TADF Sustainability – Katie Jones

Katie Jones is an independent designer of women’s wear from the United Kingdom. She largely focuses on sustainability and reuses scrapped fabric to create her textile work and clothing, a wide range including jackets, shirts, shawls jumpers, chair covers, bags and more. Katie favors the medium of crochet and embroidery which acts as a successful method for her recycled fabrics and materials to be transformed through. Katies work is recognizable through the bright and vivid choices of colour palettes, arranged into neat and simplistic shapes that allow said colours to stand on their own, with the odd exceptions of individual pieces designed for cat walks and to be modeled at events as seen in her ‘Romance Is Born’ collection for Paris fashion week which exemplifies her capability to produce intricate and glamorous work. As a lesser known designer who’s work possesses a bold characteristic – alongside an innovative and forward thinking desire to maintain a sustainable brand – it is not surprising that she won Selfridge’s Bright Young Thing award in 2016, a campaign aimed at promoting young, creative entrepreneurs much like herself that strive towards a place in the art world and attention of their workings. With the magnetism of her designs and freely discussing her intentions to promote sustainability, it’s unsurprising that someone such as Jones is able to draw in such appraisal with such clear, eco friendly branding given that Katie’s compassion for the ecosystem is what allowed her to form her own style Amongst her success and well earned reputation, there is a woman with concern for the earth and our environment, a shared worry with many other piers of her age demographic. Consequently, this is the area she thrives the most in on a social level as someone who redirects her success into attention and care for sustainability, leaving her message clear that her concerns lie outside of business talk and instead is grounded in the reality of the current state of the world and the need for action.

Between Katie Jones’ notable bright works and the strong interest in recycled and sustainable clothing and textiles, my attention was left undivided as with many others having found her creations and drive inspirational as a young artist. Here we have someone who is otherwise average and equally as human as the next, leaving her as an example of the capability any equally as driven individual is capable of.

Photo by Rachel Manns

Gender – Yishay Garbasz

Yishay Garbasz is an Israeli-British citizen and transgender woman. She has traveled around numerous places to display her exhibitions. Yishay’s art discuses her transition and womanhood, the experience of trauma and the brutality of war. Here we see a unique display of experiences and her own expression of pain and the feeling of detachment. Yishay focuses on how generational trauma acts, something that fills most of her work and even outnumbers the production of her art that purely focuses on her identity. Here however we see something rarely – if at all – depicted in media, especially now. Here we see the multifaceted nature of transgender people, the ability to have the human experience of empathy, yet also struggle individually. She too voices the familiar experience of transgender people and the connection to suffering – an embedded and ingrained narrative that society perpetuates and in turn corners transgender people. Yishay presents to us the insufferability of existence for transgender communities, the weight of aggression and violence and burden of carrying this awareness and sensitivity. It is within Garbasz’ visionary work that she finds a relief, a way in which she can lay bare the baggage of the complexities of her pain, yet also voice the struggle of transgender experiences.

 

Communication – surrealism and René Magritte

The rise of the surrealist movement brought about controversy and hence discussion, an instance of encouraging communication in of itself that would also allow the development of artistic and non-linguistic communication. René Magritte – known today as one of the founding fathers of surrealism – was open and honest on the lack of deliberate meaning, his intentions on crafting purely obscure, dreamlike art. Here René became an example of the chaos and playfulness impressionists aimed to bring, to push the boundaries of language, by replacing words with feelings and sentences with recollections of dreams. To this day surrealism has inspired and eases itself into modern art, René had succeeded more than his plans to simply paint in the obscure and then new and fun ways he wanted. Within surrealism and in the mind of a surrealist artist, the awe of a shared language – the dreamscape and it’s travelers experiences – comes naturally, and hence these artists and their movement impose itself on the art world where it becomes accepted and to this day still branches into the lives and understanding of other artists and their dreams and visions.

 

Innovation – Adam Turl

Within the realm of our current late stage capitalist society, the narrative to promote innovation seeps into multiple facettes of life and thus art. Innovation harbours false hopes to the working artist. Adam Turl discusses these lies and pressures within his art, the intricacies of his art depicting the messy and complicated lives of the working class, his expected monochrome palette showcasing the emotional labour of his work and the bleakness of a capitalist world. Here I find that Adam Turl warns of the looming presence of industry, the powers of the art world that demand new produce to further build it’s empire. In Adam Turls own words: “internalizing the dominant art world narrative that ‘anything can be art,’ while in practice the gatekeepers of the art market and the academic avant-garde drastically limit what is considered ‘serious’ visual art”. Here we are confronted with how innovation – the claim for promoting the new – is purposed as a lie. Herego, with the help of artists such as Adam Turl, the art community can remain aware of and fight back the capitalist agenda to restrict and reproduce art for gain.

The Effectiveness In Recent Art Scenes Expressing LGBTQ+ Identity

Art has always been a source of freedom and has inspired new visions, often by the expression of revolutionary ideas and introducing questions to meditate on change within our society. There is indeed a radical and inspiring personality of art, alongside a fluidity that lets numerous demographics express vital aspects of their existence. Naturally there is a wide array of LGBTQ+ artists, a collection of queer creatives that open up on their lives ranging from experiences of love and relationships, the facets of gender, the deep history of the community, all the way to the violence, discrimination and hardship faced. This essay will aim to look at current artists who are apart of the LGBTQ+ community and their diverse experiences. Moreso, we will be focusing on expression of the artists in the community within historical and current context, and finally concluding on how art functions within the community to represent themselves. With this in mind, the mediums will be subjective based on the artists choice, as this essay is primarily focused on comparison and demographic. Comparisons with historical pieces will be briefly made, but solely for contrast as we are fixed on the modern queer art scene.

Prior to the twenty-first century, knowledge of artists whose lives intertwined with the LGBTQ+ community would be left to speculation. Artist such as Frida Kahlo[1] and DaVinci[2] would be left to question, with many more left silenced by their societies with their art and other historical records only left to re-contextualise their work. It would seem that even early contemporary history would leave many restricted, a mirror onto historical attitudes of non-normative behavior. This reflective nature of art would parallel the energy and zeitgeist of the times, as highlighted by famous modern artist David Hockney through his work of the sixties such as his ‘Man in Shower in Beverly Hills’ painting[3] – Hockney’s works capturing the steady rise of fearlessness that in the late sixties would amount to the stonewall riots[4]. Historically, the use of art as a tool to communicate queer identity has remained possible, albeit it’s potential nowadays is aknowledged more than previously[5].

Photography by Naima Green

One vital subject to discuss is the contrast of how aged contemporary queer art compares to the current understanding of queer identity and its relevancy to current communities in the LGBTQ+ demographic. When discussing remembered queer artists, said discussions circulates around tight and accepted forms of representation. It is arguable that contemporaries made themselves palatable to a dangerously heterosexist and cissexist society by the deliberate ambiguity of representation in their work, and further with the continuations of these systems into our current time, a blurring of presenting their work in media[6]. There was a restriction on sexuality, an enforcement of a gender binary – little room for queer people’s expression. This lack of available explicit representation has left a cavity in discussing the nuances of queer identity alone. However with the march of time and arrival of our present, the topic of the LGBTQ+ community in multiple forms of media has become more liberated, including the realm of art.

Now, within the twenty-first century, queer identity and it’s community have come to the forefront of mainstream discussions and with it the ability for LGBTQ+ individuals to access and communicate on a larger scale through the medium of art. Alongside this wave of representation comes intersectionality with queer people of colour and nuanced discussions around lesser represented people within the community. A bold example includes Fabián Cháirez[7], a gay Latino who cross oil paintings that reimagines Latin-American masculinity within a more explicitly queer lense, much of which causing a stir in Mexico[8]. Similarly we have the ever growing recognition of photographer Naima Green[9], showcasing the limitless and fluid realm of queer expression, bringing awareness to transgender and nonbinary people and breaking down concepts of gender stereotypes and identity. Being African-American herself, Naima Green too successfully includes numerous racial and ethnic identities within the work of her subjects. This inclusion remains vital for the community as to ensure the awareness of how complex queer identity is and to allow the observers to appreciate such a unique and complicated community. Lists and articles online and on numerous media sites around the intersectionality of the LGBTQ+ demographic have been soaring[10], a loud and unignorable example of how recent modern art has flourished in it’s liberation of expression for these people.

Thus far we are able to assert that there has been a growth in LGBTQ+ representation from queer artists, and that the artworld is broadening through this increase in diverse artists. Yet, has the art scene been effective in allowing this groups to be explicit? What borders still exist in the art world that is limiting this communication? With queer identity coming to the forefront of our society, we are faced with the impending force of rainbow capitalism[11] – the community therefore becoming commercialized and the subjects of LGBTQ+ identity evolving into a consumable subject for modern outsiders of the community. And with the domination of conglomerate companies[12] and businesses in the modern market by the tool of integration[13], there are numerous instances wherein the queer art scene easily becomes a target for those conglomerate powers to prey upon through.

Art by Fabián Cháirez

Similarly, the art critic John Berger otherwise illustrates the methodology of capitalism within art; “contemporary advertising utilises the skills of artists and the latest artistic techniques merely to sell things for consumption in a capitalist market”[14]. Here it is apparent that Capitalist society holds no genuine intention towards the betterment of LGBTQ+ artists, rather the narrative of utilizing oppresses people for their label is highlighted, as Karl Marx also affirms “The object of art, like any other product, creates an artistic and beauty-enjoying public. Production thus produces not only an object for the individual, but also an individual for the object” – here Marx affirms that under capitalism, the minority classes become objects themselves by the control of upper class companies. Here rainbow capitalism transforms the progressive and fighting queer into a tool and thus the community becomes jepordised by the bastardisation of the artists intentions as their art is mutated from a form of communication and expression to an item intended for ownership. This system furthermore only traps the LGBTQ+ community and enforces the authority of cissexist and heterosexist hegemony over the demographic, further censoring and distorting the community in an effort to subdue any radical power from the queer demographics.

In conclusion, we must not only celebrate but also embrace the massive growth of queer artists as well as the huge growth in an array of LGBTQ+ artists gaining recognition and pushing to be heard. However, there must be a greater scale of critical thinking when considering the threats towards the community and how the powers of our cis-heteronormative society restricts these forms of representation. The sum total of this essay thus confirms that indeed, the art scene itself proves effective in expressing LGBTQ+ Identity, whilst also emphasizing the lurking threats within the art market and how there is still a fight to be had with authority that suppresses and limits these artists and their community.

 

Bibliography:

[1] Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) – Queer Art History – www.queerarthistory.com

[2] The Queering of Leonardo da Vinci – www.Quadrant.org.au

[3] ‘Man in shower in Beverly Hills’, David Hockney, 1964 – www.tate.org.uk

[4] Stonewall then and now – www.news.harvard.edu

[5] Challenging the Canon: How Artists have Raised LGBTQ+ Awareness Through Art – www.theartling.com

[6] A Recent History of Censorship of LGBTQ Art – www.observer.com

[7] Fabián Cháirez | Biography – MutualArt – www.mutualart.com

[8] Protesters Storm a Mexico Museum Over a Painting That Depicts Revolutionary Emiliano Zapata Nude (and Wearing a Pink Sombrero) – www.news.artnet.com

[9] Pride Spotlight: Photographer Naima Green Is Documenting the Afro-Queer Present – www.observer.com

[10] Works for the Now, by Queer Artists of Color – www.nytimes.com

[11] What is Rainbow Capitalism and Why is it Harmful? – www.lgbtqandall.com

[12] conglomerate – www.britannica.com

[13] ‘The Cultural Industries’ written by David Hesmondhalgh

[14] ‘Ways of Seeing’ written by John Berger

[15] ‘ A Contribution To The Critique of Political Economy’ written by Karl Marx

 

Liminal places and space – Ferdinanda Florence

Liminality at its core pertains to something that is at an in between point, often so balanced on a border it becomes an other – something eerie and invocative of memory, yet a transition to something unrecognizable. It is this power that invokes such power when applied to spaces. It is in Ferdinandas own words that she describes her compulsion to paint Liminal spaces as to illustrate the paradoxes of life. Hallways without a family or people, rooms without fernature, an empty sky. These subtle forms of obscured reality, places that are non-conforming to our perceptions of the world around us – disturbs our ego centric ideals, they provoke us to appreciate things and objects for their individuality and what they are. A room is a room, with or without people. Her muddy and off white colour palettes compliment the unnerving and yet awe inspiring nature of her subjects, gentle shades to relax our gaze in yet bold in the outline of these beasts we call liminal spaces. In her own words Ferdinanda describes her own metaphors with regards to social life, a corporate room without people, yet this space offers to sooth ones individual soul through the power of healing – to heal by isolation and by finding comfort in the abstract, to find peace in bleakest and strangest of spaces.

Artist – Photography – David Lynch

David Lynch can be more easily recognised by his mediums of video and painting. However, a great asset to his work includes his use of photography. Like with the rest of his work, his photos and visuals take on dark themes both literally and metaphorically. In his series titled factory photographs, Lynch continuously uses a monochrome colour palette. This alongside his choice of dreamy and eerie visuals crafts his work into visuals that are easily recognisable as his own, his renowned lynchian styles being visibly apparent and therefore all the more unique and alluring. It will be detrimental to this discussion to not include the nature of his video visuals. When viewing ‘Twin Peaks’ the series, there are noticeable contrasts to his photography including the use of colour and a clear sense of time as to compliment the plots setting within late eighties to nineties. This is as far as his work will stretch to practically however, with symbolism littered throughout his series. The more lighthearted aspect of his work pertains around the American dream and the falseness of the Americana, as David’s work quickly spirals into darker visuals that interlink with the plot and themes. The inspiration of American soap operas is made apparent by his choice of characters costuming and dramatic nature of the plot which is paralleled with additional counted angles and all distance shots of violence, the horroresque aspects of the series saturated to emphasize Lynch’s own distaste for normalizing violence. However his surrealism isn’t limited to purpose as he relishes in keeping much of his intentions behind some of his aesthetic choices vague, as evidenced in the second series which levels up the surrealist imagery by use of obscure and unseen technology and pseudo landmarks. Laurel is clearly apparent that David Lynch himself is a master of the obscure and of surrealist visuals, which is something that is greatly inspired me when thinking over and creating my own work within photography.