Where the Wild Things Are part 2

In this post I'm going to talk more about the film adaptation than the book as they do vary in the depth of the story and I think the film is more of an adult fantasy film than a child's film. 

I love the beasts within the story. In the book the illustrations are beautiful. The beasts have a real human cross over. Some of them have human feet but are then covered in fur where as others have horns and chicken clawed feet. They are totally brought to life in the movie and its so worth a watch! It will open up your imagination and heart. 

Plastic dolls of the beasts.
Courtesy of Doobybrain.com

The main difference in the film is the depth that Jonze takes the beats personalities. 

They are very reflective of human emotions and when you watch it you will so be able to relate to most the situations and emotions! 

They are vast, feathered, horned, clawed, beaked and definitely wild — irrational and dangerous, even when showing affection.

You've got Carol, who is an impulsive wild thing,

KW is a loner,

Douglas is a peace keeper,

Judith is a pushover,

Ira is an aggressive and suspicious girlfriend,

Alexander is ignored, belittled and mistreated

and Bull is a quiet intimidating but hulk of a beast.

The film has many positive quotes through out it and this is one of them. We should never stop dreaming, hoping and imagining. This is something that we sometimes loose sight of when we grow up but we should never stop and this film really hit this home for me so I decided to right the craziest ideas and hopes down and I am going to do something about every single one of them!

My favourite quote from the movie.

I also think that the story is empowering to children and is the opposite of a nightmare or Brothers Grimm story as it is enabling children's imagination in a positive way as Max overpowers the beasts are scared of him and he is brave and no harm is done. 

I would like my designs to reflect this mismash of emotions and contrasts in behaviour and also aesthetics. I want something colourful but dark, warm and protective, textured and smooth, big but also small. I wonder if this is possible?!

My favourite image from the entire movie when all the animals and max are at one with each other.

Where the Wild Things Are

Naturally after the Secret Garden Party I had to revisit Where The Wild Things Are as it brings together all of my ideas and memories from the summer. 

 

This has a real nostalgic pull on my heart strings as I was read this book as a child and me and my brother would play at being max and the beasts! It has since been developed into a feature length film by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers that I am also a huge fan of. 

The front cover of the book. 

The basic outline of the story is of A young boy named Max has an active imagination, and he throws tantrums if others don't go along with what he wants. Following an incident with Claire (his sister) and her friends and his Mother paying more attention to her boyfriend than to him - max throws a tantrum and is sent to his bedroom by his mother. He runs away from home wearing his wolf costume at the time. Max not only runs away physically, but runs toward a world in his imagination. This world, an ocean away, is inhabited by large wild beasts, including one named Carol who is much like Max himself in temperament. Instead of eating Max like they normally would, the wild things befriend Max as he is not scared of them and he proclaims himself a king who can magically solve all their problems. He gets caught up in all of the beasts separate issues but also manages to make them have fun and gets them to dance by declaring that the wild rumpus has begun. He eventually misses home and realises that he can't save the beasts from being upset and angry. He realises that sometimes people do things they don't mean and that people are complicated so he decides to leave the beasts and go home. When he gets home he finds his mum has left his dinner by his bed and its still hot so she does still love him.  

I love this story as it is simply about childhood innocence and how children aren't adults and do confuse their emotions and don't yet understand how other people feel or why they do things. 

Im going to do a few posts about this as I'm fascinated by the story and the imagery involved in the book and film.

p.s. Im thinking of using the front cover as the colour palette for a autumn/winter collection what does every one think? Maybe too bright or too green?

Not so secret garden party part 3

Ok so this is my last post about this festival now!
The had a whole range of entertainment at the party including a paint throwing sub-party where people bought bags of powder paint and were able to throw them and cover people in gorgeous paints, this is very similar to the Indian festival of 'Holi". 


By far my favourite section was the adult toys section! This isn't as rude as it first sounds it was pure and innocent fun. They set up adult sized playgrounds which made you remember your childhood innocence and you couldn't help but get carried away and become as free and easy as a child. I loved this section of the festival as it was just amazing to watch everybody's transformation and seeing people have fun by improvising and using their imaginations. 
The quote in the image below summarises this for me. 

Image Nick Caro.   King Stag with tribal twist.

The theme really fitted in with my research and I was fascinated with the realisation on how we prepare our children for adult life as soon as we can and then as soon as we become adults with responsibilities we want to escape them all and become children again. We love nothing more than to dress up and swing around in playgrounds! We don't get to do this in the real world as society would think we were a bit strange so this weekend enables those wishes so we can become like children once again. 

 Everybody just let themselves go and didn't think about the stress of reality. I would totally recommend this festival to anyone who wants to just get away from it all for a weekend. You can be anyone you want to be and everyone is so open minded, anything goes its incredible! Just leave all of your sensible and rationale self at home as you wont need it for this weekend.

Tracey Emin - Love Is What You Want

Tracey Emin has been a favourite artist of mine for years and I am fascinated and deeply affected by her work.

She held a retrospective exhibition over the summer at the Hayward Gallery in London which included work from every media and phase of her career. It was a huge exhibition which included her blankets, sculptures, neons, films, furniture, assemblages, drawings, paintings, photographs and writings. 

It was centred around lost innocence and childhood as is much of her work.

It was amazing to see so much of her work all in one place and to be able to get up close to it and see what real skill is involved in making the pices. Each one of her huge blankets is painstakingly hand sewn and the sculptures nailed together by her own hands.

The works that particularly left an impression on me were her blankets and her work relating to the abortions she had and the children she lost. 

I was also deeply affected by a sculptural piece that was almost 'hidden' on a roof terrace. It consisted of three bronze sculptures hidden in opposite corners of the roof terrace, one was a little teddy bear (see below)

"Baby Things" 2008, Emin

 I would like to use the delicate craft methods Emin uses in her crochet work and also the texture contrasts she uses in her blankets within my work. 

Emin describes these pieces of infancy and childhood innocence as "tumbleweed amongst the urban mishmash of society". 

"You forgot to kiss my soul" Neon work, Emin

I also love the slogans that Emin has created in her neon works as they are a snapshot in time that conjures up the feeling of heartbreak and betrayl. I think Emin is an incredible artist and this exhibition really affected me and left me feeling vulnerable and exposed.