Le Marais

Artist statement:

Heterotopia, Le Marais

Paper, ink, cardboard, hot glue, glue adhesive, denim, thread.

22.5 cm x  31 cm

Heterotopia Magazine is a quarterly publication that exhibits a collection of multiple perspectives of a certain location. The theme of this issue is transformation within the neighbourhood of Le Marais. This magazine includes an exotic mix of fashion, food, history, and street art, demonstrating all of the unique things that the area has to offer. We want to emphasize how neighborhoods live in a permanent state of transience, constantly reconfiguring their personas to reflect their current inhabitants. Looking at the history of a neighborhood is similar to studying the rings of a tree. Each era reveals a unique layer of development and regeneration. Within each spread, we depict a different community or subculture present in Le Marais, shedding light upon the beauty of diversity. Le Marais would not be the progressive district it is today if its infrastructure and demographics did not change over the course of time. 

This magazine features a light-wash denim cover with a title in the style of a graffiti tag. When creating the mood board for the magazine, our sources of inspiration were i-D Magazine and POP Magazine. Both publications showcase street style, creative writing, interviews with artists, as well as critiques of pop culture. We wanted to emulate these magazines’ youthful and eye-catching aesthetics to appeal to our audience.

The Assignment:  

On Monday the 30th of September 2019, we were presented with a new project. This time in a group. We had to choose a place in Paris and design a way to represent the space. After finding my team, we had all agreed on a place and idea. On that following Wednesday  we decided to meet up at our location and explore it, we met at book shop in Le Marais and wondered around nearby, after we then went to get some lunch to sit down and further discuss, although we couldn’t do much since a member of the group was late and missed this. We had then finished and wandered back to the book shop where we all walked around the streets. After a few hours of deriving around we had concluded our first meeting and parted our separate ways.

Throughout the next few days we took further discussions and planning ideas into consideration, we had decided that we were going to do a magazine editorial on our location with each member talking about a different topic in le Marais, I had been given the topic of history. At first I wasn’t too sure on this topic but in the end I quite liked it and I found it to be rather interesting. After our walk around, I knew that I needed more and wanted to be in the physical space. Throughout these past few weeks, I tried to visit our location as much as I could. Trying to see what it is all about, slowly getting to know le Marais and its people better. I wanted to have a clear understanding and knowledge of this beautiful historical part of Paris. Walking around and exploring le Marais helped a lot for this project. Seeing it on sunny days, rainy days, cold and hot. Each time felt the same, yet different energies radiated around.

The Process:

The Writing:

Just like a real magazine editorial, we had all chosen different topics to focus. As I had mentioned in ‘the assignment’ I had been given the topic of history. How does one make history fun? When I first set off to start writing my seminar piece, I had written it in a rather basic and boring way, by merely talking about the space and what it is. I knew I was not happy with this and did not want this to be my final product.

After receiving my draft back and going home to brainstorm, I had come up with the idea to do multiple diary entries based on the location and community involved at the place and the period that occurred. I thought that this could be an entertaining and unique way of talking about our location in different stages from different perspectives and points of view. I started with the place des voyages, then moved to the Église Saint-Paul-Louis to the skateboarders at Republique. One thing which I had found to be slightly annoying was the large year gap. Going from the sixteen hundred to the nineteen eighties is quite a leap. Although given the locations which I had chosen, and the community’s which they effected, it was what I had to do. I personally quite enjoyed how I wrote my entries. I tried my best to inform the reader on the history of Le Marais by telling the stories and sneaking in the information through the writing.

When it came to the presentation of my wrtiting I had choesn fonts which I believed suited the time and situation the best. I had also done multiple mini sketches around the texts and on the images. I think that by doing this I was able to truly bring all my work together as one whole rather then just text and photos on a page.

inspiration from magazine pages in  Le Marais:

The Photos:

For all the images in my spread, I used my Nikon D700, during my many visits to Le Marais. I chose to use my digital camera for I wanted clean and clear images, rather than using my iPhone and getting low-quality images. I had also taken multiple film photos to try use as a different medium; however, unfortunately, there is something wrong with my film camera, where the film did not develop (so I will now have to get it fixed and repaired). When planning my photos, I knew that I had three central locations that I wanted to focus on, Place Des Voyages, Église Saint-Paul-Louis and Republique metro station. I had chosen these three locations for they reflect on my seminar writing piece.

I love my images. I am so proud as to how they turned out and what they look like. After I had taken all my photos I sat down and when through them all, selecting the best ones which truly captured Le Marais. Once I had done this I did some slight editing which maily consisted on a black and white filter and blurring out any store frounts/ logos in the backgrounds. For myself, these images tell a story, and I needed to show that. I chose to have all my photos in black and white, for I believe that it allows the viewer to visualise and feel the emotion in what was captured. Adding the quirky sketches is somehting I decided to do after our draft session. I had lots t of fun doing this and I am very happy I did, for i beileve that it helped to bring my peice toegther with my text.

My Metamorphis:

My metamorphosis, I knew that I wanted something to represent le Marais through metamorphosis since it is my title. Metamorphosis is about focusing on the growth and transformation of something. When I think of this, I imagine plants and butterflies. So I set off to make some sketches of each location I talked about in my letter and then have a plant leaf growing through it, to show the growth of le Marais throughout the years.

Inspired by my first and last page, I continued to create multiple mini sketches and doodles throughout my letters and on my images. I believe that by doing this, I have helped to engage the reader, allowing them to be more curious and interested in history. I did receive some great feedback and suggestion such as writing the letters and having them dipped in coffee with burnt edges to give an old look. However, as much as I loved all these ideas. I felt that they didn’t fit the theme which I had envisioned for my section. So I did what felt best, stuck with my gut and created what I produced.

The Extras:

We wanted our magazine to have aspects from others, such as fun little quizzes and information on the writers. Inspired from magazines which Anastasia and I had purchased in Le Marais at Tom Greyhound. We decided to have a page of individual playlists of songs we were listening to while being in le Marais and a “How Le Marais are you” questionnaire. These were fun to create. I enjoyed making my playlist and using InDesign to personalise it.

For the questionnaire, I wrote a series of questions in regard to le Marais. Where once answered you count how many are accurate to you and refer to the answer grid below to see what your scale is. This was fun to create, and we found that things like this helped to break up the pages and give it a personal touch to ourselves and Le Marais.

Although these were great, and we all had fun, I felt that we needed one more thing. It wasn’t until I woke up at 2 am, with an idea that had popped into my head. “there’s no I in team” I had sent a message to the group chat of a rough sketch I made alongside some quirky questions. Everyone seemed to love the idea and sent their responses straight away. For the portraits, we were initially going to use animals that looked like us, until we then started to question whether or not we would need to use a reference and bibliography since the images would not have been our own. After some thinking and inspiration from our first drawing and imaging class, I set off to do individual blind contours of each member, followed by a self-portrait using a mirror. Overall, I think that this went down quite well and we all had a bit of a giggle.

The poster was also something which we were inspired by from a magazine I had purchased. We all wanted to include a poster, and everyone had all agreed on a photo of a skater. By including the poster, we were allowing the customer to bring a part of Le Marais into their home.

The wine glasses.  After our draft class we had realised that we needed something to connect and document the progress throughout the magazine. Originally we were going to use a thermometer. However, we didn’t quite feel a powerful connection to the idea. After some thinking, we came up with a wine glass. As you can see below (and in the magazine) I sketched out a series of five wine glasses. Each one slowly emptying as if you are sitting down with a glass of wine reading through the magazine.

The Cover:

In order to make a magazine, it helps to bind the pages together somehow and some way. Whether its glue, wire, flowers or ribbon, we needed to bring the pages into one to make it a whole. On Wednesday the 16th of october, Parsons was fortunate enough to be having an early morning workshop class on bookbinding. So, in the early morning on my day off I set off to learn about how one can create a booklet. This was very helpful! Thanks to the tech team, I was able to make my own mini booklet and print out my pages of the magazine. Printing out a tester helped a lot, for when they first came out the images had a yellow tinge amongst the lighter areas. To resolve this issue, I printed on a greyscale.

Making the cover was a process all in itself. After talking to the girls about what the workshop was like. I had mentioned that we could make a cover out of just about any material. We then went into further discussion and concluded that we should have a material cover. Imagine you are in a magazine shop, walking around and bam! Wait? Is that what I think it is? Yes. You look at it, pick it up the magazine. And hey its already in your hands ready for you to purchase, take home and enjoy!

A denim cover, why on earth did I choose to do this? For it is something different and possibly considered as an out of the box idea. See I had a vision and was not going to stop until it was created! The making of the tester cover resulted in many hours of clogs turning in my brain and the helpful hands of the tech team. What started as a coverless blank canvas had ended in a bright blue denim-covered notebook. That afternoon I had a finished result on what a possible cover could come out as. After showing the rest of the team, I was so glad to see how much they liked it, alongside some other students in the student lounge who seemed to find it quite fascinating.

For the actual cover, I had set off during a lunch break to look in second-hand shops in le Marais in search of a large pair of denim jeans. This was a lot harder then one would expect. Everyone here is too skinny, and it was impossible to find a rather large pair of old jeans. This was when I decided that I could use something else like a denim jacket? Nevertheless, I was still facing the same issue. Nothing was big enough for an A4 magazine. Just as all hope had started to fade away, I found them. Handmade denim bags out of recycled jeans for seven euro each I bought two different colours, one a classic blue and a darker grey, (to see which colours the team perfered) raced to the metro and went back to school.

Due to the lack of sizing in the shops, I had checked. I had to come up with a way of getting a pocket. After some quick thinking, I had come to a conclusion. I have jeans. I have pockets. So as simple as that, I unpicked a pocket from a pair of jeans I have, (which also just so happen to be thrifted as well) and bam there we go. A pocket ready to be on the cover of a magazine. I love that we did this, for yeah sure it does look cool but it also ties into the pickpocketing that goes on in le Marais. I remember the first day we set out to meet in le Marais, we had received an email from the school warning us about pickpocketers in Paris, and especially in le Marais…

As for the tag. I went through all the labels on my clothing until I found the perfect one from an Adidas hoodie. I unpicked it, cut it, covered the edge in clear nail polish (to prevent fraying), and then did multiple testers for the title. Once I had found the perfect pen which wouldn’t bleed, I wrote out our magazine name to get the correct size, I folded, ironed and stuck the tag down. After I had written on the tag, I pinned it in place into the pocket and sewed it together.

For the final touch and one of the suggestion we received from our mini critique, we decided to add a silver chain. Luckily I had an old chan that came with a pair of pants I had. I was able to clip the two ends to the pocket and then stick the back to give it a looping appearance. Becasue the glue did look messy for it took a lot of it to stick the chain down securly I decided that I would unpick a part of my jeans to cover it. Im glad that I did this for it now truly looks like its looped through a pair of jeans. While doing this I also added some more detailing. That is the detailing of an added barcode and distressing. Using my little knives I was able to create some small scuff marks and rips to truly give the skater appearance.

Images from the workshop and print test:

The shaping, binding, and cutting machines.

Figuring out how to make the cover:

Actually making the cover :

The pocket:

The final details:

Artist References:

I-D Magazine: I-D magazine is a cool, fun and trendy fashion magazine which came about in 1980 all thanks to former designer and vogue art director Terry Jones. This British bi-monthly magazine is based on fashion, art, music and youth culture. Since its first issue where it was published in the form of a hand-staples fanzine with text all typed on a typewriter, it has grown to be one of the top fashion editorials today.

POP Magazine: Another rather popular British bi-annual magazine is Pop. Pop, similar to I-D is all about fun and creative expressions. Its layouts and designs are always made to keep the reader eager and intrigued. Having been born in 2000 by co-founders Ashely Heath and editor Katie Grand they too have grown to become a highly popular editorial with covers of celebrities such as Kaia Gerber, Bella Hadid,  and Kate Moss.

Mark Reigelman II: Mark was the arist which I had chosen to do for my book peice. Marks project is a series of small peper looking planes that were displayed all around San Deiago Airport. I have stuck in some images of his work alongside a paper plane I made out of paper from the book.

Other artsist which we were fortunate to meet and talk to along the way were Gianluca Fratantonio, Djeff and of course Rachel Marks.All whom helped with our creative process along the way.

The Final Project:

Presentation day:

The day of presenting a project is often quite a scary and nervous one. however, this time it wasn’t so much like that. I believe that because we had organized everything and there was nothing left to do beside show off our piece, we were all quite relaxed and content. Of course, still scared about what others thought but proud because even if they didn’t like it we did, and I know that we are all proud of the effort we did.

After our first draft/critique presentation to the other groups we felt that showing the magazine was a bit awkward. A magazine is something personal and normally read alone all curled up on a lounge. Presenting the magazine like a book reading was fun but I could feel that it was boring. I tried to come up with a way so that everyone can see so that we don’t have to pass it around. This is when I suggested to the others about the idea of emailed it out to everyone so then they can read it on their laptops with us. However, this still didn’t feel right for then they would all be glued to their screens and not paying complete attention. This was when we decided to have a digital copy on the big screen. This way everyone can see the magazine from a far distance while still being interactive.

when it came to the presentation, I had suggested to the group that we either display it on a shelf or on a coffee table. Everyone quite liked to do the shelf since it reflected back on our first day in Le Marais, visiting the shops and looking through the magazines on the shelfs. Once we had all agreed on this, I remembered that there was the paper holder in the student lounge. So, for our presentation we bought up the stand, and placed our magazine along side some others which Anastasia and I had bought in.

Overall I think that the presentation went down quite well and I am very proud of our team and the assignment we produced.

Personal Reflection:

Working in a group is hard and challenging; being the largest group in the class was more so a struggle than a breeze. I remember starting so enthusiastic and excited about our project, and I am glad to say that I still am now having finished, however, I know that it was not always like this. For that magic defiantly started to fade away at certain points. This project was tough and has been quite a big learning curve for myself and one which I am grateful for. It has helped myself realised that yes, working in groups can be challenging and that working with completely different people is one thing, but working with completely different people who are all artists is a whole nother thing altogether. Saying that everyone was always heard out and no one was not open to an opinion.

We all have our different strengths, weaknesses and differences but thats what made us work so well, and although at times I knew there were lots of questioning about people’s choices towards things, we all ednded up loving each others peices and seeing just how far we had come from our first meet up.

This project was a long one. After this past week, I am almost convinced that I live in the student lounge. Especially where on my day off I had realised that I had spent over 10 hours at school without even stepping outside or leaving the premises. The following days consisted of finishing morning classes then jumping straight back into it, often staying back till 7:30.

The weekends were like this as well. On Saturday morning the girls and I had all met up at 9 am to get in and get the work finished, little did we realise that we were going to be in school until 6:30 that night. The biggest issue which we faced was thanks to InDesign. Adobe, I love you but I do question you. If we were able to each do our sections on our individual computers and then put our completed pages into one would have saved hours. However, we couldn’t, and that was something which we all had to overcome. Because of this, I will say a big thanks to Selin, for her graphic design skills, and patience in regards to having all the documents on her computer.

Overall, I love what we created as a group. This process had a lot of ups and downs. It was the rollercoaster ride of Le Marais. In the end, I would not have changed my group members for anyone else. Of course, we had our struggles and got frustrated at times, but who wouldn’t, these people were my family for the past few weeks, and I have learnt to love them all. Because of this, I’m quite sad that the project is now over. I have had such a lovely time hanging out and getting to know each of them. They’re a great group of hardworking people whom I feel even more connected to now. <3