The Students’ Union MagazineUniversity of the Arts London

*THE POLITICAL ISSUE

MAKE US MORE COMMON!

With every vote ‘Less

Common More Sense’ gets

£5 to help produce more issues,

more features, more volunteer

roles for you, and continues

to give University of the Arts

students the chance to show

your art. Find out how you you

can change things at www.

suarts.org/lesscommon

1 VOTE = £5

Politics,

politicking,

politic,

political correctness,

political economy,

polity;

all words derived from the central notion - to be ‘POLITICAL’. This singular

adjective is described in the dictionary with the following definitions:

This single word has many different interpretations, proven firstly within the

dictionary, then secondly within the individual. Politics means many different

things internationally, nationally, regionally and personally. Influenced by the

media, social groups, religion, relationships and government (another list that

is by no means finite), POLITICS is another mind-blowing genre contemporary

artists can comment upon.

The University of the Arts nurtures and supports some of the world’s most

talented artists. For this issue of ‘Less Common More Sense’ we invited the

future cream of the creative crop to submit their interpretations and creations

regarding POLITICS. In return for their artistry and creativity we at Less

Common provide a platform for the next generation of contemporary artists.

TH

E P

OLIT

ICA

L ISS

UE

.

Rachel BrownDeputy Editor of Less Common More Sense

1 an act relating to the government or public affairs of a country,

2 one who is interested in or active in politics,

3 to act in the interest of status within an organisation rather

than on principle.

MANIFESTO

03

© COPYRIGHT 2008

The Students’ Union, University of the Arts London and the authors.

No article may be reproduced or altered in any form without the written

permission of the editor(s). The views expressed by the contributors/

writers are not necessarily those of the editor(s), the publishers or the

University of the Arts London.

Editor-in-Chief Ronan Haughton

Deputy Editor Rachel Brown

Journalism Sub-Editor Chris Ackerley

Fashion Sub-Editor Huma Humayun

Lead Designer Hei Shing Chan

Designer Tatiana Woolrych

LMCS Logo Design Daniel Camacho

Proof Reader Hannah Devoy

Proof Reader Louisa Koussertari

Proof Reader Alex Linsdell

Advertising Amelia Davis ad@bamuk.com 0845 1300 667

Production Advisor Guy DeVilliers

CONTRIBUTORS

CAMBERWELL COLLEGE OF ARTS Hei Shing Chan MA BOOK ARTS Lemma Nour Shehadi FOUNDATION STUDIES IN ART AND DESIGN Damilola

Odusote BA ILLUSTRATION CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN Nicky Nicole MA FINE ART Alexa Hall CRITICISM, COMMUNI-

CATION & CURATION Hannah Devoy BA PRODUCT DESIGN CHELSEA COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN Jonny Briggs BA FINE ART Ian Giles BA FINE

ART LONDON COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION Chris Ackerley MA JOURNALISM Jonny McDevitt MA JOURNALISM Christopher Hunt BA PHOTOG-

RAPHY James Tye MA PHOTOGRAPHY Will Kay FDA GRAPHIC COMMUNICATION Philip Yalley FDA DIGITAL MEDIA PRODUCTION Souhail Alzaatari

BA PHOTOGRAPHY Rachel Brown BA PHOTOGRAPHY Tatiana Woolrych TYPOGRAPHIC DESIGN Norman Wilcox PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY

PRACTICE Sarah Victoria Kane BA PHOTOGRAPHY Amanda Johansson BA PHOTOGRAPHY Daniel Camacho BA GRAPHIC DESIGN Alex Linsdell

BA MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES LONDON COLLEGE OF FASHION Katie Helen Bishop BA Fashion Studies Huma Humayun BA FASHION STUDIES

Louisa Koussertari FASHION MARKETING AND PROMOTION ONLINE FOUNDATION DEGREE

04

COLOPHON

Political Work 05» 08

Farewell you streets of sorrow 09» 13

Political Blemish 14

Interview with Damilola Odusote 15» 18

Ian Giles 19» 20

Alexa Hall - Noki Interview 21» 24

Katie Bishop 25» 26

Trapped in a Grown-up World 27» 28

Lion Club 29» 30

Political Art or Liberal Propaganda? 31» 32

American Postcards 33» 36

Less common More sense issue 11THE POLITICAL ISSUE

Publisher

The Students’ Union

University of the Arts London

65 Davies Street

London

W1K 5DA

THANKS TO

John Bloomfield

Johnny Eveson

Andrea Strachan

Duncan Mann

Art Kaligos

Noki

GET INVOLVED / SUBMIT YOUR W

ORKV

isit ww

w.suarts.o

rg/lesscom

mo

n to submit yo

ur wo

rk or find o

ut how

to becom

e part of the m

agazines volunteer team

. You

must be a current student to be part o

f the team.

You m

ust be a current student or an

alumni o

f the University o

f the A

rts Londo

n to submit

your w

ork.

Cover A

rtwork by W

ill Kay

printed on recycled paper

Condoleezza Does Detention

OW rk

P liticalN

icky

Nico

leThe argument th

at substa

nce in politi

cs is

losing out to

personality

and spin sh

ows no sig

n

of abatin

g. The codes o

f mass

communication

ensure that m

icro-sound bite

s are re

peated

and re-re

peated, creatin

g a convenient net th

at

allows im

portant f

acts, tr

uths, and alte

rnative

perspectiv

es to sli

p through ra

tional d

iscourse

.

This work fo

cuses on in

sights

into three W

estern

political c

haracters and th

e spin th

at has a

ttached

itself t

o them, in

terwoven with

wilfully

hopeful

yet recalcitr

ant questi

ons.

We take the stars from Heaven, the red from our mother

country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we

have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down

to posterity representing Liberty.

Wel

com

e to

the

Wild

Wild

Wes

t

To take this theme of war and terrorism further I

shall tell you a story about a little girl. She heard a

loud boom and felt the ground move; the explo-

sion was at her father’s church. At that moment the

little girl’s friend was dying, because of the blast that

the little girl felt and heard but did not see. It was a

racially motivated terrorist attack. It was September

the 15th 1963, and the terrorists were not Muslim

extremists, but American white supremacists. The lit-

tle girl was Condoleezza Rice and her friend who died

was Denis McNair. The question that the chalk and oil

painting ‘Condoleezza Does Detention’ asks is:

‘Did she learn grace and understanding from the experience, or has the bullied become the global bully?’

Vis

ion

Test

To this piece we add an-

other, a supporting ‘Vision

Test’. In life it is the exact

size of the Snellen eye test

and as such sets itself up

as a ‘Vision Test’. The

‘Vision Test’ makes fun

of Bush’s idea of ‘A War

on Terror’. Where does

the terror start? The

nightmares of a child,

a fear of the dark, of

spiders, of dentists

or maybe the most

terrifying thing of

all: war itself.

Cen

tral

Sai

nt M

arti

ns M

A F

ine

Art

ww

w.n

icky

nico

le.c

o.uk

05

06

The piece, entitled ‘Welcome to the Wild Wild West’, stands 1.2 metres

tall and mirrors the proportions of the Stars And Stripes. It reflects upon

the irony of the sentiments of George Washington, when he said:

My atte

ntion was

first d

rawn to

Bush. It was

at a tim

e

when ‘Bushism

s’ were pourin

g out o

f our T

V sets,

as the

new President w

as esta

blishing h

imself as th

e comic g

enius

of Americ

a. It was

a biza

rre moment, w

hen the world

felt politic

s slip fir

mly

into the re

alm of su

rrealis

t abstr

action an

d disjointed justif

ication. I r

emember

with re

gret th

e sunny d

ay upon which

Bush smiled at

me from a c

ollage of th

e

The Simpsons, Frie

nds and Heat m

agazin

e and sa

id, ‘I don’t r

ead many

books’. It was

at that m

oment that I

leant forw

ard to

the edge of m

y seat,

and thought (i

n unison with

a growing g

lobal conscio

usness), ‘W

ell maybe

you should, you’re the fucking President o

f Americ

a’.

The contemporary reading – that the

red stripes stand for the blood of those who

give their lives for freedom – is no less ironic. And in front of this

great symbol of America is the obvious pose of the comic book president, living out

his fantasy of being a Texan cowboy and challenging us to remember all his great lines of

wit. Could he have been more prophetic, in the millennium year, when he said, ‘Ameri-ca better beware of a candidate who is willing to stretch reality in order to win points’?

Beware Weapons of Mass Distraction

Forgive me Father for I have sinned

A gracious response at this stage is to offer Blair

luck with his newfound spirituality. So,

as a gesture of goodwill – or as a

retirement gift – the next piece is

a set of black and white rosary

beads. These offer the pearl of

wisdom that nothing is simply

black or white, and are finished

with a Christian cross made of

two silver rifles.

Our conclusion takes us to the heart of

politics, addressing the politicians’ tendency to cast

blame and manipulate others in order to further their

own aims. This final piece, ‘The Puppeteer is not

God’, draws a line under these pieces of politically-

inspired art. So, moving from the comic, to the

bully, and to the Christian cross at the end of

Blair’s rosary beads, the puppeteer dangles

the symbols of the three Abrahamic

monotheistic faiths in front of us. As a

case study of blame and manipulation,

it poses the question: is it religion (or

some other symbol of blame) that

causes war, or the tangling of the

strings by the puppeteers?

Political or otherwise,

we cannot know if the

visit was tinged with

some level of regret or

remorse, and so the piece

stands as a confessional

box with a little black sliding

door. On one side, ‘Forgive

me Father for I have sinned’.

On the other, the smile;

famously labelled as ‘evil’ by the

Conservatives, it beams back at

us from behind the wire mesh,

protecting the identity of the per-

son making the confession from the

eyes of the forgiving Priest (or Pope,

for those in high places).

About NickyNicky Nicole studied

communication theory as part of a BA in

Australia, which included illustration, life drawing, and

mass media, as well as painting, at the Canberra School of Art.

She is currently studying fine art at Central Saint Martins.

Her interest in the relationship between

communication and art is a constant theme in her studies and work (in advertising,

design and communication). Nicky practices concept-led art from the fine art perspective,

where the choice of medium is inextricably linked to the concept and realisation. The aim of her work

is to make the audience question its accepted reality. The overriding theme of her work is the exploration of

the relationship between ‘perception and reality’.

‘My work is developed around themes and by adopting socially unfamiliar perspectives I seek to reveal an alternative perception

and to question the premises of socially accepted truths. To do this I use the discipline of fine art and take advantage of the

inherent semiotic codes within a medium, thereby communicating the desired message with the medium supporting the communication

rather than it being predetermined.’

Recent work from Nicky has been based on the three Abrahamic monotheistic faiths and politics. Her work is clearly influenced by McLuhan’s

argument that ‘the medium is hot’, with the medium and message creating total communication. In conjunction, she has drawn intellectual and material inspiration from the ready mades of Duchamp. As such she sees herself as one in a growing list of recalcitrant artists.

The

Pupp

etee

r is n

ot G

od

Pearls of Wisdom

Is it religion that causes war, or the tangling of the

strings by the puppeteers?

07

08

From here we add another piece to the puzzle, ‘Beware Weapons of Mass

Distraction’. The subtle change in the word from ‘destruc-

tion’ to ‘distraction’ is spelled out in Morse

code, so that when you move closer

to the piece you can hear the military

intelligence clicking away. To which it is

apt, once again, to quote Bush: ‘Free nations don’t attack each other. Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction.’ At least Bush has

clarified that England and America can no

longer call themselves free nations.

This brings us, conveniently, to England. How

did we get caught up in all of this? What was

Blair thinking? ‘Forgive me Father for I have

sinned’ is the last political character piece,

and takes Blair to the end of his reign. His last

official overseas engagement, as the Prime Min-

ister who took England to war on the grounds

of ‘weapons of mass destruction’, was to meet

the Pope at the Vatican. Cherie, his long-suffering

wife, whom Blair always seems publicly embar-

rassed by, came into her own; her Catholicism

shone as brightly as a pot of gold.

A r

etro

spec

tive

lo

ok

at I

rela

nd

’s m

usi

c an

d i

ts p

lace

in

the

nar

rati

ve o

f th

e co

unt

ry’s

tro

ub

led

pas

t.

you

str

eets

of

sorr

ow

Jonn

y M

cDev

itt

FA

RE

WE

LL

Last year, Ron Kavana released a retrospective anthology

of Irish music, which was saluted for comprising an excit-

ing new form of academic report. The four CD collection

reorders songs chronologically, from the Norman invasion

to modern day Ireland, interspersing them with spoken word

tracks about the historical development of the Irish nation.

However, as the man who once lent his vocals to the uncom-

promisingly hard-hitting Pogues track ‘Young Ned of the Hill’

- in which he sang:

A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell

You who raped our Motherland

I hope you’re rotting down in hell

For the horrors that you sent

To our misfortunate forefathers

Whom you robbed of their birthright

“To hell or Connaught” may you burn in hell tonight

- his powers of historical objectivity were at once treated

with suspicion. The trend of scholarly revisionism in Irish

history, which has attempted to trace the influence of the

Celts through to the present day, has always been imbued

with nationalistic undercurrents that surface through Irish

music. The Pogues, who did much to perpetuate the notion

of the Irish as drinkers, thinkers and tinkers, addressed many

of the events that forged such enmity with their neigh-

bours across the sea. ‘Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six’

condemned the imprisonment of ten Irishmen who were

convicted of the murder of twenty one people in 1974. The

track was banned for its incendiary lyrics, which include

the lines:

May the whores of the empire lie awake in their beds

And sweat as they count out the sins on their heads

While over in Ireland eight more men lie dead

Kicked down and shot in the back of the head

Just as Bob Dylan’s song ‘Hurricane’ points a confrontational

finger toward the wrongful imprisonment of, and alleged

institutionalized racism suffered by, the boxer ‘Hurricane’

Rubin Carter, ‘Birmingham Six’, highlighted the fault lines

that existed between Ireland and Britain in the late 20th

Century. Indeed, the parallels between the civil rights strug-

gle of black people in America and that of the Irish across

the Atlantic have in some ways been coextensive. The great

musicologists John and Alan Lomax chronicled the suffering

expressed through the music of black people during slavery,

and that of Irish-Americans during civil discrimination. The

Irish diaspora in America – often on the receiving end of a

hostile reception - found an abundance of issues to be artic-

ulated through music, with songs like Pete Seeger’s ‘No Irish

Need Apply’ emphasising the lack of opportunity afforded

09

10Photography: Sarah Kane, BA Photography, London College of Communication

In Martin Scorsese’s film ‘The Departed’, Matt Damon’s character considers one of Freud’s lesser known frustrations: that the Irish are the only people impervious to psychoanalysis. While there may be truth in the idea that Ireland’s uneasy history has etched an impregnable idea of ‘us’ and ‘them’ onto the subconscious, Irish people have never been shy of impas-sioned self-reflexivity. A preoccupation with oppression has fashioned within that identity an underdog status, a dissident mentality, which finds itself manifest in music. When an Irishman succeeds, he has beaten the odds; even given Ireland’s cur-rent culture of affluence. Indeed, Ireland has reaped more from her membership to the European Union than any other con-stituent nation, and the larger problems in the North have subsided. Surely, then, his-torical precedent would lead us to expect that, with the advent of a new sociopoliti-cal and economic prosperity, the blights of famine, of subjugation to foreign rule, and of the IRA, would quickly fade from the minds of songwriters.

11 12

Philip Yalley _FdA Digital Media Production Yr2

14

to the Pats and Dans of the world. The unqualified success

of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘We Shall Overcome: The Seeger

Sessions’ demonstrated that a widespread interest in

expressions of Irish history and identity through music re-

mains. Linking black emancipation songs like ‘O Mary Don’t

You Weep’ with the traditional Irish song ‘Mrs McGrath’

(which refers to Irish soldiers in the American civil war)

highlights the connection between the struggles of these

two peoples in the great melting pot, and suggests that

for people shackled by social inequity, music has become

inextricably bound to those hardships. Yet such expres-

sions of Irish identity rely heavily on the belief that a fixed

identity even exists. Interestingly, a recent trial revealed

that most Irish men do not carry the DNA of the Celts;

the findings show that their genes far predate the arrival of

the Celts in Ireland. The common symbols and clichés of

Ireland have been rehashed and exhausted musically. House

of Pain enjoyed a profitable, albeit ludicrous, career based

on a scarily tenuous affiliation with Ireland; they did little

to dispel the stereotypes of the Irish as nomads, chancers

and vagabonds. Among the Boston based hip hop group’s

repertoire was the identity-desperate ‘Top O’ the Morning

to Ya’, with lyrics including:

Ya see, I’m Irish, but I’m not a leprechaun…

A descendant of Dublin with titanic skill…

These Irish eyes are smilin’, I’m buckwildin’…

Similarly, the 1990s saw Boston’s Dropkick Murphys and Los

Angeles’ Flogging Molly synthesise the fiddle, kettledrum and

banjo with punk styling and references to the ‘home coun-

try’. Yet the same decade saw a generation of Irish bands

ignore their country’s historical plight, a notable exception

being the Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’, which refers to the 1916

Dublin uprising. Sinéad O’Connor and U2 have rarely ap-

proached such subjects, and perhaps this is a reflection of a

willingness to move on from the sorrows of years gone by.

With the advent of the ‘Celtic Tiger’, and the cosmopolitan-

ism that it brought to Dublin and Belfast, maybe the time

has come to embrace a future that previously looked so

uncertain. Americans who hanker after a greater and more

ancient sense of cultural lineage have adopted the revolu-

tionary tales of the Fenians, the great boat exodus to New

York in the late 1800s, and a hazy dream of a distant home

in the Emerald Isle as their own. But rather than shamrocks,

limericks and pints of Guinness, it is the homegrown songs

of Ireland, composed and performed during the country’s

numerous episodes of turmoil, that will remain as central

reference points in the mythologisation of Ireland’s turbu-

lent history.

13

DAMILOLA

ODUSOTE

ALTHOUGH

YOUR ILLUSTRATIONS

ARE AESTHETICALLY

BEAUTIFUL, THEY HAVE A

CHAOTIC NATURE. IF YOUR

WORK IS TO BE SEEN AS A

2D REPRESENTATION OF LIFE,

DOES THIS CHAOS REFLECT

YOUR VIEW OF THE

WORLD/NATION/

LONDON?

2

INTERVIEW BY CHRIS ACKERLEY

15

16

1Throughout my

day there are many issues that

I come across. Living in a society that is

so rich and diverse provokes me to think about many

political subjects. These feelings and ideas flow onto

my page; it’s almost as if I have set a subject on the

canvas for debate, or there is a huge question mark

which invites the viewer to engage with it.

My upbringing was strange, having been fostered by

white working-class parents in an essentially white

town. I had to face many race issues growing up, simi-

lar issues which are still very important and significant

to me today.

Living in London has been like travelling the world. I have

become a much more open minded and educated person

by living in a place where so many different cultures and

peoples live side by side.

I call on my viewers to recall

their past experiences and

to comment on the subjects

of my work, hopefully show-

ing that we all share a com-

mon experience in life; that

of being a human being.

I like to believe that we all

have similar human qualities.

We are not all that dissimi-

lar. It is hard not to involve

some kind of political or

social meaning in your work

when you experience living

in London. I express my

views on current issues

through colour, in an

abstract, epic way.

YOU

SAY THAT

YOUR WORK IS

A ‘WINDOW INTO THE

VIEWER’S SUBCONSCIOUS’.

DO YOU ALWAYS AIM TO

PROVOKE A REACTION FROM

THOSE VIEWING YOUR WORK,

AND, IF SO, TO WHAT EXTENT

DO YOU FEEL THAT YOUR

WORK CONTAINS A

SOCIAL OR POLITICAL

MEANING?

The chaotic nature

of my work does indeed

reflect London life, the buzz and en-

ergy of London is all around us. The things I feel and

see throughout my day end up on the canvas sooner

or later: my mind is endlessly absorbing images.

I grew up outside of London, in Essex. There the land-

scape had its imperfections; the town I grew up in was

essentially marshland and so the greyness of the huge

buildings in London, and all of the city’s imperfections,

became very appealing to me.

London itself has been thrown together; if you

look at it from a bird’s-eye view it’s a mess,

compared to the formal grids of the US at least.

However, it is this chaos that makes London so

appealing; it works.

The way I approach design comes down to

two options – parallel and unparallel, equal

and unequal. I always ask: how would some-

thing look if it were equal or parallel in

some way? London provokes me to

lean more towards the unparallel

and different.

Damilola Odusote studied at Camberwell College where he undertook a BA in

illustration. His new book of illustratio

ns with poet Ronke Osinowo, titled ‘I Bring

You Tilbury Town’, has been published by Author House and is available now.

THE BOOK

YOU HAVE ILLUSTRATED

WITH POET RONKE

OSINOWO DELVES INTO

A SURREAL ‘NEVER-WORLD’

OF POVERTY AND WORKING

CLASS LIVING. WHAT WAS

THE PERSONAL BACKGROUND

BEHIND THE BOOK, AND

TO WHAT EXTEND DO ITS

THEMES REFLECT YOUR

OWN EXPERIENCES

GROWING UP?

The book touches on many

different social and

political aspects of

life in Tilbury Town,

such as alcoholism,

poverty, violence,

race, powerlessness,

unemployment and social

dislocation. It’s a part of

British life that exists but is

rarely spoken about.

As with all the work I

produce, I wanted this book

to make people stop: to see,

question, think and debate

the issues and experiences

mentioned. The themes and

stories in this book give you

a snapshot of life growing

up in this town. The aim is

to convey my strong feelings

and emotions through the

illustrations. If I provoke

feelings and emotions in

just one viewer, then I have

done my job.

This surreal ‘never-world’

is indeed my hometown;

it is essentially how I

remember it. Having made

a forever-standing impact

on my character, the poems

and illustrations are all

products of growing up in

that environment. I wished

to express these memories,

feelings and experiences

through my illustrations; my

sister, Ronke, wished to do

the same through

her poetry.

Although we are from

different generations, it

was easy for Ronke and

I to collaborate on this

book. We had the common

experience of growing up

in the small house with our

foster parents, in the small

town that is Tilbury, so

immediately we were on the

same page.

3

17/ 18

vv

IANGILES“YOU HAVE GOT TO STAND FOR SOMETHING”

19

20

PHOTOG

RAP

HER

- R

ACH

EL B

RO

WN

ST

YLI

ST

- JEA

NIE

ANNAN LEWIN MAKE UP - CELIA VARVILL MODEL - NINA @ FM

MO

DELS

DR

ES

S - S

/S 08 N

OK

I

If Cha

nel’s

signa

ture p

iece

is the

skirt

suit a

nd

Calvin

Klein’s

is th

e t-

shirt,

then

it’s f

air to

say

that N

oki h

as m

ade t

he fa

ce m

ask

his ow

n. At h

is sh

ow-ste

aling

Fash

ion

East

colle

ction

this

Septe

mber, a

ll of

the m

odels

wor

e the

m, in sw

eatsh

irt

marl o

r silk

scar

f prin

t acc

ordin

g

to ou

tfit.

21

ORNOKI HOUSE

OF SUSTAINABILITY

PRESENTS A MANIFESTO

STYLE

:Alexa Hall

REVOL

UTION

ARY

A

few

memorable

snapshots of that

show: mass-produced t-shirts

(eighties metal bands and Disney

cartoons being particular favourites) are

slashed to ribbons, plaited and knotted; a neon

cocktail dress is hoiked down to become a skirt, a puffed

sleeve accentuating each hip; Mickey Mouse with his eyes cut

out; rainbow-coloured wigs that any drag act would be proud

to own. All held together with coils of industrial strength

fluorescent rope. These models didn’t look like models

(and some of them weren’t; a large Boombox contin-

gent made an appearance on the catwalk). They

looked like the mutant survivors of some

nuclear disaster visited on East London.

Had apocalypse come to the rave?

This is customisation, but not

as we know it. The idea

has lost its edge of late,

but Noki and his

comrades are set

to change all

that.

At

the

centre of

it all is a masked

figure in customised

sportswear with a strong Glas-

wegian accent. At a time when the likes

of Gareth Pugh and Christopher Kane are

almost as recognisable as the clothes they produce,

JJ Hudson has cultivated an enigmatic persona equal to any

underground political leader. With a fondness for impenetrable

acronyms (his show was titled ‘NOKI-NHS-CUSTOMISATION AND

AFTERCARE SERVICE’ ), quoting political texts (Kalle Lasn’s ‘Culture Jam’ is a

favourite), and those masks, which, wouldn’t you know, are SOBs (Suffocation Of

Branding masks), he’s very much a radical.

This is not some callow fashion school graduate using shock tactics to garner a job at a major

fashion house. A product of 90s Hoxton, he’s been operating for long enough to establish his style

22

This particular piece has been created in response

to family politics and sibling rivalry. My mother,

who forged the identities of my sisters, sits within

the picture, representing two of them following

an argument. The paradox of their conflict occurs

through its origination from their similarity, shap-

ing the mirrored composition. This symmetrical

set up was intended to emphasize their distance

and similarity simultaneously. On closer inspec-

tion however, it is evident that the sisters are not

as similar as first thought.

The abundance of space within the image was intended to

dwarf the figures, emphasizing their psychological divide

while also drawing attention to the confining repetition of

cage-like wallpaper. This background was drawn in Vector-

works, including hidden images within the replicated design,

forging a parallel between the repeated sisters and their rep-

etitious environment. Their beige clothing also merges with

their background, linking to the standardization of the piece,

while also producing a warm, inviting glow. Forging to form a

Viking boat, their shadows are produced through a spotlight

suggestive of sudden discovery of misbehaviour and blame.

CHELSEA COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN | BA FINE ART 24

JON

NY

BRIGGS

Some fashion bloggers have suggested that, far from

being anti-establishment, Hudson is too well in with

some major fashion players to be able to provide any

relevant critique. After all, Fashion East is run by his

friend and supporter Lulu Kennedy, so one can only

assume that he didn’t have to apply in the usual way.

Another old friend, Nicola Formichetti, superstylist

of ‘Dazed And Confused’, styled the Fashion East ex-

travaganza. When I snarkily ask him by email whether

his collaboration to produce footwear for Luella’s

A/W 08 shows signifies a move to the mainstream,

his response is emphatic. ‘Very much so. It’s a

wonderful nod to the Noki style being accepted

by the ‘said’ mainstream.’ And it’s great that he’s

unapologetic about this. What’s the point of be-

ing a revolutionary without an audience? Surely,

getting major magazine coverage with designs

that subvert the insignia of some of their top

advertisers, could be considered a triumph.

If Hudson is going mainstream, he’s doing it on

his own terms. With a range for Kickers due

for release in the spring, a Brick Lane shop is

now in the pipeline, showcasing not only the

NHS range but also Hudson’s young protégés,

Good One and Dig for Victory, whom, with

likeable humility, he names as ‘inspirations‘.

And he’s optimistic for the future of fashion.

‘Sustainable thought processes have come out

of the customisation trend, and this is your

revolution within the fashion industry.’

Noki wants to challenge his customers. ‘Fash-

ion is very much a visual revolution that will

forever inspire its wearer into a beautiful war

of change.’ And as the soldiers in the war on

homogenised fashion take up arms, I think that

what Noki makes is riot gear.

| www.jonnybriggs.com

23

credentials. As a music stylist and artist, he’s exhibited in the

V&A and has his work photographed by Nick Knight. But Hudson

is scathing about designers who play lip-service to the values of

customisation with clever-clever parodies of the big corporates,

before being absorbed by them. ‘I find this uninspiring, as they

have reduced this special moment to just a trend. They followed

through by being what they fought against.’

The only alternative to the rather arch approach to branding - es-

poused by designers such as Jeremy Scott and Russell Sage - is the

type of eco-clothing which seems a bit worthy; all hemp, sludge

colours and dubious ethnic touches. But Noki shows that there is

another way. His creations both critique the commercial power-

house branding that he subverts, and provide a genuinely beautiful

afterlife for their discarded products. They transform recycling

from a safe middle-class activity into something altogether more

rebellious. When other designers endlessly rehash ideas from the

past using wasteful new materials, surely the only reaction is to

create something thrillingly new from something already existing.

‘With a little thought, future design can be achieved by custom-

ising what has already been produced.’ And, let’s face it, some

’future design’ is what fashion needs right now.

But isn’t there a danger that, in encouraging the kids to do their

own thing, he’ll render his own job obsolete?

‘True fashion is always playing with this concept of revolution. It’s

a passive-aggressive outlook to the fact that we do not go naked

and will always want to look different’, he says.

IND

EPEND

ENZ To ce

lebrate 60 years

of Independence in

I DIA

STAT

E OF

IndePendenz

DesiG

n Rationale

First and Second year Fashion Design students

were asked to make a 100 page book,

including designs for a 16 piece collection and

a final garment celebrating 60 years of India’s

Independence from Britain.

Katie took inspiration fro

m

the Shri Swaminarayan

Mandir, a Hindu Temple

in Neasden, London. Th

e

exterior and interior of the

temple is white and hand ca

rved

and therefore quite a surreal sight

amidst the surro

unding council

estates of Neasden. Th

e ‘otherness’

of its arch

itecture is incongruous in

such

a typically Britis

h location; it re

presents

a very vis

ible separation from Britis

h

architectural co

nventions, and, im

plicitly,

a separation from Britis

h culture. But also,

rather encouragingly, the erectio

n of the temple

demonstrates th

e opportunities, v

alues, and ski

lls

that different co

untries and co

mmunities ca

n offer

one another.

Katie was particularly drawn to the ornate

arches se

en throughout the building. Fr

om

sketches and photographs sh

e began to reproduce the arch forms in

fabric, cu

rving seams and

exploring the folds and gathers of th

e material. Katie cu

t curve

d shapes out of interfacing

and bonded them to the fabric, gathering it o

n the underside; s

he deliberately

controlled the material, givin

g it structure in one area and allowing the rest

to drape and fall naturally.

The final garment was made fro

m ivory

sand-washed silk. Th

is is an ideal fa

bric to use as part o

f a Spring/

Summer collectio

n because it is so

ft and lig

htweight, and the

colour is reminisce

nt of the Hindu temple.

The collectio

n is predominantly designed for

young, single women, aged between

18 and 35 years o

ld.

Independenz Project — Katie Bishop, BAFS Year 2

25

26

Katie H

elen Bishop

London College of Fashion

BA (Hons) Fashion Studies PT Year 2

TRAPPED IN A GROWN-UP WORLDCHRISTOPHER HUNT

27/ 28

LION CLUBJAMES TYE

29/ 30

Honour Bound

Political art or Liberal Propaganda?Le

mm

a N

our S

heha

di

A per-form-ance pro-duced by the Sydney Opera House and Malthouse theatre, featured at the Barbican from 14th-17th November as part of the Ozmosis 2007 performing arts festival. Conception, direction and co-design by Nigel Jamieson, Choreography by Gary Stuart and music by Paul Charlier.

‘Honour Bound’ is an account of David Hicks’ experience

as a Guantanamo detainee. The controversy around David

Hicks lies in a disagreement between the Australian public

and the American Government over Hicks’ conviction. Hicks

is accused of having visited Taliban camps in Afghanistan,

and participating in operations with Al Qaeda, that did not

involve killing, but transmitting information. The Australian

public disputes this vehemently; however, I will not speculate

about the political motives behind Hicks’ imprisonment.

The performance itself has two layers: a collage of TV jour-

nalism, and dance. Projections are shown of video interviews

with Hicks’ parents, images of Guantanamo Bay (and Abu

Ghraeb), and relevant news clippings, while the dancers

perform choreographed contortions of human suffering. Ini-

tially the choreography was intriguing in its live depiction of

physical and mental torture. Choreographer Garry Stewart

believes that through this the ‘struggle becomes real and not

illustrated’. However, the routines became repetitive and

the dancers were so swift and graceful that they struggled to

convey the idea of human suffering. Much of the dramatic im-

pact was clearly intended to come from the music; however,

for 70 whole minutes a drearily symphonic sci-fi/suspense

movie-style soundtrack droned on and on. The opening and

closing scenes feature Arabic chants, incorporating a record-

ing of the Muslim call to God, but when used within this

context such recordings come across as crude, hackneyed

politicising. In this way the director seemingly contradicts

the message of his work from the outset of the perform-

ance: that this is a production by

Australian artists, about an Australian

citizen, for an Australian audience.

Half of the piece was dedicated to the video documen-

tary. The ingredients for liberal propaganda were all included

in a glorious parade of journalistic clichés. Passages from the

Declaration of Human Rights were both written and recited,

presumably working on the assumption that the audience

had either reading or hearing difficulties. Later, a juxtaposi-

tion of the interrogation techniques and Hick’s personal

account of the tortures he experienced appeared also in

both visual and audio formats. The funny quote by George

Bush was not funny. Interviews with Hicks’ parents, Terry

and Bev, presented them as the typical tabloid heroes: white,

middle-class, victimised citizens. The scandalous newspaper

pictures, supposedly depicting the treatment of prisoners at

Guantanamo, mostly turned out to be photos of the atroci-

ties committed in the Abu Ghraeb prison in Iraq.

The piece is so anti-Bush that it becomes pro-Osama. For

a performance that tried to expose secrets of the Bush

Administration, it did very well in concealing details of Hicks’

conviction; these can be found on Wikipedia, listed in bullet

points. But this is an increasingly widespread malady, as the

polarisation between Bush haters and supporters increases.

Many support the American War on Terror, whilst disagree-

ing with their tactics. They point to the incompetence and

disaster of American foreign policy in Iraq. They criticise the

security

measures

taken within our

cities that have stubbed

out our civil liberties. Others

who are more extreme begin to

deliberately support targets of the Bush

administration, such as the Ba’ath regime in

Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine or

detainees in Guantanamo.

The idea of combining journalism and performance had po-

tential, but it didn’t work in ‘Honour Bound’. The beautifully

sculpted dancers kept the show going despite their incom-

patibility with the harrowing setting of an interrogation

prison. The politics behind it were weak, but it was mainly

the use of clichés and misleading information that rendered

the journalistic component of the performance a failure.

3132

“Wel

com

e to

the

Wild

Wild

Wes

t” P

aint

ing

by N

icky

Nico

le

Norman W

ilcox an

d Amanda Johansso

n

AmericanPostc

ards

Following in the traditio

ns of an iconic s

train of photographic documenta-

tions of America

, our project fuses an awareness o

f these tra

ditions w

ith a

contemporary critica

l edge. The project is

an attempt to encapsulate our

individual co

mmentaries on the culture and its

people, from the persp

ec-

tive of th

e outsider. P

lacing itself a

t the forefront of co

ntemporary west-

ern civilisa

tion, America

’s dominant cu

ltural influence has embedded

itself w

ithin our individ

ual conscio

usness. Our previo

us understanding

of America

was based on fictionalise

d and romanticised forms of

popular culture relayed to us th

rough the media. The juxtapositio

n

of cultural and politic

al influences, a

t a time of potentially great

political sig

nificance, affected our experiences, c

reating con-

trasts and co

nflicts in our im

pressions.

By adopting the picture postca

rd format we are using the

popular means of expressin

g candidly one’s

feelings and

experiences of a place and a culture other th

an one’s

own. Restri

ctions in

the format limit w

hat can be co

m-

municated, w

hile conventional modes of expressio

n

affect how these experiences are co

nveyed – the

choice of language, and the subject m

atter. The

passage of tim

e and distance in the process

of the postca

rd reaching its destin

ation are

evident in

the end product. Th

ese scars a

nd

marks become an integral part o

f the project

itself, s

ince they illustra

te the whole proc-

ess, from beginning to end.

‘American Po

stcards’

is a co

llaborative

project documenting

the experiences

and impressions

of three UK-based

photographers

in post-electio

n

USA (2004). This

photographic project

is a co

llection of

individual and

personal ca

ndid

commentaries in

picture-postca

rd

format. Each

postcard co

nveys

our immediate

experiences through

a combination of both

visual and lite

rary

forms, each image

juxtaposed with text.

33

34

35 36

OTHERSSOUHAL AL ZAATARI