Hussein Chalayan is an artist and designer, working in film, dress and installation art. Research Chalayan’s work, and then consider these questions in some thoughtful reflective writing.
1. Chalayan’s works in clothing, like Afterwords (2000) andBurka (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?
Hussein Chalayan, Burka, 1996
Hussein Chalayan, Afterwords, 20002. Chalayan has strong links to industry. Pieces like TheLevel 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?
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?
Hussein Chalayan, still from Absent Presence, 2005 (motion picture)
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) and Before 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?
In my opinon “afterwords” is fashion because Chalayan has created the dress like piece that in some cases you would see on the runway. Along with the hairstyle and top, also the way she is standing is a model like pose which also relates back to fashion. “Berka” in my opinion is art due to the nature of the work. This piece makes you thing about the background of the piece and also makes the viewer research why the artist has created it. The difference in my opinion is that I could not see “burka” in a fashion magazine or on the runway, where as I could see “afterwords” being walked down the catwalk, but then again everyone has there own opinions. When I think of fashion I think of high class clothing and over the top clothes being modelled much like that of “afterwords”. Fashion to me is individual and makes a statement.
ReplyDeleteI think this changes the whole interpretation of how the art is viewed as the meaning and style behind the work is all for and about the people and company in which the art is paid for by. I think it is still art but comes across more as advertising, but still with that over the top style. Chaylayn has used scent in the piece ‘The Level Tunnel’ which I think is a more artistic way of advertising the vodka rather then typical billboards and poster etc. this to me is still art and a very interesting piece too!
I found that Chalayan is influenced by cultural identity, displacement and migration. Chalayan is a deconstructionist and likes to recycle old fashion. I think that his art would have been influenced by science because of his interests in DNA.
I think artist know construct, design and work on the piece themselves then that is a true artist as they have constructed the piece right down to the t. however many of the greatest artist have help and assistants and sometimes never put much work into a piece and it in some cases can be very popular, I think it just comes down to the individual and the way they perceive it.
REFERENCES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE07_aFF4no
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:G1zLmqx2D5AJ:designmuseum.org/design/hussein-chalayan+hussein+chalayan+influence+art+movement&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=nz
http://designmuseum.org/design/hussein-chalayan
http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2008/05/13/the-level-tunnel/
www.notcot.org/post/10463
www.imdb.com/title/tt0768786