Ella Northedge

25.2.12

Campaigns // 2012

Recently, I am becoming increasingly interested in fashion advertisement videos and mini-films. David Lynch was hired to direct "Lady Blue", a mini film for Dior that starred the actress Marion Cotillard. It is beautifully shot with typical Lynch-esque heavy, atmospheric music. I particularly like the dreamlike, blurred part of the film from 8:08 onwards that separates Lady Dior's romantic dream from the cold reality of her hotel suite.

Besides magazines, websites and catwalk shows, fashion adverts on sites like YouTube give the viewer a few minutes to visually see model embodying the brand. They are much more imaginative and offer the viewer a story and setting for the clothing, not just a catwalk glimpse.

Blackbird Blackbird + city girl brights = Whistles S/S 2012

LCD Soundsystem + 80s power dressing = Balenciaga A/W 2012 Pre-Fall Collection

1950s glamour + candy pastels = Prada S/S 2012

14.1.12

Vorticism

"The Mud Bath", David Bomberg, 1914

I read an article about Vorticism last year in Tank Magazine and came across it again whilst flicking through magazines for inspiration for my project "Transparent Boundaries". Recently, I've become a little obsessed with geometric lines and patterns; they look so clean cut and beautiful when combined with block colours and shapes. Vorticism is a perfect example of this vision. Also, I can't believe the piece above was made in 1914! It must have seemed shocking to the art world at the time.

Mental note to self: conduct more research into Vorticism.

4.1.12

Lost in Lace // Birmingham // 13.12.2011

'Lacing Space (detail)', Piper Shepard

'Moucharabieh', Annie Bascoul, photo courtesy of Crafts Council

“Lost in Lace” is an exhibition of works dedicated to exploring different interpretations of lace. Twenty international and UK artists are showing their pieces at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery; among them are Michael Brennand Wood, Piper Shepard and Reiko Sudo. What I noticed immediately about the exhibition was that it had a large variety of individual works; while some pieces were obviously inspired by lace, such as ‘Moucharabieh’ by Annie Bascoul, others were fairly abstract like Naomi Kobayashi’s ‘Cosmos series’ which was based on the spaces between lace. Cosmos series, Naomi Kobayashi, 2011.

One of my favourite pieces was “After the Dream” by Chiharu Shiota; her work focused on the lines created by the multiple strings which were woven together like lace. Eerie white dresses were suspended in the centre of the room behind a web of black; I thought this looked really haunting and dreamlike, like the title suggests.

"After The Dream", Chiharu Shiota

“My installations with clothes always refer to the clothes as a second skin, which carry the memories of the people who wore these clothes.”

Chiharu Shiota

While the graphic, geometric shapes created by the overlapping lines were my main attraction to the piece, I appreciated it even more after reading the meaning behind it as it gave the work a deeper meaning besides being a visual representation of lace. It was interesting to read about the artist’s practice and how she weaves her feelings, literally, into her work: “If I weave something and it turns out to be ugly, twisted or knotted, then such must have been my feelings when I was working.”