Eyes without a face, Alice

At first I thought capturing one’s personality and being in one object will be a difficult task. As I walked through Alice’s house and garden I was trying to put my first sights, feelings and influences on paper, yet the cultural and visual diversity of her room and being made me categorize it into sections to organize my thoughts and feelings.

In the interview as well as evidently present in her surroundings, I noted the importance of art and more specifically fashion as her key passion which I would have to give weight within my representation. Alice told me that she customizes objects bought in thrift shops on a daily basis, to suit her sense of aesthetics. Her main inspiration are bright, primary colours and extravagant clothing, which was backed up as I opened her closet. The range of patterns and materials were astonishing, from satin Japanese Kimonos to recut and newly glued leather jackets to 80s plastic sunglasses. Yet the most present feature in her clothes remained fur. Alice owns and adores her variety of thrift shop-bought fur coats, dark blue fur slippers and even has an enormous pink fur steering wheel cover that accompanies her on her travels and ensures second glances at traffic lights. Her own impersonated animal being a lion did not come as a surprise.

Alice’s artistic personality is present in the whole house. Either in her parents living room, where they proudly hung one of her creations on the wall as well as in her room, where there are colour, to sketchbooks to pieces of fabric. When I asked her about her favourite artists and greatest inspirations, she told me about Piet Mondrian, her greatest inspiration and daily follower. Not just did she have his geometrical patterns on socks, prints and books but on her unconventionally spray-painted car, Mondrian covers the entire ceiling. Alice told me about making the car with her art course to worship collective artistic understanding and individuality. Asking her about the specific emotional and aesthetic connection to the artist she told me that she thinks he is a structured, minimalistic and conceptual artist approaching art in an almost scientific way. What fascinate her is the juxtaposition between him and Alice, since she mainly emphasizing the element of spontaneity and serendipity.

As to her second greatest inspiration, she noted Japanese estampe and more broadly Japanese culture. I can see lots of her inspiration within her own space at home, her art and her fashion. Her favorite movie, ‘le Voyage de Chihiro’ similarly impersonates her passion for diversity and exploring cultures that are not her own. Her experimental personality furthermore revealed itself as she showed me her collection of kimonos, pieces of clothing she worships and wears on an everyday-basis. She pointed out that she adores the mixture of different textures; satin, embroidery, printmaking on clothes and furthermore the symbolism of animals. I found her androgynous way of dressing fascinating as well as her unusual and extravagant relationship to clothing.

Her last passion came forward as she introduced me to her bathroom; makeup. As one can imagine, her way of applying makeup is just as unusual as her way of clothing: the more the better. On an everyday basis, she tells me, she loves to stretch boundaries and play with colour. Her non-plus-ultra object within her collection although was her glitter, which she wears just about every day. The shiny detail around her eyes create a juxtaposition with large patterns, fur and Japanese Kimonos.

 

When I decided to create an artwork concerning Alice, I first created a mood-board to capture the multiple influences I have been witnessing during our tour.

As I moved forward, I decided that fashion had to be a crucial element within the project, since it is a large part of Alice’s identity and enables her to project her personality on a visual platform. Also, I very much wanted to combine art with fashion since it is such a great inspiration and part of her life. When it came to materials, I decided to contrast many textures with each other to create a similar juxtaposition as Alice’s everyday outfits and a feeling of authenticity. When I asked her what the most important aspect of her outfit is she told me without waiting ‘the coat’ -so the coat it was. As I saw all her materials in her space, she explained that she customizes objects and clothes that she buys from thrift shops on an everyday basis. So I went to her favorite thrift shop in Paris to buy her a large, androgynous fur coat, a texture that is a big part of her sense of aesthetics and combine it with the artists whom she adores: Piet Mondrian.

When I did several sketches I tries to also combine a piece of Japanese culture with her being, I wanted to create a contrast between old (the fur coat) and childish simple forms, such as her oversized rainbow-shaped phone case. To put emphasis on Mondrian, I decided to make a large-scale spray painting and put the rainbow-sized pocket inside the coat.

When it came to making the coat, I bought simple primary-colored spray paint to try to imitate the perseverance of Mondrian paintings. I also used rulers and tape, to make it look clean and authentic.

 

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To sew the pocket inside the coat, I used black thread and a cutter to achieve the shape of a rainbow.

I was very satisfied with the outcome of the coat, I think the extravagant effect it was meant to achieved comes across very well and imitates Alice’s personality to a great extent.

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