This piece of art is called Geisha. It has been created by Kate Blacker who was born in 1955, it was made in 1981 this sculpture and it has been painted on corrugated metal. I looked at this piece of art work because it has been made out of recycled material, she uses corrugated metal as she is using the scrap of urban buildings, she uses a mixture of metal, broken bricks, she uses things of urban buildings dew to the fact of bring them materials back to life. The piece of metal she used in this art piec had been ran over by a bulldozer giving it the shape it has. She aid the concertina shape reminded her of a traditional Japanese woman and this inspired her to create the the elegant Japanese Geisha wearing a kimono and fluttering her fan. The fan represents friendship, respect and good wishes. The Japanese believe that the handle of the fan represents the beginning of life and the ribs of the fan are the paths you can take within your life, this is maybe why she decided to use a fan dew to the the idea of a new beginning the scrap metal has had a new beginning of becoming an art sculpture.
In the Walker Art Gallery there were dresses on the lower floor created by different artists below I picked a few I really found inspiring within this exhibition there was a mixture of female evening gowns and male evening gowns.
This dress was created by Frank Usher around about 1968-1980. Frank Usher got his business running in 1944. The business he ran offered sophisticated, couture like gowns which were sold for an affordable price even though clothes were still being rashioned by coupons. In the 1960s and 1970s they decided to go down the path of focusing on clothes for special occassions, they are still producing quite stylish evening wear today. 
This gown was created by Paquin in Paris in the years 1950-1955. It has been created out of silk satin, with applied diamante beads and sequins. The Parisian fashion house Paquin was created by Jeanne Paquin in 1891. After he death in 1936 the business carried on under several different designers names until it finally closed in 1956. This high fashion dress would have been very expensive in the past with its intricate beading and detail. A man names Pete Farrer collected this piece because he loved it’s colour, it’s silky fabric and the intricate beading and is on loan from Peter Farrer.
This is another womans evening dress, it has been printed in rayon taffeta and was created around about 1930-1935. This is one of the earlier dresses from Peters collection. Taffeta was a popular material back in that day and this material was especially popular for evening dresses and the floral patterns like this were even more fashionable in the 1930’s. The artificial flowers on the bodice and shoulder straps are very similiar to the kind of artifical flowers used in the hat-making industry during the 1930’s.
Stephanie Hughes 