The third and final spectacle

I asked Carl a while ago if I could make my own graduation gown and cap, which he said wouldnt be a problem as long as I got permission from the Vice Chancellor. After talking with Sarah, she said why didn't I use the graduation gown for the third piece for my degree show. Initially I loved this idea, as i could just take it out of the show on the day of graduation and wear it.
When I started trying to draw out ideas, I found it so hard to come up with something that functioned as a gown that was also its own spectacle. Everything was too functional and too practical. Just like the lantern, I was too focused on making something that looked like a gown. I was also struggling with this concept because I realised I wanted to have that sense of unity and togetherness at graduation with my fellow classmates with all of us wearing the same celebratory gown.

So, once again, back to the drawing board.

My work is all made with a festival concept in mind, so why not make a spectacle for a specific festival? I know that the work I made for the Tesla event earlier in the year was not all it couldve been, and I feel this is my chance to build on this and create a stand alone spectacle that will also fit in at a themed event. The Maui Waui Into the Woods Pirate Ball is on the 11th may - A week before hand in and 2 days before the degree show is set up. This is the perfect opportunity to show my work in the context it was designed for, which is ultimately what this units work has been leading up too. The Pirate Ball is obviously pirate themed, and most people go as pirates, but this theme extends to anything and everything pirate related. I thought about making an octopus or a kraken to wear, or a mermaid, but I thought all of these are too figurative. I wanted something I could make very abstract and that has a lot of colour.

So I decided to make a Parrot. I wanted to build upon the shrimp spectacle and also the netted spectacle I made that Devil Child wore in Drag in the Gallery, by combining the shape of the shrimp with additional netting that would be stitched on instead of threaded through mesh. By making a spectacle that loosely represents a parrot it allows me to have bright, vibrant colours and textures which are so fundamental in my work. The spectacle can just suggest a parrot through colour and I don't have to have feathers or the form of a parrot, which makes it a perfect subject to explore in a abstract way. Hopefully this means that the finished spectacle will fulfil my needs as an artist by being alien and other worldly but will also fulfil the needs of the festival in being pirate related.