Grace Osborne @graceosborneba2a-blog - Tumblr Blog

Moving Stories

Moving Stories reveals something beyond the medias portrayal of immigration. The exhibition involves One World in Relation (2010) a film of poet and global thinker, Édouard Glissant, it seemed the film was there to guide the audiences idea of immigration.

I thought the things hat stood out most form the film were: - Irony of borders: They protect people from outside forces, but also prevent people from leaving

- Permeability of borders: “Must be permeable; not weapons against migration or immigration processes” (Glissant)

- Borders as a necessity: “Necessary in order to appreciate the passage, to feel the different flavors and atmosphere while passing through the border” (Glissant)

I disagree with Glissant that borders are a necessity to appreciate different cultures, you can travel from Norwich, through Cambridge to London and feel the different atmospheres in each city through clothing and slang and I’m sure this is more pronounced in other areas of the country and world.

A Journey Caught in Time, the second piece you come to in the exhibition shows historical evidence of the importance of immigration. It is a 3D copy of a footprint that was discovered in Happisburgh in Norfolk in 2013, this piece is also accompanied by the wooden cube tunnel art piece, The Happisburgh Footprints, which is an interactive wooden cube that you walk in and hear the sound of the sea and projected on the floor are the footprints from Happisburgh. These footprints show the permeability of borders in the past when the concept of borders were that of natural boundaries.

The last piece in the exhibition is Ali’s boat diary 1, 2014 by artist Sadik Kwaish Alfraji which is composed of seven rows of illustrations. The story reads from right to left and each row is accompanied by verses. Ali’s boat diary powerfully captures the emotional pain and challenges many immigrants experience.

Boats and snakes were recurring themes in the diary images as well as the verses that accompanied them. The verses in row one alludes to what the repeated images of boat and snakes might represent:

“Don’t put all your dreams in one boat,

Ali

Beware of snakes, Ali, beware of

Snakes, Ali

Stay as far away from your boat as

you can, Ali… This boat will lead to

delusion after delusion after darkness.

It does not give you the redemption

that you seek…”

The black and white images work really well together, especially laid out together in the case. The black and white was more a case of what was available rather than an aesthetic choice however I think it works really well and helps create an incredibly moving and powerful exhibition.

#connotation

Richard Mosse - Incoming

#connotation

Richard Mosse - Incoming

Richard Mosse has created a immersive cinematic experience in The Barbican. Mosse has been working with an advanced new thermographic weapons and border imaging technology that can see beyond 30km, registering a heat signature of relative temperature difference. He has used this camera against its intended purpose to create an artwork about the refugee crisis unfolding in the Aegean Sea, off the coast of Libya, in Syria, the Sahara, the Persian Gulf, and other locations.

Photography is a very powerful way of recording a situation, especially in showing pain and suffering. The exhibition is so powerful partly because it shows a lot of how the camps are so similar to places we can relate to, there i a scene which shows to boys fighting the same way they would in a playground, however we are constantly reminded that its in a drastically different situation by the aesthetic of the footage.

The camera Mosse uses also has the effect of dehumanising this figure it shows which automatically renders then as other. Moshe explains, ‘That’s the thing about the camera, it’s designed to detect the enemy ... It objectifies the human body in a way that almost strips the individual from the human figure. It turns them into a biological trace or ‘creature’. This is a form of dehumanisation. So there’s something very problematic about that.

Although he says that in this way it could reveal something about how our governments represent and regard the figure of the refugee, so the installation could be used as a space to think about that. Mosse said, ‘The constant disorientation [encourages] the viewer to become the author of the work on some level and to own their interpretation,” he said. “Rather than to be like, ‘oh I saw this great doc about the refugees and isn’t it horrible?’

#connotation

Initial research and drawings

Out initial research has been focusing around the organisations that we want to contact for our publication. I have been researching the council and Norwich’s Stand up to Racism group, I have contacted both but am still waiting for a reply.

I began to draw from video I took at the last rally Stand Up To Racism held outside the council and the building itself. We all used continuous line drawing in black and white for this research as this ensured if we needed to use the images they would all fit together aesthetically.

#connotation

graceosborneba2a-blog

Moving Stories

I thought the things hat stood out most form the film were: - Irony of borders: They protect people from outside forces, but also prevent people from leaving

- Permeability of borders: “Must be permeable; not weapons against migration or immigration processes” (Glissant)

- Borders as a necessity: “Necessary in order to appreciate the passage, to feel the different flavors and atmosphere while passing through the border” (Glissant)

Boats and snakes were recurring themes in the diary images as well as the verses that accompanied them. The verses in row one alludes to what the repeated images of boat and snakes might represent:

“Don’t put all your dreams in one boat,

Ali

Beware of snakes, Ali, beware of

Snakes, Ali

Stay as far away from your boat as

you can, Ali… This boat will lead to

delusion after delusion after darkness.

It does not give you the redemption

that you seek…”

Project summary

Project BA2b has given me the opportunity to properly consider my creative practice and where I want to go with it. The techniques I learned over year 1 have enabled me to be more confident in my approach to set briefs and self initiated work. I have used these techniques, materials and working methods to produce outcomes using new skills I’d previously not explored. The unit has continued to broaden my idea of what illustration is and what it can be. Through out this unit I have become more confident in my methods of research and enjoyed being able to get in touch with people and learn through them rather that relying solely on the internet. However despite all I have learnt throughout the projects there have been areas of this unit which I have felt weren't as valuable in relation to my way of producing work, although through these my interests have become more prominent in my projects and the problems I have had have helped shape my projects over the unit. As I previously said the most improved area of my working process has been the way I have collected and used research to develop my projects. This was most prominent in project 4 where I contacted and interviewed several people through a homeless charity and then went with them around Norwich to collect visual research and resources, learning about their ideas of home and identity living ‘outside society’. Gaining this new approach to research enabled me to develop new interests and a real passion for the work I was creating. In project 4 I focused around a subject I cared about very much and was able to rely heavily on gathering information and resources from people who have directly experienced homelessness. Initially with this research it was just face to face interviews which where incredibly informative and not only responsible for the change in pace in my work but helped me engage with my work on a more personal level, however I didn't have many visual ideas. I was able to meet with the people I had been working with again and this time they took me to places in Norwich that were important within their idea of home and identity this made me feel fully connected to the people and my work. I was able to use photography and drawing to collect visual ideas through this, this part of the project is where I started to fully understand reportage work and what it entails. Meeting people and visiting places with them was an amazing experience and gave me more information than I could ever have gained through the internet or books. Participating in their lives allowed me to approach the project in a completely different way to anything I have done in the past; it is defiantly an approach I will use in my creative practice in the future as it has strengthened my projects content and outcomes It has also made me more confident about talking about my work within crits and reviews because of all the face to face interactions. I am now much more confident as an illustrator to approach people with my work and ask them if they would be interested in it. With in this unit I also learnt a lot about collaboration which is something I have avoided in the past due to anxiety concerns and fear of conflict of opinion. However throughout our collaboration and exhibition project our group worked well together, there were conflicts of opinions during the project but they were worked out within the group to a successful end. I did fide the project challenging because of how constrictive I personally found the briefs because of this I think I would have struggled with the project if I was working alone. Areas of the project were hard as everyones opinions had to be accounted for and sometimes there were attendance issues. Despite this however we produced an interactive outcome we were all very happy with and had elements of everybody's work in. After this experience collaborative work isn't something I will shy away from in the future however ideally if I was to do it it would be a self initiated project, not fiction based and working within a community to develop work from them. The project I struggled the most with was out first narrative project, I found this hard initially because I wasn't inspired visually or intellectually by any of the texts we were given. Again like the collaborative project I struggled with how confining I found the brief, because of this I found it hard to become motivated and gain momentum for the project. I struggled with this and I think it shows with in my work however once I started focusing more on the identity of the characters in the story and their place in society and reality I began to produce more work. I feel that although I have 5 successful images from this project I didn't produce my best work and I never felt truly invested in the project which is important for me, the images are all quite literal which following my research and development worked however it is not the way I have found most successful in producing images this unit. This unit has pushed me to consider where I want to take my work in the future, I am starting identify areas in my practice that are continuing to present themselves within projects, particularly activism and advocacy with in my work and similar themes. I consider my more successful work the result of drawing upon darker, more serious topics, such as project 4 and using my continued interest in textures, printing, and mark making to produce more allegorical imagery. In the future I would like to continue to develop this work within self initiated work and briefs, but perhaps develop them through the use of the animation and photography I touched on during project 4. I will continue working with he intention of helping people in need and with the hope of working with charities in the future.

#project 3 #essay

Reflective Report

One of the most memorable experiences of last year for me was the project I did about Jim Hannah who sells The Big Issue in Norwich city centre. I first met Jim when I decided to focus a project around a big issue seller, I wanted to create something that I could give to him and something that I could use to make more people want to talk to him and get to know him. I looked at lots of different ways of creating something including showing where he stays, works and has come from. However after looking at ways of incorporating all of this I decided I wanted to just show Jim, I found that this was the most respectful way of creating a book. I made a vine with a series of edited black and white pen and ink drawings of Jim working. I filled the book with quotes of things that Jim had said to me and used the colour of the Big issue sellers jacket on the cover and the back.

I was very conscious through out the project that I had to be respectful to Jim, this made me quite critical of the work I was producing as I didn't want to make him in to a sob story. This meant that my final outcome could look quite simple and unimaginative however I was very pleased with it because I think it shows what a kind man Jim is despite his circumstances and everything thats happened to him through out his life. He doesn't expect mucho have much, he just wants to be happy and able to live and provide for himself, because of this I didn't make the booklet to complicated of extravagant although I tried out ways of doing this.

The vine worked well. It showed how kind Jim is, and how open and chatty he is with strangers. I would have liked to develop it further and show where Jim stays and him doing more everyday things however I wasn't able to do this in the time and still make it as respectful as I wanted. I also would have liked to play around with scale more and what the book was printed on and having some stand alone prints. However I didn't develop my ideas quick enough to be able to do this. I enjoyed approaching him and telling him about my work and asking for his involvement and this is something I would like to do more of. Something I need to improve this year is my time management, it was a problem of varying scale throughout last year and meant that I couldn't develop the outcome for this project as much as I would have liked. One of the positives of this work was and the development of my practice was beginning to realise how I prefer reportage work to narrative illustration. This way of working really took off for me during the open project especially because the work was self initiated which is a way of working I will look in to further in the future. through out this unit I found working to the brief quite challenging, I didn't develop my research enough which led to poorly though out aspects of some projects. I also found myself wandering from the brief during this unit often because the idea of palimpsest wasn't developed enough within my work, I have learnt from this this year and am going to spend more time on research through out the projects so I have more ability to develop my work. Within this I will also develop my time management, I will try and do this by putting more planning in to projects, focusing more on elements of work I am weaker with rather than avoiding the area until the last minute.

I know more about the way I work this year after struggling and loving various projects last year, I know from the Jim project and the first look book project that I have a passion for work that has a social justice aspect. I made my look book about the refugee crisis and what is happening in Syria and then continued to work along those lines during open. This way of working is especially important in the world currently with Brexit, the American election and the refugee crises and it is something I will develop within my work from last year. To do this during this year I will continuously read about current political events whether or not they are related to my current practice, I will also look in to ways to work within crisis zones, I have learnt from last year that I work well when my project directly involve someone else so this is something I will develop this year at any given opportunity. I developed my digital skills last year which previously was something I was completely novice at, although I will continue working on some areas digitally when appropriate it hasn't been something I have excelled at or enjoyed as much as I enjoy printing and painting. The use of mixed media in my work, especially through out the interaction and look book projects developed a lot and lead to new ideas and work. This is an area of my practice I will keep working on and developing as I think it works especially well in the focus areas of my work and with in reportage illustration which is an area I want looking to more.

Over last year my work developed and as an illustrator I became much more open and accepting to the idea of what illustration is and what it can be, this year I hope to continue learning about areas of practice I am yet to leant about and develop a deeper understanding of where I want mt creative practice to go.

#reflectivereport #project 3 #essay

Industry Report

With my own practice changing and developing constantly, fluctuating between new interests and ways of working, the wish to keep working with people in a journalist kind of format has continued to grow. The opportunities I have had this year to work with new people and to use my practice to help people have encouraged me to pursue reportage work. Reportage gives an overall analysis of a situation, place or an event through gathering information on location, and seeing what’s going on with the world. Reportage uses a first-hand approach, interacting with the environment and its people and gathering primary research through made imagery, the possibilities of what and how something is recorded are endless, this is something I would like to look in to further and develop methods of image making in my practice. During the fact project I was able to work with several people and develop my work from their stories and experiences. I found myself passionately invested within this project and produced work that meant a lot to me and to the people I was working with. I used photography as a main recoding method in this project rather than drawing for the first time which worked well and I received a lot of positive feedback for. This is something I would like to develop more in the future and I will also continue drawing on location more. This project has encouraged me to do a lot more location work which is something I will develop further. I find narrative illustration much harder because I’m less invested in and passionate about what I’m working with whereas with reportage illustration I am able to meet people and interact more with my subject. I have also found narrative illustration difficult because of how confining the brief seemed to me, learning from this I am much more interested in self initiated projects going in to the future. I found the lecture we had from Leah Fuscoe at the beginning of the year one of the most interesting ones we've had because of the way she works especially with the project she did about the boat people and her large scale drawings exploring the sites of a National Grid substation in East Sussex documenting sites that are largely unseen by the general public. What most interests me about this is how she reveals something to people which is mostly unseen. Doing work about issues people are uncomfortable around normalises it and I think it makes people more accepting which is what I want to develop in my practice. (Coe, 2012) This makes the practice of reportage vital in educating the public, allowing others to understand situations they may never interact with. As illustration provides a more gentle and less intimidating approach with the subject it is often chosen by organisations raising awareness and charities to attract people. (Morrison, 2016) I would like to use this way of working in the future with the hope of creating work with refugees. This is something I have been interested in for a long time, making work in first year related to Syria. In the hope of working with Syrian refugees over summer I have been in contact with the art group From Syria With Love who exhibit work done by children in refugee camps hoping to go back home. If I was able to work with them I would be able to produce work with the children or from the children which could be used in some way to promote the charity and the work they do. Illustration can give a more compelling perspective on unpleasant situations than photos which people tend to avoid, especially if it doesn't affect them. This can be used to raise the profile of charities and is an area I would especially like to work in in the future. After talking to Toby Morrison about reportage as activism especially in relation to his work with Save The Children I am more confident in sending my self initiated work to organisations who may be interested in it. This is important with in my practice now and in the future as it one of the best forms of self promotion, especially when you can get the name of the person you are emailing within the company. It is possible that in a creative world where photos are so easily generated and shared that the use of illustration as journalism and reportage in itself could become less popular and less used. However there it also lots within the community that keeps the method of working current and well known, Reportager, who promote and showcase projects involving reportage and visual journalism and provide a platform for artists working in this area, are one of the organisations who do this. Their website shows many examples of image-makers acting as visual journalists, proactively making work that interests them, documenting either impartially or subjectively on a wide range of issues and locations (Repotager 2016). In the future to continue my creative practice I will strive to constantly look for any opportunities to work in a charity/activism environment. I will continue to produce self initiated work that I can promote myself.

http://bombmagazine.org/article/6696/ informal chat with Toby Morrison http://fromsyriawithlove.com Resurgents magazine http://www.topolskicentury.org.uk https://vimeo.com/33971889 http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/sue-coe-eyewitness http://reportager.uwe.ac.uk

#industryreport #project 3 #essay

Outcome

After my previous two mock ups this outcome was very successful. The book stands independantly without slanting what had been an issue previously and the colours on the cover have not distorted.

I used red book binding thread for the final book because i wanted to add in some colour in the same way Sue Coe does in her illustrations, however i didn't want it on the pages because of the connotations with blood.

#project 4

Second mock up

In this version of the book I made it almost half the size of the previous book to see how this would affect the feel. Visually this is nice however as an object it is much more tactile as a larger book and more satisfying to look through. The size doesn't make a difference to the production or cost of the book so the only concern is how it looks and feels

In this version of the book I added acetate circles which decrease in size throughout the book. This worked really well and added to the idea of home in the book, however it was very messy and made the edges of the circle and the inside of the book look unprofessional. It was also hard to make the edges of the circle neat and the folds of the pages rip and fray because of the bulk. If I had more time I would develop a way of having the cut outs, possibly by using the laser cutter. However for the outcome of this project I am not going to include the cut outs.

For the cover of this version of the book I used the eco felt paper rather than the xerox matt I had used previously. This worked much better as it looked much more natural and didn't change the colours from the painting like the previous painting did.

I used the large format printing on this version of the book which was a lot more successful then my previous method of cutting and sticking pages on. The folds on the book neat are and even and looked much more professional than previously.

#project 4

Studio exhebition

In the studio exhibition we were able to present and talk about out work and what our aims for final outcome are. It was interesting to show how people handled the book, I found that if the book was lying flat people were more likely to pick it up and look through it where as when it was stood up it was seen more as a sculptural piece.

I placed the business cards next to the book and encouraged people to take them so they could view the website as well.

I used this structure to show my work as it is reminiscent of a building or structure where people could sleep.

My explanatory text said;

How often do you see someone sleeping rough in Norwich? How often do you say ‘hello’ or ‘good morning’ to them? This work focuses around the homeless of Norwich, their homes and identities. It is a journey through Norwich that they should never had had to take and where they are going.

Please take a card and read Kevin, Patrick and Gary’s story.

#project 4

Initial mock up

I’ve made a mock up of a back to back concentina book that works well to show two different narratives. The book has two different front covers rather than a front and back which means that you can open one side and look through Kevin’s narrative and the other and and see Gary’s, however I hadn't realised this when I was making the mock up so the covers are on the wrong side I now know this for the proper book.

Because I was unable to book cloth to print onto I used the paper from the design studio which was closest to magazine paper as I though this would fold around the grey board best. Although this has worked I don't think the paper is most appropriate as it is very white and quite shiny which doesn't reflect the inside of the book as much as I would like.

The covers were raised wider than the inside papers which meant that they tilted inwards when stood up. This is something I will fix on the next go.

Because the length of the concertina is wider than A2 I cut and stuck the printed pages onto the folded paper. This looked unprofessional and although it is fine for a mock up all the future try I do I will use large format printing. I would like to try having some kind of mark making, either mono prints or printed text on the inside of the book, however with any large format printing printing on the back wouldn't be possible and given the nature of mono printing it could look messy and unprofessional.

when sewing it together I alternated which side i initially threaded through as there was no front or back, because of this I didn't cut the thread too short after sewing it as this looked untidy.

I have learnt a lot from this mock up, about the size of the covers, the type of paper I want to use, techniques to refine the making process and make the book look more professional.

I know that the order I’m having the images in works well to show a journey and the way I am sewing the pages is effective.

On future books I am going to try out different coloured book binding thread, possibly red, after looking back over Sue Coe’s work. I also want to try using acetate on some of the pages, this would work well if I was able to have some kind of pattern on the inside of the book.

#project 4

cover designs

As the whole of the inside of the book will be monochrome I wanted the covers to use colour, especially as I want the to show more where Kevin and Gary are going rather than where they have been.

I painted Gary and Kevin, using water from Eaton Park and the river by the woods to add a connection to them.

I tried to work in a similar stye to Lucian Freud with these paintings because I think the use of colour and shadow work in a very emotional way. I have considered using the photos of Gary and Kevin as a cover but I think its more personal to them with a painting.

#project 4

Final image series

I have two sets of narratives for my final book so am going to look in to ways of binding it in a way I can show two clearly. I used Kevin and Gary as Patrick wasn't there when we went around town, although I used text from all of them.

Kevins narrative goes from Chapelfeild Gardens to Debenhams to Eaton Park to St Stephans Church where he is now volunteering.

Garys narrative goes from the woods from the West of the city by the river to the Cathedral to Charing cross (where he is having writing lessons) to the train station where he wants to work one day.

I have used a mixture of mono prints and drawings which have all been manipulated in photoshop and have several layers of rubbings, all from the the location they are drawn from.

With places with particularly bad memories like the woods and Eaton Park I have used higher levels of contrast and darkness where as with places the men are hopeful about like St Stephan's Church and the Station I have used more light and more focused drawing.

#project 4

Text and images

I have experimented with using text over the initial mono prints and over the maps in the same way I used it over the doorway photos. Working over the maps has been much more sucsessful as I don't want to cover the eyes and make the faces easily ignored.

#project 4

Map work

I have mono printed journeys and maps of the routes walked by Kevin, Patrick and Gary as they have moved around the city and made the journey from sleeping rough to Bishops Bridge House. I drew over printed maps from Google maps to made sure my images were accurate, the maps have been very successful as the ambiguous, spontaneous nature of mono printing means that it isn't clear where in the city you are. When they go between the images I’ve got in a book it will create a sense of movement and place for the reader.

i would like to explore using text and quotes from my interviews over the maps so it gives the process a more personal touch and people can get an idea of Gary, Kevin and Patrick.

#project 4

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