Friday, 21 March 2014
5 things that inspire me...
1. the Australian landscape
Having the Australian bush around me is an inspiration every day...the colours and patterns of the landscape are all at once subtle, rich, ethereal, moody and indelible. There is much to be inspired in the sky, the weather, the landscape, the trees, the plants, the seasons, the animals and the empty spaces in between.....it is the place where I live....my house and garden.
2. art: Sidney Nolan
I also can’t live without looking at and living with art. The skill of artists inspires me. Visits to galleries and having my own small collection of Tasmanian art around me satisfied this need, but Sidney Nolan is one artist that took my breath away when I saw his retrospective at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2007. Up until then I had mostly seen his work in books, which flatten his work and render it lifeless. Reproductions of his work do no justice to his consummate skill. This exhibition was the first time I fully appreciated his work. It makes me tingle thinking about it even today.
I am fortunate to live in the same city as MONA where Nolan’s masterpiece Snake rests (currently in storage). What can I say....you really need to look at his work yourself.
“Painting is an extension of man’s means of communication. As such, it’s pure, difficult and wonderful". Sidney Nolan
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/21/3118612.htm?site=hobart
http://roar-drawing.blogspot.com.au/2011_11_01_archive.html
3. Japanese aesthetics and fashion designer Issey Miyake
Japan has always created beautiful and beautifully made things and Japanese aesthetics have historically influenced many artists and designers, particularly after it was opened to the west in the mid 19th century. Japanese aesthetic sensibilities pervaded all aspects of their culture and was incorporated into the everyday and the practical...in gardens, food, textiles, craft, theatre, architecture as well as art. It was their textile and garden design that first captured my interest and has been a source of inspiration for me since then. Issey Miyake is a modern Japanese fashion designer that has pushed the limits of the craft, and who expresses the essence of Japanese design and culture through his garments. The first time I visited Japan in 1999 I discovered an Issey Miyake Pleats Please window display in an outside window of Kyoto Station.
Each time I have gone back to Japan I look for a Pleats Please window display. Pleats Please and the 132.5 ranges show what an innovative and inspirational designer he is. Issey Miyake’s Pleats Please collections were launched in 1993. Made from single pieces of high quality 100% polyester fabric, Pleats Please clothing is innovative in its process: the clothes are first cut and sewn together from fabric that is nearly three times larger than the finished item of clothing, then sandwiched between sheets of paper and hand fed into a pleats machine. From tube dresses to cardigans, skirts, shirts, or elastic-waisted pants: the clothes emerge with permanent pleats. This industrial process allows both texture and form to be created at the same time. Vertical pleating is used to create different effects and architectural shapes. Pleats Please clothes are very functional and practical; they store easily, travel well, require no ironing, can be machine-washed, and dry within hours. Shapes are simple, and the colors and prints diverse (a set of basic colors is available each season, plus seasonal colors and prints). The clothes’ simple beauty, comfort, lightness, and ease of care have changed the way many women all over the world dress.
His 132.5 range of folded clothing expands from two-dimensional complex geometric shapes into structured shirts, skirts, pants and dresses...a bit like origami really! 132.5 was inspired by mathematics and the project is the work of Issey Miyake’s Reality Lab, a research and development team formed by Miyake, textile engineer Manabu Kikuchi and pattern engineer Sachiko Yamamoto. They worked with origami inventor and computer scientist Jun Mitani, who created a computer programme to construct three-dimensional structures from a single piece of paper. The title of the collection helps explain its concept: one piece of fabric, a three-dimensional shape reduced to two, and the fifth dimension, which Miyake describes as the moment the garment is worn and comes to life. The beautiful and minimalist Reality Lab store was opened in Tokyo in 2010 to launch this range.
http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/fashion/all/04458/facts.pleats_please_issey_miyake.htm
4. The Bauhaus design philosophy: form follows function
Form follows function is one of the most quoted slogans in the area of design. The principle embodied by this idea was adopted by the Bauhaus movement and in turn formed the basis of the 20th century Modernist movement. Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe are well known proponents of the style.
The slogan was adopted from an original quote by American architect Louis H. Sullivan in 1896 "It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law”.
My own aesthetic sensibilities have been highly influenced by the Bauhaus designers. Their designs were minimalist yet beautifully elegant and functional, and I find myself using these qualities as the basis for many of my purchasing, creating or accumulative choices.
The Farnsworth house designed by Mies van der Rohe and built in Plano Illinois has become a classic example of Bauhaus architecture. The Walter Gropius Studio-Line tea set made by Rosenthal is a classic Bauhaus domestic ware design. While my basic need is for minimalist, elegant and functional objects...I still love a bit of extravagant ornamentation!
5. Yo Yo Ma’s The Cello Suites (inspired by Bach)
Yo Yo Ma performs the 6 suites in collaboration with artists from different disciplines in a series of 6 different films. I saw this television series many years ago and found it so inspiring that I bought the CD box set of the music. I play it often, especially when I am looking for serenity and clarity of thought.
Suite #1- The Music Garden, directed by Kevin McMahon. After explaining how the first Cello Suite always conjures up images of nature, Yo-Yo Ma recruits architect Julie Moir Messervy to help him try and design a garden based on the suite.
Suite #2 - The Sound of the Carceri was directed by François Girard. Yo-Yo Ma brings the music of the Second Suite together with the etchings of the 18th century Italian architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi in this film.
Suite #3 - Falling Down Stairs was directed by Barbara Willis Sweete. Yo-Yo Ma collaborates with Mark Morris to create a dance for the Third Suite.
Suite #4 - Sarabande, directed by Atom Egoyan, is inspired by Egoyan’s meeting with Yo-Yo to begin working on the film.
Suite #5 - Struggle for Hope was directed by Niv Fichman. Yo-Yo travels to Japan to work with "his favourite Kabuki actor" Bandō Tamasaburō to choreograph a dance for the Fifth Suite.
Suite #6 - Six Gestures was directed by Patricia Rozema. Rozema and Yo-Yo explore the life of Bach when he wrote the Cello Suites with the help of ice dancers Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean as well as Tom McCamus, who plays Bach.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspired_by_Bach
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