Jean Dubuffet

La Vie de Famille

I studied Jean Dubuffet back in the days of GCSE art and I can vividly remember detesting his work. I thought it to be incredible childish, disorganized and frankly quite naive. It is so interesting how your opinions and tastes can change over time. When I stumbled upon the Jean Dubufet gallery in Les Arts Décoratifs, I entered a world of animated colour and shape. His paintings are ambiguous yet playful and full of shape and energy. Their titles, e.g. Affaires en Ville (Business in Town) give clarity to the subject at hand- a chaotic scene in which form and colour appear to dance side by side forming a narrative evoking the hectic urban lifestyle. I really enjoyed entering his world like stepping into the artists mind and being enveloped within its playful charm. I also found the more textured pieces, such as Coursegoules particularly fascinating in the complexity of their composition.



Coursegoules




Mechanique Musique

Javier Mariscal presentation

Last night the talk at ENSCI was less industrial design slanted as it usually is which made for a refreshing change. We were given a presentation by Spanish illustrator Javier Mariscal. He has recently drawn the animations for the film 'Chico and Rita' written by Fernando Trueba as well as released a comic style graphic novel adaption of the film.

The storyline follows the passionate love between a Cuban pianist and a singer in Havana and New York in the 1950s and the lively jazz music accompanying the film give it a real latino feel. Javier spoke to us about his research process in the essence of the 50s and in particular the ambience of the two contrasting cities, Havana and New York. Interestingly enough (and rather relevantly as we are in the middle of our colour workshop) he spoke a lot about the importance of capturing the iconic colours of the cities in portraying their character.

50's Havana was a city oozing with joie de vivre and plenty of personality. As well as the vivid green of the natural world, three colours dominated the cityscape- pastel yellow, swimming pool blue and an earthy red. Javier noted that the abundance of sunlight within Havana meant that all the colours had been bleached and were pale and easy on the eye. The colours of 50's New York couldn't have been more different. Of course the iconic primary yellow of the cabs was to be seen everywhere as well as tomato red. Also the colour gold, the colour of wealth, money and hope was everywhere. These were set among a sea of grey architecture.

It was really interesting to learn about his research and the extensive work over the 6 years it took him to create the animation, I only hope that viewers will really appreciate the accuracy of his colour choices as I know, like us in our colour workshop, it took him a lot of mixing to create the precise shades!

The evolution of business....

I know the heading may sound really dull and boring but please do read on as my point actually is quite interesting! And all will be come clear with regards to the boulangerie picture!

Every so often, ENSCI invites practising designers to the school to give evening talks, seminars or debates. On Monday a round table evening was hosted by Parsons School of Design in New York and a number of individual European product designers were invited. The evening revolved around the debate of the pros and cons of setting up your own small business after graduating as opposed to working for a larger company. Can a small practise really exist in a global world?

An argument was put forward that working for yourself makes you more pro-active and stimulates you to present yourself. One designer from Belgium made the comparison of himself with a 'local bakery'. His company sits within the community, services the neighbours and this connection allows it to be better acquainted with the people and their material needs. This is a comparison that has definitely stuck in my head!

Despite the advantages, others argued that small companies do not attract investments from large clients, e.g. BMW who do not feel reassured to put work to a company with less than 11 employees.

It was interesting how the conversation then turned to how companies have evolved in our modern day. Nowadays many companies rely on public input in generating ideas. The Apple App Store is a fine example. Despite being such a global company, apparently it actually only employs around 14 people as new ideas and product initiatives are submitted online from the public. There are several other companies such as Quirky, an American company. Ideas are posted online and the public contribute advice and alterations which determine the final product. I think Etsy is kind of similar in the textile world! I suppose one could argue that this is a step in the right way of reaching the utopian ideal of the community designing ONLY the products needed. However most would say it is actually a clever and perverse way of global companies taking advantage from free ideas. Hmmm what an interesting debate!

Lovely London

It's always interesting to keep in touch with what's going on in the fabulous city of London......

French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have collaborated with textile company Kvadrat to create this giant installation for the London Design Festival.

Invited by the Victoria & Albert Museum to intervene in any space they wanted within the Museum, the brothers responded with a colourful expanse of 'Textile Field'.

The installation, which is 30 metres long and 8 metres wide, takes over 240 square metres of the famous Raphael Cartoons Gallery.

"Our intention is to propose a different, casual approach to freely experience what can be a quite intimidating environment, such as a museum." say Ronan and Erwan.

"We conceived an expansive, coloured foam and textile piece with gentle inclinations to produce a sensual field on which to comfortably lounge while meditating on the surrounding Raphael Cartoons. Everyone can immerse into this temporary installation, for a minute, an hour or more, that is the idea. No efforts, no apprehension just contemplation."

The Texile Field opens today and will be on show throughout the Festival until the 25th of September.




Coutesy of http://www.medesignmag.com/arts/3131/textile-field-by-ronan-and-erwan-bouroullec

Threads of colour take two!

At Maison et Objet I stumbled across the work of Eva Marguerre & Marcel Besau, part of the product design group Petite Friture. Their hand woven storage vessels immediately reminded me of Zynsky's glass vessel in Musée des Arts Décoratifs with their fusion of vivid colours. Despite have an extraordinary simple construction they have the appearance of extremely complex, well crafted products.



The vessels are made from hand woven elastic yarns which are then soaked in resin and pressed over a form to set in the desired form. As a weaver, I have a keen interest in the construction of cloth and the use of yarn and this simple technique strikes me as a novel way of creating a surface. The vessels are definitely aesthetically pleasing but as for being very practical, I'm not that convinced!

Threads of colour.

Whilst exploring the incredible decorative pieces in Musée des Arts Décoratifs du Louvre (which is quickly becoming my favourite of all the larger museums) I was struck by the sheer beauty of a glass vessel by the designer Toots Zynsky. 'Coupe Blue Moon Total Eclipse Isla Bella' is a dramatic vessel formed by fused nests of multicoloured glass threads. It was a method I had never seen before and by researching further on the internet I discovered that it a technique unique to Zynsky herself. Her experimental vessels have distinctive undulating forms which are almost floral in appearance. They are delicate yet have strong presence and I believe it is this that makes them so likeable.

Precision is everything!

Yesterday we had a colour workshop led by Blandine Lelong from 9.30-5.30. By the end of the day I genuinely felt I was beginning to lose the plot. That and going colour blind!

From our Maison et Objet visit last week we had to chose a textile brand who's colour palette was of interest to us. Thinking of my dear friend Cat (on erasmus exchange in Finland) and being struck by the strong presence of Scandinavian designers, I decided to choose a Finnish brand- Lapuan Kankurit - http://www.lapuankankurit.fi/fi/etusivu/etusivu/

This traditional finnish weaving company is a family business now in its fourth generation. The colours and materials are directly influenced by the landscape thus giving the product strong associations with its origins. The products are well crafted, tasteful and wholesome- much the way I imagine Finland and finnish culture to be. I am usually a bit of a magpie when it comes to colour, always choosing brights and vivid shades so I decided that choosing the colour palette of this company would challenge me and allow me to learn the effectiveness of a more neutral colour palette.

However, back to the workshop.......We spent hours mixing our gouaches to recreate the precise shade of colours presented in our chosen companies colour palette. Never had I before realised the timely cost of adding a pinprick of ultramarine blue instead of cyan blue. Every once in a while the teacher would come around and judge the precision of our colours, which always seemed a touch too grey or ever so slightly too lights etc and so the painstaking mixing process recommenced! I felt as if I suddenly worked for Panetone and I struggled to understand the purpose of our little painted squares. Perhaps all will become clearer later this week.

Edible works of art!

Like the well groomed citizens, even the cakes here in Paris are immaculate! After the graveyard, a trip to the Patisserie for some cake was much needed....

An autumnal Saturday in Paris.

Although it may sound a bit morbid, there is nothing better to do on a chilly autumnal Saturday than to walk amongst the crisp leaves and marvel at the decadence of the aged gravestones at Père Lachaise graveyard.

Mahlia Kent

I was told about Mahlia Kent by Lorna at Chelsea last term so I was eager to hunt down her studio. It turned out to be only a short walk from Uni on Avenue Daumesnil. Having mentioned her name to Ursula (one of the weave tutors at ENSCI) I was told her work was traditional, shabby and uninspirational so I was eager to see for myself.

The studio/shop was absolute chaos and this seemed to be equally reflected in the samples hung all around the room. It was actually really interesting having a good rummage through them and no one asked who I was or anything so I was free to have a really good nose.

I can understand what Ursula means when she says they are pretty uninspiring as from what I could see there were no groundbreaking new weave structures or complex compositions. I'm rapidly discovering that ENSAD is particularly into smart textiles. If the warp isn't wired in to move, light up or do some other fabulous thing it isn't worth a mention!

What I did find interesting though was the choice of materials. All sorts of ribbons, fancy trims and haberdashery were used in a simple yet visually effective way that actually made the weaves appear far more complex than they actually were. Her use of printing over chunky weaves also added an interesting dynamic as this type of thing has often been mentioned at Chelsea but I have never actually seen how it can work. The fabrics had a lot of visual impact and performance, but as for being well crafted, beautiful pieces of cloth...I'm not so convinced. Some bordered on garish and looked like something that would belong in a pantomine and not on an elegant french lady's back!

Exploring Paris

Yesterday all my lessons were cancelled by an email sent at about midday! No reason, just cancelled. Apparently this sort of thing happens often in France. The teachers generally do as they please so you have to just except the french way, like it or lump it!

It was a beautiful day so my roomate Cecile and I took a bike ride into the Marais to do some window shopping. I actually took a Velib (Paris's equivalent to a Boris Bike) and despite manic traffic, roadworks and an accident on the already treacherous Bastille roundabout I am somehow, unbelievably still alive to tell the tale!

The Marais is such a fabulous area. It's the old Jewish quarter but its characterful little streets are now full of trendy, cosmopolitain boutiques and elegant cafes. As Uni is only a few paces away a few of us decided to take another walk there today and my Japanese friends tracked down the boutique of one of their favourite designers, Tsumori Chisato.




I had never heard of this designer before but the amazingly original fabric skin in the window definitely deserves a mention! As for the clothes....well they were typically Japanese- cute, busy and generally a bit confusing. It most certainly stood out amongst the chic french designer's boutiques. But diversity is good!

Cheer me up Paris!

After a frustrating day of full on french colour workshop I was in need of something to lift my spirits! The lovely Louella took me for a little walk to see some of the beautiful little streets hidden near the Bastille.