Stylista Obscura

from feb 14th:

Kaleida project is panning out really well. Wasted a lot of time worrying the bodysuits wouldnt arrive in time and freaked out, looking at dance and costume (“fancy dress” Lol) shops to no avail.

Now I gotta wonder: will it fit jed? Tbd….

But everything else for it is set: hair and makeup, Julia. Prep location: amber’s flat. Assistants: Georgia and amber. Sewing assistant: Georgia. Amazing! Everything is basically set. Just gotta finish those hoods!

Time management is key, and I feel like if I just took the time to get super organized, id be ok… But the problem is I can’t get myself to calm down long enough to do so. I’m still getting things done for my shoot, for my essay, for fashion week shooting, and yet, every day I feel like I haven’t accomplished enough or the most important things. My stomach is constantly in knots. I don’t have the energy to socialize or go out, I’m so stressed about a huge number of things I’m making myself fatigued on top of fatigue! There needs to be some sanity introduced here. I’m not sure what it is yet. I’ve been trying to just constantly focus on breathing and not tweak out, to remember to have fin with it, whatever it is, it’s not that serious. Jesus, I’m a ball of anxiety. I just want so badly for my project to turn out how I’m envisioning it! For it not to look cheesy. I want to demonstrate I’m using multiple resources and using styling skills. I don’t necessarily feel like there’s a huge essence of my aesthetic in this concept, so it really has to be ‘strong’ work to communicate. I’m starting to see how access to designer clothes is really invaluable.

So far I have all my clothes ready that I’m not making/customizing. I have my location, makeup artist, assistant, prep room, and day/time. The bodysuits need to arrive and then I have to alter them. Have to finish making the structured hoods, and finally, spraypaint the boots.

After this is done, I’m pretty sure I should drop the Senses project. For the sake of my mental health…
But I’ll wait and see if I can finish my term paper and project and if I still have time , I’ll try to squeeze it in.

so… i’m not sick but I’m totally falling apart, physically. I have an infected cut on my thumb, some sort of weird cyst under my eye, and…the list goes on that you don’t need to know about! anyhow very tired and not in top form. my ability to work on my projects right now, very much affected. but here’s what i think are the major obstacles:
-affording even a DIY budget– where is this supposed to come from? my job and loan only allow for living expenses, not styling…
-sourcing clothes from designers through PR — how can we do this as students? it seems not possible, in general. I don’t know how to go about these things.
but i’m carrying on. carrying on! carrying on trying to not get high off spray paint fumes making these amazing patterned fur structured alien hoods…
pictures to come soon, when i get my blog set up on my phone.

okay, so this blog got kinda boring. but its because there’s too much going on in the non-virtual world!
here’s some reflective statements about how my projects are going:

- styling to music (Kaleida project)
there’s been quite an evolution from my original idea. I’m still doing two models, one male, one female, who represent (and vaguely suggest in appearance) me and Ben Wills (the artist Kaleida, my very dear friend), but they’re now Daft-Punk inspired aliens; not remotely evil or sinister ones, but bright fur-hooded ones.
I’ve not sourced any inspiration from fashion magazines, but I have made a few inspirational pages from the catwalk; I hope this is acceptable. no tear sheets, but print outs from style.com. McQueen, Pugh mainly. lots of hoods, lots of color. some Ashish, my new favorite designer.
I’m certainly more comfortable with making a visual research project now, but still not as into it as I’d like it be. It needs texture, it needs more variation. but it’s less on the textual side this time, so that’s good I think.
makeup sketch I did:

-Scent project (the 5 senses)
so I’m planning on making a paper mache outfit and photographing it for the project. I need to get it checked out on Wednesday by the company team in the tutorial. I hope it still counts as a photography project… it’s more of a sculpture project that I’m photographing. hmm. we’ll see.

-research project (The Cultural Identity in Fashion of: The Hipster)
THIS IS SO EXCITING. i love the theory we’re assigned for class, it’s very basic to me given my BA in lit crit so I don’t expect it to be new, but it’s still great review. and I absolutely ADORE Ellie, our seminar tutor! She knows people at n+1 (swoon) and suggested the research material of “What Was The Hipster?” for my topic (see above). YAY! so coming along nicely there.

- styling assisting
Ameena Kallender is a really cool, young stylist who lives/works right near Lime Grove LCF, and I’ve been assisting her with a music video styling shoot. This is great work experience, but I barely have time for it. I also have a part time job at the boutique so… I basically have no free time. Pros/cons to this. Can’t really afford to get distracted!

my music project for Styling course, the Scent project for the perfume company, and styling assisting with Ameena… not to mention getting the gig as a backstage photographer at Fashion Week for Bryce Aime (!!!!!!!) really, though. Shit’s blowin’ up. it’s incredible.
Once I figure out how to get my wordpress blog on my iphone, i’ll be really really excited to just post like crazy. till then, it’ll be a bit more sporadic.
too much on the go! got a gallery exhibition at Byam Shaw to see with Caitlin, and then another gallery event in camden.

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- Remit of the Space

The Haunch of Venison is a gallery that sells the artwork exhibited there.  We spoke with the gentleman at their information desk, who informed us that the gallery has a list of thousands, people engaged in the arts in a myriad of ways, that they invite to their exhibitions. They are not affiliated with a university or a museum. The gallery is free to view for the public.  It is easily accessible in downtown London, located in the Burlington Gardens, near Oxford Circus and many tube lines.

The content for this exhibit was 3 film stills and 4 films by the artist Nicholas Provost. The films were Stardust (2010), Abstract Action (2010) / Long Live the New Flesh (2009), Storyteller (2010), and Gravity (2007). Stills: Foreshadow (2007) and the others shared a title with their respective films.

The curators of this exhibition were in-house, and the information desk did not comment further on the curation.

- Publicity

As they want to appeal to buyers of art, the Haunch of Venison advertises in elite magazines such as ArtForum. They send out electronic invitations to private collectors, as well as a general newsletter to those who have signed up to receive it via their website. At the gallery itself, there is a large banner outside announcing their location. Inside, there is not printed text information physically in the gallery space, but there is a handout A4 paper with information on Nicholas Provost, the artist, and some of the works in the gallery (but not all).  None of us encountered publicity for this event outside of our instruction to visit it.

- Theme/Concept

Nicholas Provost is a living, contemporary artist from Brussels, Belgium.  He has produced short films, midlength films, and other film-based media. He has exhibited in The United States, Austria, Belgium, Holland, Poland and the UK to name a few countries where he has shown his work at galleries and/or festivals.

His work centers around using Hollywood cinematic conventions with his own candid camerawork, through use of actual film soundtracks. He also edits, manipulates and distorts Hollywood film clips to create his own artistic film shorts.

Artistic film shorts shown in a gallery space seems to be popular at the moment; the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde park, another gallery that sells their exhibited work, is currently exhibiting a curated exhibit of three films by Philippe Parreno in a similar vein.

- Design

The navigation is as follows, from our little drawing:

It was arguably a very minimal design; no text on the walls, not even titles for the films and stills.

The lighting was dim, which would make sense in this context, so that the audience could view the films.

The font of the gallery was a simple non-serif, possibly Helvetica.

The access was very visible from the street, in a busy part of town; very commercial, somewhat upscale.

FILM CLIPS from the gallery (by Hee Woong):

False alarm, this blog ain’t over.  I’m kind of in a weird limbo, sort of sick with a cold, sort of tired, sort of hyper, not very cohesive. All of my work is done, printed, all set to go for Key Concepts, and ISHE is over except for this last project (very excited to go to this gallery and for this assignment!).  So what’s an art student to do?!? I’ve been kind of moping around on my bicycle, listening to my heroine (drug and idol) Miranda July (ok fine AND the new Dirt Nasty album), trying to find the right toner for my hair (an art in itself, so I’m counting that among my artistic projects–OKAY?)

I’ve had a lot of inspiration for ideas lately, but…. they don’t seem entirely realistic. (all the more reason to endeavour in them?)

ONE – I often hear a monologue in my head that sounds an awful lot like Miranda July (I know, I know, you’re totally sick of hearing her name). I don’t really/ can’t write this down, as it’s as I’m walking, etc. But I really want to record it somehow. I wish I had a little internal thought-recorder.  Maybe I could do some sort of faux-ad for a japanese invention of the Thought Recorder. What happens when these ideas dissapear? are they still there in the recesses of my mind or really gone forever? I mourn their dissapearance. My internal Mirandinator is really precious.

TWO- A photo project where certain people are selected, requested to find as many of their past lovers as possible, and gather them for a photograph. The images would be consistent: all the past (and current?) lovers are lined up, facing forward, wearing what they came in. Maybe holding an object that reminds them of the person. (getting too fancy there?) yeah… so this might be difficult but if it could work, I think it would be a very powerful photographic project. i did some preliminary internet research and i can’t find an artist who did this. I was inspired by this artist currently exhibiting at the Saatchi gallery: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/clarisse_darcimoles.htm?section_name=new_britannia : her work on display is recreating photographs from childhood, of herself and of family. brilliant and the result is DEEEELIGHTFUL.

TWO AND A HALF- I saw this film. It made me chuckle, yuck, yuck, and feel like I’m in the club cuz I’m an “artist” and in the art world blah de blah. But what I really liked about the film was how the (albeit blonde, thin gorgeous) woman had all the sexual power. Okay, fine, it’s not a feminist role at’all; in the end she’s just a heartless bitch… but I think lately I’ve been feeling very powerless, and awkward, and there was none of that with this character. She just knew what she wanted and went for it, no qualms. A very everyday kind of thing, this is no big breakthrough in female gender representation, but… I guess I appreciated the reminder of how to wield ya powa.

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still from [untitled

THREE – musical ruts. a visual project on musical ruts. how could i represent through image-making (photography, drawing, collage, whatever) the experience of being in a musical rut? how does one escape a musical rut? (friends. that’s how. and, I guess, hype machine.) Funny, I image-googled “stuck in a music rut” and the SECOND image was this:

from a blog called cute stuff (click on image)

which is stunning, because I was obsessed with a OneEskimo song for months and months and months, this one: http://hypem.com/#/track/1232824/One+eskimO+-+Givin+Up+Don+Diablo+Mix+

so there you go. internet auspiciousness.

finally– I have one comment..okay it’s a rant. I clearly need a second student loan because I feel constrained by not being able to print and fuck up, and print some more. I feel like my key concepts photos coulda been worked on more, and edited more, after I saw a couple versions IN PRINT.  but I can’t afford it! so what’s a poor student to do?

close rant.