So at the moment ALL of my uni assignments are due in, which is why I've been exceptionally silent recently and I promise that on Thursday night you shall have your article! Soo, I bid you adieu and as I go look at these shoes by Beau Coops, just delish...mmmm I want a pair!
First off I apologize for not posting sooner, but I have been off my feet my feet busy trying to finish homework! And don't you know it is paying off!! I've nearly finished two art assignments a there not due in for another week and bit!! So while everyone's stressing out I get to relax and enjoy the weekend.... A little bit more. So I was planning on posting the stills from my stop-motion video drawing but I carried right on last night and made the video, music and all.
Before I show you the video I should explain the concept behind it, or it will come across terribly no doubt!
All right, so the film is called "The Swan," and instead of the alleyway it's self my lovely friend Keber agreed to stand in as a representation. The name I feel fits, as the story of the alley follows that of traditional swan stories. Starting out as nothing seemingly special and it grows up spreading its wing (figuratively) and becoming something of beauty and wonder before falling to a tragic end, just as the alley way did.
The colours used for the people who ark with the space are very intentional. The graffiti artist is made up of many tiny multi-coloured spots on a black. Thus, giving it a slightly grey shadowy effect. I chose this as graffiti artists are somewhat like shadows, you never really see them but they flit in and out. The multicolored flecks are to represent the freedom and the people, us. With all our differences and brightness.
The orange person who covers up the girl is the color of the council workers jumpsuits as they painted over the alley (literally).
Beethoven would turn in his grave no doubt as I have mixed parts form both Eroica's first movement and the first movement from his first symphony. This music is I feel relevant, Eroica would be my favorite of his symphonies but I think that it depicts the change and the beauty of the ally whilst the first symphony has just enough dark elements to allow feelings of shock and hostility to come through as the beauty is taken and locked away.
Ok, enough chit-chat heres the film, and oh, don't forget to comment about what you think!
New York, New York, that's right here I come! I've said it and you'd better believe it! After two days of on-the-edge-of-my-seat anticipation, both my boyfriend and me got our conformation emails to attend the student art trip to the big apple. As I understand it we're going to be visiting a large number of exhibits and artists as well as perhaps getting some of our own work displayed! On top of all of this there's going to be time to explore and already Jake and I are compiling a list of our must-go-to's.
Living in little Wellington means that we don't have access to such things as:
News stands on the road
Giant pizza slices
Horse and carriage rides
And a s*** load of other stuff that we've compiled...
Yes, it's six months away and working towards the money is going to be tough but I'm so excited, New York is my dream, a center of activity with great music, shops, food, culture.... Should I go on????
I'm sad enough to already have thought of what i'm packing and not packing in order to have room in my suitcase for new clothes and home decor and shoes.... But I'm not the only one, he's admitted to looking how far away record and specific clothing stores are away from our hostel.... Okay, my minds all a jitter and I'm about to start watching Lagerfeld Confidential, so I'm awfully sorry but short post today!
For my latest paper in Art and Design at uni we have been charged with a space that is now relatively forgotten and we have to find ways in which to interact with the space and to record the passing of time within it. I've thankfully managed to get graffiti alley which is in central Wellington and therefore it only takes me about ten minutes to get there. However, due to the fact New Zealand is hosting the rugby world cup this year. Both the council and the government have decided to "cleanup the streets," understandable? Sure, when it's taking all the empty chip packets off the sidewalk. But, alas they have decided to do away with any public self-expression! The history of graffiti alley isn't ancient, but it is a valued site by tourists, residents, artists, drunks and teenagers. A solid representation of expression, identity, perhaps anarchy, although beautiful nonetheless.
I Have been assigned this space just at this seemingly inconvenient time, despite this I have found that I am now more able than I perhaps was before to make a statement with my project. My idea is to capture this restriction of self-expression by using fashion, as I am majoring in fashion. My piece, which has just hit it's mock up stage uses a dress to represent the alley starting out clean, neat and tidy but slowly getting covered with dirt and paint. (My gorgeous friend Keber gets to model and have paint thrown at her!) Before getting covered up and chained.
When I came up with these ideas, I wasn't particularly thinking about what I was doing, and then my teacher asked why I had chosen performance design and yadda, yadda, yadda. Before I was informed of my apparent decision I don't think that I'd ever really heard of performance design before. But since then I have done some research into it, and I have found something that I can really appreciate, maybe that's why I love fashion so much, because wearing the clothes and showing the clothes is a performance in itself, that can be both beautiful while making a statement about social issues or historic events.
A couple of performance pieces I really like I have posted below this first is a piece by Yoko Ono in 1965 where she sat on the stage and asked for the audience to come up and cut at her clothes. I find this to be very beautiful and a strong feminist statement at the same time. When Ono preformed this it was done in silence but some douche has overlaid music. However I fully recommend that you watch it.
The other piece of performance design that I want to share with you is actually done by my fashion lecturer Catherine Bagnall. She wears huge, bulky old-fashioned wedding dresses and ball gowns tramping / hiking and records how the weather and conditions affect the fabric and how the huge mass of fabric effects her journey. You can find a really good article on it at Fashionprojects.org and lots more photos of her work there as well.
I LOVE City shopping, I know, I know, I went op-shopping the day before but I couldn't help myself! Yesterday I went into the city center to shop. It is of course rare to find $4.00 cardigans there so I went armed with the intent of only purchasing ONE woven brown belt and food for dinner ... and I came back with DVD's a new dress, underwear and a new pair of stockings, alas none of this without considering a brilliant red pair of Vivienne Westwood Mary Jane's for $280, it's a pity they were one size too big, they were beautiful!
I got very caught up in my favorite shop Aeon which had a buy one get one free sale! SO when I saw this dress (at only $40.00) I couldn't help myself it's amazing, velvet, stretchy, and hides all in its texture!
The hard part was choosing my free gift because she has so much that I’d love to have anyway I walked away with these vintage boxed stockings. They're your typical nude thigh highs but the best bit is their sweet little box!
Complete with emblem!
I wish stockings still came wrapped up like this! Oh, the glamour of years past.
For my Art and Design class we had to make a short film about a particular site we got given, (and thanked it's not worth anything)! So at about one am I dragged myself downtown to video in the cold for ten minutes!!! And added the ambient sounds of my favorite city! Well, hopefully soon to visit favorite city!
Well, I can't give you the exact recipe but today was pretty darn close. The sun was out, I was wearing my favorite polka dots and lace tutu underlay on my way with my boyfriend to Pranah Café. A cute little vegan / vegetarian coffee shop in New Town. We got there just in time to get the last table, and had a super delicious lunch with Chai Latte's and healthy, yummy, cruelty free meals.
I got a delicious tofu burger, and oh not that I eat McDonalds anymore but, café burgers always, always surpass anything they manage to slap together... Furthermore the rainforest has a tendency to stay reasonably intact. My boyfriend's meal which is closer to the front were vegetarian quesadillas’' with jalapeno’s, mmmm nom nom nom.
I wish we'd taken more photo's today, because New Town has the cutest selection of Op-Shops and secondhand book shops, and I found the cutest cranberry coloured cardigan with scalloped edges from Opportunities for Animals, for a mere $4.00 and just as well because as soon as we stepped out, New Town being in Wellington poured down and the wind whooshed up the street, I have never been more thankful for my tutu under-shorts!!
I guess the rain has the possibility of being a bad thing, however the dairy man undercharged me for three Whittaker’s bars (milk less!!) Therefore I think making the day an almost success...
So I guess that's what my recipe is,
Coffee
Rain
Cardigans
And maybe something else a bit sappier!
Lot's of Love
Audrey Megan
P.S. If you've got a recipe, I'd love to hear it! Comment below!
OK so it's a week later and I still haven't finished that pumpkin and I had a heap of silken tofu left from the pumpkin pie. So, what with it being quite cold I decided to branch out and make up my own soup recipe, and nom nom nom, it was tasty! Please excuse the somewhat terrible photo and try it out. I call it my:
Vegan Fridge Soup
Makes around 3-4 servings.
1 Tbsp. Red Onion
3 Tbsps. Olive Oil
150g Silken Tofu
1-2 Tsp. Oregano
2 Tsp. Ground Coriander
2 Tsp. Ground Black Peppercorns
1 Tsp. Salt
230g Pumpkin
3 Tbsps. Tomato Paste
1 Vegetable Stock Cube
1 1/2 Cups Water
1 1/2 Teaspoons Arrowroot
Method:
Peel and cut the pumpkin into 3cm cubes and steam in the microwave on high for 6 minutes. While the pumpkin is steaming, Sauté the red onion in half of the olive oil. While the pumpkin is steaming, cube the red onion and slice the tofu carefully into strips. Sauté both the red onion and the tofu in the oil with the salt, pepper, coriander, and oregano.
Mix the arrowroot in a cup with about a tablespoon of water until free of lumps.
When the pumpkin's relatively soft mash well. Then add the water, tomato paste, pumpkin and arrowroot mixture to the tofu and onion. Crumbling the stock cube into the mixture.
Stir well until boiling, and add more arrowroot/water mixture if the soup isn't yet thick enough.
Serve with toast and dairy-free margarine.
Luckily, as I made this just for me I still have a lot left over for lunch or dinner tomorrow, and I defiantly recommend trying it. And I promise that it's not just because I made it!!
Sometimes we just need a pick-me-up, whether it be that you've woken up on the wrong side or someone's been mercilessly horrible or you didn't get the grade you wanted, or a number of other reasons. Whatever it is I'm sure at least one of my top-ten feel good ideas will help, even if just to take your mind off it for a bit.
1. My all-time favorite + feel good movie is Amelie, it's a very cute French film starring Audrey Tautou who play's Amelie a girl intent on spreading happiness and finding her cute French boy Nino, a collector of photo booth photos who she meets by chance. The movie has a soft colour wash of yellow or orange, which gives it a dreamy effect. Watch this cuddled up in bed, with coffee and chocolate.
2. Bake. Bake anything sweet and delicious. Cute cupcakes, Rich Chocolate cake. Just make sure it’s yummy, iced and decorated! Some good blogs for this (both vegan and not) are (click the names for a link):
3.Go underwear shopping; I don't think anything beats this shopping-wise except for possibly shoes. Anyway go underwear shopping; it's generally cheaper than shoes and you can wear fancy underwear everyday of the week. Defiantly one of life's secret joys!
5.Get to your favorite cafe and order a Chai latte, then watch the street life out the window or read the coffee shops magazine collection.
6. Go for a long walk to your nearest Warf or gardens, take a friend and pack a big picnic. I did this a while go with my boyfriend and we made enchiladas and had, pineapple, yoghurt, cheese, hummus, crackers (I wasn't yet completely vegan!) and juice. We went to the national museum afterwards and a part form the cold, it was a perfect day!
7.Scour Etsy for cute homemade trinkets, decor and clothes. Then make an amazon wish list, download the app that let's you add anything on the Internet then go crazy adding expensive perfume, shoes...anything!
8. Grab a cheap film camera from your local op-shop, some film and then travel around your city or hometown and take pictures of all the beautiful and secret things no one ever sees. Even if the final results don't work out, you'll feel pro while your doing it.
9.If you have a teapot, buy some rosebud tea and make a brew, put on your most comfortable leggings and woolen jersey, then watch reruns of Gossip Girl or Skins. Or Google crazy videos. I recently got shown Nardwuar, a music interviewer who somehow knows all his guests weirdest secrets. Find his website here.
10. Make a peanut butter and banana soy smoothie, it's super healthy and is the perfect sweetness, then paint your nails in baby blue or candy floss pink. Combined they'll bring you happiness!!
One thing about me is that I LOVE cooking and eating, immensely! And, I'm trying awfully hard to get my boyfriend to start a café blog with, as we have this gorgeous little fantasy of visiting every café in town. So when my mother came down at Easter, she brought with her a whole pumpkin that (and I wish I’d taken a photo) larger than my head. So for two weeks I’d been scared to touch it, not knowing quite how to use it all, especially since I only cook for one. Thankfully winter's coming up, so the obvious choice was pumpkin soup, and I found an absolutely delicious vegan recipe here, however I added a huge gob of peanut butter, which personally, I think just finish's it off! I also halved the recipe, because I share a teeny-tiny freezer with four other people and there was no way six liter’s of the stuff was going to fit in there..
..And, so left with over half the pumpkin left, I outdid myself! I made the most gorgeous pumpkin pie as a present for my boyfriend ever! I used Vegan Writer, Angela Stafford's recipe and paired it with her cashew nut cream and blueberries. I defiantly recommend picking up her book, if you are vegan and even if your not, every recipe I have used from her book has worked perfectly!
My only problem is that now I still have just under half the pumpkin and no ideas, so therefore, a short post today I must get this pumpkin used up!
I recently had to do some research into Hussein Chalayan whom I'd actually never heard of before, (I guess that show's the true breadth of my knowledge). I looked at a couple of his collections and needless to say I was impressed, very impressed. Staying true, it seems to my new androgynous obsession I fell white in love with his newest 'ready-to-wear' collection, Sakoku. Now before I write about the collection it's self. I thought that you would perhaps benefit from a quick definition of 'Sakoku' as Hussein Chalayan puts a lot of thought into his concepts and ideas; he lets his inspiration truly take form in his creations.
Sakoku roughly translates into "locked country" and is from Japan's isolationist policy, put into place from 1633 to 1853. This policy allowed for no one to enter Japan and for no one to leave, people caught doing so faced death. Wikipedia has a great article on sakoku here. Hussein Chalayan rigidly incorporated the idea into his latest collection. The showing of the collection was done via video, isolating the models and cutting them off from any audience, much like the sakoku regime. The video is very eerie and that is helped a lot by the music and sounds, but also very elegant and minimalist. Vogue has it here if you want to watch it, and i well recommend that you should!
The first looks too be shown were very androgynous, with straight cut shirts, waistcoats and the models veiled. The shoes worn represented ankle cuffs, as a thick band encircled each ankle. A small introduction of light blues, and greasy entered when the models lost veils, however much of the clothing retained it's 'boyish' shape. Finally there was the entrance of the floaty floral dress, this could have potentially been a reference to the final abolishment of the policy, however three masked ' puppeteer's' surrounded the model as she walked moving the fabric for her. A symbol of Japans holds over the people in that time period. After this both simultaneously beautiful yet also chilling dress. A range of startlingly bright colorful appeared, before returning to the monochromatic palate of previous.
I found Hussein’s depth into his research inspiring as he took everything he could from the sakoku policy and turned into a collection that both spoke politically about such an alarming era and managed to hold beauty at the same time.
Although I have chosen to analyze this collection, I suggest that you take a look at his site (here) because he has all his collections archived there and with each he has taken the time to thoroughly research his idea's and incorporate them into his work, creating beautiful collections, infect one of my other favorites is his 2007 S/S collection, one hundred and eleven where he created dresses that changed and morphed themselves into new positions, With on even completely disappearing up into the model's hat leaving her bare on the catwalk. He is defiantly one to be admired and he is most definitely on my list of top designers!
