Use of denim as an art material in two and multi-dimensional experimental designs

In the study titled "The Use of Denim as an Art Material in Two and Multidimensional Experimental Designs", denim fabric, which is one of the commonly used material types among textile materials, is discussed. Denim's physical and chemical structural differences from other fabrics are examined, and in order to investigate the gains it will provide to the artist by itself or with other supporting materials during the stage of creating an art object, experiments are conducted and reported to determine which processes will yield which results. By using the data obtained from these experiments, it is aimed to create experimental designs with denim fabric as the main material. This thesis consists of six main sections. In the first section, the introduction, the problem, purpose and limitations of the thesis are mentioned. When we look at the basic requirements of humanity in the history of civilisation, food comes first, and covering comes second. Nature was used to meet both requirements. During the hunter-gatherer period, mankind used the skins of the animals that they consumed as food for covering purposes, and later on, created threads and surfaces from plants in nature. In this way, textile surface began to take its place in the human history. In the second part of the thesis, as a result of the research on the place and importance of textile materials in human history, information such as the formation of fibers in nature from foreign sources and their transformation into yarn, with the beginning of the bronze age, the discovery of the first dyestuffs that dye textile fibers, are found. It was translated with the light of this information and briefly included in the second part to contribute to the literature. Since textile surface forming or shaping techniques would be used while creating experimental designs, traditional textile shaping techniques were examined under separate headings and fiber types were covered by looking at textile as a raw material. Under these headings, the history and dyeing technique of indigo dyestuff were examined and conveyed due to its close proximity to denim, which is the main subject of the thesis. Denim fabric is the main material when creating art objects. The structural and chemical characteristics of denim, its history and development, its reflection on fashion in the form of workwear, military clothing and daily clothing were given wide coverage. Denim fabric has a revolutionary feature in the fashion pyramid at these stages. In the usual process of fashion pyramid; the concept that we call a fashion icon can be an object, clothing, designer or a person. When this concept first emerges, it takes its place ready for consumption at the top of the fashion pyramid where the socio-economically strongest social segment is located, and over time it continues to be fashionable by spreading to the lowest layers of the pyramid where the lower segments of the society are located. When fashion icons descend to the base of the pyramid, where the society's socio-economically and socio-culturally lower layers are located, they lose their currency and value and pass into the phase of extinction. However denim; as a fabric, it started to be used as a tarpaulin on the lowest layer of the pyramid in the 16th century, and then took its place in the society as a workwear in the 1850s. In the later years, denim climbed to the top of the pyramid and took its place in haute-couture fashion shows and became the first and only textile product which is still current and fashionable even in 2021. Because of this feature, denim has a revolutionary feature in the history of textile and fashion. Denim, which shows its difference from other textile products amongst artists, has become the main material of several artists in different parts of the world and has taken its place in exhibition halls. In this context, the second section was created to examine the place of denim in the field of plastic art. The third section starts with the title of plastic arts, textile art and denim. While investigating the place of denim as a textile material in plastic arts, two different disciplines, textile arts and plastic arts were examined chronologically from history to present. The important periods, art movements and artists related the the use of textile in plastic arts, which started with modern art and covered the artist's search for different materials and expressions until 2021 with the the understanding of post-modernt art, were mentioned. The place and importance of textile in plastic arts were examined by the support of artwork images of artists who were examples of interdisciplinary interaction. During these researches, the resumes and artwork images of the artists who used denim as a material were mentioned. In the fourth section denim fabric was examined; giving volume to denim by using adhesives and other chemicals, and giving two and three dimensions to denim by using sewing-molding techniques, as well as colour experiments on the two-dimensional denim surface and form and surface shaping experiments on denim material alone or with additional materials are presented in report format. The fifth section, inspired by the findings and researches in this study, covers experiemental designs in which denim fabric is used as the main material. In the sixth and final section, there is a conclusion and recommendations section covering all studies. In the recommendations section, hypothetical presentations of the created designs in different sizes and spaces are presented in the form of digitally created images. Keywords: Textile, denim, indigo, fibre art, interdisciplinary art.