DAY TEN 14.09.2016 Structural Attachment

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.

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.

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.