1. Multiplicity

The description of the triptych of studio environs of the installation and site-specific artist, Olafur Eliasson, is the ‘stuff of dreams’. The transdisciplinary workspace covers all the necessary sub-sections of work important to be a contemporary practitioner. Having fellow artists, administrator’s, critics, archivists, students, technical staff, and studio creators to hand, we may enviously covet Eliasson’s environ of idyllic multi-disciplinary practice. As Alex Coles states; “the administrative structure in place bespeaks of soft power” (Coles, 2012, p.64). Believing that being situated in this dreamscape would give any artist the luxury to realise an abundance of dynamic work, may be a misconstrued wishful narrative. Is this ultimate artistic freedom and material accessibility, an intimidating blank canvas of creative pressure waiting to be filled? Such freedom may be too broad a spectrum from which to pluck your ideas and we may become lost in trying to navigate at the junction of decision making.

The economic, familial, spatial, material, skill and time constraints of our circumstantial obstacles can give rise to the exploration of problem-solving ingenuity and the ignition of resourceful enhanced creativity, pushing through barriers to a determined resolution, I have found in my practice that having the creative challenges of material and technical limitations often supersede a piece made with full aesthetic freedom and an unrestricted budget. Such as repurposing discarded clothing, using dead stock and remnants of remaining cloth, inspires such ingenuity.

This is a significant part of my practice, having a magpie’s eye for textile treasures with garments and saved remnants in a trove of materials to be utilized in the work to be produced. Namely dead stock supplies of silk, wool and linen obtained from the now passed owner of Parisienne Fabrics, listed as a fabric supplier in Vogue sewing magazine and a discarded cashmere Saville Row suit, from ready to wear Evisu. The quality of the fabrics has a direct relationship with how a person may feel in the clothing, a more precious quality of fibre gives a joy of value when worn. Also how a person feels as an artist or designer; to mold, steam and shape wool, the sheen, lustre and delicacy of handling silk, and the drape and virtuous texture of linen. Greater satisfaction is achieved with this interaction between the item and wearer/maker.

User Interaction and bodily perception of space is key in Eliasson’s installation Your Blind Passage and brings about discussions of the philosophical writings of Maurice Merlot Ponty. “Ponty casts this discussion of the Optical and the tactile in terms of the body’s relationship to objects and colour” (Coles, 2012, p69)

The concept of my study ventures to synchronise this thought with practice. To journey from the Intuition, perception and expression needed to draw from observations of the figure, to consciously projecting those linearly denoted planes on to the canvas of the body via the medium of pattern-cutting. The synchronicity can then be nurtured when considering internal and external sensations of a garment on the body in choice of materials, fit and construction.

For the last two modules, key concepts have been explored through written and practice enquiry. The research has led me to develop a working method of ‘drawing the feminine through pattern cutting’, with the origins of this practice based around life-drawing of the female form. Rather than setting a personal design brief, the practice has taken on a mode of artistic self-direction. Just as Eliasson opens a critical analysis of the work produced, one of the essential fundamentals of research has been reflection and critical discourse on mutual practices with academic staff and fellow students, often cutting away the fringes of tangential enquiry that may be tangling the focus of our practice.

Stretch, Cathie McCartan, Pencil on paper, 2021.

4.

Half scale toile, Cathie Sivinska McCartan

5.

Half scale toile, side, Cathie Sivinska McCartan, 2022.

6.

Half scale toile, Cathie Sivinska McCartan, 2022.

7.

Reflecting on the principles iterated by Bruno Munari, that an artist must deploy a design conscious user interface and consider how a person will connect and interact with work (Munari, 1966). Despite the decades clocking off, and an ever-increasing uber-aestheticism in design, there is still a discrepancy between the applied and fine arts, I would like to make this a statement expressed through my work. The intention is to create pieces that have the duality of being viewed as artistic works alongside providing the function of a garment. As a fashion artist this is a constant exchange of ideas and practicality. At this stage we are in transition, just as Eliasion discusses the inclusion of a school at his studio “I often focus on where ideas come from when talking to students about their work, whereas in the studio, I mostly focus on where the ideas will go.” (Coles, 2012, p.66).

From the initial explorative experimentations of expressive drawings to technical processes of pattern -cutting, it is now time to test this practice; to make the concept a reality.

Images

  1. Selection of treasured fabrics, boiled wool, woven check suitings and cotton, slub and twill silks.
  2. Attention to detail of Saville Row tailoring, ‘Evisu’ Cashmere suit
  3. Eliassion, O. (2010). Die blinde passenger [Art Installation]. https://olafureliasson.net/archive/artwork/WEK100196/din-blinde-passager
  4. Sivinska McCartan, C (2021). Stretch [Pencil on paper]
  5. Sivinska McCartan, C (2022). Half scale toile, front [Calico and cotton].
  6. Sivinska McCartan, C (2022). Half scale toile, side. [Calico and cotton].
  7. Sivinska McCartan, C (2022). Half scale toile, side. [Calico and cotton]

References

Coles, A. (2012). The Transdisciplinary Studio. Sternberg. http://www.sternberg-press.com/index.php?pageId=13..

Munari, B. (1966). Design as Art. Penguin Classics.