Friday, 28 September 2012

Memories of Beauty vs. Mechanical Domination


Memories of beauty
Objects of a physical nature that may change or age over a period of time are the inspiration for this trend that indicates ideas of sentimentality and nostalgia.  The stalk was once a vivid, healthy green with smooth ridges running across its soft curve.  Over time, the stalk has developed into a sharp, crusty and fragile form with lighter tones of oranges, yellows and dark, wilted greens.  The emotions are of faded warmth and an attempt to cling on to the memory of an object that was once beautiful and young.  Colours combine warm, earthy tones that meet with clashes of coldness and ice due to the disruption in memory with the decayed object in sight.  Materials should contrast in weight; solid and constructed cloths such as natural cottons and linens against sheer, light and loose fabrics of silks and organzas.  Thinking of the natural aging process, textures should be coarse in contrast with smooth surfaces.  This trend sees patterns that are loose, random and spontaneous like memories that cannot be controlled.  Nature works in its own way, changing between beauty and distaste.



Mechanical Domination
Imagining the future and a mechanical world, this trend is influenced by tools, machines, engineering and technology.  A place taken over by structures that have been forced, applied or inflicted, there is a sense of a struggle between the futuristic, illusory world as it opposes all that is natural with lines, copies and repeated patterns.  The new mechanisms and technology in the world involve materials that are tight and bound, creating tension.  Consider the use of shiny satins, metals, elastic and wires.  Behind this theme, are the ideas of domination and a ‘dark period’ where the old world is being replaced and overpowered by a cold, bleak darkness of blacks, greys and midnight sky blues against pure whites.  However, amongst all this, the futuristic world also brings a new spark; a flash of metallic brought on by the intelligence behind science, text and codes.  This is a manufactured world of robust structures; surfaces hard, smooth, shiny and polished.  It is complex yet clean and deliberately ordered.


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