Last week I have started ”my reinvention”. Not out of vanity or self adoration. I am not a prodigy of any other kind, but of my own. But that can be claimed for everyone. There is after all only one genetic version of each of us - unless you are an identical twin, then no, you are not a prodigy of your own kind. Sorry.
Anyways, I have decided for this action because in past 2 years I have been continuously deteriorating as a designer. I seem to have been slowly losing touch with the creationist inside of me and spent too much time on conceptualisations and meeting every single idea that I had with a harsh, almost self-destructing, criticism. Since there are no great ideas, but only great executions, I abandoned every single one before I had the chance to see, where it might have taken me. I gave them no chance at all. Troubled by originality and marketability I was jumping from one idea to another, from one project to the next like a rabbit in its mating season. I had no focus and nothing was ever good enough. In the mean time, however, I slowly lost my confidence. I felt like I have accomplished nothing. So I started to ask myself, who is Dejan Fon Krajnik as an artist. What does he have to say, and why should anyone be listening?
I will not presume to ever get to an answer, but I strongly believe that knowing where I was as a creative person might open a little wormhole, through which I will get the second chance to appreciate the past and with it create the future that is now. And maybe, just maybe, along the way, I will find the voice and someone out there will be listening.
So I will make my step forward by going one step back. Back to where I was. Remembering the details, sharing anecdotes, being a wiseass or anything else for that matter. There is no other purpose for this but to ignite that spark that drove me since I can remember. These “memberberries”, these “Make America great again” gremlins, this “30ies crisis symptoms” therapy, are just my way to find my brand. Like Alaska or Alyssa Edwards. I love them. They are sooo … I love them.
Anyways, back to my point. For my first “Reminiscing the future” series I have chosen my first graduate collection titled:
“White temples”
It is interesting how I got to have two graduate collections. I was in my third year of a four-year study. I was known to be a persisting worker, spending all the given amount of available time in one or other classroom, working on any current project. I still am like that, when I feel a project wholeheartedly. I am devoted to finding a result. I was somewhat of an inventory. Everyone knew me. So one day a professor of the fourth year comes to me and asks me if I were interested in participating in the graduation show, because she had been watching me and always wanted to work with me. Of course I said yes instantly, I was deeply flattered. I didn’t care if that meant I would have to do the double amount of work from then on. I was a third year student, doing a graduation show, under mentorship of a professor that later become my dearest friend.
The theme of that year was Jože Plečnik, a famous Slovenian architect, and that spoke to me on so many levels. Firstly, I did not know him that well, secondly, what little I knew of him I admired, thirdly, he was an architect, which meant construction, fourthly, his style was antique inspired, which meant balance. Little did I know that when I will start researching him, his personal letters to his mother would become my main inspiration. I was touched by his love for her and how devoted Christian he was. I was fascinated by the fact that he used to make the entrances to the churches so little in comparison to the magnitude of the façade, that one doubted it was big enough for him to enter at all, and was expected to bow. Bow before god. I did not care for the god part as much as I loved how he manifested that act of humbleness – a bow – using solely proportion. Deciding that it is going to be temples that I will build, little healing places – churches, I begun to study human body, because “Body is my temple”. Then I found out, that his work is usually placed on ley lines (believe in them or not) so I decided I will construct clothes relying on meridians of human body (sooo far away from Christianity) And lastly, as the main inspiration for the shapes, I have chosen Spanish renaissance – the greatest fanatics of all time. There it was, the whole concept on four pages. Sometimes only one sentence is needed to put everything in motion.
Here is a video excerpt of our fashion show. Only one model of each student is presented. Mine is at 6:57.
Following are few of my sketches for this collection. It is where I found my "model" - big feet, big hands, small heads and long necks. Needless to say I always have to make more technical sketch for others to see. They simply aren't cute.
And there's that!
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