Eeeeeep!

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!

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Lots of Love

          Audrey Megan

The Swan: Self-Expression Vs. Suppression

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! 

Lots of Love

          Audrey Megan

New York, Here We Come!!

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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!

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Lots of Love

         Audrey Megan

Dirt and Dresses

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.  

From the old Left Bank blog.

See here.

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.

 

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Well thats all for tonight, it's 12.15am over here and I've got to get up for art and design tomorrow morning, wish me luck!

Lots of Love

               Audrey Megan

When you go out for one and come back with ten

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!

 New York!

Lots of Love

        Audrey Megan

Coffee, Rain and Cardigans

What makes the perfect day?

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!

Soup for one

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!!

Lots of Love

              Audrey Megan