What is art?

Some one once asked to Pablo Picasso "what is art" he turned picked up a bicycle seat and a pair of handle bars, a bulls head Appeared and he said "what isn't?"

Art and Recycling

The Art of Litter

I was listening to BBC radio 4 iplayer the programe was John Wilson exploring the reasons why some artists use rubbish in their work.


Rubbish, litter, waste has great value the modern world, it is what we create as a society but society has no value in it, yet artist designers can make things out of it. So in that sense it has great value, well it does for me!


The show;

"Picasso, Dali, Georges Braque and Joan Miro all used discarded objects in their art, and in the last few decades there has been an explosion of artists using 'found objects' in their work to communicate many different messages about waste, consumerism and the dispensability of modern life."

"Some artists are campaigners and artists in equal measure. John meets Fran Crowe, who creates installations and engages in performance art with the rubbish she finds on the beaches near her Suffolk home. He also talks to Sir Peter Blake, who celebrates litter and tries to create something of aesthetic value from it, and sculptor Gavin Turk, who looks for the beauty in objects that have been thrown away."

I found this program inspiring, it is reminder of what I find so important, historically and culturally. For me waste, litter, rubbish is immediate yet valuable element which needs to be put back in to the world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hr4lh/The_Art_of_Litter/

Recycled Jewellery

Constructed Contemporary Jewellery made from recycled material
Jewellery is not just for women . . . .


Made from glass


Made from wood

Recycled Jewellery

Christiane Diehl Design

Necklaces and bracelets - made of recycled material

"Christine is a multi-faceted designer with one foot in jewellery, one in landscaping and (err…) one more in photography. Her unique line of jewellery features necklaces, bracelets and rings– all made from recycled rubber from bicycle tubes and air mattresses. From her Hanover, Germany studio, Christiane cuts tiny shapes out of these reclaimed materials and strings them together in to create these multi-dimensional and dynamic wonders."


http://www.christianediehl.de/

"Arranging an everyday used material to different creations - to wearable objects, becomes an interesting process of transformation. The final piece takes on another value"

http://www.christianediehl.de/english/cd_english.htm

Art and Recycling

Art, History, Recycling and Cubism.


Recycling has been happening as far back as the 20th century when the cubist movement was in motion. It was the early part of the 20th century when artist and designers started to incorporating recycling. It was around the time when Cubist artist found a new ways' of using materials to represent and produce new works of art or design.

The cubist art movement was one of the most radical revolutions since the renaissance; it was a start of a whole new language, a totally new way of seeing and experiencing art and for artists to create and express themselves in a revolutionary new way.

This ground braking movement was shaping and adapting the way for the 20th century art world, and the new way of using materials was changing, allowing artists to be freer with expression.

It was a time for abandoning the old system of perception and the related conventions for reprinting realism. For instance the approach to painting was shown less as a porthole in to the world than as subjective answer to the world.

The actual approach of art for this time would be to present objects as assemblages of geometrical shapes which the artist would look for multiple view points and would become fascinated by the materials or objects, attentive to movement, creating feelings of realness in their work which related to everyday things.

The Cubist art movement was created by an artist named "Cezanne" who would look at things as if they were shapes. He would develop his artwork from shapes, linking the natural with shapes such as cylinders, spheres or cones and in such a way to create a art work.

Artists such as Picasso and Braque were truly influenced by this, a new way of thinking and they developed it within their own style which still influences art and design to this very day.

I have always been interested in artists such as Picasso, Braque, and Duchamp who created sculptures and collages from left over materials such as newsprint, wrapping's, and labels; or found items and materials such as broken glass, bike parts, scrap metals and leftover wood. They used any scrap materials, which they thought could be given a new lease of life within their work.

Through out Picasso's career he had assembled found objects to make new and unique sculptures such as one of my favourite's "The Chevre"

Pabblo Picassos 1950 "The Chevre"

http://fdrouin.free.fr/wordpress/?p=81

He has reassembled old bike parts to create a sculpture which represents a goat.

Another artist which I have always found inspiring is "Kurt Schwitters" he assembles found items in a collage with painting. My favourite piece by Schwitters is the "Maraak, Variation"
It is an example of both collage and oil painting. Hidden within are items such as printed tickets and flat things which he has collected and assembled in to an almost abstract painting which mirrors the ticket like shapes. I especially love the butterfly in the top right corner it looks slightly out of place but it makes the painting for me.

"Kurt Schwitters" 1930 "Maraak, Variation,
http://www.postershop.co.uk/Schwitters-K/Schwitters-K-Maraak-Variation-I-1930-2602494.html

Martin Margiela
His creations are known for their mixture of innovation and wear ability, for his ingenious solutions to how a garment's essential elements can be re-imagined. Considered by many as part of the new avant-garde designers, Martin Margiela is a master of deconstruction and reconstruction of garments.

He can see beyond the garment and the fabric - like destroying a gown to create a jacket from it, ripping a lot of old socks and making a sweater from them.

You can call it recycling, but it goes beyond that, because the final product is a far cry from the original fuelled by by his imagination.

103 hours + ski gloves = unique jacket

http://www.ozoux.com/eclectic/archive/2006/11/06/maison-martin-margiela

"Ski gloves are used as the raw material to create a blouson with or without sleeves. Over dyed in dark colours the gloves are unstitched and laid flat so that all original detailing may remain intact and they may be assembled directly on a black cotton base prepared on a tailor's dummy. Two inserted pockets are added to the front of each blouson."

quote taken from www.ozoux.com

Porcelain Waistcoat
This image taken from my collection of inspiration images http://www.fashionwindows.com/runway_shows/martin_margiela/default.asp

Mona Hatoums
Mona Hatoum’s poetic and political oeuvre is realised in a diverse and often unconventional range of media, including installations, sculpture, video, photography and works on paper. Hatoum uses found materials, rich with patina and laden with personal resonance, to create poetic, beguiling works on an intimate scale.

Mona Hatoum, Hair Necklace, 1995

http://www.whitecube.com/artists/hatoum/vi/

Jewellery

Recycled Fashion Jewellery

I collect all things which inspire me in one way or another, whether it be jewellery, fashion, design objects or information on arts, artists or designers. I have been looking through some of the things that I have collected recently, and from the past, which represent my inspirations and research to the way I am working now. I am currently creating jewellery from recycled materials which i have spent the past few months researching the qualities of.
This image is from view magazine 2003, the text talks about:

"Maintaining a balance in an era of virtual communication, this age-old craft and industry continues to develop in innovative new ways . . . "

It explains how the idea of exploring a material for craft or any design; in this case paper; is even more important than before. In this day and age of the virtual world new technologies are being invented, improved and updated every minute. Working with contemporary crafts and exploring materials, especially unwanted ones such as paper, open up new doors for designers linking the traditional craft with new technologies, but even more importantly developing new innovative ways of thinking and working.

The way that I work is to explore unwanted end of life material. Looking in to the initial qualities and creating new ones.
In the image above is a necklace made by the designer Janna Syvanoja, the necklace is made up of old paper from newspapers and books. By exploring the material she has created a way of using unwanted materials. Recreating the material in to an contemporary design object means that she has created a niche for the unwanted material and her jewellery.

Pay It Forward

Pay It forward

"This poignant novel of a young boy's unfailing belief in an individual's power to change the world and the ultimate goodness of the human spirit is destined to become a classic. Demonstrating the same universal appeal as "Forrest Gump, " Hyde's story is a down-to-earth look at the virtue of innocence and of faith--not in a deity, but in humankind."

Catherine Ryan Hyde author of the book pay it forward:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pay-Forward-Catherine-Ryan-Hyde/dp/0743412028

"Young Trevor McKinney, troubled by his mother's alcoholism and fears of his abusive but absent father, is caught up by an intriguing assignment from his new social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet. The assignment: think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor not back, but forward--repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new good deeds done to three new people. Trevor's efforts to make good on his idea bring a revolution not only in the lives of himself, his mother and his physically and emotionally scarred teacher, but in those of an ever-widening circle of people completely unknown to him. Written by Jim Beaver {jumblejim@prodigy.net}"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223897/plotsummary

Catherine Ryan Hyde and Leslie Dixon writers of the screen play:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pay-Forward-DVD-Kevin-Spacey/dp/B00005LDEM/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Evans Pritchard

“Any one can produce a new fact:
the thing is to produce is a new idea”

Sir Edward Evan (E. E.) Evans-Pritchard (September 21, 1902 – September 11, 1973) was a British anthropologist instrumental in the development of social anthropology in that country. He was professor of social anthropology at Oxford from 1946 to 1970.

Arts For Health Improving health and well-being

"The Wrong Hand" project came about because I had broken my right wrist which was my writing hand. I was left disadvantage for carrying on with my work which soon led to not only being effected physically but also mentally. I found that "The Wrong Hand" work really did help with improving my health and well-being just through creativity.

I have been thinking of how creativity, craft, art and design can help the health or well being of other individuals. I feel that if I had not have carried on with "The Wrong Hand" then both my creativity and development for my MA would have come to a stand still.
I feel that "The Wrong Hand" has become a significant tool for myself to continue. It has been making me think of how it can be translated in a way to help others.

Already I have used "The Wrong Hand" ideas to set a project for my younger sister.
She has just started secondary school, she has been finding some things difficult with personal home issues and starting secondary school. She talks to me on the phone and on line some times and she told me of how she has been feeling sad. I had mad her some wrong hand t-shirts and a wrong hand doll, she found them fun and wanted to know how I made them. I explained that she could do it and create her own wrong hand creature.
So I decided to write to my sister and send her one of my new "Wrong Hand" creatures with a letter explaining how she could make her own.
The one that I sent to here was called a "Hug Bug Thing" which is a hug sent from me to her so she can have a hug from me all the time even if I am not there.

The Dice Man

The Dice Man

I have just started reading the "Dice Man" by Luke Rhinehart. The Dice Man" was first published in 1971; written by George Cockcroft under the guise of his alter ego, Luke Rhinehart, the book attracted a cult following and has remained a popular - and controversial - work, seen by many as subversive and permissive.

"Inspired by an intriguing happenstance, Rhinehart one day makes a decision. He lists half a dozen options then rolls the die to decide which one he should follow. The result pushes his boundaries and opens up a new set of experiences. Bit by bit, he hands his life over to decisions made by roll of the die. The result is a hilarious, amoral rampage of a novel as he infects others with his ideas and injects a pattern of chaos into the chaotic order of his urbane, successful world."



www.amazon.co.uk/Dice-Man-Luke-Rhinehart/dp/0006513905

Chance 1.The ways things happen through no known cause or agency; luck, fate. 2. A possibility, likelihood, 3. An opportunity, an occasion, when successes seams very probable.

Verb 1. Happened without plan or intention. 2. Coming or happening by chance

By Chance as it happens or happened without being planned .

Take a chance take a risk act in the hope that a particular thing could happen.

Kiwon Wang

Kiwon Wang
This is examples of recycled paper jewellery by Kiwon Wang

Kiwon Wang

"My work is based on the theme "East meets West",

which is the meeting and the interplay between

materials and forms, methods, techniques

and literature. In every step of my jewellery creation

I combine the Eastern traditional boundaries

and the Western modern boundaries, reaching the

realm of where objects adorn the body using

contrast, tension, absence and presence.

Please discover and enjoy my creations"

- Kiwon Wang


http://www.kiwanwang.com/about.html

Sun Shine

Sunshine

The sun makes us all feel so much more happier, it makes so many people smile including myself .

Drawings by the wrong hand

New Or Old

I have been thinking of materials new and old, how they work together, especially with my work as I use recycled materials. How does the material effect the reaction of a client or the viewer?

Retail Desire;
So from a retail point of view matirials efect everyaspect; a marble floor caan covey elegence where a laminate floor signals efficiency. A silk coverd bust form is traditional where one finished in brushed steel is ultra modern.
But it is not just the material themes which talk but it is also the way in which they are used and combined.

You can take a completely new material and give it a new vocabulary by using it in an unusual or unpredictable way.

New materials or variations and improvements on old and new are drivers of creative energy.

Many manufactures team up with designer, or designers team up with artist to achieve increasingly progressive thinking around the finished products or outcomes. Collaborating ideas to archive a more divers and innovative outcome.

I think that by investing heavily in research of materials it increases the retail potabilities, as well as making it a desirable material to be used in different areas.

I think that this is important for me as I use recycled material, end of life material the key to my way of working is to find other uses for it. And by looking at it from a retail point of view it does make it clear to what is classed or accepted or desirable.
I feel that the current economic climet will effect this much more and possibly the idea of a piece of plastic being as desirable as a shiny stone is not far off. People are starting to see fully the cost of living, the cost of things and just how precious certain things can be.

for me "All That Glitters is not Gold"

Wrong Hand Doll Thing!

Wrong Hand Doll for Kim

Recently one of my close friends has just packed and gone to Australia so as a gift I mad her a wrong hand doll thing. I haven't quite thought of a name for it yet but I think that it is just one off designs for the moment. I thought that it was appropriate as a gift for her to take because when I broke my wrist she was very helpful. So giving her the wrong hand doll seamed appropriate.