Deborah Crowe - texitle and art

Blog Qn: What is Deborah Crowe's 'one idea' made up from and how does it keep recycling in various works?

This week we have lecturer Deborah Crowe to give us the lecture on her practice. I have been interested in learning what field Deborah explores in her artworks, as i have not had any classes with her yet. I was also intrigued in seeing how she would construct her works, since i have heard she deals with both 2D and 3D aspects of art. I feel like this would help me greatly in understanding and relating myself more into the fields of 3D art works.

Deborah stated that she construct drawings by using collage techniques, however she also uses the atmosphere as a tool, such as light, mood, sound and voices. She majored in textile and design along with having a passion for art. It's very inspirational to see her combining skills from the two elements into art making, i had too taken fashion, I wish i can learn to incorporate textile techniques into the works i make.

Deborah is known as a strict teacher as i heard from classmates that had been in her class previously, it's a quality she explores in her art as well. She explains that she have great fascination in the sense of being restrained and contained within a space, she plays with the idea of discipline and boundaries in her works, like she said 'i like to see where the edge happens.'

It is very interesting to learn that Deborah have a favourite place to draw, unlike lecturers before who showed photographs of their studio at home, Deborah told us that the Forth Railway Bridge, (a bridge in Scotland) is where she always travel to and sit under to draw. To her, it is a closed in place that lets her generate ideas, as it is an overhead structure therefore it gives a sense of the body being contained.

Her exploration of how the human body being placed in a space reminded me of Steve's study of one's placement in the world. Both artist deals with the relationship between the space and the body.

There's no definite idea for Deborah's practices, her works consists many ideas that constantly shifts. However there are some focal elements that i picked out from her slides of works. Some of the main ideas are based around containment, weaving, bridge froms and wolven like architectures. Even she admits that 'documentation of some work become the material for the next to come'.

Deborah's fascination with bridge architectural forms make me feel strongly of the ideas about being contained by woven like construction. As i can identify a relationship between the weaving of the threads of a fabric and the structure of a bridge.

One artist Deborah was greatly influenced by was Caroline Broadhead.

Broadhead explores the light and shadow which represent the present and the absence of the body. I can see similarities in Deborah's earlier works as they are very fashion orientated.

I like Deborah's work 'Adina', which means containing the body in Latin. The work shows a rather feminist connotation of the society's pressure on women, resulting the distortion of female bodies, almost in the form of torture.

This containment torture continued into the next series of works, which was the neck pieces displayed at 'fingers' gallery. But this time targeting the male body. The neck pieces are like shirt collars which was weaved of mesh, Which look extremely uncomfortable to wear. The idea of making the neck pieces out of mesh came from a joke of shirt collars being hard enough to cut into flesh. I found this series of works interesting, i like the way she deliberately made the pieces in the form of a fashion decoration that distort the body.

This lead to the collaborative work with Kim Fraser - Dual Outlook.

This piece had the same idea of containing the body in a woven form, however this time it was about creating a safe space for the body to hide in, a place away from technology. This is my favourite work by Deborah as although the piece seem very hard, it is actually very wearable. Which is almost like the reverse effect of the mesh collar pieces, Dual Outlook is apparently quite functional.

This reminds me of another artist that Deborah mentioned - Toyo Ito.

Ito's designs look like the interlocking of the threads in fabrics, which Deborah love.

Deborah explained his work as being 'concept and functional architecture', which contains at the same time being interactive.

Which is interesting to me, as i have yet to make art can be beneficial physically, it is something i want to work towards to, especially when it comes to 3D art.

I like how Deborah can combine so many ideas into one work to convey her message to the audience, but i think it is very effective. The one idea that i found being repeated in many of her works in the containment of the human body, which is always accompanied by a form that is woven. I find it hard to seperate these two as i feel that she seem to use the two ideas as one idea. I personally like this use of ideas, as i often struggle with relating one idea to another.

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After the lecture we went to visit the gallery show 'manu toi'.

I was excited to see the works by Dion, his works are distinctive and seeing it person i really feel the interaction between the work and the audience, as i can go up close to it and walk around it. Which is important especially for a 3D artwork. I feel priviledged to be taught by a well respected art practician.

Also it reminded me that i need to start doing my sculpture homeworks..