Week 3- Hussein Chalayan and Post-Modern Fashion

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 Afterwords and 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.)

The work "Burka" feels as though it is trying to show how one item of clothing can hide ones identity. The burka is a peice of clothing which muslim women wear to cover the face. I like the idea of the burka because instead of judging one on looks the eyes are only visible and it takes more effort to get to know someone. The work "Afterwords" was inspired by the story of refugees. Its about packing up in times of trouble and leaving home. The dresses are infact furniture transformed into wearable garments. The work is very interesting and i think it is more of an art than fashion. There is a difference within the two works. One is using fabric to create clothing and the other is using already made objects and transforming them into outfits. Although both mains focus is to create garments, the "afterwords" is more of a "wearable arts" type thing.

Hussein Chalayan, Burka (1996) (99

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                                                                 Hussein Chalayan, Afterwords, 2000

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?

I think that art can be either a product to sell or something to look at. Just because something is being sold does not mean that the meaning of the art changes. The "Tunnel level" relates to capturing the essence of vodka and can be described to be the same as this work because when you go down a tunnel or drink more alcohol out of a bottle, it gradually opens your senses and you go a bit crazy.

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?

A video installation tells a story about identity,genetics,biology and anthropology. Its about how humans adapt to new environments. The artist has definitely played with the theme humanism and was inspired by it when creating this film.

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

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?


Its important that the artist personally made the piece because then the work is personal and is coming directly from the artists mind. It also makes the work more valuable. If a bunch of workers put the piece together then its really saying that anyone could make this piece if they got a team together. It also is important that the artist makes the piece because then the work is more original and comes from their thoughts. I beleive the work is much stronger when it comes directly from the artist, it is like looking at a small snipit of their thoughts. 

http://ilikecatsmorethanpeople.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/hussein-chalayan-burka-1996.html

http://usedmagazine.co.uk/?p=1542
http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/hussein-chalayan-beyond-limitations
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0768786/
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/chalayan.html
http://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CEgQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.style.com%2Ffashionshows%2Freview%2FF2000RTW-HCHALAYA%2F&ei=gqw0UIuwK8ediAeYsIGwAw&usg=AFQjCNHska03qq4TedWpXyRwW6oAZ-aIFA