talk i had w/ 1st year

After talking with two of the first years both black about their own experiences with the Liverpool Slavery Museum and their own experiences of it.

One of the Girls believed that the Museum wasn't good enough. The way it was only a floor of the museum similar to the titanic however the titanic was one singular event and slavery is a minimum 200 years worth of human rights abuse. She also mentioned how having the KKK uniform glass protected and lighted was disgusting as it preserved the ideals of oppression and was almost solely designed in away to empathise with white people rather than educate about the horrors of slavery.

I want my prints to not shy away from slavery and disacknowledge britian and white peoples role in it.

My hatred for blogging my thought process

I find blogging my thought process and synthesis very difficult. To me it is like trying to describe a complex emotion. I feel it and think it naturally so trying to explain it or transcribe it for others is very difficult and I can't seem to get into the habit of it. It makes my life very stressful and I can say that most blogging is forced to me. I understand it's significance but I dont like it.

Slavery and the British Art Sector Exhibition. (Concept 1)

So i'm wanting to do something that conceptually is more sustantibal than a few prints illustrating the links between the brutality of slavery and the wealth of those who benefited from it and how that benefited the arts sector of britain. To do this I'm going to be proposing a exhibition that explores the direct and indirect ways that Britain's art sector benefited from slavery. I'll be using two prints that I will be creating to be headers for the two different sections of this exhibition.

One image is a parallel comparison between those taken into slavery and those financially benefiting from it. This section of the exhibition explores the more indirect ways that slavery helped benefit the art sector such as how the financial boom created as a result of slavery. With this I would use aim to work with those at    to create a collection of all the slave owners who donated/ financed the arts through gallery donations or commissioning artists for portraiture.

Or I would have diagrams depicting why slavery benefited the art sector (class, and disposable wealth) displayed as a life cycle similar to photosynthesis in its use of little words and iconography.*


The reason for this is being able to see the visual links between the boom in the british art sector and slavery is very important for people to understand and knowing that the way the art sector profited from slavery doesn't have to be direct to make it any less complicit.

The second print will be the title for the other side of the exhibition which will look at the more direct links between slavery and the art industry.
Henry tate's  bust made out of sugar melt water onto it melts to reveal tate gallery. This process would only happen once on opening day, however it would be documented via video to be replayed for later visitors.  Influenced by Kara Walker's Sugar statue it looks at the direct link between henry tates sugar wealth and slavery and how this lead to the creation of the tate and those that came after it.

*unlikely to be taken forward. Complex and muddy in concept/theory

Initial Print Design

• Came out successful but needs few improvements
• Fluider movement so that it looks slightly less stiff
• More dramatised expression to get across panick however that may come through with a larger print
• Rough Border highlights image and feels authentic
• Needed a stronger parallel visual look to it
• Use spot colour to dictate the comparison between those with and without.
• Need to use thinner paper to not have the details of the print overwhelmed by the texture of the paper.

Parallel Narrative and how its shaping the composition of my

Cruikshank's John Bulls taking a look at the Negro Question!! aka A Parallel Narrative

How am I defining a Parallel narrative within the context of my own art?

A parallel narrative to me is an image that has more than one scene going on within it and can be seen as its own independent narrative however they can also work intagent together to contextualise one another. 

What a Parallel Narrative Allows?

Allows for an emphasis to describe the vast differences between two opposing scenes visually. 

Why would this be the most effective display of what I want to get Across?

Really getting across the idea of injustice the vast differences of those suffering and those gaining from slavery. Unapologetic in exposing the vastly different experiences  racially for black people who were slaves for white europeans. 

refining final concept

• Realised I need to use Thinner non textured paper because the print is so fine that any texture on the paper and you end up loosing details 
• The reason for cutting out the positive in onside and negative in the other is because i want to keep the colour palette limited so by using the amount of black or white in the each half of the print it changes the way its views and visually creates a striking divide between the two characters.
• The prints obviously need to be bigger. 
• Getting the characters in poses that almost (but not entirely) mimic one another would add to this. 
• Creating the divide between the two in a portrait orientation may work better because it has class connotations of up top/down bellow as well as allowing for a more direct contrast in the characters experiences. 
• Try to have slaves characters body pushed together more to really emphasise the idea she is desperately trying to escape. 
• Become free er with the way I depict the movement of the bodies.

Fabiola Jean-Louis, Kendrick Lamar: The Reclamation of Blackness

Jean-Louis Uses oppressive and racist laws written throughout america's history to construct a colonial paper dress. Using the past documents used to oppress black people and turning it into a tool to construct and reclaim the brutality of slavery to black colonials 

Lamar's Grammy performance was a look at the use of the american prison system being used to replace slavery in the modern times. Confronting and being unapologetic in its representation of african american oppression.

Both of these artist have contextualised the brutal history of black oppression as a result of the transatlantic slave trade and created brutally unapologetic piece of work looking to reclaim the voices of those treated unjustly as a result of the colour of their skin.

The concept of the work I create being contextual is very important to me. As I realise that my work needs to be a reclamation of the information I have gathered. The art I produce must be my retelling of these facts, uncensored in anyway. To create authentic work that mimic the way I have tried to challenge british slavery in my dissertation has now become crucial to the further development of my work. 

Self Reflection 2

I dont want to fluff around the severity or horror of slavery. I want my work to allow for and honest look at the brutality of slavery. However not that i've decided not to go with the first thing that entered my mind and I've begun to think about it more and with the way my dissertation is shaping itself i'm finding that the links between art and slavery art always as literal or as clean cut as some would think and the lines between law being instated and acted allows for a grey area which those who want to deny their ancestors links to slavery pretend don't exist.

Inspired by the rhyming structure of 'This is the house that Jack Built' (M.Goose 1700's) which allows for an almost blunt statement through a rhyming linear syntax. It can be seen as semi inspired by Roald Dahls Revolting rhymes which takes a tale or concept well know and darkens it. However there is a less playful more factual basis to a series of images i'd create.

I wonder if the art i'm trying to create is becoming to literal. Becoming an illustration of my essay rather than a look at the synthesis behind the essay and the theory and context surrounding it. It certainly is beginning to synthesis some of the historical context in its content however I cannot theorise how this and the mediums chosen can be truly justified in the context of the dissertation or as its own stand alone work. 

BCA in London Etching vs Lino Print

I found it quite amusing that there was a library dedicated to Henry Tate right next to the Black Cultural Archives. (BCA)

The BCA was smaller than I thought however the store they had was filled with multiple books on black Britain than i have found in any book store.


The one thing that did benefit me from visiting the BCA in person was that I got to see a lot of the old protest posters. The use of print (especially lino and mono) of the late 80's was very interesting to see especially since I want to use  print elements to my own practical work.

Seeing the consistent use of lino print in Black British Protest posters in comparison to Cruickshanks and other anti-abolitionist artists use of etching in the 19th century is an interesting comparison.

The reason why being that etching used to be one of the fastest forms of protest media back before the 20th century and tended to be a form of protest used by those who could afford the inks and acids needed alongside a printing press, usually back by wealthy patrons to afford the etching equipment. Whereas in more recent times lino print has become the favoured printing method of the minority and oppressed class as it allows for a lot more improvisation in the quality of the equipment used.

Both methods use mass production but one method is built of elitism while the other has become the a crucial tool of the oppressed.

For the social contextual reasons alone lino printing shows itself as the better suited print method for the work I will produce alongside my essay as it links further into the context of protesting, black underground resistances and is part of black british protest history. And is not a protest a way of educating the masses about the unjust treatment of the minorities?

I want my work to educate on unjust past teaching and how they still hold significant effect today. And maybe I may need more than just a series of prints to do that.

Crit + Richard

THe Crit with richard I had before the Christmas Break really put in perspective how much work I have to do. It also Made me realise that my practical work doesn't have to be 100% applicable outside of the realm of my dissertation if I use the thesis developed through my dissertation as the foundations to the theoretical concepts developed for my practical work.

I also Need to document my art further on this as my practice print, although when talking it contextualises it'self deep within the research done. Doesn't explain the extent of the thought gone into it when shown to the tutors without me explaining it.

Foiling and Metallic lino print

I was going to attempt to do a gold foil print on one of the prints as it's spot colour. linking the frames that frame the paintings to the chains that were used to capture and restrain african people for slavery. However with the time i have left i realise that foiling with lino without previous experimentation is a fool's errand and i will instead be using metallic inks for this prints particular spot colour.

Post-London reflection

Initially I was going to create work that was a more literal version of the title of my dissertation. Turning stately manors, art galleries which had been built or financially backed of the profits made from slavery and redesign the exterior and interior of the buildings to be made out of black bodies, focusing on using shock value and body horror to get across the severity of these incidents. However after starting my dissertation and visiting London and the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton this concept had no deep historical and almost no theoretical context to it and would end up being just an add on to my dissertation rather than a truly synthesised piece of work that went along side it. 

David Olusoga Talk

I went to a talk by David Olusoga in York. It was spontaneous for me personally because i literally only found out about it and booked it 4 days prior to knowing about it.

However it was a very informative talk. He discussed the fact that the Royal African Company, a slave trade company, captured and enslaved 1.5 million African people. The company would also brand them with the King's seal because they where supported and partially funded by King Charles II and King James II's. Both Kings also got roughly 50% of money gained from the selling of the slaves.

I found out some more uncomfortable facts about Rape shacks and the like as well.

However I did get to talk to David Olusoga on a one to one basis. We talked about how art of black people from that time always pertained these connotations of black inferiority. Although Olusoga did mention that the Black man depicted on Nelson's column in `London is an outlier from this theory, it was also agreed that one out of hundreds if not thousands of depictions of black people not holding to this theory does not invalidate said theory.

A Trip to The Slavery Museum

I found recountment from activists and their own personal or familial involvement with racism to be very pointent. I'm under no illusion that there is no more racism in britain as I myself have experienced it. However this does reiterate a personal point which is to prove that those who say that racism or the ill treatment of black people fell with emancipation in 1835 a very wrong. 

These set of Yoruba Mask stuck me as well crafted with a strong sense of technique and skill. Something that to this day is ignored by westerners when talking about 'african' art, which is always seen as savage and naive suggesting that black people are unskilled and don't have the higher capabilities to be creative. Something these two masks prove wrong. 

These images along side some vocal and visual recreations really brought home the brutality of slavery. I have never felt such a gut wrenching sense of horror and disgust fill me like I had reading to methods used to mutilate black people and listening recounts of those whose captivity was documented. No amount of 'it was a different time' can ever make up for the atrocities of British slavery. Because those people felt, like we do, had thoughts like we do. And they decided to do this to other people. 

I found this statement to ring such truth in it's profanity and I feel like it links so well with what I am trying to say within my dissertation. 

The last slide really backs up the idea of how directly slavery helped finance britain as well as the concept of black people being seen as commodity and livestock to those buying and selling them.

Black Cultural Archive

While searching (extensively) How to get into contact with David Olusoga I stumbled across the BCA on his twitter. Looking further into the Bca and being to talk to their archivist I was able to find out more about the how the history of black britons has been archived in Brixton and was recommended a series of books from the archivist there about Black presence in britain. I'm thinking of visiting london to hopefully help push my research further.

The Price Of Freedom

David Olusoga's BBC series the Forgotten History of Britain's Slave Owners Has become a very important documentary which is helping to shape and formalise the initial historic background of my dissertation. Primarily focusing on the events surrounding the British Governments biggest payout to the public in history the of £17 Billion given to Slave Owners who were forced to emancipate their slaves in 1835.

Why Has LCA Blocked the Black Cultural Archives Site????

Chapter 1

"Most of us do not understand the forces that brought our ancestry together from opposite ends of the world. Nor do we fully acknowledge that these forces continue to shape our communities and our life chances” (Stuart,2012) 

This quote by Aderea Stuart reflecting on her own heritage of having family from both the white British imperial and Afro-Caribbean slave side of Colonialist history works as an almost microcosm for the way we as britons understand or acknowledge the way major cultural institutes like the Tate Galleries and Harewood House where the direct financial benefactor of British slavery. Britons financial success and cultural boom was so deeply rooted in an efficient and ever growing slave based economy that ‘for 200 hundred years it was the back bone of the British economy’ (Olusoga, 2015). But how does this all link to how it benefited the cultural sector of Britain? 

Not only did the trans atlantic slave trade and plantations allow British slave owners the ability to amass extraordinary amounts of personal wealth. But after the abolition of slavery, slave owners that wished to were compensated the largest sum of money that the British government has ever given out; at todays value of a total £17 billion. This gave British slave owners a sudden influx of financial gain which would allow them to put this new found wealth back into the British economy by financing and creating business, giving the British banking sector a financial boom and more importantly in this essay it allowed for an influx of money to be put towards developing the arts institutes in Britain. 

Throughout British History the arts have been developed for the sole focus of appeasing the upper classes. Oil paintings, as discussed by John Berger ‘Often depict things. Things which in reality are buyable’ (Berger,1972). Essentially Oil paintings, historically have been away of demonstrating ones wealth. A common historic practice amongst the British elitists, as art is both a tool exhibiting financial wealth and social standing. In the context of the financial gain from both slavery and abolition it is easy to see how the Arts sector of Britain would gain an immense financial backing from the new found personal wealth of slave owners. 

However the money that Sir Henry Tate,a man who’s financial wealth would create one of the most significant and nationally acclaimed galleries gained through sugar slavery happened after the Abolition of the slave trade.

William Wilberforce was integral to the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. However slavery was still legal though the acquisition of enslaving african people was not. This allowed Britain to look closer at the assets they already had and how they could gain profits lost to the Slave trade act 1807. The British soon realised that along the river of Demerara in Guyana the soil was extremely fertile and that growing sugar cane crops in this area would yield ‘an opportunity to make bigger profits than anywhere else in the British Caribbean. And slavery was the only way to maximise these profits’ (Olusoga, 2015) similarly sugar had been called ‘white gold’ at the time, a term coined from sugar baron James Drax who claimed that ‘“white gold” transformed the British economy’ (Parker,2011).

The way they gained slaves to work the land after the abolition of the atlantic slave trade was to buy slaves off the dutch plantation owners and convert the land they worked for coffee and cotton into a sugar plantation. Guyana , where the river Demerara lies, was one of the most financially profitable islands in the west indies. It attracted a lot of British investors as a result

 ‘Guayna was able to maintain a slave population even though the slave trade had been abolished ‘cause you can only have a profitable, cultural business if you had labour. Labour and Capital were two pivotal things’ (Prof.McGowan, 2015)

subsequently a new generation of slave owners found fortune within Guyana, well after the slave trade abolition act 1807 had been passed. This brought on what the author will be referring to as the second wave of slave money or Post-Abolition Slavery. Consequently men who hadn't the aristocratic standing or coin to own Plantations before hand now could earn their wealth with help from banks who were eager to invest in the sugar cane industry. One of these banks would later become The Bank Of England which at the time had ‘Sir Richard Neave, who was the director of the bank for 48 years, was also the chairman of the Society of West India Merchants’ (Martin,2011). 

Sir Henry Tate came into the sugar business in 1859 and although the official statement from the Tate Britain has been

 “Sir Henry Tate wasn't born until 1819 and he did not start his sugar refining business until 1859, many years after the abolition of slavery and his fortune did not come from sugar production – it came instead from his embrace, as a refiner, of new technology which allowed him to modernise the distribution and commercial marketing of cane sugar in competition with sugar beet refiners in Europe. Sir Henry was merely a bulk purchaser of cane sugar and there is no evidence that his business came any closer than that to the post slavery Caribbean plantations.” (2008) (Palmer, 2014) 

This statement has since been subtracted from the Tate website which the Author believes is due to the fact that although slavery was made Illegal by 1833 it wasn't until the 1873 Slave Trade Act that there was a more effectual suppression of the Slave trade act. Furthermore the living conditions, personal treatment and ‘pay’ of black workers did not improve as ‘the planters wanted cheap, full time labourers as they had been accustomed during slavery’ (MM,2016). Even in Modern day Sugar farms the way that the sugar has to be worked is as Davis Olusoga put it ‘disturbing to see sugar cain being harvested like this because it is so deeply interwoven with the idea of slavery and the brutality of slavery’ (Olusoga, 2015). There is no doubt in the authors mind that Tate is far free from being tied to the brutality of sugar slavery when it it well documented that events such as the 1865 Morant Bay Protests which happened due to the racial biased in Jamaica after emancipation lead to the state approved execution of nearly 500 people and the public flogging of 600 more. 

Though the English Government said to punish the judge Edward John Eyre who allowed this massacre high profile members of the British Arts such as Charles Dickens and John Ruskin Supported this horrendous blood bath. This, to the author highlights the racist ideals of that the ‘intellectuals’ within the British arts scene had at the time when it came to their views of black people and slavery. On the contrary Prolific members of the Sciences such as John Bright, 

Charles Darwin and Fredric Harrison where vehemently for the prosecution of Eyre. The Author believes this highlights what could be a significant divide between the sciences and the arts within Britain. However this is not what the focus of this essay is about.

The denial of Tate & Lyle company today stating that

 ‘When Henry Tate and Abram Lyle established their businesses in 1859 and 1865 respectively, the slave trade had been illegal in Britain for more than 50 years’ (Stamp, 2007)

with the information we now know, about how though the slave trade was stopped in 1807 slavery was still legal. How even after 1833 when all slaver was banned it was really freedom in just name. We can look back on the fact that Tate’s investment into the sugar farms and the wealth he gained from it can be directly linked to the brutal labour enforced on black africans of the west indies. It is important to note that Tate did not keep his investment in sugar farms just to British owned ones but he also did occasionally buy sugar from Cuba which was known for both its cheap sugar and prominent slave based force. So although he may not have bought the slaves himself. Tate did help fund the continuation of slave labour in both the west indies and Cuba along side heavily benefiting from the prosperous sugar industry due to sugar slavery. 

The lack of acknowledgement for the Tate family and subsequently the Tate Galleries, on how the fortunes made and Galleries built all benefited from Sugar slavery. The refusal to apologise for there part in this horrendous act while gaining power and prestige in the art world as a result of this is a form of post colonial racism. This behaviour from a British institution is unsurprising however. 

‘The British government’s refusal of such an apology is squalid. Until recently, almost unbelievably, it refused even to recognise the slave trade as a crime against humanity on the grounds that it was legal at the time. It helped block an EU apology for slavery.’ (Livingstone, 2007)

All in all the British mindset both past and present about slavery is that it is never their fault. And as you have begun to see and will understand further on within this essay it the way Art is both used as a tool by the British to both dismiss slavery as well as highlight the horror of slavery.  All the while the art sector was profiting from slavery. 

John Ruskin is a prime example of a man who heavily benefited from slavery before and during his lifetime. Even going so far as to say ‘I don’t think slavery ought to have been abolished’ (Hilton, 2003) Ruskin is a prominent figure in the British arts sector. As both a Painter and art critic he was well known and highly respected within British society. And his blatant favouritism towards slavery reflected a lot of the British art industries mind set at the time. This being due to the fact that the British art industry had begun to open more galleries as result of the second wave of slavery allowing the upper and middle upper class to visit and take part in what was believed to be a high society pass time. 

The reason why men like Ruskin and other influential members of the British art society were either so supportive or active within the British slave trade and British slavery on a whole is due to 

“how pervasive slavery was in the structure of British wealth” (Ferguson, 1998) for at least 300 years the arts had partially relied on the wealth of slave merchants, slave money and the slave trade to finance the paintings commissioned within Britain. Though links between slave wealth and art were more obvious in the 1600’s with paintings depicting colonial wealth in both gold, objects and people. For example ‘Admiral De Ruyter in the Castle of Elmina’ by De Witte. Art in the 18th and 19th century still benefited from the money made form slaves. George Cruikshank was literally paid by slaveowners to create his satirical illustration ‘John Bull taking a Clear View of the Negro Slavery Question’ (Cruikshank, 1826) demeaning the plight of the caribbean slaves who where massacred without thought and forced to live in abysmal conditions. 

To conclude what has been discussed in this chapter the author would say that the Arts industry was not made off the back of slavery however it did benefit and grow exponentially as a result if the slave trade. Galleries like the Tate which are seen as National treasures did benefit from the sugar slavery in the west indies most likely Guyana. And the fact that all this ‘new money’ invested their newfound wealth from slavery into the arts isn’t a surprise as the arts are such a huge status symbol within imperial Britain. Realistically there was truly no way that the art sector of Britain was not going to have benefactors who's wealth came from slavery. Art and Slavery are so intrinsically rooted together within colonial history that there is no way Britain would have had such a huge are presence without slavery. 

Methodologies & Critical Analysis

• Gotta evidence this in our work.
• Separates bourgeois dissertations from working class presentation
• $40 available for Meth & Crit
• analysis and Research

Good Critical Analysis and a Good Methodology will lead to it.

METHODOLOGY

What is My Methodology?

How to Improve and Sharpen My methodology?

How to evidence and documenting methodology?

Documentation of methodology as important.

Every research project will have methodology

(even if ill thought out)

I have a strategy maybe? 

Methodologies is Science But I am Art?????

Highschool Science I'm Triggered 

Make something applicable to your dissertation

Richard Praised me longest Yea Boi

A I have a methodology this is where it is  

-Strategic approach to organising your research in your essay

-should consider the strengths and weaknesses of 

-Reflective and thoughtful as well as critical.

Methodology is unique to each project

-nothing is wrong but it can be improved and refined 

Gotta defend my approach 

Read in the library
Observation
Drawing
Internet
Reflective Diary
Questionnaires
Photo Journalism
Documentary Filmmaking
Writing

Get the best Tools For the Job

Doing Your Research Project

The PostGrad Research Handbook -Chp13,14,15

PLEASE NO-ONE

Put loads of consideration into the methodology

Qualitative maybe bit quantative

explain my methodology approach 2 ur dissertation

use the word methodology
Explain reason for particular focus
methodology looks at both what and why

Who? What? When? Why? Methodology 

dates and text types of methodology marxist methodologists

Research methods helped construct specific bits

Find a Case Study

Critical Analysis

why one method is better than another but maybe not slagging people off 100% of the time.

Picking the strong from the Weak 

Closer to skepticism in philosophy

Coming up with an idea then ripping it apart by disprovesion.

Don't be blindly loyal to one single idea. 

There is no absolute truth 

You can't be truly objective but you can be critical

Where the biased look at the context 

Blog bout ur practice 

What was that person: a

Marxist

Neoliberal

Sociological

Psychological

Postmodernists 

Technological

Fundamentalism

Need to have an underpinning "coherent" argument  

my opinion is backed up by 500 years of racist bullshit 

I am The man  the pasta is research and evidence 

Successful studies for degrees -Barnes 

quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote

quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote

quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote

quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote

quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote

quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote

quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote

quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote

quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote

quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote

quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote

quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote

Have Sources Fight One another 

Reliability

Potassium, so wait.

Looking back over my blog I saw a point at witch I found about blackness in christian europe being related to demons + black white minstrel show on the otherness of blackness.

????? PLAN??????

Now- Contact Mel and Black leeds uni union? Also contact Marvina & contact Black artist in the business / day for drawing

Week-4 Have to have been in Liverpool and Harewood house by then / Play with ideas sketch lino cut

Week- 5 Get all evidence together 4 essay / more rounded drawing

Week-6 Lino cuts experiment start essay

Week-7 Work/Work/Work

Week-8 Draft Done

Week-9 coming towards final roughs

Week-10 Work

Week-11 Work

Week-12/13 Final Essay + finalising my final art piece/s

Week-14/15 Final binding + onceovers

Key Sources & Biblography

Alexander, Claire E. The Art Of Being Black. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. Print.

Bindman, David, Henry Louis Gates, and Karen C. C Dalton. The Image Of The Black In Western Art. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap, 2010. Print.

Bindman, David, Henry Louis Gates, and Karen C. C Dalton. The Image Of The Black In Western Art. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. Print.

Bugner, Ladislas, Karen C. C Dalton, and Hugh Honour. The Image Of The Black In Western Art. Houston: Menil Foundation, distributed by Harvard University Press, 1989. Print.

Chambers, Eddie. Black Artists In British Art. Print.

Earle, T. F and K. J. P Lowe. Black Africans In Renaissance Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Print.

Hall, S. "Black Diaspora Artists In Britain: Three 'Moments' In Post-War History". History Workshop Journal 61.1 (2006): 1-24. Web.

Hall, Stuart, David Morley, and Kuan-Hsing Chen. Stuart Hall. London: Routledge, 1996. Print.

Marsh, Jan. Black Victorians. Aldershot, Hampshire: Lund Humphries, 2005. Print.

Mercer, Kobena. "Ethnicity And Internationally". Third Text 13.49 (1999): 51-62. Web.

Nederveen Pieterse, Jan. White On Black. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. Print.

Parsons, Neil. King Khama, Emperor Joe, And The Great White Queen. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Print.

Pinder, Kymberly N. Race-Ing Art History. New York: Routledge, 2002. Print.

Scott, Daryl Michael. Contempt And Pity: Social Policy And The Image Of The Damaged Black Psyche, 1880-1996. University of North Carolina Press, 1997. Print.

Shonibare, Yinka et al. Yinka Shonibare, MBE. Munich: Prestel, 2008. Print.

Waters, Hazel. Racism On The Victorian Stage. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print.

Project Outline (Temp)

Intro (800-1000)
Black presence ignored both good and bad
link to enlightenment essay
how do modern artists approach this specifically Shonibare

Ch 1 Black Victorians + Western Image book (2000-2500)

• Importance of these books 2 black british presence
• Why we need them and what we learn from them 
• How they can prove and disprove racial propaganda
• Art as social propaganda  

CH 2 Dandy-Shonibare (2500-3000)

• Compare 2 darwin and his views + empire on unsophisticated blacks
• how this links into why he did it.
• Question of colonisation?
• Anti-black 19th century propaganda 

Ch 3 Importance of Shonibare's work when compared to works found in formerly mentioned books. (300-500)

• The Black perspective on representation and its importance. compared to images selected from above

Ch4 My work and how that informs and is informed by this dissertation (300-500) 

Conclusion (700-1000)

• Why? What? When? Where? Racism 
• The synthesis between Historical oppression in art and Modern liberation of the black image
• end???

Max: 8500 Min:6600

Dissertation Title Concepts

Black Body, British commodity:

The Nameless Negro:

How Slavery built Britain;

Why dont  buildings built as a result of slavery in Britain  recognise their origins

Why won't britain deal with it's own hand in slavery?

Erasure of the Black Intellect in Victorian Britain.

Hidden Black Britain

Why are Black British Historical Figures Not recognized or given the respect of even the most mediocre white british Historical figures? O' Wait I know why, Anti- Black Britain?

Lording over white men in history who came to their wealth on the bodies of black people.

Black Body, British Commodity: How was White British Wealth built on the Black Oppression?

Black Suffering, British Gain; The Lies Of an Empire

Exploitation of the Black self Erasure of Black Success.

How British History Exploits and Erases Black Success?

I love History but I'm black and it's making me sad.

The sin of being born black according to History

How art is being used to expose positive black presence in British History?

How Art is being used to expose black presence in british history?



I got sad for a bit doing this as I realised how upsetting being black and knowing how they treated us back in time and how it's covered up or brushed of now but I have to see the positive sides coming out of black britain (alongside white britain) beginning to expose the injustices that have happened before hand. I think I need to go either super horrific and humorous in my art or super positive. I think the former is funner and most likely. 

Presentation & Feedback

The presentation went well. Feedback wise I recognise that a big thing that holds me back in cop and what Richard mentions today was synthesising the writing element with the practical element. Focusing solely on Yinka Shonibare for my dissertation works, however it doesn't translate as a question to my practical work as succinctly.


I just found out Liverpool has history with slavery; being apart of the slavery triangle and all. So I'll go to there to the museum on slavery to find more out on how it affected the culture in liverpool.
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/triangle.aspx

A List of all Places that were built by or as a result of slavery That I wish to visit:

• Harewood House, Leeds
• Gallery of Modern art, Glasgow
• Liverpool Town Hall, Liverpool
• Speck Hall, Liverpool
• Sneaton Castle, Whitby

Researching the 'benefits' of slavery for the upper class and merchant class white populous in britain further I find myself pissed the fuck off. These buildings where symbols of wealth, symbols of how in selling the lives of others and forcing them into slavery you could build yourselves homes and galleries. 

The blood of black people ran the wheels on British creativity. 

The Black Body as a British commodity: How Black british artists use art to expose 500years of black oppression in Britian

What I aim to go with

After reading Yinka Shinobare's Book and his discussion of how diary of a victorian dandy breaks the expectation of the viewer by having the black person become the central focus within the painting/photo in a positive light. This is so close to what I began to touch on in my previous essay about how the black image is depicted a certain way in art to make it look more subservient etc.

I want to use the series diary of a victorian Dandy to dissect the way the black image is represented in this series compared to depictions of black people within victorian imagery. Looking at the importance of Black depiction in art.

Rought Essay Ideas so far

• Reclamation of gold jewelry in modern Black Fashion.
• Significance of not naming the black subject within British art history
• Sexualisation & Exotisim of the black woman in the 19th/20th century
• The Black Madonna?

Black Africans In Renaissance Europe

White people think you are a savage if A. You Nakey* & B. U don't know or care about Christianity.

A Lot of black people fall into this category.

*nakey wasn't actually naked just not as many clothes as europeans thought they should have because they based wealth and superiority on material goods.

Lot of black african men had circumcised Dicks and christian europeans associated circumcision with judaism and that make u bad/the enemy ergo black people are the enemy. 

Lot of visual links and cultural association with Black people and Gold, Specifically Gold Jewelry in the Renaissance era. 

Gold showed the richness of Africa as a continent but the inferiority of the Africans who wore it.

?????

Only Jewish Girls and African people wore earrings meaning earrings are bad.

Usage of Gold and jewelry for decoration ie armlets chains anklets and collars began to represent the bonds of slavery. They used the accessories as a way of chaining up slaves and using the culture and fashion of a people and turning it into a symbol of oppression.


Something called "the laughing black" stereotype where a black slave was seen as carefree because they're too stupid to understand the misery of their own situation.

"Slaves are always happy they do nothing but laugh"(Oliveira 1578)

A Phrase Used before You can't change a leopard's spots. "To Wash an Ethiopian white is to labour in vain"

Black Skin = Deformity

For white to be considered beautiful black must be considered a deformity.

Mantegna and Correggio use of the subordinated dark skinned women

Isabella D'Este liked collecting young black children and wanted a young black girl between the ages of 1 1/2 & 4, who was 'As black as possible" (Kaplan 2005)

Andrea Mantegna depicted these fantasy loyal dark skinned servants egar to woek, exotasising black women and adding to the concept of otherness.

Contrast Albrecht Dürer's portrait of Katherine showed the harsher realities of a melancholic but dignified slave.

One of the rare depictions of a named black person

Image Of The Black In Western Art Volume 4

The Image of The Black In Western Art Volumes 4 part 1

• The images tend to use Black people as props or propaganda
• Lost of Glory day Empire Bullshit Britain was really big on depicting themselves as a savior. Comes int that white savior complex but for a whole country. 
• Big use of composition to show black inferiority.
• Also exaggeration of the black features to dehumanize
• All in all just really emphasizing my points made in last essay about the use of art to dehumanize the black to maintain the concept of white superiority within western Europe and the Americas. 
• 
  

Francesco Pezzicar's Statue of a freed slave at the Centennial Exhibition (1876) 

• This statue was slated by critics because the Man depicted was both active in his own freedom and had an expression of triumphant pride, which angered american art critics because they believed the man should look more humble and submissive. 

The Image of The Black In Western Art Volumes 4 part 2

Image Of Otherness

The Anonymity of the subject links this work with a number of portraits heads of the black's painted.

Gets rid of a sense of individuality 

There seems to be a big rise in the sexualisation and fetishisation of the black woman in art in the 19th century.  To Quote " By this date the physical allure of black women for white men was more readily admitted than before' (1989) 

Creepy Quote Of The Day : 'A Beauty that charms you, that makes you wish that the marble was a live woman" ( Castantino, 1877, statue fucker)

Using a white Cleopatra to represent Luxury and black servants to Juxtapose with their 'Savagery'.

Brotherton Library Leeds.- Initial Research

At the Leeds Uni Library looking to gain better footing on black image in western art pre-1700's. At the moment this is as narrow as I can kinda get. Still want to look at the significance of black British historians, maybe this is how i do it. Look at the black image in western art books look at the significance of them?? i don't really know right now but there is something there.

The Image of The Black in Western Art Vol 1:

• 'From 16th Century onward the historical ideas about the blacks were shaped by the development of the Triangular Trade and the growth of overseas slaver'(Bugner, 1976) p7
• Balthazar 'the black wise man' depiction as only black wise man seems to have originated 12th century however the people charged with preserving and restoring artwork (non-cited age) have striped of the blackness off thew statues and paintings to whiten him. 
• 'The importance of the evidence depends also on the place assigned to the clack within a representation. If he is there only as an "extra" in a scene in which the white man is the principal actor, it is clear that his part is secondary. Even if his role is not degrading, and he is not added simply for contrast, his insertion in a composition shows that his image is subordinate to the other factors in which he is only indirectly concerned. It may be thought that the periods during which such insertions occur most frequently thus seems the most unfavorable to the image of the black: instances would be the art of pharaonic Egypt and Christian Europe before the fifteenth Century' (Bugner, 1976) p11
• 'His image is more than a contrast: it represents the dissonant minority' p13

The Ethiopian Seems to be a running theme in this book. maybe look into it? 

• In Ancient Egypt blackness was a sign of fecundity (fruitfulness & fertility)
• Isis the black 

•  Greece also associated black with fertility 
• The European Black Madonnas were connected with the same kind of positive evaluation 

 Christian metaphor of the Ethiopian as a symbol for sin established the image of Africa being that of the devil.

Blackness = Death, Hell, Devil & Evil

How much did this change in the association of blackness lead to the degradation of the black image?

The use of blackness to mean evil in the beginning was not necessary directly related to African people. Most demons in early Christianity were black but did not have african features.

'The blackness that marked the Old Law is whitened in the New'

Trying to work Out my Disertation

Okay I don't really have an idea of what I want to do specifically. I'm trying at the moment to work towards what I think the lectures want to see and not something I'm specifically excited to do my dissertation on. I feel like for a maturer essay I need to focus on the contemporary black imagery but I would like to focus on historical aspect of the black image and underrepresented black historical european figures. The lack of documentation and acknowledgment of these figures is something that frustrates me greatly. I want to look into and research greatly historical black european figures in, either italian or english history who are significant but have been erased due to historical whitewashing, the atlantic slave trade and post 16th century racism.

Things I want to focus on in my dissertation

• 2-3 Black European Figures who have been Erased and underrepresented in european history
• Look at how Erasing these figures from european history is of form of anti-black racism 
• Find theories and methods used to slander/demonise a race of people
• Look into how the change in the way the black image was presented in art links to the acknowledgment and documentation of non-slave based black europeans. 
• Theories on art reflecting the mindset of a historical period as well as social, political and cultural biased rather than it being a true objective documentation format 

Black British Creatives

At the moment i'm trying to compose a database of black british poets, artists, filmmakers,authors, historians and look at how the are representing the black form in contemporary society.

It is only recently we have been able to represent ourselves and our portrayal to the media.

I also am looking in conjunction how the black image has been represented throughout british history in art.

Looking at both and gaining more knowledge on black image representation throughout history should help lead me to a cohesive and specific dissertation.

I've already begun to contact filmmaker Cecile Emeke and I hope to contact others and talk to them in regards to both their practice and how they feel the representation of the black briton has change over the years.

I want to look at the contrast between the black image represented by white men back in the day and the way black creatives represent the black image now.

Okay Ladies Now Let's Get In Formation (for cop 3)

Initially I was going to look at the representation of the black female and queer image in western art compared to today.

But after the lecture with Chris the library head I realised this was long and convoluted.

Very long and convoluted. 

So I thought 'hey lemonade just came out, a unapologetic look at the black female form as represented by a black woman ace!'

But the issue there is lemonade is full of such complex imagery, music poetry,and spoken word that it in itself is a very complex topic that would take over the entire dissertation without even scratching the surface.

So I've decided to use Nicki Minaj's Anaconda Video to look at the reclamation of the black female body.

It will allow me to defence things like lemonade, the black venus, malcom x, feminism, historical representation of black women in art and philosophy, while keeping it a lll focused on one main point of context.

End of Module Evaluation 501

I always enjoy the context of practice module, it allows me to go about a project in a mostly research lead based way. Since realizing in my practice last year that I tend to work well with research led based work I knew that this module would be very beneficial to me in developing my practice further. I found myself forced to deal with some of my practice flaws, such as me inability to hone in on one singular thing so tat most of my research tends to be too broad which is then reflected in my essay and makes it so that I’m never really able to evaluate and craft arguments out of the information given. I tend to churn out information without reflecting and evaluating on it. Because of this I wanted to tackle a question that was focused more on the Question side of cops essay so that I would have to look deeper in depth and be more critical about information collected in research and become pickier with the research questions I chose.

I struggled for quite a while with the essay question, I feel back into trying to fit too complex a topic into 3000 words, which tended to leave me more confused and frustrated than anything else.  However through one on one and group tutorials I was able to hone my question into something that had a clearer focal point than before. I found that the Context of Practice Lectures, specifically of identity and the classroom theory really helped me to get to the root of what I wanted to look at and what methods and theories I needed to further my knowledge of to implement alongside my initial research. Theory is something I really enjoy which is surprising because I’ve always dismissed theory for some reason. Social theory has become particularly interesting to me especially when coupled with Identity and racial theory.

Because I ended up doing such as narrow question (in comparison to pervious questions) for my final essay I was able to pick up on points that if a broader essay question was done instead I wouldn’t of been able to touch on. As a result of this I felt like I understood and implemented this idea of synthesis between the practical work and the essay. The more I understood and involved myself with my essay the clearer the concept for the book became.

The practical side easily reflected the written side in that I was really all over the place at first. Wanting to do paintings for cop meant that I tended to become narrower minded about the work I was making and became more focused on media than context. However after re-doing the essay my priorities instantly changed, the context and concept I wanted to look at was suddenly far more important than the media. However I found that when I started reestablishing the meanings behind paintings I felt the need to do more than just use Velcro or magnets to remove the black people out as showing there interchangeability to western nobility in 17^th & 18^th century, the work I was making felt too literal and it’s bluntness left me unenthused.

After a Brief tutorial with Richard, I was reminded of both the importance of tutorials and critiques; the fact that I can’t just sought everything out in my own head, although I like to think I can, outside perspectives allow me to look at my work from a less intimate point of view, making me more aware of flaws I was too close to see at the time. Secondly while my whole essay solely focused on a historical era of time, by contextualizing my practical work within a contemporary context I was able to create work that was subtler in it’s concept and in the end something I was much more proud of.

Creating the book wasn’t difficult once I had my sound Idea of concept and context in mind. I’d just say that if I had reached these conclusions sooner it would have allowed me more time to experiment with media and the tone of the book. As it stands though I can’t really complain. Maybe if I’d have developed it more I would of started to loose the concept in the mass of refinement. Though initially the choice of creating a colouring book came from the need of convenience if I were to have more time to do it again I wouldn’t colour it in. I felt that both adults and 16+ children as both a way of relaxing and a way of teaching could use the final product.

Overall this Module has been a success in helping me develop and refine both my essay skills and my ability to synthesize the practical and written together. The building and developing of these skills has become almost central to my practice.

Final Essay

Final Book

New 501 Task 5 revisited

Task 5 cop3

Issues when making the book

• Creating the book cover was much more difficult than it should have been. 
• I had some major issues embossing onto both bookram and black card so I couldn't create the book cover I wanted to.
• I ended up going with a simple black card cover with no writing on because personally I thought that worked better.
• I just added on a belly band with the book title as an simple way of showing what this was about. 
• If I were to do this again I'd definitely spend time making a stencil to get clean and accurate lettering on the cover. 

Change in Essay

My Initial Essay Question was going to be about the lack of representation of the Old Mistress within Art History.

• Then about whitewashing of History
• Then  How was the foundation of modern day anti black racism was created in the Enlightenment era?  -which was my first essay draft.
• However after talking with Richard I realised that the question was still too broad and it didn't allow me to really sink my Teeth into it, so My final question became Scientific Racism: How is the scientific theory of races in the enlightenment era was used to justify black inferiority, reflected through 17th-18th century art?

All the changes towards my essay question were really beneficial for me as I was able to do deeper analysis with each narrowed down question as well as forcing me to triangulate more naturally within my essay.

 I was able to get to the end of my essay and not feel like I needed another 1000 words to summaries or reflect and evaluate within it.