Week 3- Hussein Chalayan and Post-Modern Fashion

THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012

Week 3- Hussein Chalayan and Post-Modern Fashion

Hussein Chalayan

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 Burkafashion, or are they art? What is the difference?

Not all clothing is fashion, so what makes fashion fashion? (Research some definitions  for these terms.)

In my opinion Hussien Chalayan's 'Burka' and 'Afterwords' are works of fashion. Both pieces have so much meaning and significance behind them and that is what fashion is about, its not just about the functionality or practicality of a garment that makes it fashion. In Chalayan's 'Burka' he addresses the issue of modesty and they different degrees of modesty, how far is too far? 'Afterwords' was inspired by refugees and their story of leaving home and not being able to have possesions. Chalayan transforms furniture into garments which makes it so poignant that refugees have to literally leave with just the clothes on their backs.

I like these two quotes I found about what fashion really is:

"It has the power to transform an image and make a social statement".

"To some fashion is an art form to others its almost a religion''.

Hussein Chalayan, Burka (1996) (99

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                                                                 Hussein Chalayan, Afterwords, 2000

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?

'Level Tunnel' is a huge art installation it is 15m long and 5m high, the expirience is from the inside of the tunnel where the viewer would go in blindfolded. The viewer is able to hear the sound of a flute which is actually sounds being played by a vodka bottle.

There is also a breeze and scent of lemon and cedar running through. The person is also fitted with a heart monitor where their heartbeat would be projected on the exterior of the tunnel for people on the outside to view.

Repose is an installation of the nose of an aeroplane and the wing of it which is decorated with swarovski elements lit up by LEDS it moves up and down slowly and gracefully The installation looks clean and sophisticated. With smooth lines and the main colours being white and blue, it gives the feeling of movement and stillness.

For me personally the meaning of art certainly does not change although it is paid for by a commercial business. Both the 'Level Tunnel' and 'Repose' have such beauty to them, they dont have that cold austere feel Chalayan is able to connect with his audience by using sight and sound. In my eyes both pieces are still pieces of 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?

"Absent presence" is about identity and hydridity which are both characteristics of the art movement Post Modernism. He deals with idea such as multiculturalism, immigration and identity. The short film is about the recovery of lost woman from history, by the use of genetics and anthropology. It can also be seen as having scientific ideas so it could be linked with enlightenment ideas relating to science; that it has all the answers.

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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?

I think it is important for an artist to make a piece personally when it is a painting such as Jackson Pollocks works. Its very personal and expressive with the paint dappled on in a very thoughtful manner. The artist really gets up close and its all hands on. Not to say that Chalayans collections are not as expressive or personal, however he definetly would have needed the help of people from other industries to pull of his idea of having this dress that was remote operated, it can be transformed and moved. To me they are both considered art but it really just depends on what processes are required to achieve the final idea.

Im just thinking of how this relates to me personally. For example at the moment Im doing an art installation of the studio brief, in which I got help from the technicians at the 3D lab to help me with certain processes that own my own I would not have been able to accomplish. The end result of that doesn't mean that because I've had help from other people; therefore it is not art. Rather it was essential for me to get that aid to achieve my end result. 

References:

http://www.dezeen.com/2009/01/27/dezeen-podcast-hussein-chalayan-at-the-design-museum/

http://arttattler.com/designhusseinchalayan.html

http://fashion.about.com/cs/historycostumes/a/whatisfashion.htm

http://usedmagazine.co.uk/?p=1542

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/2858/level-tunnel-installation-by-hussein-chalayan.html

trespassingjournal.com/Issue1/TPJ_I1_Aksel_Article.pdf

http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/drt.2012.0030

http://www.husseinchalayan.com/#/home/

http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/chalayan.html 

http://www.husseinchalayan.com/blog/