Monday 28 February 2011

OUTDOORS!








Here are my initial projection photographs of projecting 65,000 outside. The theme is the same as the inside photos, emphasising our luxuries compared with the 65,000 homeless people in Britain. I even photographed my garden as a way of showing how it isn't just a home we own. I want to project 'home sweet home' in outdoor places that homeless people see as their homes, yet I am in need of an overhead projector which doesn't require a plug! Hmm...

MOXES!




Here are some MOXES eg: mock boxes for my degree show! I have been experimenting with paper versions just to get an idea of size and shape. I have done one box with a more canopy feel, one with a window and one with just one wall left open. I am still deciding on which one to go with but have been toying with the name 'portable home' and 'flat pack home'.

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Initial Projections









I had the idea to project onto the outside of houses with the number 65,000 with an ironic twist that people have houses, yet there's this amount of people who are without homes. As a test I have tried it around my house, which actually I quite like. The juxtaposition of the homely interior and the statistic of 65,000 illustrates the divide between the homeless and the accomodated. My trial run has actually proved successful and with a better camera I am excited to see the results! My next step will be to try it outside and around the house or other people's home to get the feel of a homely inside.

65,000






I have been playing around with the number 65,000 as that was the amount of people living on the streets/homeless in the UK in 2010. I initially wanted to repeat the number 65,000 times and then I realised how long that would take! Not sure it's feasible! However, I have screen pritnted the number NUMEROUS times onto wallpaper which I will then hang up outdoors. 

The prints didn't turn out perfect as they have done with my HOME SWEET HOME wallpaper but I actually quite like the affect they have. I think if outdoors they would gradually wear and tear and in a way, the faded areas represent how homelessness is often perceived insignificantly. I will show more images once it has been used on location.

Up Close CHAIR!





Finished Chair






Here are some images of my FINISHED chair. I am pleased with my results, although when I see up close images (which I will post soon) I find them more exciting that the actual chair. I am happy to have reupholstered and particularly like the areas which show the original fabric through the holes. I enjoyed the repetitive aspect of making the holes and in a way I feel the making of the pattern pieces represents that drug aspect of repetitively destroying the body, each hole emphasising the concept. I find the destruction of the fabric interesting and as I burnt it, it began puckering between each holes. I think destroying the pieces shows my point quite clearly. 

Sunday 20 February 2011

A Chair....



I have made each pattern for my chair and laid them out on it to check it all fits! I like how the viewer can still see the fabric underneath the burn marks and how a traditional Victorian bucket chair has been converted to become something which exudes the negative aspects of the era. I have burnt each individual piece of fabric after creating tiny holes in lines, similar to my sample I posted earlier. I like how the chair tests the integrity of the fabric and tells a narrative through it's outcome. Each hole, representing the tiny poppy seeds which are used to grow opium, which was a very popular drug in the Victorian era. The era was a time of change, particularly when it came to medicine and the negative connotations were not always thought of in that way. I am interested in the naivety of the drugs and the people taking them and hope the fabric I have produced helps tell that tale. 

Saturday 19 February 2011

FareShare

Each year, we throw away around 6.7 million tonnes of food in the UK. This costs the average British household between £250 and £400 a year. My time working at The Mustard Tree has shown me how important it is not to waste our food as everything they cook with has been donated. I have come across a fantastic organisation who help take food from supermarkets which is about to exceed it's end date and help distribute it across the country. The organisation is called 'FareShare' and through volunteers they manage to contribute to combatting food poverty by feeding upto 29,000 people a day with food that would normally be thrown away. 
The cookery classes Becca and myself are involved in help reinforce the importance of food donations. We feed upto 40 people every Friday with food which has mainly been donated. The Mustard Tree then has a Soup Run which feeds the homless directly from the street, all food comes straight from donations.
I think it is hugely important that supermarkets donate their wasted food, yet many still don't contribute due to health and safety and the scare of being sued, which seems ridiculous. Hopefully, through campaigning and more organisations such as FareShare this is an issue which can be resolved. 
For more information on FareShare visit their website, www.fareshare.org.uk

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Tree Sweater




 I came across Erika Barcott's 'Tree Sweater' when researching artists and I really like it! I like her reasoning behind it, to decorate the outdoors but also it's comedic value. Although my own work has quite a specific message I like how this was created for entertaining reasons. The piece also has a sense of community and was monitored for some time by the public. What I like about working outdoors is that those who would never necessarily see your work within the confines of a gallery are able to see it in passing. I am tempted to use my work outdoors and leave it there, similar to this piece so I can see if the work changes over time. 

Tree Cosy


I have been looking into artists who use art to enhance outdoor spaces, rather than internal as this relates to my own current project. I came across artist Carol Hummel who covered an entire tree using knitting, named 'Tree Cosy'. This piece really interests me as I like how the tree becomes something unnatural as it no longer represents an ordinary tree. It links nicely to my idea of using graffiti as something beneficial to the environment rather that something which is seen as a negative. Here is how Hummel describes her work...



'On the most obvious level, it is a piece of clothing, personifying the tree and keeping it cozy and colorful throughout the year, enhancing the beauty of nature as well as the landscape of Northern Ohio.


On another level, the brightly colored crocheted cozy wraps the tree in personal and cultural nostalgia evoking memories of bygone times and places when life was good.


On yet another level, the cozy softens the strong tree form while also emphasizing it. It is meant to simultaneously caress and encase the tree. The cozy covering the tree fluctuates between comforting blanket and suffocating cover-up; it conceals as much as it protects; it hides as much as it reveals'




I like the idea of encapsulating something outdoors and I feel she is enhancing nature, much like what I intend to do, however I will be working with more manmade areas. My work when on location should stand out from it's surroundings, enhancing them whilst holding an important message. 

Tuesday 8 February 2011

MUST COOK!

Our first, official 'Must Cook' lesson starts on Friday the 18th February!
Here is the blog address for more information...

http://must-cook.tumblr.com/

Monday 7 February 2011

Wallpaper





I know I have already posted images of the wallpaper, but it is now complete! All ten metres of it. I am pleased with the outcome and want to use it on location now to show it's misleading messages. I plan to do a 'home what home?' wallpaper too with similar fonts, or maybe sneak a few into the original wallpaper. I am undecided, but I am glad the first lot is done! Good stuff...

Sunday 6 February 2011

The Weather Measure...





January's weather measure and argument measure has officially ended:


Rain: 14 days out of 31
Arguments: 4 out of 31


Lets see how February pans out...

Saturday 5 February 2011

Keep WARM!






As I have been reworking the phrase 'keep calm and carry on' to 'keep warm and carry on', I wanted to use the original poster but change it to create a series of old phrases altered. I have been printing onto blankets and socks using this phrase...

Wallpaper Screenprints...




Here are the first images of my screen printed wallpaper. I have so far done about 5metres but aim to do around 20. The process is quite fast as I am just repeating the same motif over and over. I have chosen the colour red as from my previous practice, the small black text didn't stand out aswell and I want the space to look unnatural and I think red will help to achieve this. I will hopefully have this finished next week and can begin photographing it on location.

Thursday 3 February 2011

Screen Prints...







I have begun to work on my screen prints for my wallpaper. I have printed out my text onto tracing paper which then will be used to create a screen. I have created a motif of large text, then smaller text below which will be repeated over and over to then be hung up outside.


p.s the lining paper in the background looks like a GIANT cigarette! ha

Tuesday 1 February 2011

The Mustard Tree- MUST COOK!




Becca and myself have organised cookery classes at The Mustard Tree. The Mustard Tree is an organisation who help support homeless or vulnerable people by providing food, clothing and training. We will be directly working with asylum seekers in Manchester, offering cooking lessons every Friday from 9:30am-3.00pm. The classes aim to provide simple, affordable recipes which will then be given to them each week on a recipe card for them to try out for themselves. Each week we will be cooking for upto 40 people and have to provide a meat dish and a vegetarian dish. Our lessons are not just about the basic cooking skills, but about kitchen management and learning how to serve people aswell as using tools around the kitchen. 


We have set up a blog specifically for the workshops which I will post soon...


Above, you can see the posters and recipe cards designed by illustrator Emma Brown. More of her work can be found here http://emmabrownowlillustration.blogspot.com/. For more information about The Mustard Tree, visit their website, www.themustardtree.org.uk.