Week 3- Hussein Chalayan

Week 3- 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 Burka fashion, or are they art? What is the difference?

Not all clothing is fashion, so what makes fashion fashion?

Art is fashion, fashion is art. Art is the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance (dictionary.com). Fashion is a prevailing custom or style of dress, etiquette, socializing (dictionary.com). But isn’t fashion also about quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. To say that Burka is not fashion, but isn’t it? Arabic and Hindi women wear burka because of religious reasons so why can’t it be classed as a trend. It is no different to us wearing coats in winter because it is cold. If you were to look at the piece from an art perspective the idea of having to cover your body for some may seem daunting. When I look at these women I see a loss of identity and sexuality. When I see women in burka I feel intimidated and scared. As the hem line gets shorter it is almost as if it is an unveiling of the real women underneath. At times these women are misunderstood not all women who wear burka are forced too, but it is a way of saying that these women are like everyone else.

I find Afterwords very fashion forward. Function is form in this work. The skeletal structure appears to be on the outside rather than the inside. The process of how the garment was made is interesting as the model takes this bee hive skirt off and the layers fall into flat spiral. It shows progress, when you think of taking a skirt off it will just fall to the lover but you don’t expect to see a skirt fall like a jigsaw puzzle and the pieces fall into place and form the picture. Perhaps it is almost like the shedding of a skin and what happens afterwords. Although the top is not the dominant feature the simplicity makes it draw attention to itself. The work is referred to as wearable, portable, architecture’.

The difference between art and fashion is that art is broad it can apply to different media like music, visual arts, photography, film. Fashion is a subculture of that culture. Not all clothing is fashion which is true. You can wear clothing and it isn’t the latest trend. What makes fashion fashion is progress and innovation. Designing for the future yet drawing inspiration from the past.

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?

The meaning of art doesn’t change when we use it to sell products. We use graphics to sell things like tooth paste, alcohol, spaghetti. The level tunnel is a depiction of level vodka. It is as if the alcohol unlocks your senses as you move down the tunnel or you drink more from the bottle.

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?

I think Chalayan would have been inspired by the Enlightenment. We use science to understand the world but in the film it is using science to understand the wearer. Realism is another art movement Chalayan has used in the sense that he has used scenes from everyday life. Chalayan has also used expressionism as he has depicted mental illness and delusions based around terrorism using clothing and DNA.

  

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?

When an artist makes their own work there is indescribable sense of accomplishment and finish. Artist might spend months even years making the one piece, but it is coming to a resolution after spending hours learning and practising techniques. Learning from your mistakes after making many, watching your work transform after pouring your blood, sweat and tears into it. It is at the end you can really look back and say it was worth it all. Determining when an artist should make his own work is hard to justify because it depends on the situation. Lone Sigurdsson made some works from Chalayan’s Echoform (1999) it is hard for some artist to work using different media so collaborating and seeking expertise from someone who has more experience and skill is something that should be complimented on. At the same time you can’t be two places at once, especially if you are working to a deadline or your work is quite large.

References:
hussein chalayan. (n.d). Retrieved August 6th, 2011, from

http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/chalayan.html
Burqa (n.d). Retrieved August 6th, 2011, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burqa
'level tunnel' installation by hussein chalayna (05.12.08). Retrieved August 6th, 2011, from

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/read.php?CATEGORY_PK=&TOPIC_PK=2858
 hussein chalayna (n.d). Retrieved August 6th, 2011, from

http://www.husseinchalayan.com/#/art_projects.absent_presence.overview/

Hussein Chalayan: Proje4l Istanbul Museum of Contemporary Art.(ISTANBUL). (Nov 2004). Artforum International, P236