Aralsea Productions - “Bang on those doors until you break them down”
My Name is Warren Reilly and I am an award-winning Artist/Designer who recently graduated from Manchester School of Art studying Textiles in Practice. While I specialise in Print, focusing my work on social design and applied art, I realised that halfway through my degree my true aspiration was to work in the fashion industry. My work explores the concept of “Fashion as Art” and questions issues in modern-day society with a historical twist.
Studying Art, Photography, English Literature and Media Studies for my A-levels at QPCS, I was lucky to be able to explore every possible creative avenue the school had to offer. By taking part in extracurricular programmes with The Royal Academy of Arts (The Attract Programme) and CSM/ABP Autograph (The Album Project), I realised that my passion was to pursue a lifestyle and career within the creative industry.
Originally wanting to be a fine artist, it wasn’t until my art foundation at Kingston University where I was introduced to design processes, that I realised I wanted to translate my artistic concepts into design pieces. I chose textiles as a degree to enable me to develop a spectrum of different skills but realised halfway through my studies that I wanted to develop these textiles skills into fashion-based outcomes.
Since my GCSEs, I have worked tirelessly to better myself. I have been lucky enough to have been supported by a number of individuals and institutions throughout my studies. Being from a working-class background and of mixed-race origin, I have been extremely lucky that I have been enrolled onto Extra Curricular activities within the creative world. However, it is not just because of my hard work that this occurred. One of the most notable reasons for my enrolment in these activities, was because my teachers/tutors realised that I needed additional support as I was from a low-income family. Without this support, it is difficult to say whether I would be in the position I am now. I have been able to learn valuable skills which have enabled me to adapt to different people and environments.
During my foundation, I felt that a number of individuals did not think I ‘belonged’ in such a prestigious institution. I often felt outcasted by a few of my fellow peers, as I did not fit within their social bubble. When people find out that I am from Harlesden, it’s hard to say whether they’re shocked or impressed. Many find it hard to believe I am from such an area, due to the way I conduct myself. Because of these views, I often feel that I have to prove myself to other creatives who have easier access to the creative industry.
People like me have to work their way up from nothing.
My long-term goal would be for me to establish my own creative studio. I have a dream where I own a store that is also an art gallery. The art on the walls informs the clothing and vice versa in a circular kind of structure where everything I sell as art or fashion informs one another.
There are similar examples of this at present. One is the multi-brand retailer Dover Street Market, which presents its clothes in an industrially inspired setting as edgy avant-garde artworks. Another is the artist Patrick Church NY, who started out as a painter and has now started translating these works onto garments, establishing a fashion brand which is fed by his abstract and colourful creations. In that respect, I aspire for my work to fit a similar blueprint, while also retaining the unique sense of my own style and personality.
By www.aralseaproductions.com