Royal Academy + Gran

Aware: art fashion identity..... Great, really good exhibtiion that I would thoroughly recommend. It was different to what I had expected it was about how contemporary artists and designers use clothing as a mechanism to communicate and reveal elements of ones identity. Upon entering I was greeted by a dress so intimately made yet it was only temporary , treated with a bacteria it decayed over time and therefore somewhat reminded me of a life cyle, the clothes age like us. It was interesting to see the photographs before and after- quite wierd how bacteria had affected the presentation of the clothing.  Alot of the work seemed to have an architectural basis and a piece which was particularly stricking was a tinsel dress , here the leather was meant to represent the skin- it was stunning. Katerina Seda linked clothing with communication and social relationships and this was also a common theme in some of the pieces. Yet here resisdents did not interact with their neiioghbours in a new housing estate and therefore to help communications Seda made t- shirts with photos of all the houses form her estate and a telephone number on them of the sender to the newer estate- this I thought was quite a fun idea. Gillian Wearings work was also here, her 60 min silence 1996 showed police men posing for a group photo, yet they were waiting in the same position for one hour. Over time it becomes evident the dynamics of the group as some of the policemen start to fidget which somewhat decreases the authority of their uniforms and for me made them seem much less powerful- it was suprisingly quite compelling to watch.

Having been here with my Gran- I was persuaded to go upstairs to see the Glasgow Boys exhibtion. Although this type of traditional painting is not my cup of tea- this did not take away from just how beautiful some of the paintings were- complete contrast from the previous exhibition in every sense from work, to people, to atmosphere. If you were at the RA go to it- but perhaps as a graphic designer, don't go out of your way to see it unless you are with your Gran!