EMPERORS NEW CLOTHES 

the studio practice is based upon "the emperors new clothes" a folktale written by Danish author Hans Christian Anderson. the plot of this folktale is: the two con artists arrive at the emperors city, who spends lavishly on clothing at the expense of the situation. posing as weavers they offer to supply him with fabulous clothes that are invisible to those who are stupid or a fool. the emperor hires them, and they set up looms and go to work a succession of officials, and then the emperor himself, visit them to check their progress but sees that the looms are empty so then pretends to be able to see them so in  otherwise to avoid being thought a fool. finally the weavers report that the emperors suit is finished. they mimic dressing him and he sets off in a strut before the whole city. the townsfolk uncomfortable go along with the show, not  wanting to appear a fool or stupid, until a child blurts out that he is wearing nothing at all. the people then realise that everyone has been fooled although startled, the emperor continues his showcase, walking more proudly than ever.
my interpretation of this story is that the emperor who is very insecure person who doesn't want his flaws pointed out , so he buys the most lavish clothes so everyone can look at him and gawk at his outer appearance instead of who he actually is as a character which is a very vain person.my first key thoughts whist reading this book was: arrogant vanitygreedinsecurity ignorance the phrase " emperors new clothes" has become an idiom( a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non- literal meaning attached to the phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phase) about logical fallacies( a deceptive by appearing to be better than it really is  and it is also used to intentionally manipulate or persuade by deception, while others are committed unintentionally due to carelessness or ignorance)
the 2 themes that really popped out to me where arrogant/ arrogance and vanity. so with that I started looking at the meaning behind these themes and any artist that can relate to that subject matter.arrogance - meaning of making claims or pretensions to superior importance or rights: overbearingly assuming; insolently proud: an arrogant public official characterised by or proceeding from arrogance, or entitlement. whilst looking for artists who dwell in this theme of work the only one that captured my attention was Sabin vasile with his oil painting on led canvas.... arrogance and humility. I then looked at vanity- which means excessive pride for ones appearance or achievements. I came across an artist who surrounded artwork around the theme of vanity and that was , Grayson Perry with his artwork the vanity of small differences. In the emperors new clothes, one of the main themes is the the idea of vanity, an how it clouds people’s judgement. This is shown through the author, Hans Christian Anderson, characterisation of the Emperor throughout the story.During my initial research of the theme of Vanity, I found out that the word ‘Vanity’ originated from the Latin word ‘Vanitas’ which surged the idea of a certain type of paintings where the artwork reminds the viewers of one’s mortality as our vanity and material possessions can not prevent us from death as it is a process that is inevitable. I found that thought  process fascinating as every Vanitas painting held so many lavish materials and objects but no matter what they always had a skull near centre focus to help them remember their impermanence on earth.The reason to why I chose to look into this because of the message behind it, that even though we are surrounded by beautiful things in life an we like to submerge ourselves  among those luxury's, we should never forget that all of that is wiped out and left behind by death, as not everything lasts as beauty has a time limit and i also found it interesting due to the fact that this type of art style is due to the fact it was popularised in the 17th century, in the Netherlands, a country that is Danish related. Where the author was born and it was also believed that he based the emperor character on 17the century Danish king whose name was Christian – IV.For my piece, I would like to produce an A2/A1 still life artwork that’s inspired by Vanitas, around the theme of vanity ,considering a range of mixed media.