Personally Metamorphosis

Hey there, it has been a long time since my last entry. A lot has happened since (it would be weird if It hadn’t). And I will not go into details, the fact is, I was absent and now I am back. Or like Richard Fish would say: “Bygones!”

I was thinking about starting a new blog, because the vision for this one has changed during this time off. I wanted to connect more to the fashion and art part of my life. I have opened my own business and forged a fashion label that will launch its first collection this year. There is no time for idle thinking anymore; I have entered a realm of action. I need to promote things I do, or what we at theCollective do (the platform where artist collaborate on projects together, merging identities).  I have a clear vision of where I want to go. One could say that after all this thinking I finally understand my strengths and I have found my focus. That focus is me.

I understand now that I have to be what I say, and I think I say reasonable things. My fascination with science and the connections I find that govern the undercurrents of social dynamics have taught one thing. Everything is in fact connected by the strings of fundamental laws that seemingly bend when met with chaos we call life.  And that chaos is random and meaningless, and it is wonderful, because it makes life even more valuable.  Science has taught me that there are no differences between living creatures, that there is a link between every single living organism, if looked far enough into the past. It has showed me that life is rare, coincidental and therefore precious. The universe is vast and void and cold, and the end is inevitable, but it gave birth to a matter that, if put together perfectly, can think, feel and create wonderful things. We are stardust. 

How can I then exclude something that defines me? Science is a part of me. It influences everything that I do, sometimes explicitly and sometimes only in the content. It is intertwined with my way of thinking, designing, creating and living. Even though I set out to make a fashion brand, that brand is in the end me. And if anything, previous entries give my work a deeper perspective. Not that it is needed, because I like to think that what I am making is devoid of emotion and purpose, but it opens a space for observer to make one for himself. So I will continue this blog, after all brand goes by the name personally … Dejan Fon Krajnik. 

So here is to growth. On any level. 

My name is Dejan Fon Krajnik, and I am a designer in progress. These are my thoughts, anecdotes, works and all the things that make me tick. 

Of art exhibitions in Graz, mental orgasms and other escapes I like to call exploration.

It has not been easy for me lately. Not so much in the existential or emotional part of my life as it was in the artistic expression. I found myself in a position where I literally generated compositional clothing not being allowed to squeeze in the conceptual thought into them, which I like to do. People want to look great, they want to show what makes them appealing and hide that which makes them less of that. They want to look beautiful. Do not get me wrong, I would stand in front of an armored artillery squad defending fashion for being functional and in humble service to people. I still believe fashion is not an art form. Rather I see it as a skillful Kraftwerk, a mastery which can reach to the realms of being so well executed it looks almost divine, humanly impossible to make. The way Caravaggio’s masterpieces do. The way Michelangelo´s statues do. It is completely different story when fashion meets artistic expression, however. Then it becomes something different. Something like “Modart”, I should say. Of course, there can be intellectual stimuli to a garment, an idea that pervades it, a symbol that makes it somehow embedded in a deeper and complex subject. This is where I like to think I stand with my designs. But in the end, for the sake of being artistic, fashion cannot submit to the self proclaimed artwork dipped in nonfunctional conceptualization. To me, fashion still, in the first place, looks for an aesthetic solution to a given composition of a human body and the relations of volume between body and clothes. Thought behind it is an entity of second grade. So I found myself in situations where I was challenged only on the surface, asked to find an aesthetic solution to a given body, type of venue and event that body has planned to go to. (I see a concept developing here). In general, I love to do it, but when one ends up doing ONLY that for a longer time, one starts to look for a stimulation that is not skin-deep. And when town one lives in does not offer anything but morning rituals and afternoon obligations, with no excitement for the eye or the brain, one reaches out. What my sister likes to call an escape, I like to call exploration. And it is that what I did this week. And it is that I would like to write about. I went to Graz, thus the one day delay on this post. I am sorry for that (déjà-vu?). But here it is what excited me.

Of misinterpretation, judgement and other fragments of my projects

This time I was caught off guard by the Wednesday´s obligations. Days have been seeping by like turning the pages of a children´s book. Quickly, with a rush to the finish line. I have just read the book I have been struggling with for a year and it left me speechless by the ideas author – a great scientist in the fields of quantum physics – has laid on table. There is much to think about, especially about the ending chapters dealing with quantum conscience of a human mind. It gave me something to think about, like how we make decisions, how much are we involved in that and how many of those taken are actually you-cannot-help-but decisions. At some point it sounded as if there is so little in “free will” that is actually free. Up to this point I have not yet come to a conclusion I would like to share, but it got me thinking about helplessness and judgments.

It is true, we are a sum of all of the experiences we have in our lives. Those make us who we are. In fact those make up our reality, for we cannot escape the interpretations we make upon reality we face every day. We tend to perceive reality the way, which is most suitable to our accustomed ways of thinking. Thus, judgements are born. Reality, after all, must coincide with the usual, the known. If it weren´t like that, that would mean we fail to understand it properly. It would mean we live a lie. Actually, it would mean we live in denial. It is much easier not to break one´s head on too much thinking. After all, we can control but our own actions (do we?) and respond intensively to the ones made upon us. Do not get me wrong, I would love to see reality the way I want. Simply taking it the way I need it to be to work for me, ignoring the possibility that I was wrong. I have friends who do not bother with it at all. They think nothing of it. They are sure of how and what they are and tend to see the Reality as a confirmation more than a challenge or a lifelong lesson.  However, I have always been interested in knowing the Truth. What really goes on and how it affects me, you and the society. I have always taken in consideration others´ point of view. I tried to weigh out the options and decide upon predictions of the outcome. Well, let me tell you it is a fruitless and pointless thing to do. I said it so many times here, that reality is what it is. Accepting it is a better way than fighting it. However, accepting does not mean giving into it. There is a difference, I hope you see that.  Anyways, seeing the Reality is something that I want to talk about now. Or better yet, show it.