Ego – Process & Final

EGO – Conceptualising myself

Mindmap

ARTIST REFERENCES & INITIAL IDEAS

Initial Medium – Fashion Collage

I wanted to work with fashion collage as it seemed like a versatile medium to work with colour and to express myself in. I found references on fashion collages and shoots and studied how they use colour to express certain emotions.

Johny Dufort

for Balenciaga

Use of blue, muted palette – reflect the weariness of the working class

For Re-Edition Magazine and AnOther AW2016

Use of analogous warm tones to express vibrancy

His use of muted colours brings about a softness to the strong colours he use, creating balance. I was intrigued the attractive and beautiful use of colours in his fashion photography.

Acne Studios

Use of bright and vibrant colours – red and blue, muted yellow/ brown

Initial Idea 1 – Using fashion photography and collage to express the various emotions I have in various settings

Possible Equations: (Me+ setting = outcome/ reaction)
Passive me (Wearing colours like green or blue) + Conflict (red – contrasting colour) = Confrontational Me (orange)
Free spirit me + Stress = Runs away
Oppressed me + Given space to create = Freed me

Possible style for panel:

Photography assignment I did for 4D class

However, there were limitations in this medium as it was not definitive enough and there was not enough room to explore colour palettes due to the lack of sources or materials (in this case clothes) and compositions were insufficient in expressing deeper human emotions.

EGO – Forming Equations

I decided to reconceptualising myself by focusing on the settings that I enjoy and do not, as well as qualities of myself to form my equations.

Initial Medium 2 – Marker and soft pastel illustration

I decided to stick to a traditional medium as I would like to explore the possibilities of non-digital mediums in expressing colours.

Charlotte Ager – illustrator
Evocative drawings and paintings that are full of energy, movement and atmosphere through lines and colour.

I really like the gestural style and unharmonious and “messy” combination of colours she used, yet the choice of colours are purposeful, inspired by the works of post-impressionists, fauvists and cubists (Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso).

New equations (Me + activities I like/ dislike/ wish for = Reaction)
Medium – marker and soft pastels

1. Empty me + Tanning = Solidified Me

2. Bare/ Cliche Me + Second hand store = One of a kind Me

3. Imprisoned Me + Escaping Singapore = Freed Me

Comments from consultation:
– The gestural style can only be done well by those who have experience and confidence in the medium.
– Rendering of human figures are inadequate, should think of symbols that represent me

Final Idea – Fabric cut-outs and embroidery

So, I decided to work with a medium I am familiar with – Fabric.

Artist references
Tracey Emin – Using of fabric for her art works
“Hellter Skelter”

Fauvism – Henri Matisse’s fauvist paintings and paper cut-outs

“Dance” Use of fauvist palette – the intense warm colours against the cool blue-green background

“The circus” Raw quality of cut-outs inspired my use of fabric cut-outs

Use of vibrant colours to express emotional state

“The clown” “The fall of Icarus”

Fauvism – Andre Derain
Oil paintings of vibrant pure hues and unrealistic portrayal of colour and light to express emotive qualities.

Derain, Andre; Collioure; National Galleries of Scotland; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/collioure-211267

EQUATIONS – “What you do defines you”

From the qualities of myself , I thought of symbols that represented those qualities.

Fair skinned me – Tofu
Lazy me – lion
Fancy me – fancy hat
Trapped/ encaged me – hamster

Planning of compositions:
I wanted to show the whimsical transition from one symbol to another after the setting, thus I chose different symbols to depict the result.

Final equations:

Tofu me + The sun (tanning) = Bacon me
Lazing me + The devil (authority) = Stone Lion me (defensive and angry)
Fancy me + Meeting with friends = Fool/ clown me
Encaged me + Running the hamster wheel (system that gets you nowhere) = Escaping me

COLOUR SCHEME

Using fabric has limited me to working with pure colour and I am not able to change the value or chroma of the colour of fabric. Thus, I was inspired by the use of bright, pure and untainted colour in the Fauvist movement. Unnatural colours are radically used, separating colour from its usual representational and realistic role, giving new, emotional meaning to the colours. Colour could project a mood and establish a structure within the work of art without having to be true to the natural world.

PANEL 1 (Tofu + tanning = bacon)

Colour scheme – I wanted to use cool blue tones to contrast the white colour of the tofu (first) to the bright reds of the bacon (third).