SOLO SHOW AT DISPLAY BERLIN 2019
Is an extension of my CSM Graduate Fashion Print Collection so Mind Your Head!!
The Outlet at Display was to showcase the additional elements of my graduate collection, which would normally be categorised as ‘waste’. In order to recontextualise my processes, scans, tests, unused prints and textiles of my degree show, I gave them the space to present themselves.
The show consisted of, ‘waste’ products and re-established formats:
For example, my scans were printed and then draped and shaped in resin
(see next slide). The car window was an additional found object that was sourced from a scrapyard. It acts as a portal for my unused prints to be displayed over and is a sculpture to be viewed from both sides.
Furthermore, the jumper prints (see right), were labelled and sold as ‘outlet products’ and re-evaluate the process of design once more.
The term outlet itself is a humorous way to indicate they’re ‘imperfection’ and otherness. This also sets a tone of urgency for the viewer. Think Black Friday, but in an installation.
My graduation collection was a big health and safety issue! Please mind the gap.
Thank you, thank you, Thank you
Poster Wall (Feng Pfui Outlet)
I wanted to share more of my ideas behind Feng Pfui Transport Collection.
So much is cut out and never makes it into the final collection, but I wanted to somehow honour all these initial ideas; the visual imagery, materials, collages, sculptures, prints and test garment that led to the final collection. It became a solo exhibition that very honestly displayed my visual fascinations surrounding Feng Pfui.
The inspiration for Poster Wall was from this wall in Paris where over time one poster had been added on top of another & slowly the wall had grown thicker and thicker and started warping into a shape. I liked this image, almost as a garment for the building.
Instead of traditional paper posters, I layered my test textile prints, photographs and other 2D research material and draped them into shape with resin. Again, the imperfection of something is more interesting to me and I love instead that you can see the wear of things; an unframed poster that has been folded once or twice, has a little tear, or a coffee stain. Using resin however also meant that my posters were now resistant to further wear and tear, but ‘framed’ in their imperfection.
Material : Paper, textile, bubble wrap, resin
H185cmx320cm
Mind Your Head (Feng Pfui Outlet)
Playing on the word ‘outlet’ I wanted not only to show my ‘artistic outlet’ but also play with the idea of a clothes sales outlet. I printed archive imagery of my materials, drawings, sculptures and print experiments onto the back of 25 white jumpers and installed them in the exhibition as part of the art work.
To mimic the capitalist sales hype, at the entrance, people were informed that the jumpers were for sale at a ‘special price’ for two nights only.
The jumpers were literally ‘slapping you in the face’ as you had to fight your way through the narrow, claustrophobic corridor to enter the exhibition. Viewers lost their orientation as they were both trying to walk through and at the same time get their fingers on one of these ‘hot jumpers’, before someone else snatched it.
Material: 25 jumpers, ratchet straps
All Inclusive / Paris Fashion Week (Feng Pfui Outlet)
It was important to me that my work takes over the space. The ratchet strap was my tool; it embraced a bearing wall, a toilet and the public letterboxes of the building. It went outside and inside again, attracting and leading people into the building through the back door. Inside, the strap became a framework for the installation, weaving around the whole space, yet only holding an empty beer can strapped to a corner of a wall.
I like the shape of the bin bag. It’s the ‘icon of trash’.But to people it has very little value. We take it out and don’t care what happens after. It’s a kind of mystery where it all goes.
During my time in Paris I also worked at the Paris Fashion Week. I spotted some refugees covering themselves in the green Paris trash bags from the 1st arrondissement. It was their rain protection. As utterly heartbreaking as this situation was, this was definitely the most powerful impression I took with me from Paris Fashion Week.
It’s a jarring world, where some people just throw the trash out, couldn’t care less and for other people it’s their only protection.
Material: Textile, aluminium, security straps
3000cm strap bin 120cm x 60cm
Smash it Pretty (Feng Pfui Outlet)
This is the first ‘car window painting’ I made. I wanted to work with cars because they are a big victim in the world of vandalism.
I found the front windscreen in a Berlin car scrapyard. Even for them it was completely useless trash.
I recycled it into a canvas straightaway without cleaning it. Rather than a flat painting I wanted to give the viewer the experience of seeing both sides of the ‘canvas’. It was installed against, and also blocked the main entrance, which meant it was visible from the outside as well.
The textile looks like a summer dress; at first it’s an innocent and pretty sight. But at closer look it’s a lot darker than that; the car window is completely broken and looks like someone crashed into it.
Material:
Glass, paper, silk, resin, styrofoam, ratchet straps