The Occupation Tapestry was the biggest community art project ever undertaken in Jersey, and made by Islanders for Islanders. It was conceived in order to tell the story of what life was like during the five years of German occupation
The original idea about creating a tapestry came about when, in the lead-up to the 50th anniversary of the Liberation, suitable projects were sought which would have a enduring life after the anniversary.
In a collaboration between Doug Ford, who worked for the Jersey Museum, and Wayne Audrain, a local artist, the tapestry evolved from a single panel to the twelve panels, each of which depicted a scene of local life during the German Occupation. Each of these panels was designed by Wayne who gave guidelines on colours to be used on the key elements of the panels to ensure consistency.
Each panel was then woven by one of the twelve parishes which make up the Island, following those guidelines set by Wayne. They did, however, have a degree of flexibility, and could use their own artistic talent in the colours used in the skies and sea .
What is amazing about the project is that although there were a core of “stitchers” in each parish, over the few years that it took for all the panels to be completed, thousands of Islanders, as well as visitors to Jersey, put a few stitches in the Occupation Tapestry panels.
For this photo-shoot, we decided to take some simple full body portraits with a plain backdrop to avoid anything in the background as we wanted the models to be the main focus.
We took photos of two friends who were our models for this shoot in the studio. In order to successfully complete this shoot we used a big white backdrop so that there was nothing in the background and we could easily edit over them. We took mostly full body shots as our topic is fashion and therefore this will allow us to edit different clothes and outfits over them and stitch into the images when printed.
Beeple is Mike Winkelmann, a graphic designer from Charleston USA who does a variety of digital artwork including short films, everydays and VR/AR work. He has done work for Apple, Nike, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Samsung and many more known brands. He is known for creating comical, illusive works that makes political and social commentary while using pop culture figures as references.
Everydays – 2020 collection
Everydays the 2020 collection focuses on society’s alternating obsession and fear of technology. It showcases digital images which incorporate the old with the new and mixing natural landscapes with objects/living things which do not match and would not work together. This collection by Beeple uses the same concept as the work we want to produce as a group, focusing on the generational change in the world and universe and the old vs new.
Everydays – The first 5000 days
Everydays the First 5000 Days is a collage by Mike Winkelman work which starts at the beginning of the project, when he was posting seen to be crude sketches and it runs through years of evolving digital shapes and sceneries up through the beginning of this year, when he was posting extremely crude political illustrations. Beeple created a new artwork every day for 13 years which then created the collection which was completed on February 21st 2021. On March 11th 2021, Everydays the first 5000 days was sold at a auction for $69 million, the auction housed named him “among the top three most valuable living artists”.
Grimes combines the styles of gamer fantasy, anime and manga and science fiction among other genres, she likes explores the theme of Anthropocene in her NFT’s which is used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems.
WarNymph Collection
WarNymph is the Goddess of Neo-Genesis. She battles the destructive force of old fashioned ideas and systemic decay which threatens the future, she embodies the power of eternal regeneration that manifests in a shape of infinite infancy where she sheds her old skin of corruption.
WarNymph collection is a series of 10 pieces which Grimes created with her brother, Mac Boucher. Some pieces were one of a kind, others with thousands of copies went up for sale on Nifty Gateway on February 28th. The highest selling piece was a one-of-a-kind video called “Death of the Old” which involves flying cherubs, a cross, a sword, and glowing light which is set to an original song by Grimes. This was sold for $389,000.
The works titled “Earth” and “Mars,” are both short videos which feature their planet with a giant cherub over it holding a weapon which are also set to original music by Grimes.
Death of the old
Earth
Mars
Grimes, with the WarNymph project, explores the fluidity of identity in the virtual age, exploring the ability to create, and splinter ourselves into unlimited avatars, create boundless worlds, and build rich and complex myths. She creates this by using a human form, herself and then merging a photogrammetry scan, using photos to map and take measurements and a retopologised mesh that was made into different forms to essentially create a digital version of herself.
Maddog Jones
Replicator
Maddog Jones created a NFT called replicator which made Mad Dog Jones the most expensive living Canadian artist. “Replicator is the story of a machine through time. It is a reflection on forms of past groundbreaking innovation and serves as a metaphor for modern technology’s continuum. I’m interested to see how collectors will respond as the work evolves and the NFTs in their possession continue to create new generations.” —Mad Dog Jones. Replicator is an NFT experience consisting of seven unique generations of artworks. Generation 1, which is to be sold at auction, begins as a singular illustration of a photocopy machine in an office space in LA. This first generation NFT will produce six NFTs, one per month, with each generation being unique from those before and after it. Each future generation will produce one less artwork in its lifetime until it reaches Generation 7, which will produce no new NFTs.
The visual component of this work, a digital image of a photocopier housed in a Los Angeles office space, is a nostalgic indicator to a once-cutting-edge technology, now on its way toward obsolescence.
The NFT project was based off the question “What will the future of Jersey look like as a community in the metaverse?“
As a group we have decided to create an NFT based on generations , we will try and capture the way people are dressed, inside homes and their day to day life. We plan on showing the difference between old, current and future specifically in fashion and lifestyle. We will try and predict future trends and lifestyles. We want to capture fashion as part of the generations as as a group we feel fashion can show and tell a lot about a person and their personality. We are also capturing lifestyle as a persons lifestyle is a major part of them and their community as different people we meet in our everyday lives whether they are people we know or strangers influence us as people and therefore Jersey. To capture this in our 30 second animated film we plan on using a projector and a background with an image from the era of that clip and someone walking through different eras dressed in the fashion of that era (1970s, 2020 and future). As they walk through the different eras they will change clothes and have different objects from that time period.
Our digital image will be a a picture from each clip of each outfit era in a line from one side of the image to another, inspire, similar to these images.
We have looked into some NFT artists and taken inspiration and ideas from their work, shown below.
Embroidery is an art that works with a needle and thread. It works by stitching thread, yarn or other materials through a piece of fabric to create shapes and patterns.
“Photography is art with light, embroidery is art with a needle and thread.” – Julia
Embroidery adds colour, texture, richness and dimensions to express one’s wealth, ethnic, social identity and more.
It may also be used to mend clothing.
The Bayeux tapestry
The Bayeux tapestry depicts the battle of Hastings in 1066 and is over 900 years old. However its embroidery still remains in thoughtfulness and in fitness with pop colour. The tapestry is culturally necessary because it shows a chunk of history that has determined the Royals that currently rule over our country and also the approach our country’s culture has grownup.
The tapestry is believed to have been created by queen Matilda, adult female of the victor of the battle of Hastings, William the vanquisher and is one in all the foremost famed tapestry’s ever created, still because the most long-lasting. The tapestry is seventy metres long and in an elaborate way designed showing the battle of Hastings in vivid detail. Most recognizable is that the killing of King Harold and also the crowning of the New King William the vanquisher.
With the separate embroidery we tend to create, we tend to decide to be a part of along to form our own tapestry and placed on show on exhibition
Bayeux Tapestry shows the story of the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy in 1066. This 70 metre long tapestry can be visited at the museum in France. The story being told in the tapestry starts in 1064 when the King of England (Edward the Confessor), tells his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson to travel to Normandy in order to offer his cousin William the succession to the English throne. The end of the embroidery is missing but the story ends with the Anglo-Saxons fleeing at the end of the Battle of Hastings in October 1066. The tapestry consists of 58 scenes, 626 characters and 202 horses.
Artist References
Melissa Zexter has a background in photography but has also loved physical art making techniques such as drawing, painting and mosaic making. In 1999, she began combining sewing with her photography where she went on an artists’ residency program in the Catskill Mountains of New York and a fellow artist taught her how to make handmade paper. She then bought some new thread and needle to then start sewing photos on her handmade paper, the sewn drawings were of anonymous figures. I also made pillows and sewed images onto them. Soon after, she started sewing into her larger photographs which were also of anonymous figures and the sewing acted as a map or grid over the figures.
Jose Romussi is an imaginative sewer. He isn’t a designer but rather a talented artist who studies landscapes instead of the arts. Romussi uses black and white photos to then sew with hundreds of colourful threads creating contrasting embroidered pieces. In his most recent work, Jose Romussi collects images from old fashion magazines and creates elaborate mysterious images in which the face is hidden under different types of embroidery structures. When the viewer sees the image they almost disregard the original image and focus on his unique embroidery and use of vibrant colours. This creates an aesthetic concept of beauty with a static image with the thread creating movement in the piece.
Workshop
In this workshop with Yulia Makeyeva we used photos and words from the People Make Jersey exhibition. This was used to create a textile photography work relating to our current project of identity and community. Our project focuses on fashion throughout the times so I wanted to create something using an old photo and the use of new vibrant colours such as Jose Romussi does in his photography pieces. With my textile piece I decided to use a photo from the Corpus Christi parade in 1913 then cut it up in a jigsaw piece type of way to have joined together with wool as a symbolic way of joining Jersey together with the old and new which relates back to our topic of using old fashion and the prediction of the future. I wanted to use bright colours to contrast against the black and white photo to help it stand out better. To sew the background fabric I used a similar colouring as green and orange are next to each other on the colour wheel so this won’t completely drown of the photo but still will add some colour to my piece. I then proceeded to add a flower at the bottom right corner to add more structure to the piece.
For this shoot we decided to ask 2 models to let us take full body shots of them in the studio using a white backdrop as well as artificial lighting. We feel that using artificial lighting will add harsh and intense tones.
Overall I feel that this shoot was successful as we achieved what we wanted. However we now need to use these photos to either edit other them using photoshop, or we may decide to print them out and embryoid other the top of the models clothing to produce embroidery other the top of their original clothes.
The artist in which I was inspired by is Toby Evans. He is a digital nfts artist who’s main focus was on digital fashion which is very inspiring to our groups main focus topic which is fashion.
Toby Evans work is very unique to other artist especially with traditional artist as his work is based on nfts. Additionally his work has several different visual elements. The tones of this photograph to the left vary as although there are several neutral tones there are also harsh tones towards the edges. The lighting of the majority of his photographs are taken by using studio lighting, which adds values to his photos as the lighting is artificial. Furthermore the overall mood of this photograph has a positive impact which may be due to the bright and vibrant tones used.
Chilean artist Jose Romussi taks vintage black and white images of ballerinas who were famous at the time and stitches colourful lines into thier frozen posture, adding a new vision to thier clothes creating a whole new look and interpretation to an image.
“My artworks are a reaction of my inspiration”
Romussi starts with an image that gives him an idea of how to make a whole new image using embroidery. He says he is not scared of breaking an image as he veiws that as making his own interpretation of beauty.
As well as creating a new look he adds a new emotion life and interpretation to each piece through embroidery.
He has created art of Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Alla Shelest, Tamara Karsavina, Olga Spessivtseva, Diana Gould, Susie Presley, and Diana Adams.
Famous Russian ballet dancers Vaslav Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina.
Gipsy
Embroidery Workshop
The Embroidery + Narrative workshop led by Yulia Makeyeva got us to use different materials such as images and texts from the People Make Jersey exhibition and various fabrics and textiles to make our own composition. We mixed photography with embroidery to make a short stop animation (GIF).
1- materials
2- cut out
3- end plan
To start I chose to use materials which could be used for clothing or give off a clothing material look like denim. The images and texts from the People Make Jersey exhibitions I chose have interesting aspects to them like patterns and composition/shapes.
4- first stiches
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I started by using a combination of running stitch and backwards stitch, to stitch the small textiles together to give a patchwork effect as I liked the colours and the bleach/dye effect these had individually and together they contrast each other making each one stand out.
I used extra pieces that I pulled of from the denim-like fabric and stitched them onto the people cut out to make an outline of their clothes. I added the cut out background to sit behind them but in a different position so it leaves a gap behind them to show they are ’empty’. This aspect links to the text ‘Aliens registration card’ because it shows something about their identity being ‘alien’ through the idea of odd and missing.
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13- end product
GIF
I used adobe photoshop to create a GIF by downloading all the photos into photoshop and pressing create frame animation.
My photos I used for my GIF are not shot correctly and have different angles and do not really show the process clearly of how I made the final product. However they do show the difference from start to finish.
NFTs is a “Non-Fungible Token” representing a digital file/item. non-fungible is used as another word for unique. This is why every NFT has its own unique qualities and characteristics which may make NFTs more appealing to some.
The Metaverse is the complete virtual twin of our physical world. It is the total amount of all the digital assets that live in the web and on the blockchain, which therefore leads to creating a digital ecosystem. The metaverse is a virtual space which is shared globally. Its created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space.
2 Lives is the first exhibition that will help educate different communities on what NFTs are. Additionally it will also connect traditional art to digital art and the finance world to the art world. 2 Lives is a new platform for artists to create, showcase and sell their work. The exhibition will do this buy showcasing NFTs through their multi-businesses opportunities.
NFTs in art means that artists can create their work and be able to sell it themselves making it more independent for them as they may no longer need a manger. This also allows artists to have complete freedom over their work because it is not bounded anymore to requests and contracts. NFTs in art can aslo lead to new collaborations between traditional artists and between artists which are digital.
Examples of NFTs in art:
Reaching for a hand to hold
FEWOCiOUS speaks about the importance of his work and how it can help spread messages and the importance of his own personal story. He has successfully managed to staged multiple successful solo releases, as well as two ground breaking NFT collaborations.
Beeple, The First 5000 Days
Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, has sold one of the most expensive digital art work in history. The First 5000 Days, sold at an auction for $69 million, which is one of the most expensive pieces Beeple has ever sold.
