Outline



A group of practice-led researchers at  London College of Fashion, representing a range of disciplines as fashion design, fine art, fashion illustration, textile design, costume and dance, will be working over a period of a year at the National Gallery, London, to produce work in response to the theme of ‘Flight’. The final outcomes will take a variety of  forms  including direct drawing on paper, animation,  film, costume,  performance and fashion design.

A series of ‘Show and Tell’ events at the National Gallery and LCF  will take place to share  and disseminate the research as it progresses  and to  facilitate  potential collaborations. These ‘Show and Tell’  events will be recorded and archived on this blog.

The  starting point  for the research is the theme of ‘Flight’,  which conjures up both profound and playful narratives,  from transcendence and the absent body (the resurrection), the flight of peoples across the world (from the biblical Flight into Egypt) to ‘flight of fancy’.
Central to the project is  the question of how historical images can provide triggers for creative contemporary practice. The project will also address what might be revealed through a direct engagement with specific paintings and the value of  working from primary sources. Drawing , as a means of investigation, of thinking and articulating ideas will play a pivotal role in the research process.  It is intended that this research  will reveal  the way in which drawing is  used by  creative practitioners, within their thinking and working methodology. In addition, it aims to  highlight the considerable hybrid activity across the subject disciplines,  which includes the use of hand and digital tools and  film, performance and installation.

The completed research will be disseminated at the National Gallery with an event  in the National Gallery auditorium in Autumn 2013.

The project has been initiated by Charlotte Hodes, Professor in Fine Art at LCF and Colin Wiggins, Special Projects Curator at the National Gallery. Charlotte has been instrumental in leading a number of  research projects at LCF,  which centre on drawing , the most recent of which was an exhibition in 2011 with the University of  Böras, Sweden entitled Drawing and the Body.

Colin  has been responsible for the long standing Artist in Residence programme and has curated many exhibitions at the National Gallery of work by contemporary artists including Sir Anthony Caro, Frank Auerbach and Bridget Riley. Traditionally the National Gallery's  contemporary projects have operated within the area of Fine Art.