in Vogue (p.171). Thames & Hudson.
  4. Beatson, C. (1929). Alfred Lunt and his wife Lyn Fontanne [Photograph]. In Ross, J. (1986). Beatson in Vogue (p.193). Thames & Hudson.
  5. Beatson, C. (1936). Black silk jersey, intricately draped, by Alix [Photograph]. In Ross, J. (1986). Beatson in Vogue (p.168). Thames & Hudson Beatson, C. (1941).
  6. Beatson, C. (1931). Margot Askwith, Countess of Oxford [Photograph]. In Ross, J. (1986). Beatson in Vogue (p.168). Thames & Hudson Beatson, C. (1941).
  7. Sivinska McCartan , C. (2021-2022). 9 random Shots. [Photographs ].
  8. Sivinska McCartan , C. (2022). 8 Chrome Poses. [Photographs ].

References

Da Hyung Jeong, (2022) Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Vavara Stepanova. MoMA. https://www.moma.org/artists/5643#works

The Institute of Investigative Living. (2022). Projects. artnet. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/andrea-zittel-a-z-west-2205355

Ruiz, C. (2022). Andrea Zittel Is Seeking a New Director for A-Z West, the Desert Compound She Has Run for More than 20 Years. artnet. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/andrea-zittel-a-z-west-2205355

Wilcox, C. (2001). Radical Fashion. V&A Publications