Deteriorating Umbrella
Something that is so common from our society today, and kind of, well, not meaningless, but as set against something so classical and beautiful, it says something significant about the passage of time.
– Sam Taylor-Johnson
The concept behind my final project was to take something “common from our society today,” and to transform it into something that demonstrated the “passage of time.” Shifting from the durable to the short-lived, I tore off the protective covering of an umbrella and replaced it with wires and real flowers. Typically, an umbrella acts as a shelter for when there’s rain, and that when something “so classical and beautiful” replaces it, the umbrella loses its purpose and becomes a very fragile object.
Process
Before coming here, I have never had to use an umbrella so often in only 3 months. I wanted to explore my dependency on this one object and what would happen if its purpose shifted. Would it become obsolete? When I first saw Alexander McQueen’s S/S 2007, I was immediately inspired by his flower dress from the Sarabande collection. I incorporated that idea of something permanent, like the couture dress, and creating it out of things that were fragile, like the flowers, into this umbrella. After tearing off the layer of fabric, I was left with only the life-size umbrella skeleton. I bought chicken wire and secured it onto each panel, and glued real flowers onto it.
Alexander McQueen flower dress
Finished Product
The final product is an actual umbrella I made, but I also made a video showcasing the contrast.
Conclusion
I learned that creating a big sculpture piece with a time limit was very difficult. I had to take into consideration the lifespan of the flowers as well as how much it would cost to make it. I should have also measured out each panel of the umbrella better because it turned out less symmetrical. Through this project and from the previous projects, I’ve also felt a personal shift in the way I conceptualize things and use mediums to create. For instance, I started with the interview project without any idea how to use Adobe Premiere and it was hard for me figure out a way to make it interesting. After using it more and getting familiar with Premier, I was able to create a piece that was well edited even though I only had 5 minutes of actual footage. For the video I made for my final project I used the skills I learned from making videos from this class and my time class to create a 2-channel final video.
