Alice Lang

" I was interested in redefining he relationship/border between traditional wearable objects & the body, through the creation of fleshy wearable pieces (reminiscent of period clothing) that integrate & interact with the subject. Bonnets and bustles mutate, grow tendrils & attach themselves to their host like a strangler fig, overtaking their body to form a new decorative flesh." Alice Lang

Lang's practice explores the possibilities for sewn sculpture to explore, & complicate, the relationships between concepts of the decorative & the grotesque, particularly their association with depictions of femininity. To so this she uses traditional sewing technique known as the Suffolk Puff to reference the use of old techniques in the creation of t new objects/organisms that are a hybrid of the craft.

I am so intrigued by the way that by altering the materials with which Alice Lang constructs the typically feminine clothing articles, she is able to change the meaning of the clothing pieces.

Legacy

"A legacy or legacies, is what someone or something is remembered for or what they have left behind that is remembered, revered or has impacted current events and the present day."

We are now at a time when we are leaving school & are trying to decide what we want to do when we enter in to the big, wide world. Something to consider is what mark we want to leave on this school & on the world during our adult life. When I ponder this, I think about what the legacy was of my Ninny (my great grandmother), what my Nana's would be & what mine will be. When looking at this, you can see clearly the change of the role of women within our family & in society. You can also see the change in values, & the consistency of values within the family. I would like to explore this changing role of women in my body of work.

History: Exploring the Past & the Present

I would, with this first body of work. like to explore working in a bit of a historical context. I like delving into the past, particularly my families pasty. I would like me body of work to act as a kind of window to the past. I want to look at the idea of family heirlooms, particularly down the female side of the family. Heirlooms can be very telltale of the life of the personal who first possessed them. The items that my grandmother is passing down are things like recipes of the family, dancing items, 'ancient' music sheets and precious jewellery. This allows you very easily to denote that her role in life was firstly a mother, & that creativity was also large in her life, which is true. When given an heirloom, someones legacy in this world, it makes you think of what legacy you want to leave behind, & what role you want to be know for.

Art is a vessel embodying both creation & communication

I think that the above excerpt form the task sheet truly expresses the purpose of art making, at least what its purpose is to me. I truly see the purpose of my art making as a way to communicate in a way that is non-verbal (in most of my cases) & allows me to be creative. I think that this is an idea that I will keep close to me during my final year of art at school.

I think that last year, especially in semester 2, was the first real time that I created artworks that were expressing something of my inner self & my inner thoughts. I think that finally getting the opportunity to begin to do that with my art made me enjoy art a lot more.

The Art Making Process

This is my idea of the art making process:

Alchemy

Alchemy can be used as a metaphor for the art making process.
Through engaging with a process of alchemy a personal aesthetic can be defined.

The oxford dictionary defines Alchemy as being:

"the medieval forerunner of chemistry, concerned with the transmutation of matter, in particular with attempts to convert base metals into gold or find a universal elixir"

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In relation to art, I think that Alchemy can be viewed more as a journey or a process through which knowledge or understanding is gained. This could be knowledge of self, or self understanding.

It could also be seen as the way by which something is made to become more valuable or to become seens as being of a greater value. It could further more be percieved as the process through which the culmination of things of lesser value seperately are combined to become of a greater value or importance.