Kara Walker @Camden Arts Center

Racism, The USA, sexuality, violence, bi-racial, slavery

City, border, body and time

Critique day, I decided to go with small black and white images, in these frames, I understand that they would also look great as colour, as pointed out by my tutor and am going to do this too, the frames are cheap pound shop ones, and I mounted the pictures myself on card, in total 8 shots, 2 groups of 4.
Overall, I am happy with these shots, I am really enjoying using a camera and finding unusual areas to shoot in video or still shots, it's an area I never thought I would be going into but I am finding that there is so much around that tells a story, I find this fascinating.
i chose to make these shots black and white because for me they gave me a sense of coldness, for others they would like them in the original colour, the views of both are very interesting and I'm happy to produce the colour too to see the response, I understood completely when my tutor pointed out that the realness of the colour shots were more in the now, rather than the black and white to her seems like a more account of times past, I guess I made this a more personal project, it was times past for me, yet the punch of using colour I undstand would translate more to today.
One student pointed out how he likes the frames, like how family photos are framed, yet this is of homelessness, he really admired how they have been presented.
I like the frames too, as they were small frames and everyone needed to get close, almost asking the onlooker to look, ask questions as when we see homelessness we often look away, maybe for the homeless person or for the situation being hard to understand, emotional or just ugly to look at.

Shelters Alleyways and Rucksack on sofa

Homelessness, looking at the images below I am not only thinking about the people on the street who are homeless, I think about children who have run from home due to abuse or neglect or other reasons, I spoke to friends who were homeless and asked them to talk about their experience, these were the words they used.
frightening, disorientating, self esteem, self worth, bricks and mortar, bankruptcy, closed doors, hyper sensitivity, panic attacks, deposit, cleanliness, enticement, loss of pride, failure, lonely, cold, hungry, anticipation, distressed, panic, crack, smack, rape, vulnerability, abuse, stressful, internal scars, paranoia, dread, anxiety, unwanted, scars on my soul, homophobia,
With these words, I thought about using them and having them spilling out of my rucksack, as these are the words that were carried around by me and some of my friends during that time.

 

 

 

 

 I wondered how many people had used this as a shelter below?

Above is a trace of someone being there, smoking and maybe making a fire.

 

 

 

 

A painting in water colour of the rucksack on the sofa.

I used the washed out colours to try to translate the drabness of the situation I often was in.

 

Homeless#3

The water colour pencil drawing of Rucksack on sofa, these colours were used to heighten the drab feelings and situations many find themselves in.

Homelessness #2

Positioning rucksack on a couch or sofa to see how that may evoke a sense of someones homelessness

 

  

 

 

 

I also wore the rucksack for one day, I felt some of the low self esteem from my own homeless days, I remember the times when I never knew where I will be staying tat night and the sense that I was super sensitive to my hosts own space, almost apologizing for being there, in their home, the feelings that I was imposing upon them and that as I had asked to stay and in a desperate situation that they could not easily say no, although they needed space in their home for themselves and their family and their own personal relationships and problems they were going through.

 

Egg tempura workshop

Hand, working with egg tempura for the first time

Homelessness Research

Possible places for the homeless

Near my.home. Are.two. carparks,  one is used with many areas for a homeless person to take shelter. And the other is a multi story unused carpark 

Doorways

Looking at doorways,sofas,shletrs thta homeless people would/could use...Lll

Also looking at imprints on sofa and in shelters after someone has been there

City, border, body and time

Images like this are very moving, how long are we going to go along ignoring the needs of a homeless person? I know some people chose to live on the street, in a field or elsewhere but I sure many found themselves in this situation by circumstances that many could not imagine, we wouldn't let a dog roam the street, they need shelter, food, comfort, why are we letting down our fellow humans, why is there little or no funding from central government for this? We should be addressing this natural need.
When I saw this woman, she reminded me of a baby in the buggy wanting sleep, by covering her head with a blanket, to somehow act as a barrier against the sound and the dangers on the street.

FINAL PRESENTATION, TRANSFORMING THE EVERYDAY

Ready for critique

 

The critique went quite well, I did get some advise about seperating the tile spacers and presenting them seperately, I agree somewhat, I also do very much like them paired together for purposes explained earlier, I have an idea to collect more slate and mount in a simlar way without the tile spacer accessories, maybe 30-40 pieces, have each one set on a stone floor in a gallery with great light and people could walk in between and get a sense of them being beings or souls from the past, rather like the Easter Island monuments remind me of a person locked inside each one, having observed the events of the island for thouands of years! I think an installation as such would be quite something, eerie and interesting to experience! 

Untitled, Transforming the Every Day, final piece

My weathered slate, mounted on wooden blocks and simply dressed in ornamental tile spacers. When I found this slate I knew I wanted to present it in a pure way, by not touching or adapting what the environment has, it's likely each piece came identically from a quarry, placed identically on a roof for exactly the same time, hammered and worked on by the same hand in exactly the same way, yet I see how each one has come out different, there are similar lines yet much like humans we all weather in a different way. I think I have achieved what I set out by simply dressing them

Negative space

Untitled, Transforming the Every Day

Roof Slate and tile spacers

I plan to install the slate where the pattern of the slate is more visible, possibly with some background paper to really bring out the colour, maybe grey or tan shade.

#8 Transforming the Everyday

Had to redo my sphere after it was accidentally broken by a fellow student, my other object has been inspired by a sea shell, this took ages to do, thinking I shall use the slate tiles and hang the tile space objects in front of them. I would like to create an illusion of African masks with some kind of tribal jewellery or symbol as in the tile spacer objects.

#7 transforming the every day

Tile spacers coming along as a sea shell shape

#6 Transforming the everyday

My initial attempt at constructing a shell shape out of tile spacers. To create the swirling form was quite tricky, yet once I got going with the sequence it was easier to build upon.

I needed to use a lot of glue to keep the shape intact and I like the web like appearance

Transforming the every day # 5

This interesting house is in my son's September issue of National Geographic Kids

Reference to my earlier idea of using plants to power a lamp

I find the idea of living off grid not only green, design wise, it is innovative and very exciting, more and more ways are being developed that encompass both style and green technology.

Having a lull with my leaf shade/light/dome I am finding renewed energy, hopefully with further research and maybe a mixture of materials as suggested by one of my tutors I can develop the leaf idea into other areas of design or/or fine art.

Transforming the everyday #4

After feeling dispondant with my Leaf Lamp, I have moved onto other objects, I have spare tile spacers at home, I glued them together to create a sphere, I am exploring this now to find out how I feel about this material and how to work with it and see what shapes I come up with.

                      Working with tile spacers to create geometric shapes, #1 sphere

 

I think the sphere works well, this object could be used in maybe interiors, as a sculpture or in the architectual field

Post#3 transforming the everyday

Leaf lamp starting to take shape, it seems to be taking on a life like form. The base is a wooden fruit bowl turned upside down with holes drilled round the edge to insert willow and other bendy wood I found bent in an arc from one side to the other. The leaf canopy has been hand seen together to cover the dome like shape.

Loosely tied round the dome, not yet enough to fully cover the twig dome, at this stage I am wondering how many more leaves I need to collect and treat in glycerin!!!

The back of the lamp, shows the hole in the fruit bowl and dome shape to be covered with leaves