The Buddhapadipa Temple is a Buddhist monastery covering 4 acres and including an ornamental lake, a small grove, a flower garden and an orchard. The Uposatha or Shrine Hall of the temple is a holy place, which is the sacred house for all Buddhist activities and ceremonies. The temple houses both monks and nuns, but remains open to the public for investigation. On the four interior walls are some masterpieces of typical Thai mural paintings to depict the Buddha’s lifetime. The window and door frames are made of gold leaf gilded carved teak timbers and are also inlaid with coloured glass.

Sunday 4th December saw the Kathina Robe presenting and the Loy Krathong festival. The temple invites the public to explore their view of ritual of celebration. Krathong is a Thai term which refers to a piece of banana trunk decorated with flowers, banana leaves, candle and incense sticks. The word Loy means to float in the Thai language

As Thailand is an agricultural based country and relies on the riches of its rivers to grow crops; to show respect to the river, basically the goddess of the river called Pra Mae Khongkha, Thai people decided to make a Krathong to worship and ask for forgiveness. The Thais now also see it as a time to wave goodbye to misfortune, wash away sins of the past year, and make wishes for the coming year.

Religion is interesting to me in this project as it dictates a collective way of seeing, one without the constraints of an objective perspective. It shapes a state of mind that helps people navigate through their lives and can give them meaning. Religion also acts as a stimulant for art, for example, the inside of the temple houses artists interpretation of ancient Buddhist stories. It is a response to morality. The decorations around the grounds are full of rituals that honor tradition and give visitors the opportunity to reflect on the past and prepare for the future. The grounds are a museum of work and instillations that support how people perceive religion and the world around them, but more than a gallery, the temple encourages its visiotrs to involve themselves, through active ways to donate (such as money trees and the coin platform) or to purchase a Krathong to push onto the water to symbolize the future. The event was about moving forward and how this impacts individuals personally, rather than most art which encourages the viewer to ask questions and reflect on the past.

Erler has inspired me to think about Home, and how I can use them to create personal narratives throughout my practice. I have been visiting areas that impact who I am and the way I see. Family and our collective culture has always been central to my way of living. My parents were next door neighbours growing up living on the A3, a main road that connects surrey to London; this area has been greatly neglected solely used to ravel from one place to the next. Growing up, I was always intrigued by this space and its inhabitance, trying to find beauty in every day life. The collection of images were taken around my home in South West London, and what I notice about my own culture.

Seaford in November 2019

Quiet

Tranquil

Grey

Cold

Nostalgic

Glen Erler’s work focuses on the time in-between, the moments that without knowing make us who we are. Through photographing his childhood environments and family members, he takes us on a nostalgic journey that makes the audience ask where is their motherland?

Shadows and lighting are fundamental elements to Erler’s work, working like textures across his prints. His images have a yellow haze to them produced by the camera and the daylight that give his work a filmic finish. I want to experiment with this use of natural light and playing around with the contrast of film.

Erler has inspired me to explore areas close to my childhood, retracing my footsteps to the places where I built my own memories and where I shaped my existence.
As a child, I spend time with my grandparents at their home in Seaford, a small costal town in the south of England. The town is deserted, occasionally an old couple will appear or a car will drive past, but those who live there have solitude lives.

My siblings and I would walk across the white chalk cliffs of beachy head, edging towards the drop until an adult would spot us and call us back. The top of the hills were tranquil places where you could go to clear your mind, to escape from reality. In 2010, Beachy Head was the third most common suicide spot in the world. The top is lined with crosses marking grave stones of loved ones lost.

Further along the coast is a playground, melancholic for its dark clouds and intermitting showers. An area reminiscent of tears, broken bones and lessons learnt. Displaced frames scattered the woodchip flooring, occasionally noticing the echo of another child’s laughter from across the park. The area feels completely abandoned, like you are the only person there for miles.

The crystal shop in the town was a highlight of each trip, we would talk to the owner and she would explain their purpose, occasionally we would get to pick one to add to our collections.
As the collections grew, my Grandparents bought us wood and glass cases to store our crystals and glass sculptures in.

In 2008, my grandfather past away suddenly. As this was my first experience of grieving it forced me to consider human mortality and how any single moment can have a significant impact on your future.

Glen Erler has encouraged me to think about where I’m from and the pivotal moments of my adolescence that shaped my understanding. I think that Seaford will be an interesting place to start my research into family life and communities as I have so many associations with the area.

Rupi Kaur is a poet, artist and performer. Her work tackles issues with race, gender and self awareness and has inspired her readers to see beauty in a different context and understand its environmental nature.

She beautifully deconstructs social myths about representation and gives her following a sense of belonging and grounding. I believe this to be a really unique answer to some of the issues faced in Ways of Seeing.

“At the time, the myths and stereotypes of being a teenager were totally mediated by TV and advertising, and I was trying to dispel that by making these images. About five years after the book was published, I started to see things that looked like the rooms that I went to in films and TV. I remember thinking, “Why did I even do this project? Everybody already thought this.” But then I met a director who’s worked on projects like Breaking Bad, who told me the book is still used by set designers. The very thing that I was trying to show became the thing everyone was seeing in the context I was working against — it was co-opted and copied so quickly. I thought that was fascinating and horrifying, but kind of awesome.” Salinger on Teenagers in their Bedrooms

Salinger’s uses photography to break down the myths surrounding teenager life in American society. The book takes the idea that a teenager’s bedroom is a reflection of their interests, a kind of shrine to who they are and what they believe. The subjects throughout the book are varied, from sports captains to teenage mothers, Salinger wanted a real representation and therefore a variety of individuals.

This idea of breaking down myth’s surrounding social groups and highlighting its reality is something I have been thinking about bringing forward for my FMP. The research undertaken so far has lead me to looking at underrepresented communities and their understanding of culture. I am interested in using photography as a medium in combination with other practices, such as illustration and poetry.

‘Images capture our history and who we are, our presence and absence. Growing up in both rural and urban South Africa influences my work. The dualities of these both environments inform the stories I am telling through my photographs, by engaging issues around land, peoples’ movement, identity and the notion of home.’
Thabiso Sekgala on Home is Elsewhere

Here is elsewhere is an exhibition held at the Hayward Gallery, showcasing the late Thabiso Sekgala’s photography. I was drawn Sekgala for his interest in belonging, and how this is affected by politics, class and race. As a black man growing up in South Africa and raised in KwaNdebele (an area established by the apartheid government to house black South Africans forced to leave urban areas), he uses the medium of photography to demonstrate the struggles cause by the apartheid and the rejection of the class divide.

Jackson uses photography to reinforce the public’s perception of political characters within western culture. Her work tackles “fake news,” “alternative facts,” and the sociological means that created them.

Her work is both a prediction of what will happen in politics and mass media, and also represents the famous elites as human beings, capable of having emotions. I believe her work helps bridge the gap between our perception of people in the media spotlight and allows us to see them as having deviant characteristics.

John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’ is a series of both pictorial and written essays that suggest seeing is a political act influenced by class, race, sex and environment.

Berger was a public intellectual, using his position to speak out against social injustices and to lend his support to artists and activists across the globe. He believed and verified throughout the book, that to ground yourself in society and give meaning to your life, you must understand your history.

As white european elites have dictated what constitutes as art throughout history, had the ability to preserve what they believe is “good art” and discard what goes against their beliefs, they have managed to maintain control of the subject, and in the process have secluded a large portion of the working and middle class society.

Berger proposes that art is for everyone, that it is a form of self expression, that no one can dictate what is right or wrong, good or bad art. Cultures across the world prove this as such a wide variety is produced depending on environment, resources and conflict.

Fast fashion has become and environmental and economic crisis worldwide, yet the issues have been silenced by those highest to protect themselves from financial instability. Corporations have moved their factories overseas to developing countries that have lower minimum wages and competitive material costs to maximise their personal profits and continue to relocate to achieve the maximum potential income for there companies. Over time, mandatory costs are increasing and as a result, employees at the factories are being placed in unsafe situations receiving severely low wages in order to obtain work.

From the environmental aspect of the movement, the creation of the garments produces toxic materials that are resealed into the air and water flow that we all rely on for our existence. Waste clothing fills our man made land wholes that we burry beneath in order to hide the consequences of our actions. Although much of the economy feels undeserving of the blame, everyone who purchases from the brands contributes to the issue at large.

In 2016, the domestic market value of the fashion industry was 66 billion pounds with an employment rate of 555,000 people, with only 39,000 working in the manufacturing business. The statistics demonstrate the lack of national support to locally sourced materials and production due to the higher living standards, and by doing so we have lost a huge industry for both employment and investment.

Missoni produces quality products that offer employees a fair wage, exemplary working conditions and produce all materials within their own factory using sustainable methods. Although the brand now works along side other companies, they have kept a solid foundation within its structure and still are very much a family business. The principles Missoni follow are ethical and viable to its environment, support local workers and help develop Italy’s constantly progressive economy.

Neutro translates to natural in Italian, and finds its purpose as a logical resolution to a problem becoming undeniably hard to ignore. The second hand market is becoming increasingly valuable to youth who are rediscovering a garments life after its previous consumers have lost interest with it. The reselling community such as Depop and Ebay have opened up the possibility for individuals to own something that they would not have had the possibility to own/wear before. This new market has not be targeted by an already existing fashion brand, however I feel it will be essential for all brands to be able to adapt for this feature in the coming years.

Neutro rehabilitates valuable second hand items, taking them into local workshops where they can be transformed into other garments or repaired and resold. The cost of my brand will be around 20-100 pounds depending on the item and will be relabelled as its own brand. This production will hopefully encourage the recycling of materials within the western culture and provide a number of employment opportunities for local staff. Inspired by the future generations and there innovative approach to progressive fashion, Neutro hopes to provide its customers with quality garments at a reasonable price while using sustainable production methods and increasing jobs in the manufacturing business.

My spread:

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