Xiaojue Xu

Week 1: Introduction to Sustainability

1-2: Photography by Liz Johnson Artur 

Liz Johnson Artur is a Russian-Ghanaian photographer based in London. Born 1964 in Bulgaria and educated in Germany, she arrived in London in 1991.

After joining the Black Lives Matter protests in London in Spring 2020, photographer Liz Johnson Artur was motivated to show solidarity with and photograph protestors in Vauxhall, Westminster and Trafalgar Square. From Tate Modern

Liz Johnson Artur used a range of small daily materials like thread to decorate and express her works. As a photographic artist, works of Liz Johnson Artur  should be in 2D, but Liz Johnson Artur makes them become 3D. The theme of them is “time”, which is closely related to all of people and is easily connected to our daily lives, so Liz Johnson Artur uses the media can be found everywhere in our lives to decorate her graphic photographs. These small materials not only represent “time” in 3D ways, but also showed the methods of sustainability in art works. 

3-4: My print experiment process and development

In this week’s lecture, Introduction to Sustainability, we learnt that anyone in fashion industry should focus on the issue of environmental pollution caused by the fashion industry. Undoubtedly, the print industry creates so many problems in processing such as dyes and fabrics. So, for students, it is very important that we need to aware of the importance of sustainability and are committed to researching the implementability of sustainability.

I was motivated by Liz Johnson Artur’s work and associated it with the use of sustainability in prints. As a printer, people are usually concerned about the presentation of patterns, so they spend a lot of money, energy and time on making unique patterns. But in my opinion, our little everyday things can be unique though. I found the packaging (pieces of paper) for everyday items bought from Tesco Express can be special, especially the negative shape for hanging on the shelves. So I cut out a small piece of paper, painted it with colours and made prints.

Week 2: Emerging Technologies

Fig1 A painting work of mine

Fig2 My development

In this week’s lecture, many emerging technologies have been mentioned in this week’s lecture. For me, printer, reasonable use of late technology software can change and explore colors. Using the app procreate, I can redeploy colors and explore various color combinations through the brightness of the picture.

Week 3: Nature

1-2: Art Work by LIZZY

These pictures are took from LYZZA’s work. As sound designer for the Third World: The Bottom Dimension game, avant-garde producer and vocalist LYZZA composed and produced the World’s distinct sound identity through its foley-sound effects, environmental audio – in addition to scoring its theme tune, in-game films and cut-scenes. For the exhibtion, LYZZA creates a hypnotic soundtrack for the gallery in multiple parts. This sound installation dramatically underpins how the gallery space is used in this new configuration of artists and practices – emphesising, anticipating and revealing the atmosphere of this new world.

3-4: My print

I use flowers and leaves dipped in paint, exploring the shapes brought by natural plants to create a lively atmosphere.

Week 4: Cultural Sustainability

This week’s lecture reminds us about sustainability again. As a student, obviously, we really need to make movement of environment protection. I thought about some endangered animals in China, such as pandas. So I drew pandas in different colour, imagine that could be a print. I wanna show these endangered animals are cute and should be protected by humans. 

Week 5: Empathy

From this lecture, we learned that we need to give our empathy to different crowds. Everybody in this world should be respected by us, students of fashion industry. 

So I thought about our very early time, when we were little babies. All of us were babies once, so I drew some memories in my mind. 

1: My drawing of a baby

This is one imagine came from my mind, I remember my newphew had one clothes like this. 

2: My drawing of a baby’s sleepy face

3: My drawing of a teddy bear. 

I need hold a teddy bear to fall asleep in the past, but also today. 

4-5: Development

Self Reflection

I think the lectures have been very good so far. The theme about sustainability is the most meaningful one in my own opinion. It is educational and instructive and shows us the importance of sustainability in the fashion industry. In my personal experience, I did not always pay attention to whether my works conform to sustainability. After looking through my blogs, I think I should do more research. Undoubtedly, looking through famous artists’ works can really help to broaden my horizon. And it can provide more methods to every and each student. I also checked my photo albums on my phone, sometimes I did not photo artists clearly, I need to make it better if I go to museums next time. What is more, we all know that fashion textiles print is one course which very considers in colours. So I should explore different colours and matches. That is another reason why I think I truly need to research more. By the way, I am satisfied with the colour I used in week 1 and hope I can learn more to make myself improve. And there is one thing more, maybe I need more work and combine them in different ways. Because this was my first mission in university so I subconsciously stayed in my comfort zone. It can be a good thing because I am getting used to the mode of school, but it can also be a bad thing maybe I have to be more creative. For example, I can just close my eyes and draw something in my mind. Such ways I learned from lessons.