Statement of Intent for Final Major Project

In the past year, I have learnt much about my abilities, interests and have pushed myself to discover new processes and ideas. Not only have I gained practical skills, such as using the metal workshop and model making, but I have also learned to think about art and design more critically and conceptually, allowing the outcome of my projects to be more resolved.

At first I struggled to choose between the fine art and 3D design pathways as I had an interest in both. Whereas fine art was where I initially felt more comfortable – as a discipline in which I could freely explore conceptual and abstract ideas – I found theatre design to be a good way of reconciling my concern for literature and the visual arts, in some ways more challenging, as abstract and conceptual ideas have to be developed within stricter parameters. Ultimately, I chose to focus on set design as it would help nurture my new found interest in theatre, film, design and making, suiting my increasingly narratively based work, and teaching me to express ideas in ways that I had not done before.

For this project I am concerned with an exploration of Paris as a major centre of literary and artistic innovation in the early 20^th century. Becoming a beacon for a modernist, bohemian lifestyle, it nurtured and housed emerging artists and writers of ‘The Lost Generation[1]’ continuing to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration throughout the Second World War (even during its occupation) and beyond. I want to explore the countless narratives of the artists, writers and intellectuals that took place in Paris during that time[2]. I aim to represent the ideas, values and history of that period through objects and spaces – manifesting itself (in the most likely scenario) in the form of a set and/or range of props: These may relate to a play, poem, or narrative associated with one of these writers, or even one of my own devising.

I will begin my research by visiting the ‘Shakespeare and Company’ bookshop in Paris, which has been a refuge for struggling writers since the original bookstore opened in 1914. It was a symbol of ‘socialist utopia’ and ran on this unusually generous creed: ‘Give what you can, take what you need’.  The original bookstore was frequented by the likes of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein whereas the new store was a favourite of Anais Nin, Henry Miller, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. As well as exploring the literature of these avant-garde writers, I will also examine the work of visual practitioners engaged in a similar milieu.

To support my research I will read Hemingway’s ‘A moveable feast’ which tells not only of his life in Paris after WW1 but makes specific references to the Shakespeare and Co. bookshop. With an interest in ‘object-orientated ontologies’ I hope to support these narratives through the objects and places that I explore, evoke and create. I will also be reading ‘Paraphernalia- The curious lives of magical things’ by Steve Connor, ‘The Tears of Things- melancholy and physical objects’ by Peter Schwenger in addition to Roland Barthes’ ‘Mythologies’. By investigating a number of theoretical approaches to analysing objects and material culture, I hope to lend a rigor to my design methodology.

I will regularly evaluate my work throughout the project by discussing the progression of my ideas with my tutors, my peers as well as self-reflection, all of which will be recorded in a journal. I will also seek the opinions of students from other pathways to get a different perspective and ensuring that my aim of designing something that successfully evokes and supports the narrative of an artistic individual in the invigorating, stimulating and decadent surroundings of Paris at the peak of its cultural and intellectual innovation, embodying their ideologies and philosophies through visual semiotics.

References

Barthes, R. 1977. The Death of the Author. In: Barthes, R. eds. 1978. Image Music Text. Hill and Wang.

Barthes, R. and Lavers, A. 1972. Mythologies. New York: Hill and Wang.

Berman, M. 1982. All that is solid melts into air. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Coco Before Chanel. 2009. [DVD] France: Anne Fontaine.

Connor, S. 2011. Paraphernalia. London: Profile.

Eksteins, M. 1989. Rites of spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Hemingway, E. 1964. A moveable feast. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Midnight in Paris. 2011. [DVD] United States: Woody Allen.

Nijinsky, V. 2014. Le Sacre du Printemp. [video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BryIQ9QpXwI [Accessed: 1 Apr 2014].

RTE Radio. 2011. Arts Tonight. Barthes and Me- With Irish writer Brian Dillon. [podcast] 21 March 2011. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l03X39Vxx8 [Accessed: 1 Apr 2014].

Schwenger, P. 2006. The tears of things. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Seibel, A. 2011. The production design of “Midnight In Paris” – conversation with Anne Seibel. Interviewed by Kirill Grouchnikov [in person] 18th November, 2011.

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[1] The post WW1 generation, many of whom had fought in France and Belgium (and become scarred, influenced and effected by their experiences).

[2] Such as, but not limited to, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Beach, Man Ray and Salvador Dali