Evaluative Report

My period of study in Paris was an unforgettable journey of personal and cultural discovery, which has broadened my imagination and challenged my ideas concerning the role of textile designers. From my quivering first day to my emotional departure I grew to become at ease in my surroundings and to except and embrace this city as a new home. The contentment brought by total immersion within an unknown, exciting environment was overwhelming. The mouthwatering smells, exotic sounds, and even the chill of the crisp Parisian Autumn air spurred me on to learn and explore.

In September the realization of my ambitious task was exceptionally daunting. All classes were to be taught in nothing but French and with little knowledge of technical textile terms in English I was unprepared for this steep learning curve. Reflecting back, it would have been so easy and so tempting to turn back on Gare du Nord platform and sink back into my familiar Chelsea life. Despite this, there was something driving me on to embrace the challenge with zealous enthusiasm. Studying in a foreign country had always been an intriguing concept for me as I am a firm believer that new experiences (be it good ones or bad) are key to a fulfilling life.

Despite being some of our closest neighbors, the Parisians could not be more different. I view their self-assured attitudes with great admiration and respect. They posses an enviable freedom from worry, stress and lack the continuous battle to better ourselves that plagues us British. The atmosphere in Paris cannot be paralleled. If the French do anything, it is to their best ability. In Paris you are enveloped in an aura of remarkable beauty. The city is like a bourgeois interior with carefully manicured grass rugs and immaculate street facades like decadent wallpaper. A five minute walk can so easily slip into an hour long meander through the sublime streets.


The approach to study at ENSCI was unlike my previous experiences. Importance was denoted to the acquisition of skill, perceived as the essential foundation to assure a successful design career. The approach was methodical with emphasis placed upon consideration of the final outcome before starting. If you were making men’s suiting fabric, forward planning was of paramount importance as a poor choice of yarn can have significant influence on for example the durability of the final cloth. This is especially applicable to weaving. In past projects I have rushed the initial planning stages and ended up unsatisfied with my choice of warp but without sufficient time to redo another. I have now learnt to take more time to consider my preliminary decisions.

During my studies I learnt to create commercially viable fabrics with quality and practicality taking precedence over experimentation. Work was led by the tutors who set strict, detailed briefs and monitored our adherence to these. Lessons were dedicated to meticulously unpicking existing fabric under a microscope in order to thoroughly understand its construction. Although initially I struggled with this rigid approach and felt creatively stunted, it taught me a valuable lesson. With a deep understanding of your tools you can develop your designs in a knowledgeable way, reaching more accomplished outcomes.

One of my best decisions was to immerse myself in the French way of life. Living with French girls and socializing with my French classmates did wonders for my language skills and by the end I was so proud that I could actually understand snippets of conversation on the metro and give directions to a lost French tourist.


Despite having a textile department, ENSCI is dedicated to industrial design. Final year pupils are encouraged to collaborate within the two departments. Unlike the work of the first years, these projects were innovative and combined an interesting mix of complex technology to create smart textiles. During my term I saw LED’s and electronics woven into illuminating decorative interior objects for a lighting project. Importance was placed upon addressing a balance between practicality and aesthetic beauty. This made me consider how to advance within the design world. These days, with an abundance of unwanted designed goods the role of the designer has changed. I am now convinced that collaboration is the fundamental key to successful design. In my future work I will aim to look at the bigger picture and to push textiles into other design fields.

Goodbye Paris

I have been back a few weeks now and am about to start back in Chelsea. I know this will be a rather large shock to the system as the way of teaching here is completely different- a lot more freedom, less informed and less structured. I am worried that I am behind on my second terms work and will struggle to get back into the swing of things but in no way would I have changed my choice to study abroad if allowed to rewind time.

Paris was an incredible city to experience, its flavors, sights, sounds and secrets never ceased to amaze and entertain me. The language was certainly a challenge but by december I really felt I had managed to crack it a little, by which time my departure was unfortunately imminent.

Experiencing a textile degree being taught within a different culture introduced me to a whole new perspective as regards to the importance of skills and knowing your subject inside out before trying to accomplish more complex ideas. Incredible things can be attained but one must first learn the basic foundations in order to build and expand ideas thoroughly and experimentally.

My term abroad was not easy. It was rather like going into a forest with a blindfold on. Arriving at the school and no one knowing who I was or where I was to go didn't really help! There were times when I really had no idea what was asked of me or why I was doing something wrong. But despite all this, I made some incredible friends, experienced things beyond my wildest dreams and have gained more love and devotion to my chosen field of study.

Final days of knitting.

My final few days of knitting were occupied with the following-

-Creating shapes of colour within my knit.
This was quite tricky as if the two yarns used were of different width/elasticity etc it could impact greatly on the shape created. I ended up with white dots like the falling snow within my Munch painting.




-Triangles of colour across the knit. Again it was interesting to experiment with different yarns with different qualities, e.g. a fluffy yarn for contrasting textures.




-More experimenting with 'Jours' (lace holes). Including working with straightforward Jersey and also in Cote. Changing the placement of the created holes was extremely effective in that it caused the ribs to twist and turn (see below).










I feel this technique held a lot of potential for further experimentation and I am particularly fond of its ordered, structured patterns which give strong definition.

Last contemporary arts class

I'm so disappointed that this was my last contemporary arts class with the amazingly inspiring Mr Timothy Perkins. I have definitely seen work, experienced galleries and partaken in debates which have broadened my mind, challenged my preconceptions and taught me a significant amount amount Paris's social structure, different quartiers and arts scene. It really has been a priceless experience and I feel so fortunate to have made friends with people from such different cultures and walks of life.

So anyway. Back to the last session. Timothy sent us a rather sarcastic email describing how we would be heading right into the heart of hardcore commercialism. As if we were going to sleep with the devil. The galleries we would visit would symbolize the success in Contemporary art fro a Capitalism perspective but equally a way of measuring the gallerist's success. I know he was being sarcastic, but this negative stance made me apprehensive as to whether one should really 'like' the art shown within such establishments. Nonetheless I headed along with an open mind. And actually found the work incredibly impressive. As another student Gemma said, we felt a little guilty liking the work with it's strong consumerist driven attraction, but it was difficult not to appreciate the talent. Unlike the galleries in the 6th last week, which displayed art one would describe as only really decorative objects, this week the concepts, working process and final outcomes were all equally honorable.

These galleries could not be more opposite than the modest spaces offered in the likes of suburbs such as Belleville. I suppose you would call them 'The Ritz' of the galleries. In impressive buildings, with several vast floors, multiple exhibitions, their own libraries and in some cases a second branch in another european country.



This weeks session took us first to the renowned gallery of Yvon Lambert. The first of three exhibitions was by German-born, New York based, Brazilian artist Janaina Tschäpe. At first I was captivated by her drawings. Her style was extremely expressive, flowing and organic. With shapes and colours mimicking bloom and decay that look so appropriately inspired by her deep understanding of the natural world. Her desire is to present not only her impressionistic representations of natural landscapes but also pieces that envelope the viewer and are landscapes in and of themselves. As I proceeded to move through the series I became less convinced by the imagery. I feel the artist took on an increasingly illustrative style which verged on being girly and overly pretty. The energy, emotion and freedom of the first few images seemed to have completely disappeared.











Having said this, I could appreciate this work far more than the other two exhibitions which were too conceptual for my liking. In particular, the work of Koo Jeon-A totally lost me. However, the fact that it was her 7th personal exhibition at the gallery convinced me that there must be more than meets the eye to her haphazard, in situ installations. I gathered that her interest lay in the representation of landscape on a small, intimate scale but without further explanation, my appreciation remained somewhat stunted. This once again raises the question that has been discussed many times during our classes, that of whether an artist should provide a written explanation of their work or not?



From here, we headed to Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac. Perhaps the 'Harrods' of all galleries! The main exhibition was that of renowned photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. As I understand, the artist himself died in the late 80s and this exhibition, curated by Sofia Coppola provides a kind of retrospective of all of his life's work. His photographs left a lasting impression on me. Although at first glance they appear classic, on closer inspection their ambiguous nature and the subtle trickery of the photographer comes to light. Carefully considered detail, such as a nude lady leaning upwards on a sunlounger which gives a parallel image of her propping up the horizon line of the sky keep one captivated and eager to see more.



The other exhibitions in both the upstairs and downstairs rooms were very thought provoking and admirable in their skill and execution. I left without a single doubt as to why this gallery was so successful.





Wondering if things could possibly get any better, we next took a visit to Galerie Karsten Greve to see their collective exhibition 'on paper III', which showcases the work of twelve artists who each use paper in different ways. The majority of the artists I had not heard of before, and therefore I was shocked to see a Louise Bourgeois drawing amongst the exhibits. (See below).



Stand-out artists for me were-

-Raul Illarramendi. This artist explores a personal representation of the errors and traces left through spontaneous activity. At first I thought I had his method all figured out- soft chalk pastels applied and then removed by a finger or a rubber. However what has actually been created is a pencil drawing. A drawing of the non-existent removal. It is all a very convincing trick which must have taken considerable skill in its execution. Timothy, as a friend of the artist, told us how the work organically grows with no preconceived plan. I like this spontaneaty and was truly blown away by the exquisite attention to detail of the work.





-Claire Morgan. Her drawings and sculptures were extremely fine and almost ethereal in their appearance, With a keen interest in taxidermy, the delicate pencil drawings and colour added with the dried blood of her subjects gave them a haunting appearance.




-Marina Karella. This artist played with the idea of creating soft focus paintings much like one would expect to see in photographs. In order to do this she worked with layers of tracing paper placed over the original painting and then proceeded to paint on top of the tracing paper to allow certain elements to stand out. Such a simple technique, but certainly an interesting way of adding more depth and atmosphere to a painting.



Finally we went to a gallery I had long been wanting to visit since being at its newest exhibition's Vernissage (which was the most extraordinarily intimate Massive attack concert). The gallery was called Galerie Perrotin and its exhibition, by an artist named JR evoked several conflicting opinions amongst the group. Several people took a quick walk around before totally dismissing the work and waiting outside. I personally was intrigued by the work. Watching videos helped explain and provided significant insight into the artists' reasons behind the location and indeed subject of his work.

In brief, JR works by creating monumentally sized photographs which he pastes into a whole host of urban landscapes around the world from walls in the Middle East, suburban buildings in Paris, dilapidated African bridges to being nestled amongst impoverished favelas in Brazil. In his choice to not hold back and use in effect the world as his gallery space I suppose his photographs possess considerable power, strength and impact. The artist himself strives to make us think through "inviting on stage anonymous heroes, displaying the faces of humanity".

His choice to use anonymous local people with interesting faces has certainly roused much curiosity across the globe. Some students thought that these individuals were being "used" by the artist who was taking advantage of their lack of knowledge, culture and total cluelessness that they were the subject of a ridiculously expensive art project. However, on seeing interviews with these people it was actually warming to see how touched they were to be asked and how proud they were to have an image of themselves domineering over their local urban landscape. Timothy struggled to except the location of the work, He argued that it was rather condescending choosing to hang your art work within a poverty stricken favela just so that the backdrop is culturally interesting and colourful. I can see both sides of the argument. In my opinion, aesthetically the photographs are striking and awe inspiring. However there is undeniably some sort of unsettling feeling when this extravagant, high flying world of contemporary art is placed within an environment where even daily life is a struggle that does not sit comfortably within the stomach.







Next week is my final class but unfortunately due to the Textile Department finishing a week before the Industrial Design department I will have already left Paris for home. However, the task of next weeks class is actually a presentation/object/explanation in front of the group of what we have learnt or what has struck us the most during the duration of our classes. Eager not to miss out, I will be watching the group and doing my own presentation over skype next Wednesday. Bringing Contemporary Art in Paris to Wales!

Final Atelier D'ecriture Créative

For my final creative french writing class I had to present all the written exercises I had done during the term in an interesting way. I decided to write all my work on ribbons which I then wrapped around a tin of Ouality Streets- a tasty Christmas treat for all the class. As we passed around the wrapped object, each person undid a ribbon and had to read. I thought this would be a nice idea to get everyone involved and to keep an element of surprise for the end.