Thursday 6th Spetember - Blackburn Museum/Gallery Visit

So.. here I am, my first week of college. It's not exactly how I had thought it to be. I'm finding it kind of hard to settle in, and as if that wasn't enough, we have to go to the museum today and I dont even know where it is!
We had to go there and have a look at the art work and 'feel inspired'. I had never been to it before. The gallery was set up by mill owners of the local area quite a while ago, as they felt that they should give something back to the community. We were told to look at 2-3 paintings and work in our sketchbooks. I'm not really the kind of person to feel inspired by a painting because I'm not interested in paintings and the underlying meaning that they may be trying to convey, so I'm feeling that this trip may just be slightly meaningless to me but I'm not giving up just yet!
As soon as we were told that we had to go to the museum, we set off to go, only to find as we got there that it was closed! So we went back a little later, and to our relief it was open this time.. we were left to go explore.
I wasn't really interested in the paintings so I wandered off to The Hart Gallery.. in this there were beautiful books and texts that I just fell in love with.. they had Qurans that were written with liquid metals such as gold, silver and platinum. I had never seen anything like it before and my gaze just drew towards them. There were also images taken from these books that were stuck behind them.. this is islamic calligraphy and I think it is just breathtaking.. I really love it and want to delve further into it and research it - its origin, its meaning.. everything. I  feel so passionately about this because it is a part of who I am. Because I am a muslim and we read from the Quran, it just seems so beautiful and I would love to do something relating to this. I feel I would do better with the project as it is so close to me.

The Quran with liquid metals

 

 

A progression from this could be that it leads me on to actually do some islamic calligraphy myself, draw some intricate patterns that come with it. I have noticed that the trend these days in interior design , so on wallpapers, furnishings and furniture seems to be of similar stye to the patterns and designs in these books. I know this because last year, for my A levels, I kind of, sort of thought at one point that I want to do interior design and I researched all the latest trends and visited a few interior design shops and thats the kind of thing that I  found and instantly liked.

The Quran with intricate patterns

 

 

 

 

Drawing with liquid metals

 

 

 

So after I got out of the Hart Gallery, I went downstairs and stumbled upon an asian part of the museum. I felt as though I was just meant to visit this place. It just goes to show that even though you might not be too keen on doing something, you should still give it a go, because you never know where it will take you, and what you might discover.

 

Asian Textiles

 

I am really interested in doing textiles as my pathway, so when I saw all these pieces of cloth with these repeated patterns all over them, I took a lot of photos, and even did a little sketch from one of them that I really liked. the printing blocks that had been used to print fabrics similar to these were also displayed. I didn't know that that's how these fabrics woiuld have been printed. I had always assumed that the method of getting such patterns was much more intricate, time consuming and just hard. I would like to give it a try for myself and see how it all turns out. The printing blocks were from Pakistan and Lancashire so it kind of brought the 2 places together. I just had an idea whilst i was typing this!

 Printing Block

I  quite like the idea of doing something that would bring the 2 cultures together.. east and west..
I don't quite know how I would do this.. it requires some deep thought and consideration, 2 things which I cannot do right now so I will have to get back to it.

So, anyway, I saw that repeated patterns were used a lot on these fabrics and they clearly weren't items from a recent time. This goes to show that at one time a style may be fashionable for a while and then lose its touch only to reappear and become fashionable again at a later date. That is what has happened with this particular design and the whole idea of repeated patterns. I sat there and did a drawing of the pattern from the fabric shown.

                                                 Drawing of the pattern from the fabric

 

I also liked these japanese prints and kimonos that I saw. These were in the Hart gallery. There was only one kimono there, inside a glass case kind of thing, which made it look really special. To be honest, in my opinion, I didn't think it was all that special. It looked kind of plain to me, but I still liked it. Sometimes, simplicity is nice and I think perhaps this was one of those times.

I got talking to Jo about the japanese prints and kimono and she told me about this designer called Issey Miyake who makes/designs these kind of clothes. When I researched him and his style, I found that what he makes/desings are baggy sort of shapeless clothes/ kimonos and I'm not a fan of them. At first, I was interested.. they were different and I haven't really seen many people wearing them as they are traditional chinese wear.

 

Issey Miyake designs

 

 

 

Chinese Kimono

 

An idea emerged from this kimono research. I thought that maybe I could link the japanese culture with my own and perhaps make a kimono but not a traditional one - this one would be personal to me. Instead of having a chinese plainish print on it, I could print some patterns such as the ones from the indian textiles I saw and loved. That would really make it different and it would mean that I was adding my own twist to it.
These are just possible ideas and nothing is certain yet. They need to be discussed and thought about further in detail.