ICA Off-Site: 30 years of London Subculture (1980's)

This was by far the best exhibition I have seen so far all year! It was situated in The Old Selfridges Hotel (above Selfridges Food Hall), which was now abandoned and stripped down to bare, raw concrete, giving the a very interesting eery atmosphere and minimal, urban aesthetic.   

The exhibition itself was a complete immersion into a retrospective of London subculture from the 1980's to present day. I have grown up in London and find the creative scene there fascinating, therefore this exhibition was the perfect opportunity for me to understand its history. 

The exhibition was made up of mostly videos and 'Latrines' (cases to arrange objects in). The content of each latrine was curated by a different artist or designer.

The starting point of the exhibition was a photo taken by in the 1980's by the British Artist Nicola Tyson of the fashion designers Judy Blame John Moore scavenging for materials at the bank of the river Thames. This photo symbolises the resourcefulness and innovation of British creative talent. 

Judy Blame and John Moore beachcombing under Blackfriars Bridge 1983, photo by Nicola Tyson

These two designers, along with Chrisopher Nemeth, founded the Dalston based art collective "House of Beauty and Culture" in the late 1980's, creating clothing and accessorise based on customisation and reclamation.  

These are some photos that I took of their latrine which was filled with found objects and photos of the artists and their work. I was curated by Dave Bably.

Leading on from this was a film made by Paul Ormond, entitled Andy the Furniture Maker 1987) which was part of Channel 4's pioneering 6 Of Hearts series. This film follows the life of Andy, who was originally an oyster fishermen from Brightlingsea, who moved to London and became a rent boy whilst making furniture from salvaged materials. I was really inspired by this video as I thought Andy had a great personal style (high waisted jeans, white-tshirt, leather jacket, DM Shoes, small hoop earring and short back and sides hair cut) I also really admired how resourceful he was with his creativity by creating very modern looking furniture from old shipwreck wood. 

Stills from "Andy the Furniture Maker"

In contrast, a large part of the creative scene in 1980's London was very glamorous and extravagant. In the underground, high-fashion and opulence was very important led by clubs such as Blitz, Taboo, The Cha Cha Club and Heaven, where only people with the most impressive outfits were allowed to pass through the doors and the crowd was largely fashion students from Central St. Martins, who would often design and make an outfit each time they went out. The pin-ups for this scene included popular underground models Scarlett Cannon and Princess Julia, performance artist Leigh Bowery and Pop star Boy George. 

Leigh Bowery and Boy George 

Scarlett Cannon

 Princess Julia

This fashion industry quickly latched on to this bold creativity, resourcefulness and innovation, which led to the rise of avante garde labels such as Body Map and John Crancher, which were like the British equivalent to Comme des Garcons. Bodymap was founded by British designers David Holah and Stevie Stewart and was famous for its innovative knitwear,  modern silhouettes, clever layering and bold pattern. 

Body Map Video 

Moodboards from the Body Map latrine 

John Crancher made re-worked clothing with a DIY post-punk aesthetic. His clothes were sold in Kensington Market before he presented two shows in London fashion week during the mid 80's. 

A t-shirt designed by John Crancher for i-D Magazine

By the late 1980's the underground club scene had evolved into a more minimal Acid House scene, which led the way to 90's rave subculture. Acid House was started around 1985 by cult club nights like Delirium and Heaven on the Charing Cross Road and the Camden Palace which is now know as KOKO. Delirium started as a Hip-Hop night and iconic 80's hip -hop artists Run DMC, LL Cool J, The Beastie Boys and Master Jam J featured at the opening.

The Acid House era latrine 

Run DMC at the opening night of Delirium 

Final Outcome 'Identity and Self'

For my Final Outcome of this Identity and self-project I decided to develop my accessorise concept further as it was inspired by body dismorphia, eating disorders and feeling uncomfortable in my own body. As there are things that I have really struggled (and still somewhat) struggle with, I thought that I would be able to create a very in-depth and personal response to this theme. 

I added more layers of tights stuffed with plastic bags to my accessory, until it looked like the mannequin was engrossed and trapped in rolls of soft flesh.  I was thinking of covering it with flesh coloured fabric, but I then decided that this ruined it, as it covered the interesting colours and patterns off the plastic bags, and the deep folds and crevices. 

For my photoshoot for this piece, I created a virtual environment loosely inspired by the inside of the body by draping pink and white sheets and fabric, over display boards and across the floor. Pinned them together to make them look like they were all part of the same piece. Everything was very soft and textural, and to add even more contrasting textures, I added cling film and bubble wrap. Before the shoot I did a few test shots to see what the piece looked like in the location and I thought it fitted in very well with its soft, fleshy surroundings.

I wanted to make my garnet the main focus of the shoot, therefore the outfits that I put it with were quite simple. I put the model in a floaty, white asymmetric dress paired with squidgy, transparent jelly shoes, which fitted in with the soft organic feel of the garnet and set. I varied this outfit with two different cream coloured jumpers- one a fitted ribbed roll-neck and the other an over-sized, chunky cable-knit. This gave a variety different contrasting  shapes, silhouettes and textures. I experimented with some very unusual accessorise and props, such as putting tights on the model's head, tieing rope around her neck and wrapping her hands in cling film. This not only added more interesting textures, but was a symbolic suggestion of feeling trapped and uncomfortable in your own body.

I chose my friend Eloise to be the model for my photoshoot as her red hair and pale-pink complexion really complimented the soft pink colour scheme of the mise-en-scene. She also had experience with Yoga and and Gymnastics, which meant that she was quite flexible and could preform interesting poses. 

I was planning to do range of shots with standing, sitting and lying poses, but unfortunately Eloise was too tall to fit into the backdrop therefore I was only able to do sitting and lying poses which encouraged me to be even more inventive. I captured a few basic sitting poses to show clear images of the piece, but also did a lot of odd foetal poses and twisted lying poses.  

When editing my photos I upped the brightness around 25% to achieve an very overexposed, hazy, dreamlike atmosphere. I also used the blur tool around the edges of the figure to enhance this effect. 

Overall I am very happy with my final outcome of this project. I think that its is very unique and personal too me. If I would have ad more time, I would have also liked to produce a video featuring this garment about the issues surrounding eating disorders and what its like to struggle with them in a conceptual way.

Week 5 Styling

The first brief for styling week as to take a series of 'photobooth' style photos, inspired by the way people used to muck around in photo booths for fun, when you were allocated 4 different shots. The only guidelines were that they had to reflect your personality in some way, using different clothing, accessorise and facial expression to portray a sense of identity.

I have always been interested in pop-art and the Beatnik art culture of 1960-70's New York so chose I based my shots around some Polaroids of Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry. I noticed that subconsciously, my overall look personal style is quite similar to that of these two people as I have very pale skin, sharp cheekbones bleach blonde hair and often wear black roll-neck tops.

I chose to do the shoot in front of my bedroom curtains which have a New York Skyline printed on them. This is not only a reference to the New York based Beatnik art scene, but New York is also my favourite city in the world (that I have visited so far). I went there for a few days last February with my dad and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life, I fell in love with New York and now my life ambition is to move there one day, so this backdrop is very personal to me. 

The significance of the shots were I'm hiding my face with my hair or the jumper symbolises how I sometimes feel shy and insecure, particularly in front of a camera. The shots where my whole face is exposed, with no make-up and my hair tucked into my jumper represents my true natural self. The shots were I am wearing red lipstick and/or sunglasses represents how we often use clothing, accessorise and make-up to convey our personality to others, or even mask our true self. The red lipstick symbolises trying to look sexy and attractive and the sunglasses represent trying to look 'cool', which seem to be the most desirable characteristics in today's society. 

As well as this I had to produce a 'trend report' based around either high-street, high-end or underground street trends. I visited Oxford Street, therefore focused on High Street trends and also managed to take a few street-style pics. I focused on wide variety of High-Street stores including Topshop, Urban Outfitters, Zara, Cos, All Saints and Office. The main trends that I noticed emerging for A/W13 were punk-inspired tartan, acid-wash/ripped denim and chunky soled shoes, roll-neck and fluffy jumpers, masculine tailored coats, all black silhouettes, leather skirts and bomber jackets.

As a final outcome, I had to produce a photoshoot. To design a concept for my photoshoot, I took elements from my 'Photo Booth' style photos (the hair tucked into the black roll-neck), my 'Trend Report' (all-black silhouettes, masculine tailored coat, leather skirt and bomber jackets. I also took inspiration from an exhibition that I saw at the ICA during the summer, about a cutting  1990's New York based art/fashion collective with a raw, quirky yet minimalist atheistic. 

These are the mood boards that I created to inspire my photoshoot:

Location and Props:

I wanted to use a very urban yet clean and modern setting as a reference to the futuristic aesthetic of many fashion photoshoots and campaigns of the late 1990's. For the location, I chose the River bank round the back of college and the Millenuim Dome, partly because it fitted in with the type of location that I wanted, and also because the area is symbolic of the turn of the New Millennium. 

Mood and Lighting:

I wanted to achieve a hazy, over-exposed feel like the 90's photographers Corrine Day and (my favourite) Wolfgang Tilmans and Jeurgen Teller's recent adverts for Celine. I really liked the contrast between the raw over-exposed look look and the very sleek polished clothes that Teller Created. During the shoot, I made the most of the natural white-light from the grey, cloudy London sky the create this effect. 

Styling:

As well as keeping to the very sleek 90's minimalist aesthetic, I also included some items of clothing that are very personal to me such as my favourite black neoprene jumper and my celtic style pentagram necklace, which added a sense of personality and a very slight 'sporty' and 'goth' feel. I also directly referenced an image from the Bernadette Corporation which features two back-packs overlapping against a white jacket. I thought this was a very unusual idea and wanted to try it out for myself. Whats more, I am know amongst family and friends for carrying an often excessive amount of bags with me, and am nicknamed 'the bag lady'.  

Hair and Make-Up:

As well as tucking the hair into the roll-neck, I also slicked in back for a very clean, sleek modern look. I went for minimal make-up with a natural glow to keep the overall feel very fresh. 

Casting:  

I chose my friend Grace as a model as she is very fresh, faced, delicate and doll-like, with striking features such as her big eyes and high-forehead.  She also had straight dark hair in centre parting which worked well with the hair-style plans that I had.

These are my favourites from the shoot:

And the final 2 shots:

I chose these two shots as I could really see them on the cover of a high-end magazine editorial. I chose two very different shots in both colour and black and white to make it interesting to the viewer. 

I was really happy with how the shoot went, and felt that it really conveyed my personality and style.