On Sunday Virgil Abloh passed away when I heard this news I wanted to look at his work because although I wasn't massively into his work I appreciated what he was doing and had done a lot. I came across some of his artwork from the 'Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech' exhibition with the muted blue ceramics and neon orange contrast plinth. I was quite inspired by this work when going into my practise setups especially the contrast of the neon with the muted which is the palette my work has been taking anyway. I used the ceramic work, the twine work, the dyed fabric, screen-printed fabric and the pigeon spikes with cardboard plinths originally but changed to white wood. When I started putting these objects together the there was this aggressive clash of colour and texture which at first I didn't like at all but the more I went away and came back the more I adjusted to it. The clash I really liked was the screen printed, neat patterned fabric alongside the organic dyed and treated fabric as it had this ugly/beautiful effect. The clash I didn't like came from the dyed fabric but I feel that mainly came because I used the original blue and green along side the treated green and pink which in the future I will not do. I spoke to our textiles technician on her thoughts on the 'compilation' and she gave some very helpful points including pairing down the colours and not use cardboard as it was taking away from the work I had created.
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| Virgil Abloh 'Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech' 2019 |
My ceramic work is not where I want it right now but I think it's getting there. The oil lamp pieces are working for me because of their tactility and somewhat similarity to the originals but with enough of my own flair and I am really excited to see how the come out when glazed white and transparent. Because I enjoyed the fluting effect on the ceramic I created a work dedicated to it. The work is a flat tile with fluting and a large hole for hanging. My idea behind this was almost creating plates of armour that I can layer and attach to each other when I make more. In terms of firing I want to fire them on a high heat as It makes the clay a nice cool grey colour and makes the clay a lot more durable.