Beatrice Bredikyte

Welcome back!

In my third blog I want to reflect on my finished project and the sustainability theme which dominates in the outcomes.

I can say that I am very proud of myself as this pandemic did not stop me from learning new things and reaching my creative goals.

Not only I created a sustainable costume for dance, but also, with the help of my dad, succeeded in recording a video which forms the character of the witch (you can find the concepts of the character analysed in the previous blog post).

At very beginning of the Better Lives project, before the Covid19 outbreak in Europe, I had set myself a goal to make a costume by recycling rubbish I dispose everyday. This has helped me see that sustainability is not a limitation but a source of inspiration. For the final outcome I wanted to shoot a video of two dancers performing in my costumes after the Easter holiday. I have planned to collaborate with a film maker and a makeup artist from our University. However, as we all know, the world has changed dramatically.

Because of the pandemic I had to leave London and come back to Lithuania where I live with my family. I remember being upset that I will not be able to make a video as desired, however I did not give up on my idea that easily. With the help and support of my dad, I have managed to create a video at the end. And not a bad one either, we even filmed a part of the clip using a drone!

Because I couldn’t collaborate with other artists at this time this time I became the performer, makeup artist, stylist, music producer, animator and the editor.  To be honest with you –  this was the first time of such artistic multitasking for me!

For the robe I used old white bed-clothes. Adornments were made from plastic and paper rubbish. All other accessories such as animal skull, a feather and a piece of fur were found in the wild forest. The handbag was made of old mesh decorated with various mosses, lichens, tree mushrooms, fallen pieces of tree bark. I was wearing a white eye shadow across my eyes, eyebrows and lips.

The video was filmed in a swampy forest. You can see my foot sinking in the mud and the long white sheets getting muddy. I think that this location was really beneficial for my witch character because of its mystical daunting atmosphere.

All in all, I am extremely happy making this project come to life. It has inspired me to develop more sustainable creative practices and to be brave. I have certainly proved myself I can do so much more than I think! However, as much as I am proud of the outcome I am even more happy that the creative process of this Better lives project helped to develop a better bond with my dad. After all, being surrounded by supportive people at these difficult times is what really matters.

Welcome back!

In my second blog I will further discuss the Sustainability aspect of the Better Lives Unit.

I have to say, ironically due to the Covid19 outbreak, it is much easier for me to engage and fulfil this Better Lives project. But we will get back to it later.

For now, I would like to shortly talk through my chosen subject of this Unit which is ‘Navigating through Clothing’. To put it in other words, it’s a costume design project where I was introduced to the fundamental tasks and creative approaches of designers working in theatre or other performance related jobs. Due to adoration of film and acting I really enjoyed the workshops! Our work is based on a classic tale ‘Hansel and Gretel’ where we analyse, interpret and try to understand a chosen character (I have chosen the witch J). To sum up, our task is to create a costume for our chosen personage integrating the the key themes of the Better Lives Unit (Sustainability, Diversity or Social responsibility). 

Since I have chosen Sustainability as my key theme, I was feeling determined to use only rubbish I dispose everyday for my costume making. I really wanted to push my creativity by cutting the choice of materials and to use only things I can find at home. Thus, by cutting, sewing, gluing and modifying their color I reused everyday disposables such as various plastics and cartons and experimented making elements of clothing for the ‘witch’ character.

At the same time, I started to do research around the subject of ‘witches’. I was especially drawn to various tribes living in the cold, remote northern areas and luckily I found an extraordinary book called ‘Shamanic regalia in the far North’ by Patricia Rieff Anawalt. The book resonates very well with my personage, as it presents photographs of Shamanistic costumes of different tribes, giving thoughtful explanations of the outfit details. It also introduces beliefs and philosophy of people, who, contrarily to the modern human being, were especially close to nature.

While continuing with the project I, as every one of us, was interrupted by the covid19 outbreak in Europe. Therefore, I travelled back to Lithuania to stay with my family. Due to the pandemic, we decided to move to our summer house in a remote small village (there are only 3 residents living there!) completely surrounded by forests. Because of isolation from the outside world I was given access to an incredible vast of natural resources. I started collecting various mosses, lichens, tree mushrooms, fallen pieces of tree bark, pine cones among others with regard for continuing the costume making of my witch/shaman character. 

I have to admit I have never made a project concentrating on sustainability before. And as much I enjoy being in nature It has never occurred to me that my art practice can be fully sustainable. As much as I try not to sound overly dramatic, this Better Lives Unit really opened my eyes! I am more then ever fond of the idea of reuse, not to mention the importance of human familiarity with nature.

As much as upsetting the Covid19 pandemic is, I cannot be more grateful to rediscover my relationship with nature as I’m living in a village for almost a month now. Having so much time to think of all the new ways in which I am able to create, I believe that the difficulties of today will definitely help placing the seeds for a more sustainable, nature – human friendly future of the fashion industry.

To begin with, sustainability and nature protection are the most interesting, touching and motivating topics of the Better Lives unit for me. I am eager to deepen my understanding about the ways in which fashion industry needs to change in order to reduce its disastrous pollution impacts on earth. Although I found the first two weeks of Unit a bit vague, I did encounter new thoughts and ideas which were intriguing enough to diffuse into my own ways of thinking. In this blog my goal is to discuss the fundamental parts which have examined the collision between Fashion industry and increasing role of eco-friendly attitudes.

One of the most important lectures for me was about Nature lead by Kate Fletcher. She was talking about the huge expansion of human activities and their effects on earth. To summarize her talk I will pick out the most shocking facts that makes me feel bad about the human race and encourage me for change. It is obvious that people have done the most harm to our planet compared to other living beings. And Fashion, in fact, is the world’s most polluting industry at the moment. Over the last fifty years there was a decline of more than 50% of worlds species. Earth change is tied with one’s impact and superficial view about connection between ecological systems, nature and daily life. However, the modern world is not the first one to face destructive consequences of its actions. Kate Fletcher gave us an insight of the Easter Island and a theory of its famous immense sculptures covering the land. Scientists have many hypotheses depicting why the ancient communities of the Island would make such great numbers of these gigantic monuments and why they did not survive. One of the theories suggest that there lived several families. Each of them would carve huge sculptures out of stone as part of a ritual. The leaders of each group started competing and felt eager to create more sculptures than other families. Thus more and more trees were cut down for carrying the stones for sculpture making. The elite of the island was so competitive and so unrealistic about the consequences, that finally all the trees were cut down. The earth which at first was so rich and good for growing goods suddenly became dry and poor. Animals lost their habitats and got extinct. People started to die out of starvation and the population radically declined. There are three key reasons for this catastrophe: a failure to anticipate consequences, an inability to see behind the “creeping normalcy” of the status quo and a disproportionate power of detached elites. Ironically, these points are the same catalysts for inappropriate human behaviour now as they were hundreds, even thousands of years ago. We are no better nor smarter than the Easter island people.

Thus I say let’s not go “with the flow”. I say let’s read and learn more, let’s be intelligent and compassionate enough to take action. This means rebellion from what is the norm of consumerism. Let’s stop consuming the world, because we will not be able to buy a second nature.