Sian Naomi Dorman Textiles Design

FINAL PROJECT STATEMENT

‘The Twisted and Strange in Horror films’

My love for horror films stems from deep into my childhood, memories of time spent bonding with my Dad. Watching them with my dad always made me feel safe and protected. I believe this is the reason why I can see the humour in horror rather than watching in fear.

The film ‘Silent Hill’ (2006) directed by Christophe Gans inspired my research and set the scene of my project. The film- set in daytime has a slightly atmospheric mood, everything seems normal at first until a siren sounds and daylight fades to black. The walls begin to peel, and the horror begins as mutated ‘things’ come out. This pattern continues throughout the film. I am interested in why people are afraid or spooked out by the disfigured and animalistic ‘creatures’ in these kinds of films.

My research began with the making of hybrid, ‘weird, dark, sinister, twisted and strange characters made from a mixture of interestingly shaped and textured natural items that had been found on park visits and fruit & veg markets which I painted black and white to add to the mood. These characters form the basis and development for my fabric collection.

The shapes and textures of the ‘creatures’ form the shape. The marks within my drawing to create the base fabric design.

The overall collection is dark, largely black with a little white and a touch of navy. A dark collection allows viewers to focus on the details of the surface fabric. The fabric is 100% polyester due to the manipulation techniques used.

The manipulation method I have taken on is a moulding process whereby the fabric is wrapped around a solid object and boiled in sugar water which helps the fabric to keep the shape of the object. This is a waste free process as the water and sugar is recycled repeated for every sample created. Using this technique allows me to create innovative heavily manipulated sculptural 3D fabrics. Each fabric is produced using one continuous length of fabric.

The biggest struggle I have had to overcome with this project using this technique is how temperamental the boiling stage can be, you can never know exactly how the shape will come out, the same shape can look completely different with every fabric so it is difficult to plan the outcome completely. Colour has occasionally been a problem as the sugar boiling process caramelises and burns in the water therefore dying white fabric.

I have purposefully adapted this collection to allow the viewer to interpret the pieces as they wish. They can be viewed as wearable art, when worn the gathered/ruched structures of the garments create form that aim to disfigure, warp and distort the natural body shape. When hung they can be visualised as more of an installation/art pieces.