The focus for this project was on environmental issues and was the beginning of my work having a context in the social/political/environmental.
Research Project
I am choosing to visit the Eden project as regardless of my project topic it will serve as great inspiration. The flowers, the colors and textures will serve as inspiration for a starting point and help me develop my creativity by giving me a rich platform of ideas to begin my investigation.
Primary research
Eden Project
The eden project was rich in colour, texture and natural life and provided inspiration for my project as the ethos of the site is to be ethically green in regards to buildings and construction. My focus is on sustainability and art that carries a message, politically, socially or environmentally.
The Biome domes themselves were a source of inspiration, the material and structure of the domes mirror nature and the hexagons are put together like a beehive.
The domes were designed by Grimshaw Architects who were heavily influenced by Buckmisnter Fuller and Geodesic design.
Each window of dome is made from a plastic polymer (tetrafluoroethylene copolymer (ETFE) , which is strong and self cleaning making it a good long term material, each window is transparent allowing for light and heat trapping.
Installation Artists Tomás Saraceno creates large transparent structures through which he expresses how our relationships influence our planet. His work links well with the biomes of the Eden project and the way in which material is used as a facilitator to enjoy environments and allow people to explore surroundings.
Site features of interest:
Hemp Rope structures, these were constructed on a raised platform with the intention of looking through the spaces between the rope to obscure the view. I was less interested in the actual look of these structures and more so in the shadows they created. I think they are reminiscent of leaf structures.
Rainforests On Fire installation: this installation is closely linked to my project as it involves art which is directly responding to an issue, this being climate change and forest fires. This did not especially engage me as it was dull and in comparison to the rest of the rainforest biome it was dull, however I think that was the concept. That if rainforests continue to be stripped of their natural goods through harvesting trees and disrupting wildlife they will begin to look like the installation, grey, trees cut short and ashy. The placement of the installation is in contrast to the vivacity of the rest of the Biome.
This sculpture was submerged within the natural leaves and environment. I liked this principle of submerging art into nature or an environment.
Overall the site visit to the Eden Project was very valuable in starting this project and provided me with resources and recorded information in photographs and drawings which I will be able to use as influence for this project. It has been beneficial in finding my topic of interest as I want to look at Art with a message/ political/social/ cultural art and the ability to influence via art. The first fire installment was a starting point for this.
Issac Andrews
- focuses on using collage as a form of social commentary. Creating work that intends to provoke and make the audience question their perception of society. His work confronts ideas of ignorance and complacency, this is especially prevalent in his work using cyanotype dyes to print the faces of Us Police officers who have killed Black men and women and have faced no charges. who have been killed by Police brutality in recent years. Titled ‘ Yet They Still Walk’ This is a poignant piece highlighting the leniency and bias of the american justice system.
I was interested in the message of this piece and also the technique of cyanotype dying which is a technique I would like to explore in the future.
Cyanotype dye
Similar concept to the process in photography of using a reactive medium (photography paper) and an object to stop or let some light pass through. This process uses the Cyanotype dye as the medium ( I would like xperiment creating onto a fabric) and any chosen object as the blocker of light.
Cyanotype kit (Potassium ferricyanide + Ferric ammonium citrate)
How To Make Cyanotype Textiles and Fabrics - link details the process hydrogen peroxide can deepen the blue colour
I could print high contrast images of my own onto acetate and then do this process to make my own prints onto fabric
I wanted to make a collage of all ideas and elements that I had been inspired by. Using the collage as a visual mind map of which artists
I wanted to look at and what topics.
Gender Based Violence
Within my college I have featured topical issues such as the problems Women face in Saudia Arabia. Specifically looking at women who wish to escape their country to seek asylum abroad. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun is a young Saudi woman who has been able to do this and has received international support from the UN. Women are forced to leave their country because of gender based violence, sex trafficking and war. Under Sadui law a woman has to have the permission of a male guardian to be able to obtain a passport, travel abroad or marry. Issca Andrews has created a collage titled ‘let them run’ which focuses on this topic and features silhouettes of women running in support of those who try to escape their country. I think that Art is imperative to addressing problems in our world as it's a language that can be universally understood.
OLafur Elliason
Olafur Ellison confronts climate change, pollution and the human condition predominantly through installation art as well as other mediums.
His ‘Glacier series’ began in 1999 where he photographed several glaciers in Iceland, documenting the natural landscape. In 2019 he came back to these images and re photographed them, these images placed side by side showed the impact of global warming on our world.
I also liked his way of planning and working. The exploded sketchbook covered a wall of his exhibition full of documents, photos and reports. I like this overwhelming sense of information.
NASA website
On the NASA website I found before and after satellite images of the planet in certain areas of dramatic change due to the climate. The effects of dramatic flooding, fires, built up areas, landslides ect all feature in these images which show the narrative of destruction and damage.
China’s Poyang Lake, largest freshwater lake, typically shrinks during winter and regains its water during summer rains. In 2019 it reached an extreme low (lowest in 60 years) , and in 2020 it reached the highest on record. Scientifically highlighting the pure damage our lives and lifestyles are having on the planet.
I like these images as abstract art in themselves as they are a form of abstraction (an extreme zoomed out perspective) and are captured in false colour- a combination of infrared and visible light, the purpose of this is clarifying the boundary between land and water.
Memorial Art
9/11 - memorial college featuring portraits of every life that was lost. The way the images overlap creates this terrible sense and overwhelming abundance of the amount of lives lost.
A temporary memorial suing the personal belonging of passengers
and rescue workers. - reminds me of the Poem ‘effects ‘ By Alan Jenkins and the tactile natures of personal belongings and the significance of re-memory.
On the flip side of 9/11 is the racism and suspicion bred out of fear and hate that affected people of minority ethnicities through the following years, issues such as islamophobia are tackled by Abdul Abdullah a 7th generation Austrialaian Muslim. His artwork adresses Muslim idenity and the politicisation of the faith. His coming of age in a post-9/11 world affects his artwork sevelry and he seeks to expose the prejudices and stereotypes which maraginlse Muslim youth.
His work really interests me for its political activism and also through Abdulahs clear personal connections and fierce intentions for his work to serve as a means of rejection of a society that has persecuted him for his faith and ethnicity. He uses a smiley face motif in much of his work as a universal language he found useful when communicating with global artists via message. Abdullah says; “[In] the first series of paintings, I had these quite serious faces, but [I realized the] smiley face over the top acts almost as a shield,” . There is a level of irony and humor to these otherwise very serious paintings of Australian soldiers serving in Afghanistan. These images are Abdullah's critique to Australian participation in war overseas.
Tracey Emin’s work has been the foundation of this project for me. Her quilting style and expression of topics through textiles has combined all of these issues together for me. I can be influenced by problems such as climate change, gender based violence and Islaaphobia and express this through a medium that I like exploring. This has formed the idea behind my quilted jacket which is made from scraps of fabric. The only new materials are the threads and wadding, however I have experimented with using recycled materials such as a fleece blanket as a replacement for the wadding, this was tried on the pocket of the jacket.
Emin’s work is vocal, loud and expressive, her use of immediate colour and bold lettering is immediately striking. Her use of traditional quilting techniques are almost ironic, her quilts are sometimes in the style of church murals of which her work is an antithesis of those ideas exploring feminism, expletive language and sexuality. Her use of expressive phrases, and misspelt dialogue creates a sense of urgency and anger within her work each quilt is a direct confrontation of a issue she wishes to discuss. I admire her immediacy and boldness in the sense she creates whatever she feels is right. Her works on feminism and her response to the way women are portrayed in the media have crossovers with music, in particular Lily allens ‘22’ features lyrics much like her quilt that fight against the media view of womens value decreasing with age.
The theme that ties all of these artists and ideas together is the idea of art being a medium for which issues in society can be addressed. Art as a conversation that can be universally understood through images and creating emotion, feeling. I like the way in which textiles have both the visual and tactiles elements which deepen the experience of a piece of art as well as being able to depict an issue the materials used can also tell more of that story.
Jacket:
For this project I wanted to create a physical piece of artwork alongside my collage choosing a topic of interest under the header of ‘Art with a message’. I chose to focus on nature, climate change and sustainable fashion. Using the fabric pattern for a jacket I decided to make a puffa coat using the quilting techniques of Tracey Emin.
I made the fabric print for this piece by screen printing using organic materials, fallen leaves for stencils, paper off cuts for alternative shapes. I love the colours of the back and sleeve of the jacket. Through the construction of the jacket I have discovered that the designing of the jacket, visualizing and making the printed fabric were the parts of the process I particularly enjoyed. The quilting on the front with a free machine stitch was also enjoyable. I did not find the construction part of the process very engaging, I think it is important for me to have a strong understanding of how a garment is constructed but the actual constriction and pattern cutting I found difficult. I liked the end result and the way in which the jacket is an application of my ideas, textile design and fabric patterning.
I know I am engaged with artists who use art as a platform to make statements about politics, social problems. I have decided to follow this up with an investigation into the work of Robert Rashenburg and to also look at street art after I watched the ‘Exit through the Gift Shop’ Banksy Documentary and other artists who convey a reflection of society through art.
(mock up using tate britain's street art maker online)
Street art appeals to me through its immediacy, the direct, often beyond lifesize shapes, with dramatic colour that are used to divert attention from surroundings to the artwork. Most commonly it is used as a medium to make public statements about society. Graffiti has a history of being offensive and vandalism which also adds to its power in making a commentary on society, however it is becoming more acceptable in current times. Street art is also free adding to its appeal and societal ethics, it is art for everyone and the form rejects traditional art where gallery entries must be paid.
Street art and feminism, graffiti is overwhelmingly a male dominated art form for a variety of reasons, women in cities are more vulnerable during night hours than men, female graffiti artists experience harassment by men, police officers. Women face more challenging conditions than men when creating graffiti artworks which adds to the significance of their work especially in busy cities, putting themselves at risk to produce art which is often political is a way of claiming back their city and engaging people about problems. This can be seen recently in the UK, ( I cannot find the article I read) a lane near a University was spray painted with a warning saying that two people had been sexually assaulted recently and to use another route as the lane was dangerous. Whether this counts as ‘true art’ is debatable but it feeds into the ethics of street art as a way of commenting on society and is a reflection of sexual assault and harassment within our world.
I like the immediacy of graffiti, the way in italy it's a striking image but the more you look the more is revealed to you, often featuring slogans or a caption which adds context. References to popular culture and public figures adds a sense of relevancy to street art. This is why I have an interest in Rasheburgs work as he combines graphic elements of drawing, painting alongside images of public figures and political topics often depicting the cold war as that was what was relevant to him at the time. I like the way in which street art is a capsule of the political climate at the point of creation.
The black and white image crudely titled ‘Cunt Scum’ carries an ambiguous commentary on the divide and climate of Londin in the late 1960’s. Gilbert and George the makers of this piece began living on the edge of london, in a place which had become home to London's migrant communities, housing Jewish, Bangladeshi and Pakistani, mixed race communities. During this time these groups were targeted by a white ationalist organisation who worked in opposition to multi-racism and immgiration in Britain. The graffiti in their image was taken from this area of London. The photgrohs composed in this image depict the divides and stark contrasts within the city from the formerly dressed police officer to the working people grouped closely together. Gilbert and Jones have created this ambiguous image of social hierarchy through high contrast balck and white images giving the art a gritty sense of grim reality. The Placement of their own portraits (gilbert and george) next to the word scum also suggest that they are identifying themselves with it and that they are the issues as a microcosm for the oppressors such as the anti-racial group who would create hate graffiti in these areas.
The idea that a print was designed specifically for a certain garment because it ustilies the shape of the clothing particularly to create a one off bespoke kind of look interests me. As well as this the way the body provides a similar specificity, from wedding dresses that have a buttoned spine working with the skeletal frame of the body. I don't particularly like this style of dress but the idea for creation appeals to me using the shape of a clothing item or body to inform the specifics and making. Artist Michaela Stark to show beauty in what has been considered by the beauty standard as unattractive, the parts of bodies that we are supposed to hide. She uses her lingerie to accentuate these features and re define what makes something appealing or not. This also has a crossover with messages within art, her work speaks to oppose the beauty standard to promote accepting bodies for the things that do not how they look. Her work is also designed to form on the body much like deliberate prints designed specifically for certain shape clothes.
Sonia Delaunay’s work is also a branch of this, her interdespilicary0 work takes her bauhaus esque paintings into clothing and textile. I am intrigued by the way she uses shape and colour to define the silhouette of this jacket, Her use of patchwork and the way her painting style is so recognisably transferred to clothing. Her shapes and abstract shapes give movement and texture to the fabrics. There is an energy created by this which really interests me.
‘Colour was language. Every sound had its hue.’
‘It was performance art brought to us by fashion models.’
Guardian -’ The contribution of women has been ignored, especially where a woman’s work moved fluidly between art and design. Thus, for a long time, Sonia Delaunay was regarded as the help meet or wife-of-the-more-famous Robert. This is the first UK retrospective of her work, almost 40 years after her death. It’s the first to assess her as an independent artist. The task, the curators insist, is not to assert that she was better than her husband, but to see her contribution clearly and fully, and in its own right.’
Images from Visit to The Eden Project
Recycled Jacket, printed onto using leaves and wool, made from fabric scraps to address concerns for ethical fashion
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