TEXTILE FUTURES

After attending many exhibitions in London that I felt related to and explores my concepts, I felt I had a strong collection of ideas that I could further research and inquire with.  
My main idea, which links to the concept of Medical: Life and Death, has been stimulated from the Fashioned from Nature exhibition at the V&A. Looking at designer Christopher Kane’s S/S14 collection where he explored the sexual anatomy of flowers. This idea has made me consider how life is created, and therefore focus particularly on the concept of life. Kane also said; “We live because of flowers and trees…they produce oxygen and we take them for granted”. This quote stimulated thoughts of how we use nature not only as inspiration but also how we rely on their present to live our own life. This idea further leads me onto my second concept Architecture and Lifestyle. 
I have taken inspiration from the Shape of Light Exhibition, particularly looking at the works by Otto Steinert and Maya Rochet. I was drawn to Steiner’s work because of the high contrasting black and white images of textures from buildings and architecture. Since I like the element of texture and photography within my work I thought this style would be a good way to explore my own textures of my lifestyle from where I live; Rural East Sussex. I wanted to incorporate the idea of how my country lifestyle makes me feel in comparison to urban locations. And how this environment, including the flowers and the trees that we take for granted, make me feel tranquil, (linking back to Kane’s Quote.) I have tried to do this through the use of colour and explored how colour can reflect and change our mood. I have explored a colour palette from artist Maya Rochet, who’s multimedia installations fill me with joy and excitement. 
In addition to the idea of creating life, I was drawn to the IVF 40 Years Later exhibition at the science museum. From this exhibition I have a collection of drawings that show how the embryo is formed, I find this fascinating and I feel links to the anatomic drawings of flower reproduction as well as the notion that flowers and trees give us life. As I can’t directly link to the use of IVF I researched into the experience of other people that have undertaken IVF, such as my cousin. I then could start exploring the material use of fabric and think about how fabrics can stimulate certain feelings and consider how this could improve people’s lives. 
For the third compulsory concept; Sustainability, I have also watched many films about the plastic problem on our planet, as well as films about how we are fixing this and using the plastic to make innovative materials. I used some of my drawings from different exhibitions that illustrate how plastics have been recycled. These were combined with my other imagery, and is where the project become interesting and exciting as all my ideas and concepts started to come together.