Final year project
Bizarre Florals [Read more]
Fictional trees to aid denial - 2 colour ways of the same print
The first of these is a three layer VAT print on viscose and the second is Procion on cotton jersey.
For this print I wanted to find a way of showing avoiding seeing the scale / seriousness of a bad situation.
I was interested in drawing from these trees because of the otherworldly texture on the bark. I drew other plants growing through the trees because I wanted the details to make them look fictional or at least not convincingly real.
Warped Survivor visualisation
For this print I tried to create an exaggeration of ways plants could become weird and deformed after being exposed to radiation in a fictional reality.
Before and after
I have used the same drawing with and without the flowers to create two different prints
Chemical flower placement print
Some areas in this print have been made to look like diagrams of atoms. In areas effected by a nuclear disaster plants can bring dangerous particles from the soil to the surface.
Warped bark
Procion (purple print paste and hand painting solution) and opaque pigment
This print is a different drawing of the bark from the trees in the first image.
Storybook print visualisation
I wanted to create some prints which resembled decorative book illustrations. I wanted these to be plants someone had imagined to help them see the environment around them as better than it was.
Tangled Border visualisation
A simpler print to go with warped survivor. I tried to make these flowers look overgrown and abandoned.
Another storybook print
I changed the proportions on the flowers on here to make them look bizarre and unreal.
I wanted to create some prints which resembled decorative book illustrations. I wanted these to be plants someone had imagined to help them see the environment around them as better than it was.
Claire De Quidt
This project is based on the idea of an imagined, apocalyptic landscape.
The decision to create unrealistic warped plant shapes was partly inspired children’s books such as Alice in Wonderland and the Dr Seuss books. The main reason I was interested in this, is that these landscapes or worlds are often parodied and used as a symbol of freedom or creativity. I have also tried to bring some of the layout and style of marks used in the decoration of old books in to this project.
The way people are sometimes able to mentally bury thoughts surrounding a stressful or scary situation by twisting it into something more light-hearted or childish was another topic I wanted to look into this for this project.
The environmental disaster which this project is inspired by is nuclear explosions, specifically the one in Chernobyl. In addition to the way the plants and landscape could become warped in bizarre ways, the main thing which interested me about this, is the way it could exaggerate differences in the way groups of people view landscape.
The market I am aiming for is Spring summer couture dresses. I think voluminous dramatic dress shapes work well with my concept as the attitude which I wanted this project to show was playful disregard for fear/ the seriousness of a situation. I also like the idea of the dress shapes reflecting the overgrown exaggerated shapes of the plants in my prints.
I wanted to better understand the way decorative illustrations of plants are made to appear weightless and more elegant. I chose a project that would allow me to explore this by creating an exaggerated version of it.
Final year project
Bizarre Florals
Awards
'20 Diploma in Professional Studies
Placements
August 2018 - September 2018
Intern, Amanda Kelly
September 2018 - December 2018
Intern, Bay and brown
April 2019 - June 2019
Intern, Design Me