Smash

Bridget Riley isn't a surface pattern artist, she is an Optical Illusion artist but OP art has been highly reproduced in the fashion industries as pattern so it fits in well. I just love the way when you first look at it you're like aw well thats a big load of nothing but the way Bridget riley lines it all up it makes your brain go nuts if you stare at it for too long. It just has incredible effects of me personally and I think this works very well as a surface pattern, it can be anything and anywhere - t-shirts, mugs, ties wallpaper. But people are scared of it it makes their vision do uncontrollable things and people don't like being out of control and that's why its sooooo interesting how something SO simple can do SO much. Also it looks very easy but the amount of planning that goes into it must be incredible - how is she going to know it will affect vision from the start? 

Maryam Ashkanian has just completely blew my mind on surface pattern. Such a great idea I am over the moon impressed. Would definitely buy this and have it in my house. Giving an actual impression of sleeping people on pillows has worked so well with the use of embroidery. An ordinary print/ image would never have worked as well as this. The embroidery adds the texture and the shadows of an actual person. This looks like it was done with continuous line which makes it even better. Different positions and different people used within each pillow - it's like going into peoples bedrooms. Embroidery straight onto a pillow I can imagine would be quite difficult you would need a hell of a sewing machine to do this. The use of grey/ black thread on the white pillow makes this seem so quiet and peaceful - just like when a person is sleeping - they are silent. And the lac of colour in this gives that impression off very well.

Elizabeth Owlen’s designs are very romantic and botanically based, her inspiration is the world around her and she aims to leave something behind with every step she takes, hence she has so many different designs. The 4 that I have chosen here are my favourite of her designs.

I enjoy the way the repeat pattern flows between the seeds/flowers filling in the space. The little light dots in the background give the impression of starts and it feels like looking up at the sky through these flowing branches. The colours contrast – however she used very soft shades of blue and orange which gives a very delicate feel to the whole design.

As I cannon physically start my installation I have been doing some planning of how I think (hope) it will look like to avoid any mistakes at the time due to the time we are given. I have created a small model of the boards with the writing on them to get a feel of it and took some photographs to show progress and thought process. I will use 8 boards to create a room inside which all the walls will be written on. I haven't yet decided what colour the walls are gonna be but I think I will go for clean and simple to complete the 'control' feel of the installation which would be white walls and black writing but I am more than open to any inspiration or changes within the colour scheme. There will be 2 boards at the back of the room and 3 along, 1 board on the other end as one space will be left empty for an entrance. The entrance will have black material (like a bed sheet?) to avoid much light getting in the room and there will be a projected film on to the back wall. The projector will be placed next to the entrance. My film projects black and white images so it is important the room doesn't let much light in as it may interfere with the projection. The film will be left on loop so that viewers can walk in an out at any point and the film will still keep playing.

Using one of the boards that will make the room later in the exhibition, I put bits of coloured paper on them (just in case I made a mistake) and wrote the text as I will in the installation, these images are there to show the scale. 

Soooo I made that stupid cast of my bum, put paper around it and cut out a pair of pants, only to find out the top and bottom are out of proportion and definitely not the same size!!! Had to get a new mannequin (size 12) which was still tiny, had to wrap material around it to make it thicker and then layers and layers of cling film, then I had to make more paper to layer on the mannequin. Now I'm in the process of waiting for it to dry, while waiting I thought I'd try taking photo's of the existing bra with the pants to see how they would turn out and I think they look pretty good. 

The whole concept has basically died (which was originally me making a statement about doc martens being sexy) as I found it too difficult to mould paper around doc martens then sawing it back together - kept falling apart and was just a big mess. So the idea now is to paint my old doc martens white, to match with the underwear and display it as an outfit as if somebody was wearing it but you couldn't see them (thats why it was so important for me to get the pants in shape of an actual bum.)

Then either take photographs and make the photographs my final piece or actually hand it and display it in the exhibition.

For the projected images I wanted to use ones that are quite powerful yet subtle, like these following images and the subject matter will be the same however these images are not the best quality/ angle/ composition so I will take some more photos like these but improved. I may change them all to black and white or change saturation to quite cold, as it's not a happy, warm exciting subject it's the only way it'll make sense and stay in context. I am hoping to get a hold of the boards and the projector before the exhibition so that I can try this out before exhibiting to avoid any disasters.