Week 3- Hussein Chalayan

Week 3- Hussein Chalayan

Chalayan is an artist and designer, working in film, dress and installation art. Research Chalayan’s work, and then consider these questions in some thoughtful reflective writing.

1. Chalayan’s works in clothing, like Afterwords (2000) and Burka (1996) , are often challenging to both the viewer and the wearer. What are your personal responses to these works? Are Afterwords and Burka fashion, or are they art? What is the difference?

Not all clothing is fashion, so what makes fashion fashion?

I find these pieces very interesting because of there unique look and it makes me question the reason and idea behind his work. His works are definitely postmodern in a sense where he integrates innovative materials and technology into his designs. 
I would say that both Chalayan's works Burka and afterwords are both art and fashion, i think that fashion is the relationship between the clothing and the person wearing them and defines a person and in this case we can see the relationship between the wearer and the piece being worn. In Burka we see naked women with different length masks and in afterwords we see a garment made from what appears to be wood. The way in which each is viewed is different, Burka is more about femininity and the cultural reason behind the masks and how it contradicts its purpose by having naked women wear it. 
This is the reason why i also think that it is art because it goes against its cultural purposes and is more of an expressive piece or pieces.

Hussein Chalayan, Burka, 1996

                                                                 Hussein Chalayan, Afterwords, 2000

2. Chalayan has strong links to industry. Pieces like The Level Tunnel (2006) and Repose (2006) are made in collaboration with, and paid for by, commercial business; in these cases, a vodka company and a crystal manufacturer.

 How does this impact on the nature of Chalayan’s work? Does the meaning of art change when it is used to sell products? Is it still art?

 The nature of his work remains the same. Does the meaning of art change? no it doesn't, art is widely used across the world to advertise. Its a way for people to communicate with the product before purchasing it. Advertising is an art form in itself because, just like other forms art, its to express and communicate an idea to the viewer. Chalayan created a chandelier for the Swarovski crystal palace installation. it is an airplane wing, balancing against a wall. When its large wing flap moves, a long strip of Swarovski crystals are illuminated by LED's.
He also teamed up with level vodka to produce a new installation. 'The level tunnel' is a 15m long, 5m high installation that can be experienced from the exterior or blindfolded on the inside. He has developed an experience of the senses, working with a number of different materials as well as playing with scent, touch and sound. Chalayan's installations are no different to the above pieces of fashion. They both have the same purpose - to communicate his ideas visually through the works, the only difference is that the installations are advertising.

 3. Chalayan’s film Absent Presence screened at the 2005 Venice Biennale. It features the process of caring for worn clothes, and retrieving and analysing the traces of the wearer, in the form of DNA.

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Hussein Chalayan, still from Absent Presence, 2005 (motion picture)

This work has been influenced by many different art movements; can you think of some, and in what ways they might have inspired Chalayan’s approach?

 This is a video installation telling a story based on identity, geography, genetics, biology and anthropology. The film questions whether the extent to which identities can adapt to new environments. Postmodernism would have influenced Chalayan's approach to this video and how it shows the idea of 'The new world' and the technological advances that are seen in the world today such as collecting DNA and analysing the traces of the wearer.

4. Many of Chalayan’s pieces are physically designed and constructed by someone else; for example, sculptor Lone Sigurdsson made some works from Chalayan’s Echoform (1999) and Before Minus Now (2000) fashion ranges. In fashion design this is standard practice, but in art it remains unexpected. Work by artists such as Jackson Pollock hold their value in the fact that he personally made the painting. Contrastingly, Andy Warhol’s pop art was largely produced in a New York collective called The Factory, and many of his silk-screened works were produced by assistants. Contemporarily, Damien Hirst doesn’t personally build his vitrines or preserve the sharks himself. 

So when and why is it important that the artist personally made the piece?

I would think that its not important that the artist personally makes the piece, as long as the idea is the artists. Just because it was made by someone else, doesn't necessarily make it theirs.But taking into account this idea of importance, i also think that it would be better if the artist makes it himself therefore we as viewers can get a better understanding of what the artist is trying to portray and it enhances our experience because it was made by the artist them self, i feel that no one can interpret another persons idea better than the person who owns the idea so what the artist might be thinking might be different to what the person making it has in mind.

Reference list:

http://www.husseinchalayan.com/#/home/
http://www.husseinchalayan.com/blog/

http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/chalayan.html 

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/5209/hussein-chalayan-at-the-design-museum.html

http://stylezeitgeist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4534

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0768786/