Workshop
I expected to dislike today's exploration of the abstraction of ideas and the taking of concepts as far as they can go. I was surprised to find how effectively the exercise led me towards areas and ideas that were not originally obvious
or apparent to me.
I genuinely feel I extracted as much as possible from my beginning with an image of a South East London tower block and was pleased with my mind-map which featured layer upon layer of words deriving back to the one image.
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| Photograph Author's own |
One chain was as follows- rain > England > Royalty
> Jewels > Queen > Stereotypes > Patriotism > Union Jack >
Elitism > Upper class > Un equal > This is not England
Another- fall > trip > accident > fall in social
status > gambling > loss of money > Wall Street Crash > debauchery
> dollar bills > Gatsby > Prohibition
Another-shadows > darkness > blind > disorientated
> navigate > compass
Another- floors > layers > uncover > peel >
onion > cells > microscope > biology > cytoplasm
And so on.
I saw from these chains, which visually convey a thought
process, that one single idea can be developed into the most random and unexpected
outcomes.
I chose three words that I would not have original thought
I’d have come up with to develop. These were ‘Wall Street Crash’, ‘Safety
Glass’ and ‘Cells’.
Poem
To explore a highly different process I created a poem to
bring the three together:
1929 Crash.
The safety glass
wasn’t safe after all.
Our paper-thin
insurance as fragile as the translucent layers of the onion.
1929 Crash.
Shattered. Gone.
A future of poverty,
punishment, prison.
1929 Crash.
Too long at the top.
Too long dancing
amongst the debauchery and dandiness of the uppers.
A view of the poor as
distant as peering down a microscope.
1929 Crash.
We are now those
cells.
Poem by Author
The concept for the poem was the idea that poverty was as
tiny a problem to the debauched upper classes in the 20’s as tiny cells seen
only seen with a microscope. I wanted to explore how quickly, like with the
economic crash, the ones once looking down with rose tinted vision through the
microscope can quickly become the oily cytoplasmic cells themselves. The
structures and ideals within our society lead us to believe wealth is the be
all and end all but also that it is somehow ok for some to live in overwhelming
glory whilst others suffer. My response to the brief, it is fair to say, has a
socialist agenda and will explore structure in this respect, as a negative
thing.
Collage and sketchbook work
I gathered images in the library with the idea of ‘the
structure of society’ in mind.
I found a book on American propaganda during the war, titled
‘Wake Up, America!’ I wanted to relate the historical imagery within it back to
modern day. I see propaganda as deception and this deception as relating to the
corrupt blindfolding on the public masses to the fraudulent antics of moneyed
society in America and the rest of the world today. An image of a beautiful
elegant woman draped in the American flag seemed subversive to me. The fabric
folds Grecian and elegant yet the stars and stripes symbolic of so much more,
especially with the current climate amidst the presidential campaign. I am
attracted to the idea that the societal structures we create, both in Great
Britain and the United States inadvertently encourage scaremongering and
partisan behaviour, in that we all participate, share the ill-informed
information and criticise whoever we oppose.
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Collage Author's own
Imagery from Ravensbourne Library |
An image of a suited man with patriotic flags parading
outside was created to encourage all men to enrol during the war. I translated
this image however to the idea of politicians, businessmen and industry
leaders, both in America with publicised endorsement and during Brexit
campaigns in the UK, where they shared influential opinions on why and why not
we shouldn’t leave, pretending to care about the welfare of their own state and
the desires of the people yet essentially having only their black-suited,
personal interests at heart. The image became then to me a silhouette of the
reality with the bright flag of the background merely the façade presented to
impress and appear patriotic.
Amongst this imagery I wanted direct and non-emblematic
translations of the word structure. Blown up imagery of architecture, where I
have played with the scale from imagery in books found in the library, for me
serve as a simplistic reminders of my exploration of the word structure. I want
to continually backdrop my exploration of less physical structures (the ones we
create in society) with visualisation of ‘structure’ in a more literal sense.
Included in my collage is cellular imagery of shells,
insects and DNA. This alludes to the word ‘cell’ that arose from my mind-map
and also to the original idea that inspired me which was the hidden structure
of nature as well the DNA of social mentality (the embedded ideas on how things
should be). I wish to incorporate this imagery into my work.
Cells are the hidden building blocks of all matter. I am
exploring the idea that within society we are perhaps better off without the
structures we create, yet am mirroring this with the idea that in nature
without the simple structure of cells, nothing would function.
Equally I am attracted to the idea of the layers of cells.
When mind mapping, the word ‘layers’ in relation to the layers of society that are
rarely broken through, I wrote the word ‘onion’. Onions have many layers. In
biology we study the thin onionskin layer for simple plant cell study. It feels
like the onion embodies my exploration; it has layers like the societal
structure we have created (a negative structure) but also is a common example
of the importance of the cell structures within nature (a positive structure). I
sketched, photographed, collaged and print designed onion related imagery.
Cellular imagery and natural forms will act as a motif
throughout my project to reference the underlying fact that without some form
of structure, namely the structures of mother nature, everything would fall
apart- even if we conclude societal structures are negative thing.
Imagery of the dollar bill emerges as one of the strongest
symbols for me in relation to the negative side of structure. I was drawn to
the image when visiting the McConville exhibition at the Ibid Gallery. The bill
represents consumerism and capitalism, two societal structures I believe to be
unconstructive. The bill is green the colour of envy and greed. The bill is
masculine; only one woman has ever been the face on a dollar bill, Martha
Washington. This is a solid example of the inequality of our time. Use of
dollar imagery is too therefore reference to the patriarchal structure of our
western world.
I developed three palettes from my collage. I am yet to
decide on a monotone for my project.
I outlined a propaganda image of an American soldier in
black marker and laced him with DNA inspired domes. The image felt strong and
patriotic- the embodiment of masculinity. By adding the DNA domes I am
exploring the idea that ‘power’ is, according to mentality embedded in society,
attached nearly exclusively to stereotypical imagery of male dominance. It is
in the DNA of man to be bold and militaristic, like the propaganda image, and
this expectation is rigid and often unforgiving (an example of a negative
structure).
I loosely sketched a propaganda image of ‘sleeping America’
embodied in female form. The image was illustrated to encourage American
engagement in the problems over in Europe during the war and the importance of
their military involvement. I chose to use the image to reference the need for modern
society, not exclusively America, but the whole world, to ‘wake up!’ to the problems
of societal structures, like men still being more powerful than woman and
consumerism’s disassociation with greed etc. that many have come to view as
acceptable and unchangeable. I screwed the image up to allude to the texture of
the dollar bill scrunched in the rich man’s pocket and laid it over imagery of
structured buildings which serve as an unapologetically direct reminder of what
I am actually exploring- structure.
