Suzanne Kwadjosse

Giving a voice to underrepresented cultures in education  

[suzannebcu]

Final exhibition

Artwork

Adinkra workshop 

selling designs

[suzannebcu]

Volunteering

I have been volunteering for Arhag housing association. It was originally created as a campaigning organization fighting for the rights of migrants and refugees in London for black and BME people (Arhag,2019). . Arhag has a program within the organization called ‘Rise in to employment programme’ it is an NCFE accredited and an award winning employability programme. It is designed for residents to provide them with friendly advice, training and support to help them get into work.

I have chosen to work at this placement because it focuses on black and BME people and my project focuses on the black community. I am trying to make a change through producing art that gives them a space to express their feelings. This programme gives them a space to get support and network with different people. In my research I too am trying to give a space to black people. It is an organisation that recognises the challenges that many black and ethnic groups find it harder to get employment. 

In my role as a communication and engagement officer. I was responsible for drawing up an annual calendar with activities and campaigns that will be engaging for BME people. I have been showing my ideas to improve activities and cater for their interest using my research.

I have been working with the housing programme called “Rise” to create success stories and case studies and working with the residents to create an event group .This has given me more confidence in sharing cultural knowledge from my research to support the designs on being strong and effect as possible. For example, I have been using heritage colour to identify each individual and using visual imagery of BME people. This can make it less alienating because they are instantly seeing photographs of their culture and this was mentioned in the research. I have been opened to so much new knowledge which helped me see where I can improve on making a difference when interacting with BME and I am more aware of bringing in food to discuss their history which I often saw them doing .This is a great way of BME people feeling isolated and can be good icebreaker.

These are some of my designs below;

I am now planning to do a workshop for a younger audience that have children or teenagers to keep them what’s through my adinkra symbols and sharing their own culture. I want to give the parents a space to talk about their issues and give something meaningful to the young children which relates to their heritage.

[suzannebcu]

Digbeth Friday

I visited ‘Digbeth Friday’ and saw an exhibition called ‘Premek Banks is something else ‘. This exhibition is inspired by polish alternative culture of the 70s and 80s. This work is called “Reparations “  its a series of portraits that tell an unfortunate truth about West Indian immigration forgotten by the British Army. The artist hoped to evoke guilt and attention on the viewer.  In my work I am trying to give a voice to black people and exploring different ways on engaging the audience in as many ways as possible to have empathy with my subjects. The series of oil paint work are striking and bold using colours to identify their heritage .They have also used text to make it clearer providing hints about the work and were the people in the portraits are from .This has given me inspiration on being more expressive and finding different ways of portraying the message to insure the viewer understands the story behind .

There is a piece is called ‘Just healed 2018’. The artist uses a more illustrative approach to her painting stressing items that represent illness using white oil paint.Highlighting the face of each subject challenges of black peoples that faces in mental health that are shown invisible. This piece relates strongly in my work as I am trying to give a voice to black people because they often are invisible. As mentioned in this artist work and this artist shows it in a detailed and powerful way using the portraits and background as the main focused and using limited colours so that the audience focuses on all the work .The variety of organic shades suggest how frustrated overwhelmed their lives are when the artist explores texture and different shades within areas of the work .

[suzannebcu]

Invisibility

Visible and being invisible were themes that were chosen throughout my interviews with Black British students from BCU. Many of them only felt visible when sometimes their behaviour was out of frustration. Then being seen for all the wrong reasons . They said it was difficult to challenge beauty norms especially Afro hair vs ‘the normal ‘ ;They were seen for being different .Students often talked about not being represented in school curriculum for example in history lesson and images in text books which made them feel isolated.

[suzannebcu]

Theory -Intersectionality, Black British feminism and resistance in education: a roundtable discussion

The roundtable discussion on ‘Interscetionality, Black British feminism and resistance in education’ (Ali et al., 2010) has been an interesting read. Black women are mentioned in the article describing what black women go through but it is not penned by a black voice. It does not reflect the full complexity of the black African women’s experience. The panel is chaired by a white woman who does acknowledge the privileges of her ‘whiteness’ from the outset. The article seems to hint at issues without exploring them at any depth. I hope to give black people an opportunity to share their view points and speak for themselves through my art.

The article is interesting in how it is almost conversational style. We hear from many different perspectives on the subject of black feminism. But I feel that the article does not go into depth about the experiences of black people but describes the function of black feminism. How black feminism can be a framework to understand the different things that influence how black women experience the world. 

Many black feminists in the article share experiences that reminded them of the importance of having a black feminism movement. They have felt that their experiences are not reflected in basic feminism as it does not take account of their complex experiences related to race, class and gender. Black feminism is vital as a form of resistance. It gives a platform to black female voices which would otherwise be diluted into feminism.

[suzannebcu]

Mauritians Anzeria

Mauritians Anzeria is a British based Italian artist. He uses colour thread on vintage  photographs covering them in different vertical, horizontal patterns which creates something new and surprising (Anzeri, 2019). I am really inspired by the variety of pattern techniques he uses because they create new messages to the audience. In my project I am trying to give a voice to black people and through these different unequal combinations of material the thread covering the photographs suggest absence and invisibility and within my work I am trying to express the black students’ emotions through art and these materials are an effective and unique way to engage variety of people.

Fig 10. (Anzeri, 2018)

[suzannebcu]

Sewing experimentation

[suzannebcu]

Typography experiments

[suzannebcu]

Exhibition workshop Inspiration

In my exhibition I want to deliver a workshop and I am inspired by these series of photographs because I want my workshop to be practical and educational. I am celebrating black culture using ancient adinkra symbols that tell a story and I want the public to create their own prints using the stamps I created so that they learn positive history of black culture .I want to also give out a info flyer so they can continue learning about other symbols. I really like the presentation layout of these stamp workshops and I want to present an engaging and interactive workshops that engage all public .I really like the idea of leaving stamps on a table and leaving the audience to experiment and get messy. I feel like that’s a more fun and entertaining way because I want to give them the freedom to be an artist and to be free.

Fig 6. (Trentelman, 2019)

[suzannebcu]

Publication Inspiration

These were different quick and easy publications I was inspired by because they were vibrant and creative and readable. I really like the layers of paper and different sizes .However I wanted it to be readable and straightforward for the public so I thought using portrait paper front and back would be easier to manage .

Fig 7.(Phoblographer, 2018)

Fig 8. (General, 2017)

[suzannebcu]

Exhibition Inspiration

These are some exhibitions that I was inspired for my work, which is going to be series of imagery and I was looking at different ways of displaying my work to the public .This display caught my attention because I like how the images were spaced apart but looked like a collection of work on large scale walls. This gives the audience some space to take a look and engage with the work before moving to next work .I like how precise and limited the colours are used within their works because it is powerful and creates a better storyline that keeps the audience engaged with what happens next .

I like the ideas of using wallpaper or different materials because it creates a more sophisticated and mysterious atmosphere. Wallpaper is strongest in some of the works because my work is a sensitive topic. Wallpapers give the impression of invisibility and I want to give black people a voice so the wallpapers is very expressive and eye catching which I want to portray .This has also given me inspiration for working on a large scale because it showcases the detail and my work is very intense and needs a large scale. I want to give black people opportunity express themselves and the large images within the different exhibitions really engages and works more boldly in getting the message across.

Fig 4. (Hanson, 2018)

Fig 5.(Pollock, 2019)

[suzannebcu]

Joy Gregory’s & Susan Bantone

Joy Gregory’s self-portraits are closest to reflecting the style I have chosen to do my work in. The angles of her self-portraits are strong (Gregory, 2019) . The use of hands on the face express different aspects of the subject which is powerful. The images she produces make you contemplate the subject, who she is? What has she been through? Her self-portraits are an examination of migration and adapting to different environments whilst retaining her sense of self. My work is about exploring the black youth experience in the UK.

                                     Fig 2. (Gregory , 2019)        

                           Susan Bantone

Susan Bantone image of painted white face on a strong black male and in the background there is another male black figure which is striking (Nunley, 1982). The overlay with a strong photograph of an angry facial expression of a man. In my research I noticed many black people having to pretend to be someone else and hiding behind a mask. This is because many black people felt judged by others. Susan combines the two different visual interpretation very powerful through different mediums.

Fig 3. (Nunley, 1982)

[suzannebcu]

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol an American artist and producer His work explores expressions in advertising and celebrity culture that was popular in 1960s (Britannica, 2019). In his work he uses a variety of mediums such as screen printing, photography and sculpture. I really like this particular piece because it’s very precise, bold and engaging. In my project I am attempting to give a voice to black people through portraits. I really like the strong smooth blocks of colours used in his work to engage viewers. I would like to explore this style in my work because it is a strong eye catching political view making the black person at the heart of the work.

Fig 1. Marilyn Monrose 1967

[suzannebcu]

Summer school 2019 future fest

Future fest is a programme where students stay in university halls and explore university experience through having tester courses at Birmingham City University (Aimhigher 2019). I worked with year 10 and year 12  students for two weeks . One week focused on health care courses and the week after focused on art and design. This was a great experience for them to decide what course interests them and what university was all about . My role as a student ambassador  was to ensure they were looked after and giving them the best advice and support with questions about university. 

Photograph of me and my colleagues in face paint done by  students studying theatre makeup artist to show students what skills they can develop when studying courses .

This was a great experience because I was able to see how creative lectures engaged with young audiences from different cultures using different materials to support me with my decisions  with materials I will use in my project and future workshop. 

One of the workshops the students attended was architecture landscape and the lecture gave students paper to create 3D landscape and figures to design their own landscape .This was a successful workshop because it was limited materials and the students were so surprised and impressed with how advanced they could explore using paper to create something 3D.They found it fascinating and also engaging and it was something useful that can be used future purposes.

This has given me inspiration to explore easy and simple design for my exhibition workshop. For example the stamps I produced with my design they could create their own fancy quick and easy publication zines that could be stamped all over that can create a very beautiful piece of art. It’s given me inspirations on using limited resources and creating unusual items.

This was a Fashion trend workshop where the students had to guess what the winter fashion trend will be in 2019 and used news, social media and celebrities to influence their choices. They worked in groups and cut out pictures and words from the magazines and placed it on the wall to present to everyone the idea behind the reason these images are the winter trend. This was a great way of developing ideas using magazines as a way of building ideas and thinking critically about controversial topics. It built their confidence in presenting in front of their colleagues and analysing their work.

This has influenced me to use magazines as a way of developing ideas and communicating peoples thoughts as a group .This is a good way of creating discussions regarding sensitive topics such as black experience in the UK.

This last activity of Future Fest is a programme for improving presentational skills. A poet from outside the university delivered a workshop and students were asked to write a paragraph of what annoys them in the world. Students came up with strong statements about politics ,pollution, relationships and discrimination .A group of black boys stood out in particular with their poems. They discussed about discrimination in schools and they all delivered their experience of being judged and picked on at school because people think all black boys are involved in crime. For example, black males are more likely to be stopped and searched by police (Townsend,2018). . They said they just want to achieve and follow their dreams. This was an emotional speech and I was surprised how young the students were facing these discriminations that is disturbing their childhood. For example, in UK schools black students are given harsher punishments (Finley, 2015) . This clearly shows that young teens are  experiencing daunting childhood lives in schools in the UK which need to be addressed to stop this discrimination from happening. Exhibiting my ‘Melanin’ collection of illustrations can bring awareness of black experiences in the UK. Delivering my workshops is presenting achievements of black people which can educate other people and hopefully see the positivity in black people.

[suzannebcu]

Adinkra products

Today I experimented with screen print using series of finalized illustrations as prints .I printed them on to tote bags and-shirts because I wanted theses images to look bold and powerful in public spaces that can give a voice to black people. I am influenced by ancient adinkra symbols that originated in West Africa that was used as a way of communicating (Adinkrabrand,2019). These symbols are still used today on architecture, clothing and Jewellery and I am inspired by the different cultural symbols being celebrated with different materials .I don’t want to limit the materials I use because I want these images to access all areas of public so that they get seen so they have a voice to express themselves. 

For this project I wanted to continue exploring the adinkra symbols because this project is about giving a voice to Black people born in the UK .These symbols tell a story and the imagery I am showcasing are black people’s experiences and each individual tells a story .That’s why adinkra symbols is a good way of sharing educational and creative cultures that don’t get seen enough. Therefore, I am celebrating black achievement and giving black culture a voice. 

Laser cut 

I have laser cut series of my new version of adinkra symbols onto wood because I wanted an old and vintage effect to represent how old and ancient adinkra symbols are. I then used the wood work shop to build wood blocks that can crop my stamps so they are easier for my audience to explore. 

These stamps will be laid out on a table for the audience to stamp their favorite symbol so that they take a cultural inspiring print to as symbolic imagery .This is important to me because I want these adinkra symbols to be represented and celebrated and this topic of my work is about giving a voice to black people. This is an achievement that their ancestors has achieved. I think it’s important that the audience do practical work within the workshop so that they explore something educational and cultural.

[suzannebcu]

Book- Can you believe your eyes by J. Richard

I like the idea of these images because they show a different image when looking at it from a different perspective. In my project I want the public to interrupt their own assumptions when observing my work because there is no right or wrong answers  in my work because these series of portraits express different meanings within one portrait.

(Watson, 2002)

[suzannebcu]

Handsworth men's group Chinese horoscope workshop

Today I delivered a workshop with Handsworth men’s group. I wanted to celebrate a culture that is something significant and educational for my participants. They explored horoscopes that are from China and they had to choose their star sign and create their animal star sign using clay. I wanted them to use clay because it a very practical and revealing material and animals worked best to create .Although China is not the most unrepresented culture in the UK due to popularity of Chinese food and Chinese new year (Mailonline, 2019) however I wanted my participants to learn about different cultures around the world so that they are open minded and we can celebrate different ethnicities.

It was a great workshop and the participants really enjoyed learning new things as well as creating their own work .What worked most successfully in this workshop was that we started off discussing about horoscopes and brainstorming ideas on how to make a unique animal which built a good relationship in the group but also gave them enough advice to work independently. I will use these skills to better develop my workshops.