Museum piece published by Otago Polytechnic

Somewhere in the end of 2019 I created a collaborative project titled the “Museum Piece” as a class demo for my Fashion styling students. The objective was to show how a concept (for a creative photoshoot) is created, developed, and produced. I was quite happy with the outcome and submitted it to Critical Making: Contemporary Fashion Practices Symposium at Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand and it was selected. Due to the pandemic the symposium was postponed and then cancelled. However, they published it in November 2020 on their contemporary Fashion practices page. Here is the re-publication of the same content, along with the BTS of how the idea came to be.

Museum piece

Some lose themselves in street markets, in malls, at concerts, others in luxurious hotels that offer gourmet meals and a beach view; I lose myself in museums.

As a design educator I am surrounded by fashion, art, and design. It is a part of my daily, ordinary existence. Yet, a museum is one of the few places in the world where I feel truly extraordinary. I associate art, design, and fashion with the greatness of the creator, the maker. Through the act of looking, a bit of this greatness magically transfers to me, provoking me to create, for a fleeting yet glorious minute.

But every time I step into the hallowed galleries of a museum, I get lost. Often metaphorically, sometimes literally. I walk as far as the red tapes allow me. I buy postcards and magnets at the museum gift shops, hoping to take back with me art in a tangible form. The receipt says “Explore centuries of art with 5% off your next purchase” and I stare blankly at it. I click photographs endlessly to “show them to my students” knowing full well that they will lie forgotten in a folder on my computer once I get home. Unlike the other visitors who are chained to their audio guides, I do not go looking for noteworthy titbits. For me, the experience of being there takes precedence. Hours pass by as I try to memorise the colours, textures, brush strokes, tool marks, and the embellishments that I see. I breathe it in, wishing to imprint their genius in my brain. I fail, as the images superimpose on one another. The names of artists, their techniques, the time periods blur. I make my journey home, cold as a marble statue, wearing only a vague memory of my visit. I am the Museum Piece!

Here is a video (of me) speaking about the concept

The Museum Piece is a series of photographs that are the visual narrative of my state of mind at a museum. It is the vocalization of my comment on museum gaze, commodification of art and the link between body, memory and jewellery. The model is wearing a necklace of postcards and headphones collected from the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. The head wrap is a mask of cancan mesh sewn together with faux pearls, and the ring is laser cut wood with an image from a gallery brochure and resin.

The words “Museum Piece” have another connotation as well. Where I come from, they are used to refer to someone who thinks, talks or behaves in a unique way. So much so that they ought to be displayed at a museum as an object to be gawked at, even ridiculed. Thus silenced, they can no longer voice their opinion.

Museum piece Process

The original objective of this project, as a class demo, was to show how fashion concepts are created and presented to a photographer or creative director. It teaches how the references are collected, model is chosen, sourcing is done and how the styling, hair and makeup, lighting, poses are all completed in a studio setup. You can see here two of the several research and reference boards I had created for the demo project.

In a styling project, sourcing reference boards, style/look boards and sequence flow boards with costume suggestions are very important. They act as visual aids that help plan what is required exactly, its alternative and the budget required. Since I made the jewellery and the model arranged for the garment and shoes, the board wasn’t “needed.” Still its good practice to document it. The other boards in the deck were concept board, hair and makeup, pose and lighting and ofcourse the concept note.

Museum piece jewellery

For this project I created a necklace, finger ring and a veil. For the ring I used an image from an exhibit brochure from the Palace of Versailles museum. I altered a wooden frame and aged it to give the impression of portraits showcased at the exhibit. The veil used for the Museum piece is a length of cancan wrapped around and sewn with pearls. I created the necklace using postcards that I bought at the MET museum and Louvre Museum. I used metal scrapbooking components, crystals and a pair of old ear phones to illustrate my concept.

You can see some closeup of the adornments in the above video. This project publication faced outstanding delays; so I am glad that I am able to put it up finally. What do you think about it?

CREDITS
Concept, Creative direction, Styling and jewellery – Divya N
Photographer – Ram Keshav
Model – Ananya Singh

I hope you found it interesting
Cheers