Fashion and art, which share a history as long as mankind has been on the earth and have a close relationship with humans, have been the most instinctive medium for humans to reveal their desire for expression and aesthetic nature. Therefore, it is na...
Fashion and art, which share a history as long as mankind has been on the earth and have a close relationship with humans, have been the most instinctive medium for humans to reveal their desire for expression and aesthetic nature. Therefore, it is natural and desirable to combine fashion and art based on these biological similarities, and the numerous encounters of fashion and art over a long period of time proves this. This study aims to promote the encounter between fashion and art by creating fashion design works that reinterpret the world of Jannis Kounellis. The order of this research is as follows: It first examines Arte Povera's historical background, theoretical consideration, and influence, and then analyses the art world of Kounellis, a key figure in this art trend. Afterwards, the characteristics of Kounellis' works are identified through this process, and the motifs thus obtained are reinterpreted and implemented through the fashion design work called "Baraka“.
To take a closer look at it, the Arte Povera movement began in the late 1960s in a grim and chaotic Italian social milieu following the defeat of World War II, to protest against the social system of the time and the overly commercialised art world and restore lost humanity through art. Arte Povera has developed into a conceptual art in an avant-garde fashion by picking up discarded or worthless materials and using them as materials for art work, and its influence continues to this day and is found in various fields including modern art. Jannis Kounellis, the artist who represents Arte Povera, shows his reflection on human’s life in a dialectical way through artwork with his own philosophy of bringing life to art. Kounellis believed that daily objects stay with humans for a long time and thus embody the history, memories, and reminiscence of life. Each object has a symbolic meaning and is used as a material to express life, breaking the boundaries between life and art. Various features can be found in Kounellis' artworks, which were mainly shown in three-dimensional works such as installation and performance.
They were divided into features of content and features of form in this study. First of all, the features of the content are the meaning and conceptual parts that Kounellis wants to reveal through his work, and is usually revealed through the contrasting composition of the oppressed and the oppressor in his artworks. These oppressors refer to industry, production, social system, materialism, and the like and are symbolized mainly by industrial structures made of iron. In addition, the oppressed refers to humans and life, and everything that holds human memories such as grains, burlap sacks, and coats is used as symbols. As symbols that indicate life, all things that have or had vitality are used, and some examples are slaughtered meat, horses, birds, and roses. Death and pain are embodied as objects that are wrinkled, worn, and peeled. Those that can be used to tie such as threads or strings are used to symbolise the relationship that connects humans.
On the other hand, the formal features in Jannis Kounellis’ artworks are classified into six different types: "parallelism" in which materials are placed side by side with the visual characteristics of his artwork; "contrast" in which materials with opposing properties are compared; "overlapping" where works are folded and crossed; “use of yellow colour” to give a visual effect by using a strong yellow colour along with the key material which is achromatic; the “use of fabric wrinkles and strings” by applying the characteristics of soft wrinkles; and“spatiality”that draws space into the area of artwork.
Finally, based on the inspiration from the content and formal features of his artwork analysed through the fashion design work "Baraka," a total of eight clothing items are produced, which is the end product of this research.
Currently, studies focusing narrowly on Jannis Kounellis' works exist, but the research that analyses his art world in depth and reinterpret it through fashion design is scanty. Considering the current situation, this study attempted to suggest a new research direction. The attempt to connect fashion with art by examining Kounellis’art world, which revealed the depth of human life, made a theoretical analysis and created a fashion design based on it. It can be a meaningful study which will become the foundation for the future research.