I spoke to my tutors about where my work is at right now, and where it is going.
I was instantly reminded that I was actually quite confused about my work, although I had tried to come up with my concept, it was still confused and didn't make much sense. My tutors suggested that I try and find artists that use t-shirts in their work, as well as looking at Robert Mapplethorpe as he is well known for his photographs of flowers as they had meanings behind them.
I searched for information about Robert Mapplethorpe straight away, and instantly found a lot of information about him
I noted down the information I found, and that was relevant to me and my work. Realising that his flowers obviously have meanings behind them, helped me come up with a new focus in my work. I want to use the light and shadows in my photographs, inspired by his photographs. I also liked how he captured the feminine and masculinity of flowers, and I want to capture the femininity of the flowers in my photographs as I will be aiming my brand at women.
I also re-discovered Jenny Holzer, after researching her for previous projects, I remembered that she used t-shirts as a medium for some of her work. She uses many mediums including LED signs, projections onto buildings, and t-shirts. She uses mediums that can be shown to the public quickly. Something that stuck in my mind, is that she said in an interview that her 'truisms' may not be true to everyone. This stuck in my mind because I have been struggling to make my brand appeal to everyone, and I realised that it doesn't need to, I just need to realise my concept and my products and the meanings behind them will eventually become clearer.
I also looked at the Aesthetics Movement as it was a movement when art was devoted to the beauty and sensitivity of itself. I noticed that my work was kind of related to this as I am trying to show the beauty of flowers.
I also researched ways that t-shirts are used and found that they are used for many things:
slogans, to say something, to sell something - advertising and marketing, protest art, form of expression - gets a message to an audience simply and quickly.
I don't think that the use of t-shirts in art is very popular, as I can't seem to find much information about it, but I have noticed that when they are used, it is effective as the message is gotten across to an audience very quickly.
We as a society always notice other peoples clothings and so to put a message or a piece of art on an item of clothing seems like a fast, easy and effective way to show people what you want to.
After looking at all of the new information, and having new ideas in my mind, I decided to do a mind map, to get my ideas on paper and make proper sense of them.
I think that my idea might finally be ready, as it now makes sense, everything links and I, myself, can make sense of my own project, which is obviously very important.
I need to answer the questions - what am I doing? Why am I doing it? How?
I need to make sure that I cover the 'Why?' part of everything I can, as this is always asked in my tutorials.
- I want to create a range of t-shirts that say something via the use of photography rather than words, after the phrase "A picture is worth one thousand words".
- I want my photographs to be of flowers and the possible meanings behind them
- I want to aim my t-shirts at women - women are expected to be beautiful in todays society because of the media - celebrities, plastic surgery, models - the message to females tends to be that they will be more successful if they are beautiful. This is the same with flowers, which are also attractive/beautiful, this is because they have to be otherwise they wouldn't be successful as they won't survive.
- To realise this message, I need to show the femininity of flowers - Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs of flowers capture their feminine curves through the use of lighting and shadows - I need to concentrate on doing the same sort of thing to make my photographs work
- Instead of aiming the shirts at one age group, I am going to aim at all age groups by creating one t-shirt per age group - child, teen, middle aged, pensioner.
- Instead of focusing on the meaning of each type of flower and attaching that to it's relevant age group, I will use just any type of flower, and focus on photographing it's life process to represent the same life process as humans. I am doing this because the meanings of individual types of flowers was becoming very difficult to find out, and people seem to have varied views on the meanings of certain flowers, whereas others simply don't know the meanings of any flowers.
- To show the age groups, I will have the t-shirts modeled on their relevant age groups and create print-based (potentially video based) advertisements that can be blown up and shown in my exhibition.
Another thing that I have thought about, is whether or not to change the quality of the photograph on the t-shirts as the ages get older, as this would be another strong way of showing the meanings of them. It would also be effective on t-shirts, as the photograph might become slightly distorted/stretched if they are distressed to look older.
I am also thinking about how I will exhibit my work, and I am wondering whether to still use a website or whether to have my work professionally printed, or both. I think I will ponder this throughout the making of my work and decide on the best and most relevant way to exhibit it.
I have also started referencing my work using the Harvard Referencing System, as it is very organised and I will be referencing my university work in this way.
