Chris Ofili

Chris Ofili exhibition at the Tate Britain was some what unexpected...

Ofili's exhibition of his works starting from the 1990's he is 'Challenging stereotypical representations of black culture, Ofili created his own contemporary iconography combining Afro celebration, hip hop and gangsta rap, with comic caricatures and Biblical imagery.'

I was slightly taken back by his work, it was very unique and expressive to his own style and point of view which he was trying to portray. Even though I thought his work was very explicit it did have some very beautiful detail to it, His mark making and patterns were very intricate. If i looked at in small sections instead of the whole painting itself, i found a lot of parts which i could relate to and liked, but as a textiles student it was very expressive and textural. Ofili used so many different mediums with the glitter, resin, paint and the dung balls which were used instead of hanging his painting he used dung balls for them to be propped up on as a way of expressing that these paintings had come from earth a natural form.

Ofili's use of colour and expression through his work really stood out to me. It really represented his culture, political views and his word. This exhibition seemed very personal the more I read into it, he was really expressing everything he had to say about his Nigerian heritage. It was visual and some-what explicit but something which was informative and another way of looking at someone's work and how they are trying to portray it to an audience to be appreciated in the way they expressed it.

Mary Restieaux

Mary Restieaux did a lot of different work, one the projects she did was working for Herve Leger doing the colour samples for his collections back in the late 1980's-1990's. It was really interesting to see his work relating to the colours samples, which she has kept over the years to relate back to and show people for reference and her own personal achievement. Mary formed a very close relationship with Herve himself when he still owned his label and was creating such an iconic name for himself in the industry.

I love Herve's dresses, the tight fit knitted bands which are then all hand sewn together, they show off the hourglass figure of a women in its own unique form. When looking through the photos of the collection, it also showed us how much the models have changed. In our modern generation we are far to interested in this perception of being stick thin and almost child like. When back then he was using models like Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen they show his designs in such a more healthy fulfilling way, which has just got lost in today's society. I think the fashion world is sending out the wrong message to young girls, but as anything change is something which can either be a positive or a negative. Herve's work and of course Mary's was a quite an honour for me as a weaver to be able to see someone's work up and in person and find out her style and the jobs which she got from being a freelance worker.

Mary Restieaux

Tuesday 4th May:

I went to visit Mary Restieaux studio today, who is a very established ikat weaver and dyer. She set up her own studio and dye lab at her home in South London.

It was a really interesting and exciting opportunity to see where weave as a specialism and career can actually take you in, but also to see a different way of weaving. Instead of using the weft as your main pattern she used the Warp as her initial design & detail. She uses 200 ends per inch or more to get a very built up pattern using the special ikat dying techniques which creates such beautiful patterns. Then it is woven together using any colour thread because it is so tight, you can't actually see the colour of the weft thread anyway. It's a very unique and precise weaving technique but the outcomes are so beautiful. Ikat is very similar to tie dyeing, its resist dyeing.

It was really inspiring to see how Mary works, what her ethics and beliefs are in and for the textile world. Mary encourages your design flare in anyway possible to create ideas. I really took to her unique use of colour and pattern. Mary also had a very organised neat way of working which really spoke out to me as that is something i like to portray in my way of working. Mary's garden was also beautifully designed by herself it had such passion, colour with a variety of different flowers which all complimented each other in the way they have been planted & landscaped. It really inspired my current Garden project, its sparked off a lot of different ideas i could use in my designs and for colour use.

Weave

I have decided to choose weave as my specialism. I was still quite undecided between weave and stitch, but it would be a good idea to start with weave and if it's not for me move down to stitch, than doing it the other way round.

Weave is something completely new to me, i like the challenge of exploring lots of different ideas, expressions and learning the technical side of how fabrics are constructed and everything about a new textiles technique.

In my rotation weave, was something which calmed me, had a very visual and textural way of making therapeutic patterns and playing textures in different ways with the loom. I think this might be the career path i am heading down in a way of expressing my creativity through a certain textile medium.

Alternative Fashion show

The finale...

After a long Easter of re-doing my skirt and putting everything together in a group. There has been ups and downs, but it has all come together very well for this final show...

We have put Hindu religion, Chinese lanterns and shooting feathers altogether and come up with this collaboration and interpretation of our ideas...