Wanting to start the New Year off in the desired way I have been very forceful of myself today! This post is a continuation of that in that I never ever maintain a blog ... in fact it's quite worrying how many blogs I've abandoned over the years. Thus I am starting this year differently and long may it continue.
Originally I planned to devote this blog to actual exhibitions and actual pieces of art work, but, the events of my day have led me to reevaluate that. I have decided that I want to write about and showcase any aesthetic that provokes me. For I feel that art shouldn't be restricted to that put in galleries. Simpler and less obvious things can be just as effective. With that said I will proceed with the post.
I got to work on this grey January morning. With it being New Years Day, people were scarce (I work in a clothes shop by-the-way - when I'm not in lectures that is). I wandered the shop floor and started to tidy/arrange the clothes around me. Fascinated by colour and texture I relish this job as it means I can feel materials and coordinate the colours. Essentially, I let my OCD get the better of me. So as I stood folding scarves and placing hat upon hat I thought about this blog. I thought about how I could fill it with info and insight. I knew I wanted to see exhibitions this year as I want to experience art in ways that aren't on a flat, laptop screen. I thought about how dried paint felt when rubbing ones finger over it. This then brought me back to my actual setting as I felt the woollen hats I was placing down. I looked at the display/table in front of me, took a few steps back and looked at it again. I thought how frigid it looked. The hats and scarves has been put flat on the table ... they needed to have life injected into them. So, on this quiet quiet day, I rearranged it. I channelled my inner artist and utilised the qualities of each material and the shapes of each item to showcase them. This was the winter accessory stand and so everything was woollen! But not everything was in the same style, and so the textures and colours varied. In one area there was a collection of the same hat in different colours. These were very basic in design, so I played with the opposing bright and dark colours. I placed reds next to greys, and blues next to blacks, and greens next to creams. I paired red with grey as greycan (by association) come off as dull and safe but can be very interesting when used with a more acidic hue. In this case we had an orange/red with yellow fleck. It made the grey look bolder and more classic but more importantly it brightened it up. I dont mean this in a strictly aesthetic way. I think in a much more allergorical way. I think that it's important to consider the individual traits and connotations of a colour when choosing how to use it. Colours will always bounce off of one another and when placed next to each other they reveal something/they tell a story. In this case the grey is portrayed as being more dominant and forceful as its standing next to and not behind, nor below, the red. Vice versa, the grey served the red to be its foil. The red has a glow about it and the yellow flecks can stand more prominently because of they arent competing with other major designs.
When it came to the scarves I completely re-landscaped them. They were placed on the table, flat and folded. I know this may have been done for utility and as a space-saving trick but there are other ways to do both these things whilst being able to showcase the product too. I opted to roll the scarves and place them in a pyramid. This way the customer is informed of what the scarves are like when buying them. By looking at a rolled scarf, they know that its flexible as it's been put into a more compact shape which can be re-arranged into another shape and/or expand. I placed the different coloured scarves in a way that meant there was a base colour from which the other colours could play off of. As there were far more black scarves I used that as my base colour and they made up the main structure. I had the other colours of blue and orange wedged in between them. This meant that the brightness of the orange scarves could be intensified. The blue scarves, on the other hand, were placed in ways to give the pyramid structure more depth. As they were a dark navy, the distinction between them was less noticeable and so used their similar darkness to create an internal gradient of shade. The pyramid structure itself was inspired by the fact that it is far more attention grabbing seeing as it is reflective of an actual monument. It's something which is sturdy and eye-catching. Plus, it is interesting to see the folds of fabric (soft and delicate) contribute to a solid structure.
My last focus of this exercise was tidying up the bobble hats. I love bobble hats, not to wear, but rather for their appearance (this is where my bracketed title comes into play). I find that the titular 'bobble' is both fun and aggressive. Thus, I resolved to use it in a very fruitful way. I didn't want it to being the focal point of this particular display. Instead I chose to place the bobbled hats at points around and within the other items. With the bobbles being submerged in the other items and not on top of them. I didn't want to distract and then detract from the other items. As the bobble is very noticeable I knew that it could hold its own when placed in this submerged fashion. I had the bobbles jut out from the table top and peep out from between the other hats. Their spherical stature plays well with their fluffy texture. It gives it a pre-determined aspect of goodness and innocence. But, I think that its their colour and their shape that then gives them their aggression. When looking at the red pom-pom (pictured below) I feel that there is something decidedly fierce about it. Some animals turn red to ward off predators and that's what I think gives me that impression. Shape-wise it looks like an eye. but texturally, it could be compared to an anemone. This relates back to its funniness and aggressiveness. An eye works as a tool to convey emotion - good or bad. An anemone tricks things into thinking its light and harmless through appearance but shocks upon touch. I love the dominance and personality that this infuses into the bobble. It makes it fleshier, with an animated quality - like it's passive until a given point.
I had never really thought about knitwear like I had today. I had never considered the layers of and to its appearance. But now I end the day admiring it. Most probably I will now analyse every item of clothing I touch and see ... but that's quite exciting. I love seeing something in a new way and having a deeper appreciation of it. I think that this quirky activity and resultant post is something I will look back upon with humour. It is also a post though that shows you to look a little deeper at the things in front of you and see what they say there and then, what they could say and what you'd like them to say. Consider them above all else.
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