What am i seeing? Patterns and Textures- Danielle O'Connor Akiyama

As promised in my previous post, I wanted to dedicate a post to the pattern and textures I came across whilst visiting the Whitewall Gallery in the Flying Horse Walk Shopping centre. The work I found was by Danielle O'Connor Akiyama, a Toronto-based Canadian artist. As an artist, she creates paintings of coruscating, botanical floral patterns that are filled with vibrancy, life and a burst of energetic colours to present an intense image of the beauty of nature.
Using a variety of mediums to translate her imagination onto canvas, her pieces consist of either a flourishing combination of flowers or an individual beautiful blossom. This bloom of colour is complimented by the background deep, complex shades. She pays attention to the importance of every brush stroke which is loosely applied due to her soft delicate way of painting onto the multiple textures on the surface. Physically and visually she uses paint, plaster, resin, encaustic wax, etched words as materials but in terms of narrative, her work still communicates numerous messages to the audience. For instance the intensity of summer love, the magic it brings, romanticism and a combination of influences from her travels across the globe experiencing new heritages and values of life. She therefore describes her work as “sanctuaries for the soul.”
Her work also explores and communicates a vision of different cultures and the identity of certain origins which can be seen through her distinct combination of both eastern and western artistry, especially due to her study of sumi-e, Japanese brush painting. This style can be seen throughout the work I found in the Whitewall gallery but not only was I attracted to the feminine gorgeous vision of floristry; I was also immediately drawn to the intense detail of the design which could easily influence the pattern of the design of clothing, shoes and accessories. As a fashion observer I almost feel already familiarised with this Japanese-esq passionate abstract. In my opinion, I feel it is something we would definitely see being worn down the Spring Summer resort catwalk for the likes of Chloe or a Mary Katrantzou collection.




 

Obviously, these patterns I have picked out are not identical, but here are a couple of examples from Spring Summer 2016's Ready to Wear Fashion Week of designers who took on board those vivid, sensual floral patterns and gave it their own spin.   

Alexander McQueen caused a manifestation of floral on the runway this year by designing 

the pattern in three very different distinct ways and hosting a riotous party of flowers.

Gucci's reformed aesthetic took to the runway with its glitzy flower-embroidered satins, vintage illusions and 1970's geek chic.

Dolce and Gabbana explored the glories of true Italian style and culture with their SS floral collection.

What am i seeing? Nottingham Street Art

"You can find inspiration in anything"- Paul Smith

As you may be able to tell from my previous posts, I am quite the enthusiast when it comes to art and culture, especially when it conveys contextual and historical references. So while I have been living in Nottingham for the past few months, I have noticed that around the city there are a number of street art displays and creative illustrations plastered across buildings; derelict or in use, as you venture down into the streets of Hockley and the Lace Market, reaching a cultured and picturesque abode for art in Nottingham. This area is something renowned for its attention to creativity and the location for contemporary, avant-garde places such as Rough Trade, the Broadway Cinema, The Lace house and other quirky iconic destinations. Therefore, in this post I wanted to explore the street art in this specific area discovering whether the narrative for the pieces I found, were the self promotion of the artist or portrayed a true passion for the use of colour, portraiture, or bold graphic imagery.


 Although this post is not directed entirely to the fashion industry, every pattern, texture or narrative that is found within these pieces can have some influence on trend forecasting, brainstorming, influence of individual style and even creates an iconoclasm against the structure of society. This is especially represented through street art in the form of destruction of the architect within society and replacing it with something modern, innovative and rebellious. Yet they can be so influential over people's choice of clothing in the 21st century. This can be seen through the use of patterns, graphics and choice of hues in found in street art which can be replicated onto garment design and providing colour palettes for certain outfits after seeing the colours being visually put together in an art piece. Even the portraiture of a man or woman can have major influence on the future structure of a fashion photo shoot as it can primarily provide some inspiration to the positioning of a model in order to promote or sell a product. As Nottingham's born and bred designer Paul Smith expressed "You can find inspiration in anything" which as a fashion designer and icon, Smith does so perfectly by exploring Parisian fairgrounds and Portobello Road Vintage Market to develop a further understanding of style and pattern. Therefore, I wanted to step away from the fashion magazines and social mediums for this post and dig deeper into primary artistic sources instead This allows people to receive inspiration from the things that are around us visually. In my next post I will be including a few images at the very end of the post that are on show at the Whitewall Gallery located in Nottingham's Flying Horse Walk shopping mall. This artwork is also something that I feel presents patterns and textures that could possibly influence many fashion designs within a brands collection. So keep an eye out!

To me this art piece in progress communicates vision of historic beauty during the time of the renaissance as the artist portrays women in a romantic feminine way but tastefully pushes their natural beauty to be the main subject.

In terms of fashion photography, the age of renaissance has been seen time and time again within campaigns and photo shoots which arguably may be influenced by this style of portraiture art.

 Obviously, the pieces I have photographed In Nottingham are paintings from this day and age physically, but not contextually.

 

In terms of fashion photography, in 2012 photographer Zhang Jingha featured in Harper's Bazaar's Vietnam December issue with her Nu Renaissance Aristocracy shoot where she modernised renaissance beauty but still visually referred to the period during the 14th to the 17th century, the bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. Therefore, this can be categorised as a photographic visual contrast of time periods.

 

 

Nu Renaissance Aristocracy

Harper's Bazaar Vietnam, December 2012

Visual contrast- Contemporary vs. historic



Hockley Street Art

The advertisement for MIMM Premium menswear brand. The store is located in Hockley and combines the worlds of music, fashion and art together by providing unique and independent clothing brands, audio visual events, an arts collective and a record label to show off their eclectic style ethos. The advertisement communicates visions of cultural hybridity created by the experimentation of style and an influence of various global trends from Asian origins to African heritage that meets an edgy boho vibe. There is so much going on in this advertisement even though it is a

complete contrast to the original male consumer that the brand markets themselves towards.

Broadway Cinema
 The bold graphic architectural designs on Broadway cinema represent the individuality, excitement and independency that the cinema is known for.

Hockley Street Graffiti

P Spowage Pop Up Art

Located on Byard Lane, Nottingham

Contemporary and diverse art pieces created by Peter Spowage that are placed outside his shop on a daily basis to advertise his tucked away studio.

The Patterns and Textures in Hockley's Wall Art

Bold, colourful, and vivid complex tones to reflect the splash of identity and uniqueness artists have brought to this section of the city.

A trip to Castle Fine Art Gallery

Whilst wandering around the Nottingham Exchange located in the city centre, I came across the Castle Fine Art Gallery. A gallery filled with art work based on beauty, history, urban and rural environments, unconventional approaches to fairy tales and homage's to nature, yet in such a confined space, so many different concepts were being channelled and brought to life beyond the walls of the room.

John Myatt
Firstly upon walking into the gallery, I was met by an oil painting called 'Lady with a Fan' by the artist John Myatt. Instantly, this art deco portrait reminded me of the fashion of the 1920's, especially as it had a similar look to the trend setter of that era, Chanel.

Chanel created elegant and versatile fashions for women who wanted freedom from the constrains that pre war society had put upon them. She primarily shaped an image of an independent, intelligent and unique fashionable woman that primarily led to the creation of the flapper look, a practically in women's fashion which had never been seen before and shocked the system.

The 'Lady with a Fan' painting communicates a vision of iconic style whilst the artist also uses colour to explore different synthaesias and emotions in the image. The artist draws attention to the model, who is positioned to the side of the painting to allow viewers to experience the visual contrast between the vivid deep pastel colours in the background against the harsh, distinct monochrome attire the women is wearing with such poise and believable virtue.  However, this contrast conveys such a juxtaposition of moods that almost suggest, in my opinion of course, that the smartly dressed women may or may not live in such glory, wealth and fortune that these rich and privileged colours on the outside architecture portray (the 1920's post war, being a time that culturally, economically and politically, uproar and positivity was being spread throughout the lives of individuals due to a decline in social order, a new explosion of exuberance in style and a good financial state in terms of disposable income) but instead, on the inside, the artist has depicted her to appear so empty and her emotion has been darkened and is arguably absent which is reflected through her choice of garment. The only real sense of emotion we receive is the purity and innocence of her white glove that holds the jet black fan resulting in a division between the positivity's and negativities of her outfit. Obviously, it is only a guess of mine that this painting is set in the 1920's but when studying the outfit, there is no other apparent time in history that this style was so significant or could be related to.

'Lady with a Fan' by John Myatt at Castle Fine Art Gallery in Nottingham Exchange

 

 

Coco Chanel's fashion designs and own choice of apparel in the 1920's

Xue Wang
Another collection that I was intrigued by as I walked round the gallery was the 'Narcissess' collection by the contemporary artist Xue Wang, whose work was based on popular childhood stories, but ones which had been re-imagined in a rather unorthodox and flawed manner. There were many other pieces to the collection; however, I thought that these oil paintings I have picked out were the most significant to the theme. The artist portrays these fairy-tale heroins in a much more controversial light than expected as he takes away the innocence and purity that each character in the popular Disney adaptations is portrayed as. Controversially, he replaces it with a twisted concept. For instance the characteristics of Snow White and The Little Mermaid are seen to be rather explicit, abusive, frustrated and rebelling against the traditional value expected of a women.  Furthermore, Xue Wang's version of Cinderella, can arguably be perceived as a corruption of the happy ending story-line as he shows a deterioration of the pumpkin, her appearance and strangely, her hygiene as she runs away from her dreams of marrying the prince and turns back into the working class maid she was before. If Xue Wang wanted to communicate a subliminal message that happy endings really do not exist, he certainly did with this collection, and instead captured a reflection of what the reality within society can really turn out to be and in a blunt manner, he points out some extreme circumstances of a society. For instance, factors such as prostitution due to financial problems, (a theme fitted to the Snow White painting) depression, physical and mental abuse (a theme fitted with the Little Mermaid painting) and sadness and ill-fortune (a theme fitted to the painting of Cinderella). There is even something strange about the flying half eaten apples that surround Snow White in the piece 'Seven Years Good Luck'. Arguably these apples may have reference to drug taking or the spiking of the 'poisonous apple' which in today's society's nightlife could be linked to the corrupted use of date rape drugs in alcoholic drinks.


'Seven Years Good Luck'  £395.00


'Tender Mercies' £395.00


'Fleeting Glance' £395.00



David Rees
Figurative artist David Rees has also preserved a space within the Castle Fine Art Gallery for his collection. Rees works in an articulate contemporary manner to communicate both themes of female beauty and the power of colour. When you look at both of these paintings that I have chosen by Rees, there is a clear visual contrast between the two, due to the differences in temperatures and saturations of the colours. Therefore, this has resulted in an emphasis of the physical features of the females he has chosen as models due to the distinct linings and darker shades that outline each face. Harlequin Dreams is filled with cool, icy pastel tones whereas Echoes from Corsica consists of a warm exotic, seasonal colour palette. Therefore, as viewers we receive such different feelings from both painting's narratives. Neither models look too happy however, due to the projected colours within Echoes from Corsica, there is naturally, a much more welcoming, vibrant and glowing tone to the piece.  Although he leaves the narrative to the thoughts of the viewers, Rees' main objective is for the viewer to embrace the design of composition in the piece and the power of the beautiful figures. He designed his composition with the intention that the viewer would study all areas of the canvas and embrace the blending of colours which have developed deeper tones and complex shades.

 Harlequin Dreams 2015 £695 

    Echoes From Corsica – 2015 £695

Peter and Jayne Smith
'Sometimes the last place you look is the first place you find it'

Last but not least, my final find in the Castle Fine Art Gallery that stopped me on my way out, was the display of 'Lost Alice -Wonderland Unwound', an adaptation to the novel 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. This would be a third instalment to the series however, this creative project was developed through the eyes of artists Peter and Jayne Smith, who accompanied their short novel with a set of sculptures and paintings to mark the 150th anniversary of the original story. As an artistic duo they intended to move the story on and although they wanted to pay respect to the character Alice, Peter and Jayne Smith, instead chose to direct their adaptation down a route that would be filled with their own twists and plots to allow some originality and to give the story a life of its own as Alice revisits the land of Wonderland decades after her first arrival. However, on the way to Wonderland she is faced with giant peaches, Wonka bars and she even opens a door to blue skies and rolling yellow fields divided by a yellow brick road. Sound familiar?
  Obviously, the artists have made reference to other well-known childhood stories by legendary authors but the piece still includes similar elements of the original story such as the appearances of the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter as it could not truly be about Alice in Wonderland without them. However, we do see certain characters and features of the novel become not so familiar anymore, especially as Alice has forgotten her memories of Wonderland. Therefore, in her mind, they are almost different to what Alice had came across before and she must step foot back into the corrupted world of Wonderland to make the place wonderful once again and pick up from where she left.

A Most Curious Way To Wonderland

'Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Who’s The Fairest Of Them All'

'Tweedle Do and Tweedle Don't'

'Mad As A Hatter'

'I'm Late, I'm Late!'