GRADUATION SHOW - PREVIEW EVENING JUNE 13th 2011

Final Preparations

Work installed in studio

It has been a busy but exciting week installing work for our final assessment and preparation for The Graduation Show, at Ruskin Hall, Bournville.  I am pleased to reveal my work within the studio space,  it respresents a long process,  starting with the generation of ideas and early visions of how the work would look,  supported by the research, refining of ideas and editing processes,  making crucial decisions about presenting contexts, and concluding with this final display of the work.

Solutions

Plexiglass Stand-off Frame

You can never know how individual pieces of your work will look together until you see them in situ, and until I saw the poster image alongside the magazine rack displaying the twelve individually crafted pieces of work, unwittingly I had changed it`s emphasis, by creating a confrontation between the two.  My view was supported following a useful tutorial with the artist Shane Waltener, during which I voiced my thoughts, but obtained some really good feedback. I realised that I needed to come up with a different display solution which would communicate the meaning of the work more specifically.  When you browse magazine racks you are faced with an incredible array of images and graphics, all competing for the attention of their own individual demographic, and as I have already indicated, magazines support a culture of mass consumption of ready-made products, rather than one of craftsmanship, tradition, and manual dexterity.  By choosing to display a poster-sized copy of the work, I am emphasizing the seductive quality of magazine image, particulary when placed alongside my twelve embroidered pieces of work. I need to create a juxtaposition between the two.  To solve this problem, I would need to find a display solution for one individual piece of work which suggests it`s originality and uniqueness; of something that is more permanent and cannot be recreated easily, alongside something that can be reproduced, and has limited `shelf life`.  I chose the digital camera magazine on the basis of its strong cover image relating to digital macro photography, and the fact that the camera can lie.  Images can be manipulated but not the kind of craftsmanship my work represents.  I am now looking at an acrylic stand off type of frame,(top) which has a very contemporary look, and presents a kind of barrier between the viewer and the work, conveying a message of `you can look but you can`t touch`, whereas magazines are accessible and can be picked up, handled, and by dipping in and out of, provide a cheap form of entertainment.  By presenting the work in this way, I am also commenting on how working in any craft medium, particularly embroidery, represents a goal-oriented activity, and can often be devalued in comparison to fine art and sculpture, which are rooted in an open-ended pursuit of artistic expression.  This has it`s foundations in the historical connection between the hierarchical structure of art, and the sexual categories of male and female, where the ideology of femininity coincided with a clearly defined separation of art and craft historically assigned to class structures within economic and social systems.

Presenting Contexts

Magazine Shelves in Ruskin Library

The way in which I present my work is always uppermost in my thoughts from the very beginning, and I researched a variety of ways in which I could achieve this for my `magazine` pieces.  It was always an ambition to `come off the wall`, and though I had altered magazines, and transformed them into art objects, I did not want to display them in the traditional context of wall-based artwork, and to reflect the fact that the work is a confrontation between image and object.  A lot of textile work is usually wall based, and I looked at traditional and non-traditional magazine display.  The shelving arrangement above is found in Ruskin Hall Library, and I liked it for its simplicity and contemporary design, I also felt that I could recreate it in the 3D workshop substituting the metal shelves with perspex.  Finally I opted for a traditional style magazine rack consisting of four shelves, each of which would hold three magazines.  I was forced to reconsider my thinking, however when I had scanned one of the magazines, and it was printed as an A1 size poster to be displayed behind the magazine rack.  As soon as I saw the image alongside the original work, I could see immediately that in the confrontation between the image and the object, it seemed as if the image was winning, and I found this disconcerting at the time but then interesting because of the dilemma it seemed to pose.

Embroidery and It`s Associations with `The feminine`

Classic Bike Guide

Windsurf Magazine

Despite the distortion of the early history of embroidery, when male and female embroiderers worked professionally alongside each other to produce highly prized and valuable textiles, and also a number of very skilled male contemporary artists working in this field, embroidery will always have lingering associations with the feminine.  I was very conscious of this in my choice of magazines, and I have therefore attempted to chose from a wide range of material appealing to both male and female consumers.  This also subverts the idea that magazines appeal mainly to women, and are viewed as a low-brow form of entertainment, which can be dipped into, making their format easy to pick up and put down again, and therefore more appealing to women. This theory is explored by the writer Linda McLoughlin in her book `The Language of Magazines`, in which she puts forward the view that this is a very outdated idea, when we look at the number of women working outside the home, and the growing market of magazines aimed at men.  When chosing magazines for this project, I found a far greater number of men browsing through  magazines, and from personal experience, the males in my household subscribe to, and buy more magazines than I do, apart from those purchased for this project of course.

Early Work

Magazine image printed on fabric with hand stitched and machine stitched cutwork techniques applied

Studio wall display of early attempts

In my earlier attempts, I started to work across a range of different types of magazines, encasing them in calico fabric, which I used for its strong even weave, and because it was less likely to fray when cut.  The stitches were worked in white embroidery thread so that they would show on the cream coloured fabric and the fabric was also chosen because it allowed some of the original magazine to show through. I also used a tearaway embroidery stabiliser to support the work whilst it was in progress. Another technique I attempted was to copy a magazine cover onto transfer paper using my printer and iron onto the fabric (top).  I then used a combination of cutwork hand stitching and machine applique stitching, which proved to be too clumsy and denied me the finer details, and I made the decision to continue to use hand stitching, although this was time consuming, the results were worth the effort.  My first attempts were clumsy as I had not used this technique before, but I got better and faster, completing sixteen separate pieces of work, which I edited down to twelve final examples of what I consider to be the best, each one representing hours and hours of work. As a result of some of the earlier work, I received feedback on the lines that maybe my work represented a kind of censorship.  When I analysed this, I realised that this was due to the kind of magazines I chose, but also the way in which I had adhered more closely to the original image.  I focussed more specifically on the leisure market, and  `how to` genre of magazine, and started to use my own design elements, to subvert the image rather than just reveal glimpses of it.  I think the censorship issue also pre-supposed that I disliked, or found the images distasteful in some way, whereas in fact I chose the magazines on the basis of the strength of their front cover images, and my engagement with them.

Cutwork Embroidery

Initial stages of cutwork technique

Example of Cutwork embroidery

Cutwork embroidery involves cutting away areas of evenweave fabric along pre-designed lines of button-hole or satin stitches.  Initially a line of running stitches is made, (top) to cushion or raise the lines of stitching.  It is sometimes called embroidered lace but is not actually a true lace, with cut away areas supported by button-hole bars of stitching providing support, and which are also incorporated into the design.
This type of embroidery evolved from drawn thread work carried out by nuns for ecclesiastical textiles; popular during the renaissance it was highly valued by royalty and nobility, and alongside other forms of embroidery, reflected the power of the church and the state.
There are different types of cutwork, one of which is the more familiar Broderie Anglais.  The technique was traditionally stitched in white thread on white fabric and used for table linen, and collars and cuffs.

Research

I research my projects extensively, and this one was no exception, however I have increasingly realised that the work itself inspires more research, and have always seen it as a reflexive activity, where the research can generate ideas, which translate into work, but then the work generates questions leading to more research.  Two texts which were of great interest to me in this project were, `The Language of Magazines` by Linda McLoughlin, and `Media Semiotics - An Introduction` 2nd ed. by Jonathon Bignell.  My CHC essay which looked at the association between crafts and activism also underpinned the research, with `craftivism` a word coined by the writer Betsy Greer in 2003, inspiring my work.  I also researched traditional embroidery techniques which would allow me to work in a creatively expressive way, to communicate new ideas and concepts.

Why I use embroidery in my work?

Work for level 5 module `Two Ladies` in cross stitch embroidery (Above) Level 4 work - `Nude Female` -  Printed textile overlaid with free motion machine embroidery

By using traditional embroidery techniques, I can creatively express new ideas and concepts without kowtowing to cultural stereotypes.  The recent resurgence of craft-making activity, particularly domestic crafts such as knitting and sewing, seems to be a disengagement from our increasing reliance on digital technology and burgeoning consumer culture. In post 9/11 America there was a huge upsurge of craft making activities, which represented the need for communities to draw closer together, in my research for my final degree essay, in which I explored the relationship between craft and activism, I discovered that this has had some notable historical precursors.  The Womens Suffrage Movement, whose members were talented artists, used their skills to produce beautiful embroidered banners, realising that in an all seeing age, their protests and marches would have greater visual impact.  Their artistic endeavours were inspired by the arts and crafts movement, which in itself was a reaction to industrialisation  In my exploration of magazines, I quickly realised that those magazines which inspire craft-making and leisure activities also subscribe to a culture of mass consumption of ready-made products through their blatant use of advertising.  The visual images of these magazines have an immediacy and will change in response to the needs of its consumers, whereas my intervention, which is rooted in tradition and history, creates a sense of making something from start to finish by manual labour and attempts to disrupt that process.

Decisions

Lauren Diciccio - `Sewn News` series

My intention for this project was to make interventions using traditional embroidery techniques, to disrupt the glossy cover images of magazines designed to capture their intended demographic by preying on needs and most desirable interests.  I wanted my intervention to subvert the underlying image by means of deconstruction and re-interpretation, utilising my own design elements in thread.

Lauren Diciccio - `Sewn News` series  (above)
The work of Lauren Diciccio was hugely influential.  In her `Sewn News` series, entire issues of The New York Times are encased in hand-embroidered cotton muslin, the images selected are strongly suggestive of power, leadership and communication.  The image is embroidered onto the fabric applying colours in a painterly way and layering line and thread, with portions of the image remaining as an outline, with threads tangling and unravelling from the fabric

Altered Art - Early Influences

Christopher Coppers `Vogue Magazine`

The decision to alter magazines, was a direct progression from an altered book project in a previous negotiated degree module, where I used books, normally regarded as non-art objects, and transformed them by applying a combination of standard and non-standard artistic techniques to produce a result which served both a functional purpose and created a self-expressive visual aesthetic.

Nate Page

Artists who influenced me in the early days of this project were Christopher Coppers and Nate Page.

Christopher Coppers - Fig.1 `Vogue Magazine`
A Belgian artist based in Brussels whose work consists of interventions within or on magazines through deconstruction and construction using many different magazines.  He combines his love for printed matter with the urge for creative distortion and destruction, re-interpreting the original cover by intricately carving into them and transforming them into sculptures.

Nate Page - Fig.2 `Carved Faces`
A Wisconsin born artist living in New York who investigates the confrontations between materiality and images, occupied space and presence, potentiality and reality.  Using methods of drawing and assemblage, he alters found objects, and transforms the image to become more physical, and the object to become more image like.  Personal memories and consumer culture informs the content of his work.

`Altered Magazines` - Chris Jones

Die Cast Models Magazine

PC Upgrade

Digital Camera

Practical Fishkeeping

Contemporary Crafts

Welcome to my blog - `Altered Magazines`

Cookery Magazine

My name is Christine Jones, I am a level 6 student in my final year of a Ba (Hons) Art and Design degree course based at Birmingham City University. This is my very first blog, where, as a committed technophobe, I have been dragged kicking and screaming into the blogasphere to record the progress of my exploration of the visual language of magazines using traditional embroidery techniques, specifically magazine covers, and their ability to seduce the viewer through their glossy images. I hope you will find it interesting.  Magazines are representative of our cultural landscape, providing reference material for how we conduct our lives, the objects we think we desire, how we chose to spend our leisure time, our hobbies and preoccupations. Essentially they represent a culture of mass consumption of ready-made products.