Geoffrey Farmer
Geoffrey Farmer, Leaves of Grass
Javanese Shadow Puppets
American Printmaking
Watrous, James. American Printmaking: a Century of American Printmaking: 1880-1980. University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
Bruce Mau
Bruce Mau, Massive Change Manifesto
What is the Middle Passage?
Black Eye Peas
Quigley, Annie. “Gardening 101: Black-Eyed Pea.” Gardenista, Gardenista, 17 Apr. 2018, www.gardenista.com/posts/gardening-101-black-eyed-peas-vigna-unguiculata-plant-guide/.
American Printmaking
Watrous, James. American Printmaking: a Century of American Printmaking: 1880-1980. University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
This work confuses me because to me, it looks like when you use a microscope to look at bacteria or it looks like when you look through a telescope and find assortment of stars. I would like to learn how she created this 3D affect when printing and creating a lot of texture.
American Printmaking
Watrous, James. American Printmaking: a Century of American Printmaking: 1880-1980. University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
This is most likely my favorite print in this book due to the bright colors and attention to detail. When researching lithograph because I was unsure what this method of printmaking was. To learn that was made with stone, it made me want to look into it more and learn how it is done. This piece has so much detail also shadowing with color, it looks like a painting to me.
Printmaking Techniques
Practical Printmaking. David & Charles, 1983.
I was looking through Practical Printmaking to learn and see new printmaking techniques that I did not know. It would be interesting what type of prints I could make just by experimenting with materials and techniques.
Suburbicon
Suburbicon, George Clooney, 2017
"Suburbicon is your typical, quiet American town. Then a African American family move into the neighbourhood and the bigoted community go out of their way to force them to leave. At roughly the same time, two strangers break into the home of their neighbours, Gardner and Rose Lodge, and tie up the family." - “Suburbicon.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt0491175/plotsummary.
I saw this movie awhile ago, although I was not a big fan of it. There was a specific message that I got from it whether or not this was meant to be seen. In Suburbicon, there is a black family that moved into a all white neighbourhood. Once it is found out, almost everyone in the neighbourhood is complaining and harassing the family. The neighbours next door are having their own issues that dive deeper into murder, creating a story and betraying their family. All while the family next door are killing people and destroying the neighbourhood. Everyone in the neighbourhood is too focused on the new family.
The 13th
The 13th, Ava DuVernay, 2016
This documentary I felt was very powerful. I watched it a bit ago but it taught me a lot of the different types of injustices that African Americans have had to experience over the course of history. This documentary focused on the incarceration rate of African Americans in America and the racism that let this injustice happen. Although, it didn't focus on food it talked about the jim crow laws in restaurants especially in the south.
What Was It Like to Travel While Black During Jim Crow?
African American Artists
Gips, T., 1998. Narratives of African American art and identity: the David C. Driskell collection, San Francisco, CA: Pomegranate.
I find this piece very colourful and inviting. To me, it almost resemble a quilted blanket of different materials sewn again. Reading the description, I come to find out that it is canvas sewn together. Although, it is all hard material being painted then out together, just from looking it looks like quilt being hung up. When thinking of my subject and how this could relate to something I could do. I love the idea of a blanket because it can relate to soul food that they are both comforting. There could be different patches of different foods but sewn together, it is one big dinner.
Lithography
Scale
Bowman, Cynthia. “5 Easy Kitchen Decorating Ideas.” Freshome.com, 16 Mar. 2020, freshome.com/kitchen/5-easy-kitchen-decorating-ideas-wall-decor/.
For my scale project, since it was difficult for me to have the right materials to pull this off. I made a digital version of what I may do if I could make it in real life. I would like for my print that I produced through photoshop to hang as a mural, either at any kitchen or inside a restaurant. Possibly a soul food restaurant, to give a bit of history behind their food. I did not have a bug space like this open near my kitchen, so I found one online that resembles how I would want it portrayed.
Jordan Peele
Get Out & Us, Jordan Peele, 2017 & 2019
These set of images are from the movies Get Out and Us which was both directed by Jordan Peele. In both of his films and his continuous films he speaks about racism in America that affects the African American population. He uses very smart and hidden symbolism within his films to hint at problems within America today. I liked his use of old tv's, they remind of TV's from the 50's in America which is a civil rights era. If possible I would like to create a cooking video but it almost seems creepy (to resemble how creepy the video messages were in the video.). There could be editing to resemble the ones in each movie where I have a cook show yet tell about the history of the food and where it comes from. The host could also be odd and creepy which reminds of me of a popular cooking show host in America. Her name is Paula Deen and she had a southern cook show where she showed her different recipes for soul food. After having her show on for a few years, there was a video revealed of her saying racial slurs. This was shocking especially for having a show that celebrates and shares soul food cooking.
Jordan Peele
Get Out, Jordan Peele, 2017
This is another scene from Get Out, I chose this one due to the food related item in the shot. In this scene, they are all outside drinking sweet tea or tea. Their maid who is black happens to be pouring it for all of them but for one glass, she accidentally spills it and they get upset at her. The interaction in this scene is a bit unsettling because there is something off but you cant put your finger on it. Also in the south, sweet tea is very common and sold a lot. It is usually cold and I have gotten it at fast food places in America before.
Naoki Hayashi
Waycott, Bonnie. “Hawaii-Based Artist Inspired By The Ocean.” Hook and Net Magazine, 19 Sept. 2019, mag.hookandnet.com/2019/09/14/2019-09gyotaku2/pugpig_index.html.
From the artist references we are given by tutors, I choose this one as one of my choices because of his detail in his prints. This reminds me of the book Roses in the Salad. In both the book and Hayashi's work, they use raw materials to create textured, detailed prints. Naoki Hayashi creates prints using dead fish and octopus's. His method is taking black ink, covering the fish in it than created a release print. After making the print using the fish, he goes on top with paints, and inks to add color and life to the print.
El Lissitzky
El Lissitzky, Costume, Design for the Sportsmen, 1929
These individual drawings, were very interesting because of how they wanted to show off design. The designs remind me of geometry and graphic design combined. The positions of each costume, you can tell that they are doing a different pose like fashion models would do. These kind of remind me of if we looked very far into the future and saw fashion models they may use then.
Archigram
Augustin, and Alizée. “Archigram.” Index Grafik, 12 Oct. 2015, indexgrafik.fr/archigram/.
Archigram - Instant City
These collages, I really were intrigued by because of the mixture of mediums. In this image, it looks as if there is some drawings (most of the black and white) of buildings and structures. Especially the image on the bottom, it is easier to see that is mostly drawings with some images on them. These images are easier to spot out because it is of people. In the image on top, it is harder to tell which ones could me drawings and which one are images. It kind of blends together to create a neutral atmosphere. Although, there is not much color, I like the color gradients they did of lighter overall colors with some darker tones in the back. The blending of colors with images gives a comic book feel.
American Printmaking
Watrous, James. American Printmaking: a Century of American Printmaking: 1880-1980. University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
The overlapping of prints gives the audience, a more vivid story of what the artist is trying to convey. To me, it looks as if each print was drawn then created into an individual print. After he collected all the prints we wanted to use for one collage, he can experiment with how we wants to have it. The colors compliment each other and one color doesn't take away from the image or distract it. Using collage with prints, could create a interesting narrative.
Printmaking Techniques
Practical Printmaking. David & Charles, 1983.
I would like to experiment with the lithography because the roller pin, I believe makes it possible to mix paints while printing or able to add multiple colors in one print.
American Printmaking
Watrous, James. American Printmaking: a Century of American Printmaking: 1880-1980. University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
American Printmaking
Watrous, James. American Printmaking: a Century of American Printmaking: 1880-1980. University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
Experimentation with Scanning
Archigram
Augustin, and Alizée. “Archigram.” Index Grafik, 12 Oct. 2015, indexgrafik.fr/archigram/.
Archigram - Instant City
This is another Archigram, Instant City I like. The bright but cohesive colors brings your eyes to the back of them image. The mixture of pictures and drawings make it more eye catching. The image to me looks on one half a regular american suburb neighbourhood while on the other side of the highway, there looks almost to be a circus with balloons rising in the sky and lights from the show flashing all around.
African American Artists
Gips, T., 1998. Narratives of African American art and identity: the David C. Driskell collection, San Francisco, CA: Pomegranate.
John Muafangejo
"John Muafangejo was considered the most important visual artist of his country. His linocuts are powerful depictions of people and events, expressed in black and white imagery, condensing the colourful landscapes and animal images of Namibia's artists of European origin. He often combines text with images, and his images contain references to the history and culture of the ovaKwanyama. He did not live to see the independence of Namibia, but the violent struggle for it formed the background for his art."
"Muafangejo came from the people of Kwanyama (Kuanjama), who inhabit the northern parts of Ovamboland. As a child, he tended cattle barefoot."
"At twenty Muafangejo moved to the Holy Cross School of Mission in Onamunhama, then to the St Mary's School in Odibo. He stayed there until 1967. An American missionary named C. S. Mallory supported his artistic talent and helped him with the application to the Arts and Craft Centre of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rorke's Drift, Natal in South Africa."
I enjoyed Muafangejo work because of the history, meaning and personal relations to his work. This makes it special to that person and gets a way for audiences to learn about his life and culture.
“John Muafangejo.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Apr. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muafangejo.
Editing Image
Experimenting with Scanning
Instagram: @lsdworldpeace
I used this piece as my first real inspiration for the upcoming part 3. This artist who I follow on instagram, explores un-talked about topics and pushing the boundaries for what you should say with you art. This specific piece was used because I liked the idea of exploring and experimenting with collage/photography and drawing. There is so much hidden meaning where the audience has to put all the pieces together.
Pinchin, Karen. “How Slaves Shaped American Cooking.” How Slavery and African Food Traditions Shaped American Cooking, 1 Mar. 2014, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/3/140301-african-american-food-history-slavery-south-cuisine-chefs/.
African American Artists
This piece is intriguing to look at because the more you look in detail, you can find little faces in the house or people in the background. After reading the description and to see how personal this piece is to the artists heritage and culture, it makes it more interesting to look more into the details like why he used certain colors and where is his inspiration in his life coming from.
Aaron Douglas
Charleston, Aaron Douglas , 1928
This piece is big reference and inspiration to the shadow project. Although there is not a detail on the peoples faces, you can see only their body positions. Even with limited expression, we are able to get a story of out this piece. This resembles to me, a large gathering of people playing music, dancing, and singing. The overlapping of people and patterns make the piece more interesting to look at people, you can find every person doing something different adding to the scene. This inspired me because for my project, I thought of having a scene similar to this but instead of a party with instruments, it will be a big dinner scene of people sharing and enjoying food. This will create a sense of community as well as this piece does.
Naoki Hayashi
To live and dine in Dixie : the evolution of urban food culture in the Jim Crow South / Angela Jill Cooley.
Tim Noble and Sue Webster
Dirty White Trash, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, 1998
Looking at the shadow presentation and the different references given. This piece was really intriguing because the materials they are using look rough to work with which is why I'm so curious how the shadows turned out so smooth and really look human! The source of materials which seem to be mostly feathers, give into the final image of the bird on top of his head which tells a story. This was very clever to me. I would be curious to see this in person, just to see what other material is used all around, this could help me to understand how detailed they made the shadows.
Song Dong
Song Dong, Waste Not
If I could go to any exhibition, it would definitely be Waste Not, by Song Dong because of the detail of each item and I would want to see the different variations of the same things he kept. Im curious on which types of things did he keep like more sentimental objects or survival objects. The differences between similar objects (why did he keep both?).
American Printmaking
Watrous, James. American Printmaking: a Century of American Printmaking: 1880-1980. University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
I wanted to learn about different types/methods of printmaking. While looking through a history of printmaking book (specified American printmaking). Imagery of any nature scenery, comforts me and makes me long to be there. When I saw these, I felt relaxation from the images on the beach. I was impressed by that this is done by printmaking which I always thought it was more difficult to show extreme detail in printmaking. For example; the clouds are given a light gray gradient but I am unsure how to get this effect while printmaking. Another example, is in the 3rd print, there are tiny animals on the hill, I am unsure how this can be done with printmaking due to its extreme detail.
Christian Boitanski
Theatre of Shadows, Christian Boitanski, 1985
Theatre of Shadows, reminds me a bit of cartoons I would watch when I was younger. The figures look almost childish to me, looking like a cartoon when creating a shadow on the wall. It would be interesting to see this in real life, to see the difference between the actual figures made and how big their shadows can get.
Jordan Peele
Get Out, Jordan Peele, 2017
This is another shot from Get Out, which I found relevant because of the mention of tea. In this sense, the tea is being worked against the main character. When she taps the spoon on the cup, he goes into a state of unconscious except that she can still see her yet he cannot move his body.
Alexander Rodchenko
Alexander Rodchenko, Costume, 1929
I found this reference given to us by the tutors, very relevant to what is happening today. When this was originally made, it could be in reference to the influenza pandemic when it was common to get influenza and pneumonia together. In 2020, this could be used for the Coronavirus Pandemic. Since its very contagious throughout big groups of people which is why one of these costumes (especially the second one) could good in use for not spreading and protecting yourself from Coronavirus.
Experimenting with Scanning
Dinner Table
Fison, Lizzie. “No-To-Scale Imagines Donald Trump's US-Mexico Wall as a 1,954-Mile-Long Dinner Table.” Dezeen, 25 Apr. 2017, www.dezeen.com/2017/03/21/no-to-scale-donald-trump-wall-us-mexico-border-1954-mile-long-dinner-table/.
Not to Scale, Trumps wall as a 1954 mile dinner table (proposal)
I thought this reference went very well with my theme of soul food. Soul food is comfort food and shared for many families especially within African American families. This mile long dinner, gives a feeling of community; people coming together and sharing food.
African American Artists
Gips, T., 1998. Narratives of African American art and identity: the David C. Driskell collection, San Francisco, CA: Pomegranate.
Experimenting with Scanning
Tomatoes
Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky, Hayward Gallery
These pieces stood out for because it is very satisfying to me when things are colored coordinated and organised. In the grocery store, it reminds me a bit of when I lived in America when I was younger (especially in the US), the candy aisle is huge and there are so many different types. Its all organised in the aisles and the packaging is colorful. The first image is bit nostalgic to me. The second image, is busy and chaotic. This looks like a stock market room or a busy company because of the blueness of the photograph, you can see that everyone is in a rush.
Christiane Baumgartner
Christiane Baumgartner; Brugge I & II, Solaris I
When researching about different types of printmaking, I was very intrigued to try photographic printmaking. The two images above are prints, I love the outcome of black and white images being turned into prints because it could be seen that maybe someone could have done a cut out. I would like to try to do my own photographic printmaking with my own photographs.
JR
JR, Woman are Heroes
These posters are very eye catching and powerful. There is a very high definition of a close up of someones expression on a big poster which I think brings a lot of attention to it. The style of photograph is simple yet shows women being themselves.
American Printmaking
Watrous, James. American Printmaking: a Century of American Printmaking: 1880-1980. University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
I am unsure if this is a regular practised printmaking technique but I think its a good way to create a collage. There are several glide sliders stacked behind the first so that when you look at them all at once, it creates a full image. This seems like a good way to experiment with composition when making a collage, it would be easier to see and change places of different images to see which looked better all together.
Theatre of Shadows
American Printmaking
Watrous, James. American Printmaking: a Century of American Printmaking: 1880-1980. University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
This print looks to me as an illustration. Can there be a cross over between the two? It looks like an illustration to me because it is a bit extracted features on the man; like the amount of wrinkles or the size of his feet. The style reminds me a bit of what you could see in cartoons or comics. I would like to experiment perhaps and make a linocut of a cartoon or cartoon character I draw. There is a lot of detail in this print, So i would like to try more details when making prints and push myself.
Environmental Communication Graphics
Environmental Communication Graphics. P.I.E, 2004.
Archigram
Victoria, and Albert Museum. “Archigram: The Walking City, Living Pod and the Instant City.” Archigram: The Walking City, Living Pod and the Instant City, Victoria and Albert Museum
Archigram, Instant City
This piece to me is really intriguing to me because it reminds me of the opening of a video game or the back of a board game. The white block on the side is where the rules or summary of the game and then the collage on the side is where they could show characters, location and plot. This is another collage I like due to the graphic looking designs mixed with the old style film photograph. It created for an interesting effect.
African American Artists
Gips, T., 1998. Narratives of African American art and identity: the David C. Driskell collection, San Francisco, CA: Pomegranate.
This piece I chose because of the imagery and narrative this print has. It is suppose to be representing the spirituality of the African American community. The detail shows this like the halo glowing around the mans head and the torch that is guiding the group. This is a print, which inspires me to try to add more detail to my prints to experiment instead of staying safe and keeping it simple.
Archigram
Augustin, and Alizée. “Archigram.” Index Grafik, 12 Oct. 2015, indexgrafik.fr/archigram/.
Archigram, Instant City
Most of the Archigram pieces incorporate a lot of typography and graphic design. When I hear Instant City, I think of perhaps a Utopian city in the future. This piece looks like a map of that city. The mixed mediums of images along with digital work makes the map more interactive and interesting to look at. For example, if someone is following a map and see the picture of a main building, they will be able to identify where they are easier.
Bruno Munari
Bruno Munari, Roses in the Salad
I wanted to check out this book looking into more detail of the different materials he used for screen printing. The use of raw materials such as plants, flowers, vegetables, fruits, leaves, sticks, and other items that are natural as a way to create a release print. Using these materials can create textured and detailed prints. It would be also interesting to test out which shapes are the outcome of which material. For example, how many different shapes could you create from a various number of types of flowers. It would also be interesting to cut up different fruits and vegetables to see the different types of patterns you can get by the way you cut it.
John Muafangejo
John Muafangejo prints have a narrative of history behind it. The history of his own life and his culture, and the history of Namibia. He includes text in his prints which helps the audience understand more of the background context. His prints are very fun to look at, like how each leaf has a pattern on it. There is also a narrative behind each print even without the text, there is a story being told.
Experimenting with Scanning
I had an idea where I thought the scanning of foods could create some interesting pictures. For some of the scans, I left the food alone and let it just scan. It was harder to see these foods because I could not keep the top of the scanner down to me squishing the food. I decided i wanted to experiment more with the same foods. Each tomato was cut in half which was my first experimentation. At first, I left the half cut tomatoes in the plastic bag when i was scanning them. The plastic didnt give me the effect I wanted, I wanted more like someone scanned directly just the fruit with no barrier. I decided just to put them on the scanner to scan them anyway without the plastic. This gave off more the effect I wanted, just flat 2D real life picture of the tomato. To experiment more, I then squished the tomatoes in the bag and layer it flat on the printer. I left it in the plastic bag because I didnt want there to be runny tomatoes on my printer. After seeing how much plastic affects the image, I would like to try to scan without any plastic and get the more 2D effect I want.
Photographic Printmaking
Photographic Printmaking
Sacilotto, Deli. Photographic Printmaking Techniques. Watson-Guptill, 1982.
Photographic printmaking, I really would like to try because it would combine two interests of mine. Although the example given is of a drawing instead of an actual photograph but I imagine it is a similar process. It would be interesting to do this with a drawing as well, if you wanted to create several exact same copies. I would like to see how the photograph prints and if it will look more graphic or like a drawing.
Islington Arts Factory - Full English
insta: @rufie_rufe
This reference was suggested from a tutor and I found this woman's work very fun and interactive. She took her comfort food (which stems from where you grew up) and made it so , it could physically comfort her. This could be a set of pillows to cover your bed which can comfort you as well. If possible, this could work along with my project as well. Soul food is known as comfort food especially for African American families. This could be taken and done with southern food as well like a pillow that looks like a biscuit or tiny pillows that are okra or black eyed peas. There are a lot of different ways to approach each food and how I could make it to physically comfort the person as well. It could also maybe be made into clothing that comforts you.
African American Artists
Gips, T., 1998. Narratives of African American art and identity: the David C. Driskell collection, San Francisco, CA: Pomegranate.
This painting is very beautiful because the use of colors and environment tells the audience of where this could be and where the artist drawn his inspiration. I have used oil paint in the past and really enjoyed the process, it feels as you have control of what you are gonna make unlike sometimes with acrylic where is drys very fast and hard to manipulate after drying. In this painting especially, the texture of the paint strokes is more prominent create a natural environment.
African American Artists
Gips, T., 1998. Narratives of African American art and identity: the David C. Driskell collection, San Francisco, CA: Pomegranate.
The colors overlapping remind me of prints being printed over another for a specific effect. There are also paintings on top of each other that could be stories on top of stories. Reading the background of the piece shows that this was a collaboration of black artists making a painting as contribution to the civil rights movement. This could be each artists story painted on one canvas to represent their movement.
Its not just African American History, its American History
Mcdonalds in Vibemagazine Vol. 5, No. 1, Feb 1997⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Segregation in America
All That's Interesting. “33 Photos Of Segregation That Show A Country Divided By Race.” All That's Interesting, All That's Interesting, 6 Feb. 2019, allthatsinteresting.com/segregation-in-america-photos#1.
A white woman hurriedly bars the way as African-American people were about to enter the lunch counter of this downtown department store in Memphis to protest the segregation policy of the establishment. 1961.
Wayang Nulit
Javanese Shadow Puppet, Wayung Nulit
These set of puppets look very delicate although they are being used but I wonder what type of material and how they set up each puppet. Some of the puppet is used as a shadow which could represent night time perhaps. If the puppet is purposely used for a shadow then I think they should show off the delicate design of each puppet.
American Printmaking
Watrous, James. American Printmaking: a Century of American Printmaking: 1880-1980. University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
Printmaking Techniques
Practical Printmaking. David & Charles, 1983.
Jordan Peele
Get Out, Jordan Peele, 2017
African American Artists
Gips, T., 1998. Narratives of African American art and identity: the David C. Driskell collection, San Francisco, CA: Pomegranate.
Collage Experimentation
I scanned some images of prints that I liked and experimented with them on photoshop. I layered them in a mostly simple way because I wanted to create a rectangle with no pieces hanging. After layering them, I experimented with the editing on photoshop to see what kind of effects I could create.