Manifesto: Deciding on making a calendar

I have been considering making a calendar as a final piece for a while as the format intrigues me. For this particular project I thought it would be a good way to show the aspect of time on climate change. Many climate change deniers can hide away from the responsibilities of climate change by alluding to fact that it won’t happen in their lifetime. However, many changes have already occurred in the landscape, environment and animals species.

By having a calendar its saying that you can’t avoid this its a circumstance which keeps happening day after day, although the impact is slight daily it still occurs. The calendar would have an ironic purpose as nobody would actually want a calendar which was so depressing and foreboding – therefore its a practical item without a use. This is quite an interesting concept and I think relates to the fact that we have so much information of climate change and don’t really understand what to do with it. I want to suggest that we should comb through the information ourselves and actually investigate what we think is true and how reliable our sources are.

I’m trying to encourage people to stay curious and question everything, the media feeds us and we without realising take it in. This calendar is supposed to everyday make us consider actually that “fact” that I’ve been telling everyone is it actually true? Where did I hear it from? Why have I been telling people?

Manifesto: First person inspiration





I have been looking for inspiration in everyday life. I’ve been trying to stay open minded and look for inspiration everywhere and anywhere. I found some amazing pasted posters in the lanes which have a powerful and clear identity, the block images appear like woodcuts or lino and have a similarity to French protest banners.

While I’ve also been looking in unlikely places such as deterioration of paint and peeling walls, also the contrast of graffiti and against environmental backdrops. I’m not normally attracted to images like this I find them slightly mundane but for this project they seem to have given me a light bulb moment.

 

 

Manifesto: Finding inspiration in artist research

I have been wanting to create a more textural, worn down and deteriorated style for this project to mimic how climate change is slowly wearing the earth out.

For this I took inspiration from my trip to the Tate Britain and Robert Rauschenberg, I loved his acetone prints against lithography. I think its such a great layering of techniques and I’m keen to try out the acetone printing. Its the rubbings I love, the aggressive mark making. I took so many pictures of them at the gallery as the more you look at them the more you can see, I’d really like to create a similar feeling of all is not what it seems.


Another artist who I’ve been interested in is Chris Ashworth, I love his textural collage and the use of type in his work. He has an eye for composition that I would like to learn from, I think this is the type of degradation through collage that I’m looking for. Where you can see what the thing is but it has a layer of mystery. 

 

 

Manifesto: Evaluating prints and changing topics

I recently completed a photo lithography plate print for the Manifesto project. Below is what I wrote in lithography diary entry:

“To begin the process, I planned a simple collage which could be used on the photolitho plate. The collage is based around my Manifesto project, as I felt this was a great opportunity to combine the two. With the Manifesto project revolving around protest and the print medium prevalent for protest, I felt there was a strong connection between the two. Therefore, the collage is digitally made using images of environment damage and destruction. I thought this would be a great starting point to build my image from. This layer was printed on acetate, I then worked further on the layer on tracing paper; using similar drawing mediums to the first plate we created. On the tracing paper layer, I drew around the digital collage, I composed people, ladders and graphic symbols to imply that we are using our world as a playground without consequence and waiting for future generations to solve our problems.”

I really like my print however, I feel like it has a long way to go. I think that what I’m trying to communicate just isn’t coming through visually. I want to go in a different direction and maybe look into collage and photo montage. I think collage works well for protest art because it has an affinity with the posters and banners used for protest marches. It has a homemade aspect which gives a power to the people vibe.

Text and Content 2

Although I enjoyed looking into Frankenstein as a story, I felt stumped when it came to changing the story as I have never read the full story. I am one for keeping things authentic and I felt without fully understanding the original story I would be at a disadvantage.

So I considered looking into one of the other stories – The Metamorphosis by Frank Kafka. Due to this being a short story I felt confident I could read and finish it, needless to say I did. I found the story confusing and shocking but also funny and ironic. The story has many levels to it and therefore room to maneuver, some people may see the story as even funny. I wouldn’t go that far but I could see the appeal.

PDF of the text: The-Metamorphosis-1h4cuxs

I researched other material which is used to illustrate The Metamorphosis .

Below are images from My First Kafka, a children’s book by Matthue Roth.



I really like the point of view of these illustrations, straight from the bug’s level – which suggests that he does have a sense of humanity. Also, the black and white works so well as it is a dark and morbid story, it sets the feel. Admittedly, I imagined the bug as more of a cockroach? But, that is obviously left to interpretation as Kafka deliberately leaves it open.

Lithography, Session 3: 20/02/18

After the last session using the Zinc Oxide plate I was eager to have some time to plan my print better and identify my aims. As a group we discussed what can be achieved through using layers in a print, also we learnt how colours can combine and create different colours despite being on different layers. This is something that appeals to me, I like the thought of utilising the process of lithography to create something that I would normally be able to make, say through screen print for example.

To begin the process, I planned a simple collage which could be used on the photolitho plate. The collage is loosely based around my Manifesto project, as I felt this was a great opportunity to combine the two. With the Manifesto project revolving around protest and the print medium used prevalently for protest, I felt there was a strong connection between the two. Therefore, the collage is digitally made using images of environment damage and destruction. I thought this would be a great starting point to build my image from. This layer was printed on acetate, I then worked further on the layer on tracing paper; using similar drawing mediums to the first plate we created. On the tracing paper layer, I drew around the digital collage, I composed people, ladders and graphic symbols to imply that we are using our world as a playground without consequence and waiting for future generations to solve our problems.

I feel like this is a strong start to the planning of my print, I would have liked to get further with this today. However, it is not something to be rushed and I feel confident that with the extra time I can focused myself in the next session on finishing the plate design.

Manifesto: Factual Evidence

Below are some sources I’ve been looking at into climate change deniers, I was concerned that climate change deniers is an outdated term as most people will now admit that with more recent research that climate change is well and truly happening. Some articles date from 2010 and I feel like maybe that was a more current time for the term. However, I think that by bringing the term back in this campaign it will be suggesting how our everyday actions haven’t come that far to appreciating the immediacy of climate change.

Climate change and biocracy-1vqbyvo

Climate change deniers occuring more in Europe-uifwf0

Climate deniers and the media-17pn9fj

Climate deniers and who helps it-12ls8qx

Manifesto: Building on Research

To continue my research into the Manifesto I wanted to create I have been looking into footage of marches on the BFI website. This has been informing as it presents how humans react under pressures and how they protest. I’m interested in the visual language of protest, the body language, the faces contorted in shouts and chants and the raised fists. I feel like using this visual language will create a feeling of importance in my work. You can see the images I’ve chosen in my research book.

Climate Change deniers is an interesting subject because it includes many facades of social commentary. There’s the environmental side and how the longer we deny and avoid the subject of climate change the more our world is deteriorating. There’s the political side of world leaders communicating false commentary on climate change (yes I’m looking at you Trump).

May Day Protest

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-may-day-protest-march-1973-online

Knitwear Workers Protest

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-knitwear-workers-protest-march-1981-online

March!

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-march-1971-online

Lithography, Session 2 13/02/18

Our second lesson in Lithography was a fast-paced, practical introduction into using a Zinc Oxide plate. Although, I tried not to meticulously plan my print, as I knew it was a new process that I had never attempted before, I couldn’t help but have some expectations of myself. I had already determined from the last session that I wanted to utilise the quality of mark making that the Zinc Oxide plate creates. However, I didn’t know what I wanted my subject to be – on a whim I decided to use a recent landscape drawing I had drawn of Cuckmere Haven. Landscape drawing doesn’t come naturally so I didn’t feel precious over how I would recreate the drawing, it also had the opportunity for depth and texture to be worked into it using a variety of drawing materials.

The first part of the session was dedicated to creating the plate itself, this was slightly daunting as some of the drawing materials can’t be mixed with certain others. Also, I had to keep in mind that the plate cannot be touched as grease can make a mark which will transfer to the print. Despite, the difficulty overcoming new drawing techniques I enjoyed the plate I had made and felt that I had utilised many of the drawing mediums.

Inking the plate brought confusion for myself, I had trouble understanding how water could be continually applied to the plate while inking it. Now I realise that this is because the ink is oil-based and cannot be washed away with water. This was an important step to overcome early on and the same method is used to ink all plates. During the process, I had let the plate dry and inked over the top which had led to an excess of ink on the right-hand side. Luckily, it gave a nice effect to the print, also I asked my peers what they thought of the print and many saw images in the misprint that weren’t there but added to the image such as trees and people.

For an afternoon’s work I was impressed with my efforts and overwhelmed with the outcome. I had achieved in making it textural and graphic, while creating a sense of depth and perspective. I think the composition had some harmony which was improved by the ‘happy accident’ that happened during inking the plate. Also, I think it is the details in the mark making that make this piece interesting I’m looking forward to scanning the piece and using the details as larger pieces in my work.

Process:

  1. Draw and compose zinc plate, remembering not to touch the plate to ensure no grease marks are left.
  2. Make sure to dry plate.
  3. Dab over resin, delicately.
  4. Tap off resin.
  5. Dab on french chalk, brush off chalk.
  6. Brush on balm, with sponge, do not directly pour on plate.
  7. Wipe off balm with blue paper towel.
  8. Dry plate.
  9. Wash plate in white spirit.
  10. Wash with water.
  11. Brush off excess water with sponge, but leave it damp.
  12. Roll on ink (two charges of roller)
  13. Put on press.
  14. Up to four proofs.

 

Below is the print that I made in the session.