Celebrating the work of Tracey Emin

Since I haven't done a blog post exploring my tastes in fashion for a while, I thought I would dedicate this blog post to one of my favourite artists in the industry, whose work has influenced many creatives across the landscape for decades. Creating artwork since the late 80's, Tracey Emin is known for her confrontational and expressionist pieces, using a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and sewn appliqué.

Although many of her concepts and subjects have firstly been perceived as shocking, Emin has carried onto to translate her individual aesthetic by discussing her experiences as a female confidently through her work and being very open about her relationship with her body. Although many do feel that her expressive approach to her work is too confessional, Emin has been known to a vital role model for the younger generation of women who have lacked the qualities that she so effortlessly expresses.

An inspiration to many creatives, Emin has influence a lot of the work that I have created for many year throughout my A Levels and both my degree, therefore, I am more than excited to share with you some of my favourite pieces from her outstanding archive of work.

My Favourite Pieces:

Hate and Power Can be a Terrible Thing
2004

My Bed
1998

The Soul will Always Do What it needs to do
2014

Remembering 1963

2002

Punk. It's Traces in Contemporary Art
2016

Exploring my Creative Work: Life Drawing

So recently during my spare time at university, I thought I would expand on my creative skills and take part in a life drawing class. I have previously taken part in the activity and thought it was quite challenging yet therapeutic and I also wanted to achieve a greater understanding of lining techniques, the importance of negative space and proportions. Therefore, I was excited to take part in the class again and over all, I think my skills have definitely improved as I have made sure I focussed on analyzing certain perspectives and understanding key shapes. To see the life drawings that I created a few months ago, you can follow this link >>>> Showcase of my Creative Work

Here is a look at the pieces that I created last week! Although they are a little abstract and not completely representative of the human figure, I am still proud of my progress!

Petra Collins for Gucci AW17

Apologies to my readers on my lack of blog posts over the past week! I have been really busy with university work and presentations, meaning that I just could not fit writing into my schedule!

However, this week I am back with something extremely interesting and offering influence from one of my most favourite style and media icons in todays industry. Last year you may have noticed that I created blog posts of a few of my favourite looks from each of the fashion weeks; New York, London, Milan and Paris. However, this time round I wanted to create more of a focus on the things that really inspired me during the shows. Therefore, I have decided to primarily dedicate one post to the new ultra-whimsical and imaginative Gucci video for A/W17 directed by renowned photographer, Petra Collins.

With references to Hungarian heritage throughout, the female director has created an exciting execution for Gucci's eyewear in the very nostalgic and dream focused video. Drawing on her own childhood memories and the nature of her Eastern-European upbringing in Hungary, Collins has used models such as her own younger cousins for the video campaign to set the tone for the playfully inspired campaign.

Stealing the glasses from her restless grandmother at the beginning of the video, the mini Petra model and her brother can be seen to be vortexed into an illusion of a dreamworld where the tv show they are watching comes to life, allowing a sense of imagination and 'dreamscape' to be translated throughout.

Entering a Budapest bathhouse in the children's dreamland, the video communicates a sense of surrealism and a mysterious appeal to reflect the aesthetic of both Petra's work and the design of the glasses.

Created for fashion forward adults, but modeled by the next generation to take over the fashion industry, Collin's could not have been more genius with her short film, suggesting that Gucci still manages to maintain optimism, expression and fantasy in their creative style translated primarily by the talented Alessandro Michele.

To see the short film by Petra Collins, follow this link:
Petra Collins Imagines a Hungarian Dream for Gucci Eyewear | YouTube