1. Chalayan’s works in clothing, like Afterwords (2000) and Burka (1996) , are often challenging to both the viewer and the wearer. What are your personal responses to these works? Are Afterwords and Burka fashion, or are they art? What is the difference?
Not all clothing is fashion, so what makes fashion fashion?
Personally I find this piece to be more fashion as it is something that is very wearable yet unique. In saying that it is very artistically structured which makes you appreciate this piece on a different level. The way that this garment folds up from a table to a skirt brings a whole new level to the fashion industry. Science, art and architecture meet the fashion world. I feel the colour combination works well in this piecel. The skirt is the dominant feature, yet is complemented by the light blue top. Overall i admire this piece, and can see how it would have inspired and set a trend of its own. Fashion is very controversial in the sense that i may like something and you may hate it, yet it's still fashion. It is a very expressive industry not only for the designers but also the people that wear the clothing. Globally people dress to express themselves which makes the fashion industry very artistic. I personally feel you cant catagorise Hussein Chalayan into either Fashion or Art, this designer has taken his ideas to a whole new level and created a category of his own.
"The way i construct a collection is that i work with the same principals. A collection can become a film or an instillation and it becomes also the collection. I don't really separate the way that i work, they all come from the same source. its just that i can apply that principle to a garment or a film or a object. My world is really all one, its just the execution of the ideas that can vary". (Hussein Chalayan, sourced from video below)
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| Chalayan, Burka, |
I find Burkra rather interesting in the way that it plays with an already established religious fashion. I personally feel this is becoming art rather than fashion, though there is a very fine line between the two. Fashion is the art of clothing so if following this idea it makes all aspects clothing trends art. The way the head pieces are displayed in this particular collection makes me feel they are not indented to sell in bulk, it was more for the artistic approach and impact the pieces will have on the viewer. In this case making them art instead of fashion
"Any crossover between art and fashion has long been the source of controversy to say the very least. On the one hand, the art world views fashion's blatant commerciality as somehow threatening the sanctity of a more rarefied form of expression. On the other, any fashion designer who dares to describe his or her work as art..." Susannah Frankel, Fashion Editor, The Independent
"Any crossover between art and fashion has long been the source of controversy to say the very least. On the one hand, the art world views fashion's blatant commerciality as somehow threatening the sanctity of a more rarefied form of expression. On the other, any fashion designer who dares to describe his or her work as art..." Susannah Frankel, Fashion Editor, The Independent
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| Hussein Chalayan, Afterwords, 2000 |
Personally I find this piece to be more fashion as it is something that is very wearable yet unique. In saying that it is very artistically structured which makes you appreciate this piece on a different level. The way that this garment folds up from a table to a skirt brings a whole new level to the fashion industry. Science, art and architecture meet the fashion world. I feel the colour combination works well in this piecel. The skirt is the dominant feature, yet is complemented by the light blue top. Overall i admire this piece, and can see how it would have inspired and set a trend of its own. Fashion is very controversial in the sense that i may like something and you may hate it, yet it's still fashion. It is a very expressive industry not only for the designers but also the people that wear the clothing. Globally people dress to express themselves which makes the fashion industry very artistic. I personally feel you cant catagorise Hussein Chalayan into either Fashion or Art, this designer has taken his ideas to a whole new level and created a category of his own.
"The way i construct a collection is that i work with the same principals. A collection can become a film or an instillation and it becomes also the collection. I don't really separate the way that i work, they all come from the same source. its just that i can apply that principle to a garment or a film or a object. My world is really all one, its just the execution of the ideas that can vary". (Hussein Chalayan, sourced from video below)
2. Chalayan has strong links to industry. Pieces like The Level Tunnel (2006) and Repose(2006) are made in collaboration with, and paid for by, commercial business; in these cases, a vodka company and a crystal manufacturer. How does this impact on the nature of Chalayan’s work? Does the meaning of art change when it is used to sell products? Is it still art?
We live in a world where advertising constantly surrounds us. We see it on TV, radio, internet, buildings, cars just to name a few. If you want to be successful in this day and age you couldn't accomplish this without advertising. Designers play a crucial roll in this cycle as we need creative minds to constantly discover new and exciting ways to advertise. Our world has become so driven by this strategy it is becoming more difficult to stand out. Companies turn to celebrity endorsement to promote their business, such as the case with The Level Tunnel (2006). asking Hussein Chalayan to design "a pioneering work of art with a focus on taste". The result of this project, in which Chalayan had complete freedom to create what he wanted was named The Level Tunnel. It was a 15m long, 5m high, traveling installation that "captures the essence of Level Vodka". I believe this piece is very much still art, regardless of its purpose of creation. Art is more than just a leisurely hobby, in some cases it comes down to money and successes.
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| The Level Tunnel (2006) |
3. Chalayan’s film Absent Presence screened at the 2005 Venice Biennale. It features the process of caring for worn clothes, and retrieving and analysing the traces of the wearer, in the form of DNA. This work has been influenced by many different art movements; can you think of some, and in what ways they might have inspired Chalayan’s approach?
I believe Chalayan has been influenced by the post modern movement. I can relate this piece to some popular TV series such as CSI or detective movies, which are very popular globally. The idea of finding someones killer by analyzing their clothes and DNA relates to this piece. It also reminds me of 'you are what you wear', your clothes are part of you, they even hold you DNA. The world has also become fascinated with science and art combine, a hostile sterilized hospital environment. for example Damien hurst and how he preserves dead animals in tanks.
4. Many of Chalayan’s pieces are physically designed and constructed by someone else; for example, sculptor Lone Sigurdsson made some works from Chalayan’s Echoform (1999) andBefore Minus Now (2000) fashion ranges. In fashion design this is standard practice, but in art it remains unexpected. Work by artists such as Jackson Pollock hold their value in the fact that he personally made the painting. Contrastingly, Andy Warhol’s pop art was largely produced in a New York collective called The Factory, and many of his silk-screened works were produced by assistants. Contemporarily, Damien Hirst doesn’t personally build his vitrines or preserve the sharks himself. So when and why is it important that the artist personally made the piece?
This practice would have been frowned upon back in the renaissance. Painters and craftsmen were famous for their own individual work. As our world is forever changing and developing it has become more accepted to have assistance and help when building or making your designs. In some cases it is more about acknowledging who's original ideas and concepts were behind the design, rather than the creation or factory process to create the final piece. In saying that it is still very much important that painters do paint their own paintings, otherwise it wouldn't be their special skill, which is needed to paint. Their talent is what makes their paintings famous and valuable. In design and fashion, it is more about who thought of the ideas behind the design and the final product, not focusing on who or what actually made it.
References
http://www.notcot.com/archives/2008/05/level-vodka-tun.php
http://www.husseinchalayan.com/blog/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTBmvCJt__w&feature=related
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/5209/hussein-chalayan-at-the-design-museum.html
This practice would have been frowned upon back in the renaissance. Painters and craftsmen were famous for their own individual work. As our world is forever changing and developing it has become more accepted to have assistance and help when building or making your designs. In some cases it is more about acknowledging who's original ideas and concepts were behind the design, rather than the creation or factory process to create the final piece. In saying that it is still very much important that painters do paint their own paintings, otherwise it wouldn't be their special skill, which is needed to paint. Their talent is what makes their paintings famous and valuable. In design and fashion, it is more about who thought of the ideas behind the design and the final product, not focusing on who or what actually made it.
References
http://www.notcot.com/archives/2008/05/level-vodka-tun.php
http://www.husseinchalayan.com/blog/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTBmvCJt__w&feature=related
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/5209/hussein-chalayan-at-the-design-museum.html
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