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My practice this year was kicked off by my visual culture essay research looking at Art Therapy tasks. I was in isolation at the time so it was difficult to source materials to do much in the way of sculpture. So, I asked friends and family to take part in the exercise and “draw yourself picking an apple from a tree”. According to the books and articles I read there is a grading scale in which these images can be analysed that can tell the therapist about the artists self reflections on their ability to attain a goal. With this exercise I liked that I was getting people to engage in art and drawing that never would have if it wasn’t for me asking them to. I found that everyones response was to either laugh at their childish attempt or found drawing enjoyable. I like that this in itself engaged people in a theraputic process with art wether that made them laugh or relax for sometime. This wasn’t my intention, my intentions were based off pure curiosity to see if this actually worked and if I could analyse things from the images that people created. Obviously, i’m not a trained therapist so I couldn’t make much understanding of all the analysis technique.
A short time after, the Torys voted against the extension of free school meals. Something which I relied on when I was at school, this was a decision that would effect children in the same, if not worse position than what I was in. To be honest, it hit a nerve with me so I decided to make use of that. I saw Marcus Rashford MBE was trending on twitter with a post in relation to this vote. It equated child food poverty to becoming a worse pandemic than Covid-19. We are being bombarded by everything and anything covid related so for me, it put the problem into perspective. I found his post to be very strong and compelling, it was almost poetic like some sort of dramatic reading. Twitter is a great platform to reach a wide audience, although the words just felt to formal to be there. So I put them on a bowl instead.
I thought they looked quite good on a bowl. It felt fitting to use an object connected with the topic in which he discusses. The bowl is full of words, thoughts, letters, energy as it spirals towards the centre however it remains empty. The bowl is old and used but retains a delicate blue rim with gold painted emblem on it. To match and coincidentally, colour of the tory party, blue was the colour of the text. (PMC4) I like that this work requires the viewer to encounter a bowl differently. The text requires the viewer to circle the bowl or turn the bowl with your hands, or turn your head every way in attempt to read the text – it asks something different of the viewer. I like it as an individual object as I think a full dinner set with text could be overwhelming. I found putting it on a plinth allowed the viewer to move around freely to read the text – however this is quite. typical method of displaying work. (This needs more thought)
From this bowl I would like to make others. These will have less writing on them and I intend to use them. This means I would need to use something other than acrylic paint for the text as this just wipes off. This is good for experimenting but not for eating out of. I would like to organise a small event which will be the art work.
I have found it difficult with the current covid situation to go and volunteer at a food bank. I wanted to do be in the enviroment and company of people who receive the support from places such as food banks.
The next best thing I could think of was to donate and to bring other people in on it where I can. The area I work in is full of expensive houses and people with good well paying jobs, its unlikely they use food banks. In a way, they are all unintentionally taking part in my artisic process. I hope by doing this I will provide the children with a new perspective on the community that they live in.
The children will pack and decorate boxes which will be donated to my local food bank in time for Christmas. Pictures to follow –
I put 8 sheets of gelataine in a pan of water and red food colouring assuming they would go quite hard. This wasn’t the case, they were still very soft. it was hard to get them out of the silicone mould without damaging them so I put them in the freezer. when I took them out, they started to melt causing this red river coming from them. as the ice thawed a strange texture was created on the apple on the right. however they look more like beetroots now than apples.. don’t think gelatine is the right material..
image above taken 26/11/2020 how the material has changed