Claire Smyth AAD012 Exploring Studio Practice : TADF Brief / Prep Work – including both contextual research based upon textiles, the history of textiles, as well as both digital (inspirational images taken from Pinterest) and physical mood boards (mixed media materials and found objects) and colour scheme based upon the chosen theme and research of nature, displaying a detail understanding and my personal interpretation of the tittle / subject area etc.
https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/contemporary-textile-art-artists
Within the contained creative industry regarding the subject area of TADF : Textile Art, Design and Fashion, textile geometry is in fact called / classified as the creative and technical process by which the materials of thread or yarn fibres etc are precisely woven together or interlaced to form a flexible, functional and decorative cloth or fabric that can then be subsequently printed upon or otherwise adorned. Whereas / however, the overall subject of textile design surrounding this, can in which be further broken down and classified into three strands of major disciplines, including printed textile design, woven textile design and mixed media textile design, where each of which tend to utilise different contained methods to produce a surface ornamented fabric for variable uses and markets, as especially within society, aspects of textile designed as a continued practice has gone into being evolved to become an / the industry to other disciplines such as fashion, interior design and fine arts. In great relevance, textile design can in which also be described and seen as the a / the contained creative skills that includes fashion design, carpet manufacturing and / or any other cloth-related field, as for example, the likes of clothing, carpets, drapes, towels and rugs etc are all in fact functional products resulting from aspects of textile design practices / techniques. Within the fashion industry, textile designer will in which have the ability to inspire collections, trends and styles, as a result / through the work of textile designers / artists etc within the subject area of TADF, they tend to marry a creative vision of what a finished textile will look like, by considering a deep understanding of the technical aspects of production and the properties of fibre, yarn and dyes etc.
For thousands of years, people have been practicing the craft of designing or creating textiles, as a result of first emerging from a / the necessity to fill basic needs, different cultures around the world took it to another level by developing the contained methods of making artistic, creative and beautiful cloth that laid the basis of what we refer to as and call textile art, which includes the practice that involves weaving, knitting, pressing or knotting together individual pieces of natural and artificial fibres, as a result of the textile making tradition spanning global cultures as one of the earliest human technologies. However, apart from providing shelter and warmth or holding goods, textiles has also served as decorative purposes, holding an important place in arts and crafts of various cultures around the world.
Before the 19th Century, all yarn, thread and cloth where in fact made by hand, and to where it took a great deal of time and effort to gather fibres from plants or animals to make into yarn, in which the Industrial Revolution brought a contained revolution of textiles technology, where the methods and materials used to make them has expanded enormously. For example, as now within the 20th Century, artists are beginning to use textiles throughout / within a range of new developed contexts, fabric and string as a medium to be known to have provided almost infinite possibilities throughout both modern and contemporary artistic practices.
Ever since the 1980s to now, textile art has continued to develop new forms and language involving many creatives along the way, as through being influenced by postmodernist ideas, the likes of textile and fibre work has become more and more conceptual. This is because various creatives are now experimenting with newer, modernised, developed and a wider range of techniques, materials and concepts, completely pushing the limits of the contained medium, especially as these reborn practices such as embroidery art, weaving, quilting, crochet and many others, have in which immensely gone on to place a new focus on the work that tends to confront social and political issues such as gender feminism, domesticity, women’s work and identity politics. Yet not all fibre artists are feminists are even concerned with the political and social connotations of fabric arts, they simply just tend to employ textiles and threads as much more of / as a painting and sculptural material.
Today, textile contemporary pieces tend to explore a variety of textile and fibre practices and techniques that provide a myriad of possibilities. For examples, the Portuguese artist of Joana Vasconcelos frequently incorporates crafts including the likes of and such as knitting and crochet into her art to explore ideas of womanhood, nationality and family. Through using embroidery, yarn and wool, the Peruvian artist Ana Teresa Barboza creates landscapes and various other imagery that exist between tapestry and sculpture, by mimicking the flow of waves or grass, her pieces seem to tumble its embroidery hoop. Exploring the assertive manifestations of the interplay between public and private ways of being, the Korean American artist Mimi Jung creates constructions and woven wall pieces, through in which by approaching the modern discourse of the self through the practice of weaving, she explores the personal solitude as a fragile state. The Berlin-based artist Nike Schroeder creates stunning embroidered illustrations, both intricately composed, as well as much more abstract works that involve threads, emulating the appearance of dripping paint. Through / as a result of exploring within her practices, the idealised beauty of the female form, Chinese artist Lin Tianmiao tends to explore the relationships between tradition and modernisation, through installations and textile works, in which with her works, she incorporates a wide range of materials and objects typically associated with women.
Throughout the subject area of Textile Art, Design and Fashion (TADF) there are in which a wide range of key aspects to consider when especially implementing pieces of work / designs especially through working with the likes of both fabric and mixed media to complete a project / mood board etc in which these terms / reference can include – abstract / abstraction, texture, repeat pattern, the layering of fabric and creating a motif.
Abstract art is in which a contained type of art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality, but instead uses the likes of shapes, colours, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect.
Aspects of texture tends to hugely constitute as an important chapter into fashion design as it can in which greatly affect the contained overall look of a garment and its feel / lucidity, through influencing the appearance of the person wearing it. The term texture as a whole, can in which continue to be simplistically described as the physical feeling of something either smooth, rough, fuzzy, slimy and lots of contained textures in between. Within textiles, textures are / is basically connected to the weave of the fabric, in which sometimes we can texturize the fabric by adding the likes of stitched details, pin tucks and embellishments etc. Each piece of fabric has its own individual character and charm, meaning when creating a piece of work, it is important that a wide choice of textures / fabrics are mixed and designed to fit the silhouette of our body to result in an exquisite fashion, as before we evaluate the contained myriad charms of different types of fabric, it is necessary to understand the importance’s surrounding / of texture.
A repeat pattern is in which the repetition of lines, shapes, tones, colours, textures and forms, to where the likes of textile and print deign can take on many forms, as in which one of the most common is repeating patterns, also being called and referred to as a seamless design. In its simplest form, a repeat pattern can be registered as a contained motif that can / has the opportunity to be repeated vertically and horizontally, without a break in the design. The repetition of patterns can more or less be seen in everything from leggings to wallpaper, where in which the main key factor to consider when designing into this format is to truly consider how your design will end up looking once repeated out, and especially if the fabric will be cut into multiple small pieces, the seam may not be an issue, but in larger formats, hiding the seam creates a much more fluid design. Within the contained overview of working in textiles, there are in which four different types of pattern repeats that’s include: full drop, half drop, mirror and continuous. A full drop repat is the most simple of repeats, as it is created through multiplying a / the motif along the same line both horizontally and vertically. A half drop repeat is often desired to break up the uniformed look that a full drop repeat can often give, through setting your motif horizontally and then aligning the top of the second motif to the centre of the first motif. A mirror repeat can provide quite an interesting look if done right, as by depending on the motif, you can sometimes end up with odd bits that have mirrored, creating a new object looking a little out of place. However, to successfully create a mirror repeat, you will duplicate your motif horizontally and then select the mirror option in your design programme through the sewing machine. A continuous repeat is possibly the most difficult, though it can be the best looking for any motif, in which to create a continuous repeat, you start by designating an area such as a perfect square, then placing it so that it overlaps one edge of the square, sitting outside of it, to where you would duplicate this motif and place it in the exact same position on the opposite side of the square.
Layering fabric / clothing is in which a term describing an appropriate way of dressing using many garments that are worn on top of each other, where of the layers having different, largely non-overlapping function, through as well using more or fewer layers, or replacing one layer but not others, allowing for flexible clothing to match the needs of each situation. The contained layering of colour and pattern, also known as reverse applique, involves stacking cloth, stitching to form a design, then slashing or cutting way to expose the beneath piece or parts of cloth / fabric, resembling the contrasting fabrics underneath.
A motif is in which a recurring fragment, theme or pattern that appears within a work of art. For example, towards the textile’s arts, a motif (also called a block or square) is in which a smaller fragmented element in a much larger work, as within the likes of knitting and crochet, motifs are then made one at a time and joined together to create larger works such as afghan blankets or shawls.
This history of TADF Textile Art, Design and Fashion :
Textile art is in which to me personally and from secondary source research something that is particularly special and intriguing as it maintains the ability to stand out from other art forms, such as painting, photography or sculpture etc, because they are able to appropriately manage to walk that line between both practicality and beauty. It can be perhaps for this reason that in fact all contained aspects of textile art tend to often find itself on the cutting edge of human interaction, despite sometimes facing a degree of snobbery from elsewhere in the art world. From the use of clothing to denote social status to the way in which fabric, folklore and storytelling are so intrinsically linked, as within society, both subjects of textiles and creativity have always gone hand in hand. In addition, the contained delicate nature of fabric generally means that numerous early examples of textiles are quite rare, where in which and due to having samples of clothing going back as far as ancient Egypt, but it is really during the developments of the medieval period that we start to see much more decorative and advanced textiles, as generally both weaving and embroidery where techniques commonly used and applied to create objects of great beauty and great sense during that era and now within today’s society etc.
Throughout the creative industry, textile art can be regarded as having the ability to establish and demonstrate a global phenomenon, to where in which the / its traditional art or craft barriers are being upended by both artists as collectors alike, as textile art especially (often termed fibre art in the USA where artists in the 1960s and 70s were highly influential in driving its acceptance) which can include weaving, crochet, embroidery, loose threads, carpets, hand and machine stitch and more etc, is at the fore front of What to Collect Now. Establishments within the contained subject areas / topics of architecture, fashion, design and contemporary art continue to widely take note and comment upon the advancement of textile art, its increasing prevalence in major exhibitions and museums since the 1960s and its particular prominence in recent years. In great relevance, it is not the first time in human history that textile art has been highly sought after, but it has a turbulent history of acceptance and denial, as while it has existed for millennia, it has not always been held in such high esteem by the art establishment.
Anthropologists over the years tend to estimate that people have been creating and decorating textiles, initially clothes and carpets for warmth, for around 100,00-500,000 years, in which from these humble beginnings where plant and animal fibres would have been spun or twisted together to make functional objects, to where the journey tends to become aligned with our political history etc. Within the 14th-17th centuries in Europe, its time period saw the execution of wealthy patrons commissioning tapestries of a time when tapestry was often the costliest and most prestigious item in both Medieval and Renaissance homes. Medieval English embroidery, commonly known and referred to as Opus Anglicanism was prized around the world for its skill / artistry and was made and constructed / executed by both men and women, signifying the principle of luxury Medieval Europe, as simultaneously, in / towards the Middle East they went about making beautifully crafted rugs using symbols and complex designs. The Industrial Revolution (1760-1820), being associated with the burgeoning of affordable fabrics and machine production saw the plethora of textiles as functional objects, where stitching remained associated with the manual work of mainly women. During this period, in 1968, the Royal Academy of Art London was officially founded, where then eighteen months later it ruled that needlework was not permitted to be shown in the Academy, due to being seen as a damning indictment that textiles where in fact not at the time regarded as high art, undeniably consolidating the prejudice and gender politics of this judgement. As a result, during this period, textile art fell from favour.
After the years following the Second World War, this era saw the developing start of textile art to meet its aesthetic and political potential. Through being used for political purposes and as a means of communication and expression, artists started to work with textiles in ways never previously seen, to where in which visionary creatives moved beyond weaving, and / to begin knotting, twining, plaiting, coiling, pleating, lashing and interlacing, starting to explore the 3D potential of textiles and now entering the main domain of scholarly writings and academia. By incorporating emotion, message and meaning into the artwork, artists elevated the status of their work, announcing that it had become high art once again, through being the / a time when the quality of idea and execution was what mattered, but not the fabric used. Overall, textile art is and can be immensely regarded / seen as a highly powerful tool for communication purposes, which defies the level of boundaries, positively contributing to the democratisation within the art and craft revolution.
Commonly / generally championed by women artists in and throughout the first half of the continued 21stcentury, with two important figures being Annie Albers and Sheila Hicks, textile art is territory now occupied by both men and women, leading to the emergence of some contemporary names including El Anatsui, Chris Offili and Damien Hirst. Prominent names who have become specialists in textile art include the likes of Alice Kettle (UK), Anne Wilson (USA) and Hiroyuki Shindo (Japan). Textile art has been struggling in popularity with both relevant collectors and artists since the 1960s. An important global event was in which the Tapestry Biennale in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1962. However / today, more and more new younger artists are becoming much more interested and engaged in the process of both expression and experimentation, and even the choice of material is of great significance, due to not being confined by any outmoded prejudice, especially as contemporary artists are more willing to push the set medium to its limits, along with artists in general continuing to push the boundaries of what is textiles and how textiles can be art etc.
In further relation to the contained subject area of textiles, its earlier suppression always allows it to be new, and therefore exciting, in which as it has been previously marginalised historically, it now has the given chance and opportunity to be seen and registered as both current and original. Within the industry, there is not been much of a recent marginalised abundance of considered textile art and with the time it takes to produce, neither is there an oversupply, however, by registering this form of artistic expression to allow the likes of designers, architects and artists to freely incorporate textile art in the spaces of today through recognising and acknowledging a varied array of unprecedented ways. Textile art is now more than ever commonly hung and placed within homes with the likes of fine art collections, as nowadays museums are continuing to focus upon and acquire a much wider range of textile works for their permanent collections. For example, Southampton City Art Gallery and as well as the Museum Partner of London Art Fair 2020, due to having recently acquired Odyssey, a seminal work by Alice Kettle. Alice Kettle is in which one of a number of selected artists showing as part of Threading Forms, a curated section at London Art Fair 2020, in an attempt to effectively and adequately bring to the fore a selection of galleries and artists who are both embracing the potential and are challenging the limitations of thread in contemporary art forms, techniques and styles. The section of the Fair will in fact solely aim to effectively / beneficially capture the true essence and breadth of different artists working within and towards textiles and the / it’s positive growing appreciation of the medium as a beautiful and collectable art form. As a whole and in a time of high consumerism and production, with the immediacy of digital aspects, the painstaking handmade object has become much more of a luxury due to and as a result of millennials being more likely to demand experiences not things, through savouring the experience of feeling a textile object and contemplate its creation. In correlation, the varied contained aspects surrounding the overall subject of textiles, it is / can be more common than ever to be a part or all our lives, as we all experience textiles every day, both being familiar to it and for essential purposes, as especially from continuing to recognise that taking the time to stitch or weave is actually quite a comforting counterbalance to our rushed lives, contributing towards effectively soothing our frenzied minds etc.
https://candidastevens.com/blog/45/
https://www.thurmanovich.com/gallery-collections-blog//on-the-cutting-edge-a-history-of-textile-art
Through acknowledging and carrying out an array of secondary source research in great amounts of detail, I am know fully aware that within the contained creative industry regarding the subject area of TADF : Textile Art, Design and Fashion can / is in which classified, recognised and described as the creative and technical process by which the materials of thread or yarn fibres etc are precisely woven together or interlaced to form a flexible, functionable and decorative cloth or fabric that can then be subsequently printed upon or otherwise adorned. To where within todays rising society and since the 1980s, contemporary textiles has immensely emerged as an innovative area of practice for artists, designers and makers, testing the boundaries of more traditional areas of art practice by continuing to develop new forms and language involving many creatives along the way, as through being influenced by postmodernist ideas, the likes of textile and fibre work has become more and more conceptual in which as a result I have preceded with the desire and interests to select TADF as my major and first / main specialised subject area.
To me personally, the ability to create, design and produce pieces of artwork using and experimenting with a wide array of contained techniques and methods such as sewing, weaving, drawing and mixed media (patterns / textures etc) by acknowledging many influences and / or confronting aspects of social and political controversial topics and styles of inspiration (the punk era / subculture within the 1980s and gender feminism etc), through establishing / working with a broad variety of materials and techniques, as well as being able to enjoy and put my all into the subject area and every task given so far with the ability to consider aspects of the environment when working through recognising the ability and opportunity to recycle, reutilise and experiment with the overall of purpose of materials (found materials / scrap fabric etc) by then contributing to lowering, establishing and recognising the harmful effects of fast fashion and its implications towards society and the fashion industry by considering the desire to work much more ethically, which as a whole continues to truly inspire and engage me both creatively and artistly as an aspiring artist / designer.
Throughout the continued work created with the TADF industry / today’s society and towards my overall passions and interests within the subject as a whole, I have begun to highly appreciate and consider the work and pieces created by various artists and designers to where I have been immensely inspired by the work of fashion designer and artist of Lucinda Graham and Kirsty Whitlock as a result of their overall creative mixed media textiles and techniques towards numerous influential aspects of promoting fast faction and recognising many political issues and controversial news headlines, articles and events within society through cleverly analysing their / societies continued impacts based upon creating textiles pieces of work. As a whole, textiles (TADF : Textile Art, Design and Fashion) have gone onto play major roles in both the continued social, economic and religious lives to where it is a major component of material culture that can be viewed as the products of technology, as cultural symbols, as works of art / installations or as items of trade through registering as a fundamental human activity expressing symbolically much of what is valuable in any culture, as in which through regarding its importance within society, the contained TADF industry can go onto provide a source of livelihood to the likes of farmers, cotton boll pluckers and workers engaged in ginning, spinning, weaving, dyeing, designing, packaging tailoring and sewing.
AAD012 TADF Brief – theme / interpretation / research / mood boards :
As a result of my contained research, history and understanding of the subject of textiles (TADF), including my major influences, positives and major interests into the subject area, to then appropriately begin the set workshops, tasks, briefs and assignments towards / for AAD012 we were in which instructed to carrying out a series of research surrounding its subject area to then be given the brief and preparation to choose a tittle or word (these included nature, neon, neutral, naked, number and non-binary) to base and theme your artwork upon, through showing a clear understanding of it and what topics within it are seen as very influential to you with the aim of displaying a detailed write up around the chosen theme (your interpretation of it), including a concise visual mood board containing a colour palette of 4 or less chosen colours including black and white, considering and including relative and appropriate images, photographs, postcards, colour swatches, found objects, materials, papers, clippings, fabrics and mixed media items etc in correlation with your chosen theme / subject and colour scheme to overall suggest your interpretation of the theme that will in which reflect the set direction towards and for the two week TADF project in order to keep an attained focus of ideas etc. After reading through and analysing the brief in great amounts of detail I have now in which selected and chosen the word / theme of nature with the contained colour scheme of blue (navy / petrol blue), green (sage / olive green), brown / nudes / stone, grey, including the colours of both black and white. In great relevance to both aspects of nature and textiles / textile art, through creating textile art and being inspired by nature, you can approach it in so many different ways and styles to show why the natural world and all its gifts to mankind etc have endured as source material, as there can be no limit to the possibilities of how nature can be harnessed to create both original and breath-taking art. As a whole, one of the things that especially fascinates me about / around the many contained nature artwork, inspiration and textile artists is their ability to find inspiration in the seemingly mundane or unremarkable aspects of life, yet creating something so beautiful, fresh, unique and powerful, but on the other hand, nature is certainly not a mundane subject matter, but it is definitely well-trodden in the world of art.
In addition / furthermore, to me the contained theme and subject of nature is just so broad and intriguing to investigate, which as a result, straight away it was the main / first tittles that I was immensely drawn into. For example, various themes, ideas and impacts upon nature have highly intrigued me and immensely gained my interest, such as the likes of seeing and regarding nature as the beauty in world unknown through recognising aspects of nature and our environment as something that is truly beautiful for its handmade aspects, including frost, birds eye views, forests, trees, plants and the natural deterioration of nature, as well as throughout and when looking through Pinterest in regards to nature and our environments / surroundings, I have become highly passionate and engaged towards aspects of pollution, its affects upon nature and how we as society need to make ourselves aware of these issues (littering / gas fumes etc), incorporating ways of improving it, enhancing the overall levels and uses of sustainability, as especially for example, the contained subject area of pollution is in fact regarded as the introduction of harmful materials, known as pollutants being brought into the environment, to where pollutants can be natural, such as volcanic ash, as well as being created by human activity, such as trash or runoff, contributing to the overall damage towards the contained quality of air, water and land.
As I have now chosen the theme / tittle of nature with the colour scheme of blue (navy / petrol blue), green (sage / olive green), brown / nudes / stone, grey, including both black and white, to sufficiently complete and understand the given preparation towards the AAD012 TADF two week project, I have went onto produce a sufficient mood board both digital (images / inspiration collated from Pinterest) and physical (using the likes of relevant mixed media materials and found objects etc) as well as the displayment of relevant and appropriate research overview upon it. To fulfil this, I created a wide range of mood boards, images of inspiration and my own composition in relation to my chosen theme of nature, its selected colour palette and what aspects and subject areas within it that most intrigue and interest me. As a result, some of the found objects, items, mixed media materials, posters and secondary source web / Pinterest images included the likes of: landscapes, roads, mixed media nature materials, windows, aspects of weather, environments with pollution, nature embroidery, garments / items of clothing, tea towels, different textile materials / fabric, building sites, rust, plants / leaves / dirt / moss / logs, deteriorating foundations / rubble, buildings / windows / bricks / cobbles, branches, barbed wire fences, egg boxes, brown envelopes, plastic forms, raffle tickets, negative photo films, newspaper / telephone book pages, label / gift tags and tracing paper etc :
