Summative Evaluation

The aim of this project was to through research, explore the mind set of Britain during the slave trade up until the mid 19th century. I wanted to delve deeper into a concept I picked up on last year with my essay for cop. The treatment of black people as commodity. The way art is used as a cultural propaganda. In trying to infuse the two together i realised that looking at how the British Art sector was able expand and develop as a result of slavery was something that really interested me. Because honestly, I didn’t think I was going to really find anything. I thought there would maybe be some links but not as many as I found. Knowing how intertwined slavery was in the success of really the cultural sector of Britain becomes very obvious when you remember how the cultural sectors have historically been a play ground for the elite to spend their money. On The practical side of it. I really wasn’t sure what to do. At first I wanted to depict the horror of slavery using horror imagery. But further into my dissertation I found the practical easier to conceptually design the deeper i got into the written side. I feel like this was truly the first time I felt synthesis happening within my Context of Practice. This was very much a research led project that ended up becoming a written and practical piece. The aim of which was to inform through the written word and express/acknowledge that information through the practical side. 

Final Images

Visual and Conceptual Development

• Initially I was going to create two reduction prints but I then realised when printing that the room for error with and image this big and already quite difficult to get all round pressure on was too great for me to want to test that. 
• Handburnising is off the table because even with the Washi rice paper the image pulls up a lot of marks from the pressure of hand burnishing. 
• The Paper that works best for the final A3 prints is Zerkall as it's thick enough to not bring up unwanted textures and smooth enough that i't doesn't distort the images. 
• I'm going to ink in the colour as the images with inked in colour are dull and underwhelming. 

once you flip an image to transfer it for lino cuttings you get to see where you can improve it and how malformed your drawings actually are when you question them even a tiny bit.  I tend to only transfer the basics of the image or a bit i really like. The more i get into lino cutting the more i feel like trying to cut out an image exact is restricted to the Lino cut. And you loose alot of the movement and expression when aiming for perfection.

Development

With the Drawing of the final print's I'd basically knew what I wanted to do in my minds eye. The reason for only two final designs is due to realising that one of the concepts I wanted to try was so similar to the first print design. There is not a lot of development with the images because they were all thought throw conceptually while i was reflecting on my essay.  There is a few composition development because for me it was really making sure I had a strong execution of the image so that it reflected the research done to the highest standard.

Emory Douglas

When looking into the history of print from the white western perspective within my dissertation. It focuses on etchings and satirist because that was the way opinions, both popular and alternative where usually displayed through penny dreadfuls, individual prints, posters or within news papers.

With the history of print from a black western ideal. It tends to be lowfy or the use of Lino printing as a method of crafted protest. Emory Douglas's work tho, mainly media and stencil based did us lino printing methods as well. His work was a call to arms and a voice for the voiceless.

Similarly my work aims to give a voice to the voiceless. However rather than a call to arms it's a call to acknowledge Britain's slave past.

Looking back to my brief

I'm so caught up in the idea that there has to be more to these prints than just the finished pieces that I am trying to add more, conceptual fodder and trivial applications is a proposal desperate to be something.

I want to strip the concept back to it's bare bones.

The way I plan the composition and imagery of the prints is always backed up by the theories found within my dissertation.

My work is Theory and Context led and there is nothing wrong with that.

Instead of fretting about trying to throw it against as many proposals as it can.

I'm going to focus more on explaining why these prints have been made the way they've been made through the 3rd chapter of my dissertation and this blog.

Theory on soft harsh line fibonacci and run away slaves

Fibonacci Sequence is a good way of working out whether a composition works or not however if your work doesn't fit into the sequence it doesn't make it a bad composition. Soft lines are used to create ideals of soft, submissive and femininity while hard lines show control, power and masculinity.  (Cromer 1990)

A great example of the use of the Fibonacci sequence and using soft lines to dictate submissiveness is the painting the hunted slaves by Richard Ansdell 1861

Fears of over complication

I'm worried that my idea for a museum proposal has become very complex and muddled in its content. My print designs have so much more context and theory put into them in comparison to the museum proposal which feels almost forced as away of extending my practical submission so it is deemed 'worthy' of my dissertation. The prints synthesise the best with my dissertation as they're informed by it. However i'm unsure if the print express the true extent of my research and the theory they represent without the dissertation.

Case Study Change

I was going to do the third and final part of my second chapter as a case study on King charles II and his art collection and its link to slavery. However as I wrote the second case study i slowly realised that there was something more important and significant to look at. And that was a case study on how Art has  it's benefited from slavery. It's social and cultural context shifted thanks to slavery allowing for an influx in wealthy families and the resources to create mass oil paintings. This allowed for art to be take out of a religious or documentative ideal and allowed it to become a more accessible commodity to those within britain. It allowed for the mass collection of art the use of art as a display of wealth, narcissism and social mobility. It create art for arts sake.