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) and Burka (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?
I think the afterwords collection (2000) was
very interesting, mind blowing. There were some unexpected twists to the work
but to put it simply, he made/designed wearable, portable architecture. The
collection showed me how innovative and creative Chalayan can be. I was baffled
when I saw burka but at the same time I understood the message Chalaya was
portraying. Ideas of modesty, femininity and identity came out in the burka
show (1996). Its funny how clothing at times hides a person’s identity and the
burka is one of them as it covers most of a woman's face and body for the sake
of modesty. Covering a woman’s face to me doesn’t really change how sexual a
woman is , even when naked. In this show Chalayan presented models wearing
burkas and nothing underneath them each with a different length and one model
was naked except for the sandals and mask. I think both shows are a mix of both
art and fashion. There is not much difference between art and fashion
Not all clothing is
fashion, so what makes fashion fashion? (Research some definitions for these terms.)
2. Chalayan has strong links to industry.
Pieces like The Level 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?
Chalayan has an industrial background which
has an impact on his work , so it is safe to say that his experiments go beyond
fashion ideas.i don’t think art is really changed when it is being used to sell
products, instead of the art being made and used for the sake of art, it is
used for commercial reasons. So there isn’t much difference to change the
meaning of art. art wouldn’t be a success if it did not sell.
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?
Science is an influence in his work because
of the technology used in his work accompanied by industrialism; because of the
fashion in the film are influences for this work. In the film the issue of
identity is present, he shoes how some identities can or can’t adapt to new
environments (this train of thought shows Humanism).
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?
During the Renaissance period artists were
also known to not personally make all their work, their apprentices helped them
produce the work. However the artists/designers do come up with the ideas so it
isn’t important anymore that they haven’t personally made the works. If the
artists and designers did not have help producing their work then some of it
wouldn’t exists. But I think if the artist personally makes the work then it
gains a bit more value.
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