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.