7. Future Me

Future me, you tell me.

Austin Holdsworth shows a vulnerability and self-consciousness of achievement with his clock design that when you type in your birth date, prints all the people that achieved a significant moment at your current age, demonstrating that “somebody has done something amazing at any age” (Holdsworth, 2022). Employability is often accredited to industry experience and longevity of job specifications. Having built up a business teaching clothes making and pattern cutting, freelance pattern cutting work and bespoke bridal design, there is still a feeling of not having relevant experience of the Fashion Industry.. Yet as someone who has fitted garments to every shape,curvature and angle of the female form this gives an in-depth knowledge and experience and technical adjustments needed to achieve a perfect fit.

Holdsworth’s ‘Toaster Project’ shows the vernacular and mechanical synthesis of hand building an everyday product of low cost to demonstrate an in depth knowledge of making that has been lost to the multiplicity of commercial design. On questioning the origins of his ideas, he states with the love of the polarities of the inquisitive concepts of Philosophy and the practical constructs of Engineering he aims to fill the spaces of contemporary speculative design. The apparel industries equivalent is the global phenomena of fast fashion in contrast to the concept and vision of Haute Couture.

The combination of artistry, expression, and concept in conjunction with the technical crafting of pattern and cloth of my practice, would help to blend a gap between applied and fine art of fashion. Is there a ‘space’ to be filled by forming a transcategory of ModeArte? A vision of a model of nurturing creativity – give the space to designers or artists to push their practice without the hinderance and pressure of commerce and targets.

Over 100 years ago the Constructivist artist Vivara Stepanova, had hope that the concept of “non-objective creativity is just the dawning of a great new epoch” (Levrentiev, 1988). If Stepanova was alive now, what would she do? What medium would she choose to apply in contemporary practices? Is there scope to speculatively create an algorithm to analyse the artwork of visionaries of the past and manifest their creative output in the current syncopation of art, design, and technology? In the vision of non-objective creativity, Vivara states modernism represents “a new beauty, a beauty of disruption, a beauty born of paintings liberation from centuries of the accursed subject matter” (Levrentiev, 1988).

Originally, I thought I would develop the expression through print, but this is circulating back to what is safe and known, an easy way to portray the sketchy style. The internal craft of structure of the Jacture toile shows the multi – layered seams have an interesting effect that is more communicative of the gestures of drawing than the outside of the jacket and am inspired to explored this technique of expression further. Despite the frustration of the toile not being a satisfactory rendition of the theme – this gives me the push liberate the practice from the accursed rules of the technical and use the drawing to create something new in the discipline of ModeArte? The work of Rei Kawakubo embraces this notion, often in an extreme manner, where the body encapsulated becomes irrelevant and could easily be upheld in the santity of the white walled gallery.

 

A critical evaluation of the status quo is required, do we need a ‘collar’, ‘sleeve’, or ‘pocket’? What is clothing, what is art?

Expression, protection, warmth, looking, pleasure, sensation, creativity, communication.

The infill of key concepts of the Creative Studio module of this taught masters degree,isn’t about the completion of a finished article but the speculative immersion of ideas, tangential inquiry and reflection on practice. In this transitionary phase of academia between undergrad into postgrad research. We are not necessarily taught our subject specific discipline but encouraged to retrieve information from the environment of available resources, seeking confirmation of our learned instinctual knowledge to establish independent inquisition of practice. This Master’s degree is my studio, an opportunity, not to reach a finite goal of potential, but gain knowledge of Contemporary Practices. and push the continued momentum of a discipline.

We may not have the scope to realise all our ideas, but the key is the concept. The journey through the creative studio module has led us to questioning of the content. So when the institution delivering the program is asked ‘what are we doing?’

The answer is – ‘You tell me’.

Images

  1. Sivinska McCartan, C. (2022) Jacture Front [Satin and backing fabrics]
  2. Sivinska McCartan, C. (2022) Jacture Back [Satin and backing fabrics]
  3. Sivinska McCartan, C. (2022) Jacture Detail [Satin and backing fabrics]
  4. Sivinska McCartan, C. (2022) Jacture Internal [Satin and backing fabrics]
  5. Kawakubo, R. (2015) Blood and Roses, S/S 2015 [Dress]. In Bolton, A. (2017). Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garcons; The Art of The Inbetween (p.165). The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  6. Kawakubo, R. (1997) Body Meets Dress – Dress Meets Body, S/S 1997 In Bolton, A. (2017). Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garcons; The Art of The Inbetween (p.137). The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  7. Sivinska McCartan, C. (2022) Silhouette Composition [Digital manipulation of pencil on paper]

References

Levrentiev, A. (1988). Vavara Stepanova; A Constructivist Life. Thames & Hudson.