Evita Remy-Benn

JFFA

‘Go Back To Your Planet’

Evaluation:

 This project looks at the comparison between Immigration and Space travel as I feel there are similarities in the uncertainty of travelling to a new place. 

With Immigrant experience there are positives and negatives; I spoke to my family about their experiences. I looked at my Caribbean heritage to forge a new narrative out of Space.

I wanted to explore where the next journey could be, and Afrofuturism is a growing sub-genre that I felt embodied this mix of cultures as It takes inspiration from Africa and other countries and places such as the Caribbean. I like how this genre looks at preserving cultures and incorporating them into garments for space or imagined wear for living out in Space.

My Grandparents felt fearful and excited when coming to the UK in the 60s as they did not know what their lives would be like.  The way that these cultures intertwined has influenced me to create pieces that would be worn in my new home of Space, which would commemorate my heritage and my Home of England and celebrate Space.

The Pandemic meant I had to change my approach to my project; My material choice was limited to what I had left over from earlier projects, which I now think is a good thing. Afrofuturism has a lot of recycling and reusing so it felt good to give purpose to scrap fabric.  I hope to be more eco-friendlier in the future when using and sourcing materials as the Pandemic has just shown that we need to look out for each other as well as the planet. This pandemic has slowed down a lot of industries, but I feel it has given people a lot of time to think about their practice.

I also felt that imitation leather worked well, as it reminded me of sofas which makes me wish I had PVC/vinyl to put on top like seat coverings. I initially wanted to use clear PVC/vinyl as I looked at Iris Van Herpen's work and I liked how futuristic it looked, So I felt I could have done something similar. I was also interested in Lace tablecloths and crochet, which led me to look at raffia drink coasters.

 The aim of my project was always to look at an alternative to Earth, The Pandemic put a lot of the social issues to the forefront. It made me think about how futurism is a form of escapism, a lot of people are using the arts in this way.

 I like the outcome and the shapes that I created, the things that I wish I could have done differently would be that I wanted to do bead work as well as a different base material. I think that my outcome looks slightly like armour and I think this interesting as it was not intentional but maybe subconsciously my work became influenced by the pandemic and the fear surrounding it.

This project has shown me to persevere and to use materials that I already have where possible. I would have loved to do a proper shoot or video as I feel like it needs a setting that would have been otherworldly. I was lucky enough to still be able to create my outcome because I know other people are currently struggling.