Freelance screenprinter, and recent BA Textile Design grad from Chelsea College of Arts, Fran Buss has got it going on.

Buss, who has developed and honed her knack for screen printing, has put it all on show with her Graduate Collection project. The project's design statement describes it as a work that embraces the superficiality of modern culture;
"We live in a culture of simulation, one of digital screens and virtual realities. This culture of simulation and the loss of definition between what is authentic and inauthentic are inherent of the post-modern condition. A post-modern approach to design is key in this work, and a value of surface above all else."

Indeed this exploration of authenticity can be seen in the fabrics' prints that give an illusion of being a texture they aren't. The collection champions a colour pallet of pastel tones and delicate shades, all of which are printed to give the appearance of texture–cobbled stone and marbled.

Buss states this work creates a new set of aesthetic values that are at odds with modernism, misusing raw materials and valuing ‘fake’ and cheap materials on the same level as traditional, symbolically luxurious materials such as marble and fur.

"Words and symbols are seen as objects to be manipulated and morphed, breaking traditional design rules, guided purely by aesthetics rather than meaning. These screen-printed fabrics are generated from a constant reproduction of the aesthetic surfaces of materials, rendering these surfaces wholly inauthentic."

Although Buss seems fascinated with pushing the boundary of duality with her projects' ability to be authentic in the capacity of originality, but inauthentic in terms of what it 'appears' to be, we are authentically, and whole heartedly, in love.

http://franbuss.com

Words / Jamie-Maree Shipton