Week 3 : Hussein Chalayan

"Hussein Chalayan, who interprets a conceptual approach to fashion, shares the view that Britain's diminshing resources in fact heighten the creative output. He defines British fashion as, 'Aware, multifaceted and empowered by a lack of resources." Davies, H. (2009)


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?

Hussein Chalayan, Burka, 1996

Hussein Chalayan, Afterwords, 2000

Looking at the images of Chalayan's works, I feel as though they both have a sense of fashion and art about them. However, I have to consider that I may have a different opinion of the works if I looked at them in real life, and instead I'd possibly label them as fashion works because I'd be viewing the pure physicality and finality of the works. But when I look at an image of the final works, I can't help but identify a creative and experimental process that Chayalan has used to create his works. If his works were just fashion, they'd only deal with mere appearances, but since these works encourage us to look at their important issues too, it's hard to deny they are art aswell. It's how Chalayan had used a creative process and put it on display with his works that made him famous in fashion, as well as the use of unconventional materials and
unorthodox techniques.

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?

Eastoe, J. and Gristwood, S. include an introduction in their book Fabulous Frocks (2009) that describes Chalayan's works as "mechanical marvels."

Repose (2006)

I would imagine Chalayan's industrial background could possibly impact on the nature of his work. Afterall, he has been described as one of the most innovative, experimental and conceptual fashion designers of our present time ("Hussein Chalayan / Fashion + Video", n.d.) so it's hard for me to doubt that his experimentation goes beyond what we perceive as fashion ideas.

The Level Tunnel (2006)

I don't believe the meaning of art is changed when it is used to sell products because the product is still formed from an art process. The only difference is that the art is being used for commercial purposes instead of for the sake of art. This isn't nearly enough of a difference to change the meaning of art though, as art wouldn't be successful if it didn't sell, and in order for it to sell, it would need to be visually captivating. I'd expect all forms of art to require the same amount of visual interest as commercial art.

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. 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?

"Looking at the neurosis and paranoia around the issue of terrorism, the consequential suspicion of foreign individuals and the British Governments new hard line policies on immigration and asylum seekers, Hussein Chalayan decided to propose a scenario depicting how institutions may interrogate and scrutinize individuals and how they may create new measures for living in Britain." (HusseinChalayan.com)

Stills from Chalayan's film, Absent Presence (2005)

Aside from the scientific theme of this film, just by looking at the use of video media and technology, I get a sense that the Science and Reason may have been an influence in Chalayan's approach to this work. The Scientific Revolution supported the view that the world functions like a machine (Hooker, R. 1996). The systematic performance in Chalayan's film supports the theory that the world functions like a machine because the story appears to be heavily dependent on technology and science, and it is therefore brought to our attention that the world could be a slave to science and technology in the sense that we may not function as efficiently without it. 

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


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.

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living by Damien Hirst (1991)

In this contemporary age, I believe it is no longer essential that an artist has to have personally made a work them-self for it to be credited to them. This is because a majority of today's artists and designers are incredibly opposed to being so restricted to something they are only capable of making by them-self, therefore they are exploring ideas that go beyond the hands of one artist. So long as the artist has contributed the idea to the work, I feel it is fair to credit the work to the artist. While some artists may not physically be making their own works anymore, I feel their ideas and works are still contributing to the development of the art world.

Reference List:

• Davies, H. (2009) British Fashion Designers. London, UK: Laurence King Publishers. 
• http://www.artbabble.org/series/art-fashion
• http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/hc.html
• Eastoe, J. & Gristwood, S. (2009) Fabulous Frocks. UK: Pavilion.
• http://www.husseinchalayan.com/#/art_projects.absent_presence.overview/
• Hooker, R. (1996). The scientific revolution. Retrieved from http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~dee/Enlight/Scirev.html