Entry No 5

TRANSFORMATION IN ART

 

 

Robert Bradford . 2008. Recycled Art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.recycleforthearts.org/recycled-toys-into-dog-art.html.

[Accessed 16 November 12].

 

 

This dog sculpture was created by artist Robert Bradford.  It is made up of recycled toys.  Bradford has been creating these original and wonderful sculptures since 2004 and some of his creative artwork includes up to 3,000 toys.  It all started when he looked at a toy box that was left at his work place by his children.  The toy box inspired him to start doing this type of artwork and it made him very successful.  At first he used his own children’s toys but then he started buying other unwanted toys from garage sales.

 

This is another good example of transformation in art - discarded toys being transformed into unique art sculptures - and again it shows that the concept of recycling is being practised by a lot of artists.

 

TRANSFORMATION IN DESIGN

 

As I was carrying some research regarding recycled textiles, the following caption caught my attention:
 

Don’t Put Your Feet On the Seat, Put a Seat On Your Feet

 

 

Anjie Davison . 2009. Seats on Feet!. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.pompomemporium.com/content/seats-feet. [Accessed 16 November 12].

 

I learned that the “Above+Below” London footwear company manufactures shoes from recycled material - discarded tire rubber, fabric taken from the seats of London’s public means of transport (underground and buses), and even unwanted leather checkbook covers.

  

 

FirstGroup's Climate Change Strategy and TRiP (Transport Recycling in Partnership) supported this project.  Seat material was donated to the project to be reused, instead of being thrown away in the landfills or incinerated and causing damage to the environment.  On the other hand, the footwear company donated a tree for every pair of shoes sold.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the most environment-friendly project that I have ever heard about and I never imagined that tire rubber, underground and bus seat materials and leather checkbook covers could be transformed in such cool shoes!

 

TRANSFORMATION IN FILM

 

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001):

 

This film is about a girl named Amélie Poulain who was born in 1974 in a French location called Enghien, in the northern suburbs of Paris. As a child Amélie was raised at home alone, without any contact with the outside world. This was due to the fact that her father, who was a doctor, mistakenly believed that his daughter suffered from a heart condition. This concern made her mother suffer from stress. Amélie did not even go to school. Her mother used to teach her at home. Obviously Amélie did not have a normal upbringing because she hardly got any real life contact with other people. Amélie was shy and lived in a world of her own, which was a world full of fantasies and dreams of love and beauty. Her life was full of imagination. After some time, her mother died in a weird accident when somebody jumped off the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and landed on her.

When Amélie Poulain became a young woman she was still a daydreamer and quite shy, but she moved to central Paris and started working as a waitress in the café Deux Moulins in Montmartre. In the café she used to wonder about life and daydream about finding the love of her life.

One day Amélie found a long-lost childhood treasure in her apartment after a small bottle cap slipped from her hand, hit one of the walls in her apartment and cracked it. The treasure was hidden behind the wall. It was a small box containing childhood mementos which belonged to a dweller from the 50's who used to occupy her apartment at that time. So Amélie decided to search for the man and return the treasure to him without letting him know who did so. When she succeeded in doing this and witnessed the man’s happiness, she decided to devote her life to the people around her and become the "godmother of the rejected". Amélie helped people she knew anonymously, using her fantasy and her little tricks. She was mischievous but she managed to help many people and enrich their lives, even though not in a normal way. For example her father was obsessed with his garden-gnome, so she used his garden gnome to convince him to travel abroad. She befriended and helped a rejected and lonely neighbour. She played jokes on another neighbour. She collected objects and later returned them to their owners. She also helped her hypochondriac colleague that worked in the tobacco shop and the man that used to stalk his ex girlfriends. When this particular man stalked the other waitress who worked with Amélie in the same café, Amélie acted like cupid. She played pranks to an employer that mistreated his employee with abusive relationship.

However, soon Amélie realized that her life was totally dedicated to others. She was not focusing much on her own life and especially on her long-time dream to find love in her life. So she decided that she needed another change in her life. She was determined to take a hold of her life and capture the beauty of love that she had always dreamed of. One day Amélie discovered an album of photos that belonged to a secretive collector. She looked for this mysterious person and she found out that he used to collect rejected photos in the Photomaton of the Gare de l'Est. This man was a bit of a freak but Amélie fell in love with him and found the love that she was searching for.

I see a lot of transformation in this film. Amélie’s life changed a lot from the time that she was a small girl till she finally found love and the meaning of life in general. The change from a child to an adult brought about other changes in her life. From a person cut out from the rest of the world she became a waitress, a job that makes you meet a lot of people. From a timid person, not so sure of herself, she started to help others, in unusual ways, after interacting with her neighbours and customers, and also with a mysterious Photomaton-image collector and one of his even more mysterious photo subjects. From a person who, for several years, depended totally on her parents, Amélie became independent and realized that the way to happiness required her to take her own initiative and reach out to others.

 

 

 

 

 zhukaiww. (2008). Amelie (2001) HD trailer. [Online Video]. 06 December. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEFrLnS5sQY&feature=player_embedded. [Accessed: 15 November 2012].

 

References:


http://www.wallpapervn.net/2011/09/top-most-amazing-and-creative-arts.html

http://greenupgrader.com/6046/dont-put-your-feet-on-the-seat-put-a-seat-on-your-feet/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211915/