Rust and Decay

Rust and Decay

For my new Elizabethan designs I have been inspired by the concept of rust and decay, this started after looking at the Illamasqua 'Once' Collection where their creative director Alex Box looked at decay in flowers to create a beautiful collection which was strikingly Elizabethan. I have been inspired by the colours and also the organic patterns that are created by the decay of natural and man made materials. 

From this definition we can see that rust is the corrosion of metal, a man made material, it says that this can be caused by exposure to moisture, this can link to my design and reference to grief, as the moisture would be from sweat/ tears. It also shows that rust can be a fungal disease that occurs in plants and causes reddish brown patches, and once again thrives in a wet environment. I have collected images of rust in plants (left) and rust in metal (right) to compare how they look. After doing this I am a lot more interested in rust in man made materials, I think the colours and patterns are much more symbolic to my design. The organic patterns in rust in plants makes me think of disease, and this isn't something that I want to try and communicate I'm more drawn the eerie patterns created on the metal, the peeling away of the paint coating makes me think of how this could represent a tough exterior being peeled away by grief, or of the streaking of tears down the face.



Even though I really liked the thought of rust in man made materials, I thought I would research a bit into decay of organic materials and also into the decomposition of these, I also want to look at urban decay to see if there is any factors that can influence my design. I started by looking into decay in humans, after death the cells in the body stop receiving oxygen, and blood drains from the capillaries and pool into the lower lying portions of the body and this creates the pale appearance, when the cells die bacteria within the body will begin to break them down, and enzymes from the pancreas will cause the body to digest itself. Different things can affect the rate of decay, bodies will decompose faster in water, and slowest underground. I have looked into images from body farms and the stages of decay in the body, and have realised that this is not what I want in my design, I want to create something that is a bit more beautiful rather than outright gruesome and believe that human decay would be much more suited for a SFX brief, so I started to look at decay in plants, the primary form of decomposition in plants is fungi and takes place in the presence of oxygen, I much prefer this form of decomposition, I think it will be symbolic and will be more of a reference rather than something that is in your face, when I look at this decay I like how it is still beautiful.

 

Finally I had a quick look into urban decay this is the process of where a previously functioning part of a city falls into disrepair. This is the final thing I looked into because I think it perfectly pairs rust and decay, I also think this is inspirational, as my lady in waiting Elizabeth Brydges experienced the death of Queen Elizabeth, so she will have seen the fall of the Elizabethan era, and I have linked this to urban decay, whereas rust and decay in flowers will symbolise Elizabeth's personal grief for example her loss of status, wealth and lost loves.

 

 

Scheve T. (2008). How Body Farms Work. Available: http://science.howstuffworks.com/body-farm1.htm. Last accessed 24th Nov 2015.

 

Featherstone A. (2011). Decomposition and Decay. Available: http://treesforlife.org.uk/forest/forest-ecology/decomposition-and-decay/. Last accessed 24th Nov 2015.