embroidery workshop

Recently we had a workshop setup for us having to do with embroidering due to potentially using this craft for our films in our groups. What is Embroidery? We learnt that embroidery is the art of being able to decorate any fabric or other material using a needle to apply thread or a yarn. Moreover, with embroideries you can include other materials into your work such as beads, pearls or even leafs depending on what the focus of your piece is. Embroidery in terms of photography could be a great addition to add to your work due to it adding texture and more depth into your work making it look more appealing.

Colorful Embroidery on Vintage Photographs by Victoria Villasana
Victoria Villasana

The lesson was started of by us students being given a piece of paper, teaching us four different techniques being: running stitch, back stitch, couching stitch and finally the satin stitch. During this lesson we got given a small piece of material and we drew a simple shape to go over with these four different techniques for practice. In my opinion my favourite technique was the satin technique. This was because I thought it looked more appealing to be able to fill a shape out all the way, it also gave the shape that i filled in a texture which also caught my attention.

Once we got the techniques down, as a class we where told to go around the studio and cut out different materials around the room which was the People Make Jersey tapestries from the Jersey Museum. After getting our cut outs we had to bring them back to our tables and make something out fo the cut outs we attained with the embroidery skills we got taught. Also, we got told to take pictures every 5 minutes in order to make a short film of the progress made in creating our embroidery pieces.

Embroidery & Narrative

Embroidery & Narrative

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.

Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois was a French-born sculptor best known for her monumental abstract and frequently biomorphic sculptures that deal with men and women’s interactions. She was born December 25, 1911, in Paris, France, and died May 31, 2010, in New York, New York, United States.

Bourgeois’ early sketches were created to aid her parents in the restoration of antique tapestries. She received her education at the Sorbonne, where she majored in mathematics. She switched her concentration to art at the age of 25, studying at the École des Beaux-Arts, the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and Fernand Léger’s studio, and in 1938 she married and returned to New York City with her American husband, art historian Robert Goldwater. She started displaying her surrealist paintings and engravings there. She began experimenting with sculptural forms in the late 1940s, making a series of long, slim wooden figures that she displayed single and in groups.

Those were the first of her autobiographical pieces, which were characteristically abstract but emotionally strong. In the decades that followed, she created a number of frequently unnerving settings out of latex and found materials, as well as constructions out of marble, plaster, and glass. Betrayal, anxiety, revenge, obsession, anger, unbalance, and loneliness are among the most common. She frequently revisited subjects, techniques, and forms that had previously piqued her interest. Because she refused to confine her creative output to a single style or medium, she became more difficult to label and remained on the periphery of the art world. She was given a retrospective show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1982, an honor rarely bestowed on a living artist, and she represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1993. She was awarded the Praemium Imperiale medal for sculpture by the Japan Art Association in 1999.

Long into her 90s, the sculptor maintained her vibrancy and originality. She constructed a massive steel-and-marble spider (Maman, 1999) from which six monumental bronze counterparts were cast in 2003, and the bronzes were shown at various locations across the world. Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, The Mistress, and the Tangerine, a documentary, was released in 2008. Her house and studio, as well as a neighboring town house in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, were opened to the public in 2016 as a museum commemorating her life and work.


Art analysis

Louise Bourgeois is an artist that implements her own life struggles and thoughts into physical art.

Substance:

This project was clearly created using physical works like wood, linen, thread, metal and more

This artefact is stored in a museum for the public to see.

This is called “Cell of Hysteria” and Louise states that in this exhibition

Composition:

The key focus of the project is obviously the sculpture sort of hovering over the bed which has “Je t’aime” stitched through ought.

The artist has also added an antique sewing machine in this exhibition.

The dominant colours here are grey and red, successfully suggesting dark and gloomy times that have come upon Louise.

Lighting:

In this exhibition, the lighting is set towards the sculpture; powerfully drawing the viewers attention to the dis-membered sculpture.

There are a variety of lighter tones across the model, which provides better illumination for the sculpt to concentrate on, resulting in a precisely exposed cut

Techniques:

Embroidery has evidently been used to stitch the word s “Je t’aime” repeatedly

Atmosphere:

This form makes me feel empathetic because of the following:

the sculpture is dis-membered. This suggests that Louise is slowly getting rid of a memory of someone, considering the bump on the carve we can powerfully see that she’s attempting to “kill” the memory of a man. I know this because she repeatedly has called herself the murderer for this exhibition.

Also, “Je t’aime” is repeatedly stitched throughout the bed in which the sculpture is lying powerfully suggesting that the memory of this man (her husband who passed away) is killing slowly killing/ hurting her, nonetheless she still loves her husband. This is suggested by the fact the sculpture is only missing bits of its body like head, arms, and feet successfully showing the slow “murderous” process of getting rid of a memory.

Response:

For my own experimentation

Additional Inspiration

Carolle Benitah

Own experimentation

For my own embroidery creation, I have been inspired by Louise in terms of; using my own struggles and life experiences and implementing them in to a physical art work.

For example:

The words “Je t’ai aim” suggests that an event happened in a love story and all you want to say is “I loved you” but you can’t get yourself to finish the phrase because there are lots of people around, a lot of opinions, thoughts and worries.

CONTEXTUAL STUDY 2 ; OCCUPATION TAPESTRY

Occupation Tapestry was the biggest community art project ever undertaken in Jersey, and made by Islanders for Islanders. It was used so they could easily tell stories about how life was like during the five years in which jersey was part of the German occupation.

I feel that these tapestry’s that were made by islanders are very bold and vibrant. This may of had a significant impact on the viewer as they may understand the stories in which are being tried to outline within the tapestry.

The Occupation Tapestry was unveiled in 1995 and has since successfully helped Islanders and visitors to have a better understanding of this difficult period in which Jersey had. Below are several example of the occupation tapestry.

This link will lead you to be able to find more detailed information on the occupation tapestry as well as information on jerseys history during the war which is what lead to the tapestries.

https://www.theislandwiki.org/index.php/The_Occupation_Tapestry

NFT- Embroidery Workshop

What is embroidery? Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. When it comes to photography, this can be a good edition to your images- it can add texture, depth and can make images more interesting overall.

Melissa Zexter interview: Embroidered photography - TextileArtist.org
Melissa Zexter

We started by learning 4 different techniques, these being: running stitch, back stitch, couching stitch and the satin stitch. My personal favourite would be the back stitch as it creates a smooth, thick and constant line of thread. We practiced these stitches on a small piece of material.

We were then assigned a task to cut any pieces of material around the room (being the People Make Jersey tapestries from the Jersey Museum) and had to create our own piece of art using the embroidery techniques we had learnt. We were also asked to take pictures every few minutes to create a short gif animation afterwards.

nft artist reference

Mike Winkelmann- Beeple

Michael Joseph Winkelmann, known professionally as Beeple, is an American digital artist, graphic designer, and animator. He is known for using various mediums in creating comical, phantasmagoric works that makes political, social commentary while using pop culture figures as references. He uses software such as the program Cinema 4D. The sale of his work ‘Everdays- The First 5000 Days’ marked two industry firsts. Christie’s is the first major auction house to offer a purely digital work with a unique NFT (Non-fungible token) — effectively a guarantee of its authenticity — and to accept cryptocurrency, in this case Ether, in addition to standard forms of payment for the singular lot.

From Simple Drawings to Life in 3D

Consumers of internet culture will already be familiar with the South Carolina-based graphic designer and motion artist known as Beeple. His visionary and often irreverent digital pictures have propelled him to the top of the digital art world, winning him 1.8 million followers on Instagram and high-profile collaborations with global brands ranging from Louis Vuitton to Nike, as well as performing artists from Katy Perry to Childish Gambino. In EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, the artist has stitched together recurring themes and colour schemes into an aesthetic whole. The individual pieces are organised in loose chronological order: zooming in reveals pictures by turn abstract, fantastical, grotesque or absurd, deeply personal or representative of current events. Recurring themes include society’s obsession with and fear of technology; the desire for and resentment of wealth; and America’s recent political turbulence. The notable differences between the early and later pictures reveal Beeple’s enormous evolution as an artist. At the project’s inception, ‘everydays’ were basic drawings. When Beeple started working in 3D, however, they took on abstract themes, colour, form and repetition. Over the past five years, they have became increasingly timely, reacting to current events. ‘I almost look at it now as though I’m a political cartoonist,’ Beeple explains. ‘Except instead of doing sketches, I’m using the most advanced 3D tools to make comments on current events, almost in real time.’

Above are some examples of Beeple’s work that is reactive to things that were going on in the world at the time of making. Such as the BLM movement that was sparked after the death of George Floyd and the riots that happened afterwards.

Contextual study

NFT’s and Digital Art

Digital art has long been undervalued, in large part because it’s so freely available. To help artists create financial value for their work, NFTs add the crucial ingredient of scarcity. For some collectors, if they know the original version of something exists, they’re more likely to crave the “authentic” piece. It can be hard to understand why digital art has value. Some digital-art collectors say they’re paying not just for pixels but also for digital artists’ labor–in part, the movement is an effort to economically legitimise an emerging art form. “I want you to go on my collection and be like, ‘Oh, these are all unique things that stand out,’” says Shaylin Wallace, a 22-year-old NFT artist and collector. “The artist put so much work into it–and it was sold for the price that it deserved.” The movement is also taking shape after many of us have spent most of the past year online. If nearly your whole world is virtual, it makes sense to spend money on virtual stuff.

NFTs are having their big-bang moment: collectors and speculators have spent more than $200 million on an array of NFT-based artwork, memes and GIFs in the past month alone, according to market tracker NonFungible.com, compared with $250 million throughout all of 2020. And that was before the digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, sold a piece for a record-setting $69 million at famed auction house Christie’s on March 11—the third highest price ever fetched by any currently living artist, after Jeff Koons and David Hockney.

Everydays- The First 5000 Days

Beeple sold an NFT for $69 million - The Verge

Until October, the most Mike Winkelmann — the digital artist known as Beeple — had ever sold a print for was $100. This was until, his piece ‘Everydays- The First 5000 Days’ sold for a record setting $69 million. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique files that live on a blockchain and are able to verify ownership of a work of digital art. Buyers typically get limited rights to display the digital artwork they represent, but in many ways, they’re just buying bragging rights and an asset they may be able to resell later. The technology has absolutely exploded over the past few weeks — and Winkelmann, more than anyone else, has been at the forefront of its rapid rise. A few factors explain why Beeple’s work has become so valuable. For one, he’s developed a large fan base, with around 2.5 million followers across social channels. And he’s famously prolific: as part of a project called “Everydays,” Winkelmann creates and publishes a new digital artwork every day. The project is now in its 14th year.

Identity + Community: NFT Planning + Film Making

Planning

WhatWe will film someone walking in front of still images. And with a plain background walking to wards the camera.
WhereHautlieu studio.
WhoPeople in group will help with the set up and as models.
WhyWe want to show the difference in clothes over the years and that no matter how much technology and the world changes clothes stay the same and come back into fashion.
WhenDoes not matter as will be shot in a studio so weather or lighting is not an issue. Will be at a time and date suitable for people taking part and the equipment needed.
HowUsing a projector and Blank white screen to project on and have the camera on a tripod. We will take multiple shots with different models and outfits and then edit them to make it look like the models are walking seamlessly as one.

Film Making

We will use a projector and a screen to project a still image as our background found from photo archives of jersey or the Internet matching the era that shot is focusing on. For the present and future we will take our own images. We will have someone walking physically in front of the projected screen.

Story Board

Scene 1 – 1970s
Scene 2 – 2000s
Scene 3 – 2021 (present)
Scene 4 – Future
Scene 5 – Future
Scene 6 – What’s Next?
Shot types and mise-en-scene:

Shot type: Long shot

Location: studio with projector background of image from archives

Props: Phone/object from the specific era

People: Same

Summary:

Our 30 second clip will consist of someone walking in front of a screen where a background to match that era will appear and they will be wearing iconic clothes to match. The clip will cut from different eras while the model walks looing like they are continuing to walk through the different eras. The end will have short cuts from each scene with new outfits from alternative eras then suddenly stop while the model turns towards the camera dressed in all black with a plain white background.

nft

Mind Map

Mood Board

Statement of Intent

Class in Education: Class is a defining factor in British culture, especially evident when looked through with the micro lens of schooling. School is compulsory in jersey from ages 5-16 and is a shared experience for all jersey citizens however the experience itself is often completely different and varies depending on class and financial status which seems unfair when considering how our education sets us up for later life, whether we are a success or a failure. There is a dramatic difference in the top schools and the bottom which we would like to study through photography and film. In the UK the best universities and schools are mostly only available to the most high-class pupils with the only exceptions for the academically gifted who push through class creating elitist segregation through education that continue to later life. We wish to bring to light this issue by photographing different types of students and schools.

NFT Community – Research

Recap Ideas of Identity and community in Jersey

Before embarking in the research of my NFT project I want to recap on the foundations of the project: community in Jersey.

The Government of Jersey is currently consulting the public about what makes Jersey special through a project called Island Identity.

I brainstormed a reaction to what the above question was asking to set a foundation for my NFT project.

The ISLAND IDENTITY project has produced a website and a report that has identified distinctive qualities of island life in Jersey. It discusses:

Constitution & Citizenship
Communities
International
Economy
Education & Sport
Heritage, Culture & the Arts
Environment

I want to keep these themes prevalent throughout our NFT project.

What is an NFT

An NFT is a “one-of-a-kind” digital asset that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property. As with crypto-currency, a record of who owns what is stored on a shared ledger known as the blockchain and maintained by thousands of computers around the world.

FTX, Dolphin partner for NFT Marketplace - Ledger Insights - enterprise  blockchain

NFTs can be used to represent items such as photos, videos, audio, and other types of digital files. This therefore marries the art and photography with the digital, crypto realm.

CoinDesk: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crypto News and Price Data
CryptoPunks – one of the first non-fungible tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. The project was developed by American studio Larva Labs.

In economics, a fungible asset is something with units that can be readily interchanged – like money.

With money, you can swap a £10 note for two £5 notes and it will have the same value.

However, if something is non-fungible, this is impossible – it means it has unique properties so it can’t be interchanged with something else.

It could be a house, or a painting such as the Mona Lisa, which is one of a kind. You can take a photo of the painting or buy a print but there will only ever be one original painting.

NFTs are “one-of-a-kind” assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property, but which have no tangible form of their own.

The digital tokens can be thought of as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets.

Traditional works of art such as paintings are valuable precisely because they are one of a kind.

But digital files can be easily and endlessly duplicated.

With NFTs, artwork can be “tokenised” to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold.

Most expensive NFT sold to date ($69 million):

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/03/30/crypto-investor-metakoven-beeple-nft-art.html

2 Lives Exhibition:

https://2lives.world/

The idea theme that this digital art exhibition is going to fixate on, is the idea that we all live two lives and these lives co-exist between tangible and virtual worlds.

2 Lives was created by Francesco Vincenti & Claudia Runcio

artist reference 2; textiles & embroidery

The textile artist that I chose to study for this topic is Yulia Makeyeva. Our class was lucky enough to have a textile learnng workshop with her , which allowed us to learn more about her and her unique work that she produced through many different ways of stitching.

She is an emerging multidisciplinary artist. She grew up in Russia and is now based in Jersey, Channel Islands. With a Linguistics degree, an education in Art History, silversmithing and jewellery making background, she turned her full attention to art in 2019. Yulia has always used photography as a means of observing textures, patterns and shapes from everyday objects, constructing unique, sometimes unexpected images.

some images of her work;

Fleeting: Installation View

She uses different types of stiches in her work such as a running stich, back stich and a few others that we actually got to do when working with her in her workshop.

Graphology, 2020
embroidery on cotton canvas

Yulia is also the founder of Connect with art an online network that provides a platform for artists and art lovers to connect, interact, meet and discover. It also includes an Exhibition space in St Helier where the work produced by students will be exhibited as part of 2 Lives NFT Art Project.

Her work will be helpful when it comes to producing our work as if we chose to stich in our images we will know how to do it confidently due to her work shop.

my experience working with her and my experiment;

this is what I produced when Julia showed me how to stitch. I used the first method as it was the quickest way of stitching, knowing how to do this is beneficial for when we want to stitch onto our work.