Nottingham

Gert and Uwe Tobias (Untitled), cover of the Nottingham Contemporary Exhibition Guide (17th July- 3rd October 2010)

My fashion group went to Nottingham on Thursday 14^th September to research for our Fashion, Art and Culture, the first project of our BA (Hons) Fashion degree. I found the city to be a lot more about Robin Hood than I expected, as well as still having many of its Medieval aspects. One of the places I visited was Nottingham Castle, which was interesting because of the contrast between the older, perhaps original parts of castle and the new, renovated parts. I also particularly liked the moss growing on the walls of the castle, and manipulating fabric to try and replicate this effect would create and interesting aesthetic and texture.

Moss growing on a wall of Nottingham Castle, Photographed by myself, September 2010

Moss growing on a wall of Nottingham Castle, Photographed by myself, September 2010

I also visited Nottingham Contemporary, which had two exhibitions showing, but I was only allowed to take photos in one. The first exhibition, which I was allowed to photograph, displayed the work of Gert and Uwe Tobias, twin brothers from Romania. I wasn’t very inspired by some of the work on show, the large scale paintings just didn’t appeal to me and I don’t really understand them. However, I did like some of their ceramic work, the texture created by the porcelain, the mix between smooth, flowing and sharp, jagged, some of the ceramics also have a burned colour slip added to them.  To me, they look almost like clocked figures weeping, the tears interpreted from the sharper details. I also liked some of the drawings with black backgrounds. They looked dark and sinister, my favourite of which was of what appears to be jester with a red face and large collar. I thought it looked a bit like a character from a Japanese mange film and the mixture of medias (white pencil, paints and collage) give the image a bolder image.

Gert and Uwe Tobias Ceramic, Photographed by myself, Nottingham Contemporary September 2010

Gert and Uwe Tobias Ceramic, Photographed by myself, Nottingham Contemporary, September 2010

The second exhibition in the gallery displayed the work of photographer Diane Arbus. I did find some of her work interesting, for example, ’Tattooed Man at a Carnival, Md’ (1970). I like this photo because of the boldness in the tones, as well as the contrast of the sky to the landscape and to the figure. As I was leaving the gallery, I saw a large sun umbrella folded down in the outdoor seating area of a pub. I took a photo of it because I thought that the way it was folded made it look like a man wearing a hooded cape. Although this may not fit into my first project brief, I thought it may come in useful at some other point, perhaps as inspiration for a garment silhouette or even just the bold red colour of the fabric.

'Identical Twins' by Diane Arbus, Roselle, N.J. 1967, sourced from the Nottingham Contemporary booklet, 17th July- 3rd October 2010

'Tattooed Man at a Carnival Md' by Diane Arbus, 1970, sourced from the Nottingham Contemporary booklet

Umbrella, Photographed by me, Nottingham, September 2010

The final place I visited was the Galleries of Justice Museum, which wasn’t very inspirational, it was mainly exhibitions of Robin Hood, both the legend and the films, and another about crime and punishment history, which was mainly newspaper clippings and historical devices used to punish and execute criminals in the past, however, in retrospect, the newspapers could have been a useful source of inspiration. I collected a few leaflets from the Galleries one of which was an advertisement for a play called “Welcome to Stinxville”. The image on the advert looks quite sinister with bars and a man wearing black and blacked out glasses, with an air of fear, due to the mist over the image and the tagline “Can you find the courage to enter?” It also looks quite provocative, as all the females in the image are dressed in Victorian burlesque, suggesting that it is more of a sexual production.

Flyer advertising the play "Welcome to Stinxville" by Imogen Joyce, Presented by The Artful Goders Theatre Company, also advertising the Galleries of Justice Museum, 2010