Thirsty For More: November 2011

Sunday, November 27, 2011

brightspot market 2011

I'm back in Jakarta, my lovely hometown, just in time for the annual brightspot market. Held in Plaza Senayan this year, everything gets bigger and better. More space and even more talented local young designers. I can feel the creativity in the air as I step inside the hall area.

awesome studded biker jacket by 16DS

hand made resin jewellery from greedysassy

Amongst the many labels and stores that participated, including Santalum, Satcas, Mannequin plastic, Kandura ceramics, Unkl347, HGLhouse, Jansport, etc. But one of my most anticipated brand is Nikicio. A friend of mine, Sasha just told me about her about a month ago and I fell in love completely, especially because she released an awesome fashion film for one of her collection. And most of her clothes looked even better in person (as I have only seen it via the website).

some of the gorgeous wool prints peeping through from the rack

wool coat from the Mixté Le Printemps 2012 collection,
with the incredible ceramics beading from kandura ceramics

the very lovely Nina Nikicio herself

The acrylic black clutch, transparent skateboard deck, and the organza blazer by Nikicio (sorry, I forgot to take the pic) was still running through my head even when I was already on my way home. I know, I should've bought some of them first. However, since I'm still saving up my money for something else, I'll probably buy them later, I hope sometime soon :) But to cheer up myself, I bought this cool blue skull ring from greedysassy

Overall, today had been beyond awesome. I was very inspired by the talents that was evident at the brighspot market. Reassuring me how much I (and should've been for a long time) love and feel proud of my beloved country, Indonesia. In addition, I also met Arto, Karina, and Adrian; friends of mine from high school while shopping there.

So, I hope you guys had a fantastic weekend as well :)

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

punch me with paint

The last time I did the collage series, I was accompanying my friend painting and we used some scrap magazines for our 'palette' and here is how it looked like,

Continuing from my previous series, I think I'm getting hooked with making collages. Although now, I tried with a slightly different approach. I'm combining the 'painting palette' with some editorial photography but mixing them digitally.

Still continuing with the visual connection towards a more sartorial approach. But this time, the concept is sort of about the aesthetic of brutality.

I also made 16 other alternative compositions. So which one do you like?

Let me know :)

scribbles over magazine series

SCRIBBLES OVER MAGAZINE

SERIES

I’m done for the semester, so I’m enjoying freedom :D With nothing to do, I gather some left over magazines I found and make a bit of some artworks inspired by a more sophisticated vandalism, such as the dadaism art movement. The attempt in sophisticating vandalism may come through my use of paint and markers (instead of the standard spray paint) or from my chosen subject matter that gravitates towards the world of fashion. Maybe its sort of my own contribution, to show people that we should recognize the limitless capabilities in the world of art.

One might always thought of graffiti as just an act of vandalism, but they forgot about the craftsmanship and the ideas on those imagery splattered on public walls. If you're one of them, please be more appreciative of other human beings? You might be mocking them before, but you can see now that Zevs' dripping Chanel illustration or Stephen Sprouse's LV graffiti bag had been quite a big hit.

So here's a bit of my own interpretation on such act of 'creative deconstruction' combined with some elements of fashion to give birth to a wide range of new ideas.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Levi's

I was flipping through some magazines while waiting for class to start, then I came across this shoe-design contest from Levi's. Where participants were given a pair of brand new Levi's sneakers and the task to was to customize it our own way.

Just few days ago before I heard of this contest, a song kept playing repeatedly in my head. Its "Hollywood" by Marina and the Diamonds. I've always been a fan of her ever since I watched the music video for her song "Oh No!".

With her lovely voice kept floating in my mind, I just can't ignore it. So, I decided to draw inspiration from it. The song talks about how people around the world looked at america as some sort of a wonderful gateway to fame and fortune. And all simply because of the entertainment business are bombarding the mass media with the glitz and glamour, creating a new kind of visual culture like never before. Now, I tried to embodied that into my shoe-design.

The american flag that I drew represents the sense of patriotism in what people believed to be an 'american dream'. Because technically, what people are looking for is just a happy ending. Thus, to have the 'american' in that phrase suggest a sense of pride that people consider only in america you can get something that wonderful. On the other side, the american dream these days isn't exactly all picture-perfect. People get caught up with the idea of a perfect 'happy ending', without exactly knowing what they actually want. The TV seems to be the most influential thing in portraying that goal of ours. Some showed that the dream is to be rich, some suggested that we need to be famous. This kind of propaganda created an artificial world that we seemed to be so focused on, instead of what actually matters. That is why I applied the plastic coin embellishment to represent that other side of the american dream.

Here is how the final product looks like,

note: only the left side that was asked to be customized

But hey, I'm not saying America is this or that. However, my point is the fact that we need to be aware of how the media is affecting our life, both positively and negatively. Considering the fast-paced age that we lived in today, sometimes we do need to take a step back and reflect.