I’ve noticed on these blogs it’s not just me that lurches from the aesthetic, to the theoretical, philosophical, then over to the practical, material problem, then back to the aesthetic and round we go again. It’s like spinning plates.
Over the last few days I’ve been trying to resolve a physical problem, a practical glitch that has been annoying me for ages, without compromising the aesthetics, or the philosophical.
That old chestnut: How do I display these items of clothing?
Folded in a drawer? X
Hanging from a coathanger? X
Making my own abstracted coathanger… NNNOOOOOO! XX
Hanging from nylon line? X
Tied to the wall with cotton tape…. Erm…. Closer, but X
On a plinth? X
On a doll? Definitely not XXX
On a shop mannequin? XXXXX
All the above add things to the clothes that I don’t want to be there.
All I want is a means of looking at the whole garment 360º, but I don’t want to add a person, or something that can be read as a person. Or for that matter the lack of a person, such as you get with a hanger, or the drawers.
Tying the things slightly away from the wall was almost there, but I need to see the back. Also, using cotton tape was nearly, but not quite. I liked the way it echoed the materials, but didn’t interfere… too much…
I’ve made a prototype. I don’t know if this is a resolution, but it feels closer than I’ve been before. If I’m to submit any of these items for my final show, I need it to be what I want it to be.
It feels nice, it fits. It has the same materiality as the items of clothing, I’m reading it as a blank. But is that wishful thinking, because I’ve been here before. It feels right to me, but what do I know eh?
So if you read this and you have an opinion, please let me know, I need a group crit!
