Tuesday 8 September 2009

What are We Like?

 At Manchester Art Museum last month they had on an exhibition called What Are You Like.
The exhibition is based around a parlour game from the Victorian times that asks you to describe yourself with images of your favourite things: (illustrating 8 from a list of 12)

favourite....
+animal
+book
+item of clothing
+comfort
+food
+past time
+place
+possession
+music
+shoes
+weather 
+pet aversion (the thing they love to hate!) 
 
The exhibition is 45 famous names including Eric Clapton, Quentin Blake and Paul Smith, revealing their favourite things through wonderfully thoughtful illustration.

The result is a delightfully eccentric exhibition.
 
This 3d illustration by Laura Carlin, was very different to all the other pieces and you had to look at it from every angle to fully appreciate the full illustration. The fact that there is no colour adds to the simplicity and the delicacy of it all. Not my favourite but very high up.
This illustration by Sara Fanelli  is very different to Laura Carlin's piece and less delicate but it has a very laid back feel to it, it reminds me of the doodles I used to created when very bored at school! It still looks very artistic and interesting.
  
This was one of my favourites by Jan Pienkowski, it was very textural although you can't tell from this image, but it was a montage of all Pienkowski's favourite things, unlike the other illustrations this made a complete image rather than treating each favourite thing as a seperate illustration. Then to make clear of which questions he had answered they are listed in the top left hand corner.
  
This was a very fashionable piece done by Paul Smith, very quirky and also reminds me of Paul Smith advertising and how they fashion their shop fittings!

These are just a few, more can be found at: http://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/wayl.php

1 comment:

  1. The Pienkowski is my favourite of this selection too: how nice it would be to have all your favourite things together in one place! I'd love to have a go at this myself actually...

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