Week 3- Hussein Chalayan and Post-Modern Fashion

Hussein Chalayan

Chalayan is an artist and designer, working in film, dress and installation art. Research Chalayan’s work, and then consider these questions in some thoughtful reflective writing.

1. Chalayan’s works in clothing, like Afterwords (2000) and Burka (1996) , are often challenging to both the viewer and the wearer. What are your personal responses to these works? Are Afterwordsand Burka fashion, or are they art? What is the difference?

Not all clothing is fashion, so what makes fashion fashion? (Research some definitions  for these terms.)

Hussein Chalayan, Burka (1996) (99

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                                                                 Hussein Chalayan, Afterwords, 2000

Chayalan‘s work is very different from others by using some unconventional materials and technique

I can see the experimental process that Chayalan has used to create his works. it is a challenge both viewers and wearers. chayalan’s work very thought provoking, a burka is normally a full body worn in such countries as Afghanistan  women as traditional. However, chayalan makes these burka half and unusual. And also from the work Afterwork (2000), i find interesting in the material he has used, it looks  so post modern and further. Chayalan has such many great ideas about trying new materials on his artworks.

I think that chayalan has made some great art because these can make people thinking, and his ideas is strongly related to post modern and further life. However, I don't think these can be called fashion. In my opinion fashion is more about the normal people and what do they interest about  and wear during their lives.  I can't imagine that someone could wear these walking on the street.

2. 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?

                                                              The Level Tunnel (2006)

Repose(2006)

Because of the impact of  industry, his art are linked with commercial businesses. Chalayan‘s work still  visually captivating. The only difference is that the art is being used for commercial purposes instead of for the sake of art. No matter the art is for art or is for sell, the art is not change enough. In my opinion, although the industry has made some impact on his works more or less, but Chalayan still has the thinking of  creating works which is unique. so I think it is still art.


3. 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?

Hussein Chalayan, still from Absent Presence, 2005 (motion picture)

The Absent Presence is an enigmatic story based on identity, geography, genetics, biology and anthropology. It opens the argument on how certain identities can or cannot adapt to new environments and generates a research based narration for Hussein's cross-disciplined installation with filmic images and sculptures.

In his conceptual works he uses film, installation and sculptural forms to explore perception and the realities of modern life. Chalayan´s multi-layered narratives are molded into neo-mythological, futuristic visual rituals.In this project he deals with the tantalizing issue of identity as DNA and its reflection in the geopolitical environment. 

http://art100.wikispaces.com/Hussein+Chalayan

http://www.kunstaspekte.de/index.php?tid=40009&action=termin

4. 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) andBefore 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. So when and why is it important that the artist personally made the piece?


Nowadays it is not so important that the work is personally made by artist themselves. The importance is exploring ideas and communicate successfully. For example, Chalayan always try different materials in his work which is a experiment to creating process. During the process, he might need the help from others, however the idea is created by himself.



http://www.husseinchalayan.com/#/home/
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/chalayan.html 
http://www.husseinchalayan.com/blog/