Rhiannon Furness

Mixed media sampling using offcuts, local magazine pages and stitching. Using shapes of buildings from aerial photographs of Chesterfield. Keeping the colour palette muted and simple. Black and white provides contrast whilst subtle blues reoccur throughout Chesterfield (likely due to the local football club). Using illustrations and previously used shapes to experiment with colour ways, collage, machine stitch and digital manipulation to create a print. Experimenting with different mediums (acrylic paint, spray paint, printing ink) and colours using a stencil. Layering street names over one another and shapes from the aerial photos. The spray paint reminds me of street are and seems apt for an exterior installation piece.   Creating a patchwork with texture, layers and print as a way to symbolise the variety of individuals within a community. Carrying the use of blue from Chesterfield FC.  Development inspired by synthetic cubism by collaging textures, shapes and print. Symbol...

Art pieces around Chesterfield. Art that is easily accessible to the wider public helps inspire creativity. Exposing new generations to design ideas and promoting change. Art pieces can tell stories and educate, they can relate to histories and the future. Designing pieces that relate to the community of Chesterfield and displaying these where the public can easily view them will give members of the community a sense of pride and therefore inspire active participation within community activities. Examples of textile installations, some of which created in collaboration with communities (local residents and students). Evidence of public art bringing people together.  

There are many ways to create a print, conventionally through methods such a screen printing, block printing, and digitally printing. But I want to explore other methods such as hand painting, collage, stitch and embellishment to create prints. These methods can be used and digitally manipulated to create even more possibilities within the print world.  The above prints all display elements of structure, either through the use of geometric shapes or architectural imagery. Techniques include collage and digital manipulation. I want to use elements inspired by architecture in my own designs as well as experimenting with digital processes and collage within my prints.

Kari Moden is a Swedish illustrator. Her work is bold and colourful and she's often commissioned to work for agencies who distribute her work, for example for advertising, information and packaging etc. (Kari Modern, undated). Her work is an example of art reaching communities. Her work also depicts communities through scenes of people, maps and architectural images.  

Christine Gedeon uses paint, fabric and stitch to invent these semi-abstract landscapes with limited colour palettes, intended to make viewers contemplate their individual relationship with the external world (Christine Gedeon, undated).  The use of different fabrics to create shapes and layers adds depth to the works. Overlapping lines and shapes perfectly capture the connectedness of a community and the place it's based. Places hold memories and memories build a persons identity. So conjuring depictions of places via design can hold different meanings to different people but simulaneously be recognisable to an entire community.   

The idea of layering textiles and the symbolism connected to layers (more than meets the eye, the layers relating to different aspects of a community or a person's identity) would be interesting to incorporate into my collection. The process can be utilised in many ways in order to suit other visual choices made during primary research and design development. Using MMT processes to create a collage of textures to symbolise the variety of individuals within a single community. Shapes can be formed to reflect those found within my primary research, based on architecture, maps and aerial photography. Adding in the use of unconventional materials will help add structure and variety of texture.