Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Radical Art - But Not Jeans

When it comes to charity why do people give seconds?

Last November, Radical Designs sent out an invitation to local artists to participate in an Art project using a pair of their jeans. The idea was to produce a piece of Art which would be later exhibited at their store and then the pieces where to be auctioned off for a chartable cause. The exhibition was scheduled for February 2007, but nothing was hear. Carnival came and went, until tonight, and to a packed house at the Annex of the National Museum in Port of Spain, Trinidad where sixteen artists including a work by Dianne Hunt of Radical Designs are on show.

Here was the opportunity for artists to alter a pair of jeans into a couture work which could be worn as a work of art, but many of the artists kept within the literal boundaries by using quilts, beads, laced or incorporated doodles and three dimensional objects into a pair of Jeans. The exhibition looked like a farce as its justification for the such poor work is a reminder that the freedom to have an artistic expression may not always equate in its excellence. The curatorial decisions should have been more stringent.

The list of participants included professionals in the field of dance, architecture, artists, curators and industrial and graphic designers. It is also unclear how many works were auctioned off that evening. The question is whether any of these torn and tatted jeans were appropriate to a wary art buying public who are doubtful to what contemporary art actually means.


A practical approach to the art exercise converting the jeans into wearable art

Radical Designs Jeans Art at the National Museum of Trinidad and Tobago - The Radical Designs Jeans Art Project ends 6th April 2007

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So I thought that the work represented the artists...I dont think that anyone who showed was actually a designer...some of it seemed politically driven, the rest of it was beautiful for the most part

Anonymous said...

I imagine that you would have your jeans tailored specifically to accomodate that stick you seem to have, so you may not fully grasp the concept...

Anonymous said...

It was Radical Designs selecting 15 artists (do read their Biographies in the free catalogue) to take 1 pair of jeans and make an art object/presentation out of it. Fortunately they thought out- of-the-box and did not recline into Couture fashion. I heard that you found the show was so bad that you went to see it a second time on Saturday, and even brought someone along, what a thing? A Pity you did not have the balls to dialogue any of the artists that were there, and enlighten them as to what SHOULD HAVE BEEN EXHIBITED, and share your ideas,you know, engage dialogue etc.

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