26/11/17 (Sunday) Amusement Parks - Fruit Machine

Seeing as I am using my project on children and their experiences, I decided to go to an amusement park as a part of my experience. I went to Winter Wonderland in hopes of gaining inspiration. Upon arrival I decided to take pictures of the rides, paying close attention to the shapes. For example, on a rollercoaster ride I would focus on the twists and turns of the tracks as well as the negative spaces between the tracks. I did some observational drawing of various rides as well, putting emphasis on the mark making and trying to express what I was seeing on the page.

What I loved most about this experience is that it reminded me a lot about my childhood. I feel that this helps the project because now I can introduce themes such as nostalgia. My favourite part of the images were the ferris wheels. When ever they moved round, their colours would change. I also really liked the circular shapes, especially when repeated in a series of images.

25/11/17 (Saturday) - Fruit Machine

I had a look at the new project brief today. This project is called Fruit Machine and it is a research based project. Yesterday we were all given 1 image and a quote at random. This is our starting point from which we are supposed to evolve to create our own project. The open nature of this project scared me at first, but then I decided to step back and take a look at how I have previously approached research and how I have developed outcomes for my other projects. I need to start with research (primary and secondary research), which includes observational drawing and sampling. I then need to develop my research into 3D and design developments using photography and other forms of media. Because I am creating my own project, I need to try and stick with the context, which in this case is my images, quote and 1 experience which links to the two. 

My image was of a painting by the British artist who lived in the 1700s named Gainsborough. I had never heard of him before. Upon doing some research I found out that the painting was of his two daughters, Mary and Margaret. I feel that this might be rather challenging for me to work with because I am not a fan of these types of ancient paintings. However, it is a beautiful piece and I will try to find a way to link it to my quote, which is: 

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience."

 This was said by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Idealist philosopher. Unlike the painting, I really like the quote. It reminds me of faith and gives me ideas about linking children with faith and spirituality. Most religions believe that children are of a pure nature and that they have no sins. I would like to explore this idea further by trying to make my chosen experience child related. 

 

23/11/17 (Thursday) - Culture Swap

It was crit today. We were told to go and have a look around other people's work and leave post-it notes next of their work, giving them supportive messages and constructive criticism. When I was looking around the people's work I realised just how different everybody's style of working is. It made me realise the things I was doing wrong and the things I was doing well in. Looking at other student's work also made me think of things I could work on and learn from. I was really inspired by one student in particular. The student used her samples in such a creative way by drawing inspiration from the Tactile structures project, a project we has previously done. She tried to get her samples to fit the environment which in this case was the human body. I loved how she made her miniature samples fit the human body depending on the angle she took the photograph. I was also inspired by another students work who collected lots of plastic cans as well as ramen noodles packaging and crisp wrappers. She made a print using all of these found materials in the area she was given to explore. It was really refreshing seeing how people did this project. I feel like what I need to focus on now is learning how showcase the development of my work in my sketchbook more thoroughly. I want to be able to show my ideas more clearly. Regarding my own samples, I was told that the circular cutouts that I stitched had a lot of potential and that I needed to focus on developing these. I hope to be able to push myself further for the projects to come.

22/11/17 (Wednesday) - Culture Swap

Today I wanted to create six samples based on my research that I did in Brixton as well as the six images given to me by my partner. Also, I wanted to only use three colours seeing as the project was all about restrictions. I decided on black yellow and red. These colours were inspired by the buildings I saw during my time in Brixton. I started off by cutting out numerous circles on a plain yellow sheet of paper and then proceeding to stitch into those circles. This was my attempt at replicating the patterns on a plant holder I saw in the Brixton market. It had beautifully carved out wooden circles. I really like the overall look of my sample and decided to use the cut out circles pieces for a new sample. I stuck all the circles together and combined them with black and red ones. I thought this look a little too plain and decided that to use an image given to me by my partner. I used the image of the of the gangster boys from the movie called 'Young and dangerous'. They were four young men wearing black leather jackets standing side-by-side. This went well with the aesthetic I was aiming for. I decided to use acetate by placing it on the image and tracing out their silhouettes and colouring in their hair and leather jackets. I also cut out their shapes on the acetate and placed it onto my circular sample. I loved the way this turned out. It reminded me of a music videos and disco balls. The link to music is good because when I went to Brixton, went to the Black Sound exhibition which showcased music created and produced by Black people.

I wanted to take this step further by introducing paper manipulation techniques. I decided cut my coloured papers into strips and proceeded to weave them together. I combined colours such as red and yellow as well as black. I really liked the way this was beginning to turn out. I made a sample using the picture of the men from 'Young and dangerous' in combination with both the weaving and acetate mark making.

Having completed about five samples, I decided to take a step back and have a look at all of my samples together incase I needed to make minor changes or adjustments. To my horror, I realised that my colour combination was a mistake. Red and yellow together in November just looked too festive. I was afraid it would make people think of christmas rather than all the things I was researching about. Due to this revelation, I decided to completely abandon the colour red and starred a new collection using the colours blue, black and yellow. I decided to switch red with blue because blue was another prominent colour used in a lot of graffiti in Brixton. Fortunately, the most time-consuming samples were made using my yellow sheets so I was able to include them in this new collection. I decided to replicate my weaving technique using blue and yellow instead of red and yellow. To my surprise, this colour change worked well. I also decided to reintroduce the idea I was working on yesterday, which was using one of Silas Yong's images to create a print focusing on people's clothing. I also decided to create some prints using mark making inspired by the textures around Brixton. I cut up the prints and attached then together again, giving the illusion of scrunched up fabric. This was really successful so I decided to repeat the prints and leave them flat to show contrast. Although I had to restart my whole sample collection, I feel that the second time round was a far more successful process than the first time. This is because I was able to learn from my previous mistake in terms of my colour palette and was forced to generate new ideas by thinking outside the box.

21/11/17 (Tuesday) - Culture Swap

Carrying on from yesterday, we were given the task of creating samples within our sketchbooks. The samples had to be inspired by our research from our assigned areas that we had to go out and explore, as well as the images given to us by our partners. First we were asked to create 4 collaged samples using our research Brixton. The restriction for this project is that we could only use paper for our samples. This was actually rather difficult because I saw a huge amount of different textures on the walls of the buildings in Brixton and it was rather difficult to try and show this using only paper. I tries to use mark making to show the textures. Having created these samples, we needed to create more by taking 2 aspects of the collages that worked well in our previous samples. At first I decided to focus on the combination of mark making to show texture but the tutor having seen my other samples though that the one I did by using acetate over one of Silas Yongs' images and working into it with markers was the most successful. However, I was told to be careful of over decorating my samples, which is something that I tend to do. In order to solve this issue, I decided to limit my colour palette and select just 3 main colours to work with for the rest of the project. I was torn between red, yellow and black or red yellow and brown. These colours were inspired by the buildings I saw around Brixton, which all had a burgundy tone. My classmates told me that black was a better contrast as opposed to brown. I decided to try these out by combining the images from my partner. 

I used an image called Upon the escalator, taken in 2009. It was actually a dual channel digital video made by Silas Fong, showing random individuals going up and down the escalators. I love it because it should people's day to day movements. I cut out the people and stuck them on a shimmery gold card and left the main image so that it was just a white space where the people originally were. I was really pleased by the result and the tutor encourages me to make samples of similar sort. I hope to explore more paper manipulation techniques tomorrow to use for my final samples.

20/11/17 (Monday) - Culture Swap

The actual swap happened today; I received 6 images from my partner and gave her my own 6 images. However, seeing as my partner was late, I also sent her a written message regarding the significance of those messages. 

Message to my Partner:

1. The Image with the girl praying represents my religion (Islam) and the fact that I wear the head scarf/turban plays a huge role in my identity. It is also the Arabian aspect of my roots.
2. The picture of the men on horses ties in with the Arabian and African culture of northern Nigeria. It is a horse parade called Durba and it is done during Eid (like an Islamic Christmas). It’s special to me because I grew up watching it and going to the Emir’s palace to celebrate.
3. The books on the shelves are to do with my family’s love for education. My grandmother was the first female in our family to get a full education in a time when education for girls was looked down upon. 
4. The African Fabrics - every time I go home I were African fabrics. It’s just really natural and comfortable for me and one of the things I miss from home. 
5. The Yellow buses on the crowded street show a day in the streets of Lagos city. It feels nostalgic for me because it’s my parents’ home city and I used to spend a lot of time there as a kid. The people bring the atmosphere alive and it’s just full of energy. It also represents the struggle of living in a third world country and how people try to make a living. 
6. The two sculptures by artist Yinka Shonibare represent both the British and Nigerian culture highlighting colonisation. I love shonibare’s work because I feel that being born in London and then growing up in Nigeria only to come back here for school combines both the cultures for me. Both places feel like home.  
 
Before my partner arrived I got to interact and saw images with another group. I was really surprised by how they had done it and how they interpreted their research tasks. A girl from the other team created her own images and did not just get images from online. I thought this was really good because she too real objects that had to do with her childhood and photographed them, thinking about their forms and composition. This was such a different was of going about the project. It inspired me to also start thinking out of the box.
 
My partner arrived and explained her images to me; she told me about how she does not feel very connected to her culture, traditions or religion and that instead, she connected more with the media culture in Hong Kong. She watches a lot of Tv series and movies made in Hong Kong. Her favourites, which were included in her six images were 'He's a woman she's a man' 1994 and it's sequel 'Who's the woman, who's the man?' 1996. This is a Hong Kong romantic comedy film directed by Peter Chan and starring Jordan Chan, Theresa Lee, Eric Tsang and Anita Yuen. In the movie, the protagonist is a girl who pretends to be a boy in order to make it in the music industry. The girl auditions, gets signed and falls for the producer all while pretending to be a boy. The producer on the other hands gets really confused because he finds himself becoming attracted to her (not knowing that she is a girl). 
The other images my partner gave me included a poster of the famous american tv shows 'Gossip Girl' and 'Hannah Montana'. I as given an image of Goldfish in bags in the Hong Kong street market and a couple of images of pictures taken by the photographer Silas Fong. Lastly I was given a final image to do with a movie that came out in 1996 about a group of gangsters called 'Young and Dangerous'.

16/11/17 (Thursday) - Culture Swap

As the first day of us being in our specialist area, we were put into teams of twos and given an area of London to explore. I was glad to be paired with a girl from Tseung kwan O, Hong Kong. Her culture would be really different from my African heritage. I appreciated the randomness of the pairing because although sometimes working with a partner is difficult, I find that being able to learn from someone and see things through their perspective actually enhances my work. The Asian and African cultures are poles apart, this way I am bound to discover aspects of my partner's life and heritage that are unique and different form what I am already used to. We were given Brixton as pour area that we needed to explore. We began doing some secondary research on our way there and found out that the area is known for its drug and gang culture. We were rather worried at first, because none of us had ever been to Brixton, but upon arriving there we were met with colourful posters, the smell of food and a flurry of people walking along the sidewalks. Brixton had a mix of many cultures but I noted that majority of the people we saw were either of African or Jamaican decent, especially in the market. 

We went to the Black cultural archives in hopes of attaining new information regarding the area and its history. I was really happy that this museum was in brixton as I have a keen interest regarding African history. At the moment there is an exhibition called Black Sound where one could listen to famous black artists sing certain songs from their albums. It was a celebration of Black Sound, giving us the history of how this type of music began as well as the links between Jamaica, West Africa and Britain. There were record players and video tapes, both of which I hadn't seen in a long time. There were also numerous pictures and posters on the wall, showcasing the memorable moments in Black music history as well as the celebrities who had a great impact on our culture at the time: 

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 We also visited the library on the higher floor and explored the selection of books. In a book called 'Black Africa' I found an image of  some women of Freetown, Sierra Leone, buying clothes in a city market. The cloth itself was imported from Europe but worn in traditional styles. I was so surprised because the cloth is Ankara material. This is associated with Africa and as a Nigerian I grew up with people all around me wearing it. I thought since it was such an 'African' thing, it was probably made in Africa. However, I found out that Ankara fabrics are mainly made in Europe, Holland mainly. To me, this made a point of cultures being interdependent. All around the brixton market these fabrics were being sold. I love how vibrant they are. Most of them had really saturated blue, yellow and red on them. Some were being sold as ready made skirts and blouses. The atmosphere around the Brixton market was very lively. Music was being played everywhere in addition to the sounds of people's bargains. I was able to record the sounds of the Brixton market in order to remember it. 

My partner and I also noticed that the buildings in Brixton mostly had some sort of art or graffiti on them. We thought this related back to the area's notoriousness. Several gangs are headquartered in the Brixton area. The graffiti also carried messages sometimes. There was one of a child writing on the wall; 'Money can't buy love, but it can buy sweets. I like sweets'. Others had more unrestrained content. Nonetheless I really loved the rough textures of the walls of the buildings. I feel that I will be able to draw inspirations from the buildings for my prints. 

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27/11/17 (Monday) - Fruit Machine

Since this whole project is about chance, we were told to think about a game of chance such as snakes and ladders, monopoly, musical chairs and many more. This was perfect for me because it sort of links in with the idea of childhood and playing boardgames as a child. I really liked the idea of playing musical chairs as it bright back so many good memories for me. I feel that for this project I could play around with the theme of nostalgia. Since we were doing a weave workshop today, I could relate it to how nostalgia is like a web of emotions in the corner of our minds that creep up on us from time to time.

For the actual workshop we needed to come up with a game. We were put into a team of 6-8 and were given a loom to work with. Since we were eight people, we were told to create more than one fabric. We decided to have a small group meeting to decide on how to go about it, everyone giving some input. 

Teammate's Notes:

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28/11/17 (Tuesday) - Fruit Machine

The focus today was PRINT. We went on location to Tate Modern and saw a variety of different artworks on display. Seeing as the focus was to find as much inspiration and draw as much as possible to be able to extract the information for our prints, I decided to emphasise the recording as much Mark I could get within my sketchbooks. Through these drawings we’d be able to prints for our fruit machine project. At the gallery I was able to draw numerous images, however I felt that they did not correlate with what I was looking into prior to this exercise. I focused on tone, structure as well as on texture and scale, but none of it truly related to what I was going for regarding this project. I want the focus of this project to be around the cycle of life and the celebration of life itself. I want it to be about childhood and cherished memories as well as feelings such as nostalgia. I aim for this project to be playful and light-hearted as well as memorable.

Having finished our sketches be returned to archway to draw out our prints and record or select any mark making within our sketchbooks. These were to be drawn onto pieces of A3 paper and turned into massive prints. I was really happy we were exploring scale. I think I’d like my final outcome to be wallpaper. Perhaps wallpaper for a children’s nursery. This means that my print needs to be fun and bold.

After drawing our marks and shapes onto the A3 paper, we were instructed to cut them into 3 sections, turn one over and then reconnect them again. I was very when the tutor asked us to do this because I have never done it before. It completely changed the design and it was so unexpected. It actually looked like a print that could go on a fabric.

Although my first seemed good, the print was not nearly as successful as my second one. For the first one I made the drawing way too cluttered and it just had too much happening. It also did not really correlate with my project. For the second one however I used light colours and focused on the shapes of the track from the roller coasters I was looking at on Sunday. I used inspiration form my first research task in winter wonderland as this related more to my project. I was able to create an nice print through this modification.

01/12/17 (Friday) - Fruit Machine

I decided to go to the Kings cross Library to do some further research and project development. I wanted to develop my weaves further by linking them more to my research. I found out that I could make ringed circles and weave around them so that the sample looked like a fabric with holes in it. I really like this idea. However, I feel that I could perhaps look for other materials to weave with instead of string. Nonetheless also it was a bit challenging to achieve, I was able to make a couple of samples in this design.

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 I also found out about the 7 stages of life as believed by the islamic faith;

1. Life in Lau Ho Mahfouz: The place God Kept our souls before we were born.

2. Life in the Mother's Womb.

3. Life in this word: When a baby is born, it is clean, innocent and free of all sins. This reminds me of the portrait painting of Gainsborough's daughters Mary and Margaret. Both have an innocent look and the tender feel of the portrait reminds me of childhood innocence. In this world, children develop, learn and grow into good or bad individuals depending on their upbringing and surroundings. All this is a part of the human experience. This 3rd life stage is a very crucial and important testing ground for human beings.

4. Death: After we die, we are kept in a place called Alam Barzaak. Here, we await our judgement. 

5. Resurrection On The Day Of Judgement.

6. The End Stage - Hell

7. The End Stage - Heaven

This reminded me of how life is a cycle and I started looking into reincarnation. This is the belief that after we die, our souls are born again in another body. It is like a continuous cycle of experiences that accumulate. A never ending cycle of memories. Apparently, not everyone remembers their past life and only a few do. Having watched a few videos of stories of people who claim to have been reincarnated, I noticed a pattern. Most of the people who remember their past life remember it when they were kids. The older they grow, the more they forget about their past life. This made me think more about my ideas of children being more linked to the spiritual aspects of life. 

05/12/17 (Tuesday) - Fruit Machine

IMG_0747.jpg.1Introduction to lino printing

06/12/17 (Wednesday) - Fruit Machine

I decided to take the tutor's advice and go in a completely new direction. From now on this project will be print based. No more weave. I feel that the weaving really cluttered my sketchbook and made no sense what so ever. The first thing I did on this self directed study day is go through my sketchbook and look for some interesting looking marks to base my print off of, similar to how we did last week. 

I found some really beautiful circular shapes inspired by the ferris wheels I took pictures of. I decided to stick to the colours peach, yellow and blue seeing as they were the most prominent colours in my sketchbook. I drew my designs onto an A3 piece of paper and tried various other samples on A4. To further develop the prints, I made them semi 3D by cutting into the shapes and making holes to put strings of paper through to give an impressing of it being an interactive wallpaper. I was really inspired by my research on interactive walls in children's hospitals. 

Overall I am extremely happy with the way the print turned out. I tried out different versions and even cut it up into 3 pieces, flipped them and tried many compositions but in the end I loved the original far more than the others. The only thing I would do differently regarding this print is to make it a much larder scale.

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LINO PRINT

For the Lino-print, I decided to copy the original print design on my printer and then proceeded to cut it up into small pieces and attach it back together again till I was happy with the composition. I really like the way it turned out. It reminded me of camouflage. The only issue I have with it is that my colour palette is off. It does not look like it is part of the same project as the blue print above. I made a mistake with the colour scheme. However, I really like this camouflage print and feel that I have leaned something new. I do not regret doing the lion-print. However, next time I need to pay close attention to the colours and stick to a specific colour scheme so that the project has a flow.

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07/12/17 (Thursday) - Fruit Machine

Crit Feedback:

- The colours look lovely and the lino prints worked out really well.

- The final outcomes look like samples, develop them more.

- Do more work on a larger scale, everything is rather small. "We'd like to see your prints as an actual wallpaper or even as a stand along large-scale piece of art".

- Try to annotate your sketchbook more so that your ideas flow better.

Plan Of Action For Next Project And Project Tutorial:

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19/12/17 - Colour In Your Environment

As the first official day for the colour project, I decided make a plan and schedule. Seeing as I am in Nigeria, I feel that I need to pick and choose what aspects of the culture to use in my project because I tend to sometimes over-do things. My Initial idea is that I want to do something that involves the ancient area culture. Arewa refers to Northern Nigeria. This part of the country has a lot of islamic and Arabian influence as opposed to southern Nigeria which has more of a western influence due to colonisation. 

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21/12/17 - Colour In Your Environment

I arrived in Abuja today. Abuja is the capital of Nigeria and was created within the past 20 years. It is a new city unlike my home city kano state. I would love to show the contrast of the new vs the old and see whether the culture has changed. Abuja is in the centre of Nigeria so it is neutral, however it is still considered to be part of arewa (north Nigeria). 

I went to a guest house called Ozidu House which was said to have lots of African artworks made by Nigerian artists. Here, I was introduced to artists such as William Chechet and Polly Alakija. I love Polly Alakija's work because although she wasn't born a Nigerian (she married a Nigerian), she really depicts the culture in her work.

“Besides running her thriving studio practice, Polly has invested in teaching creative courses to children and adults throughout her career. Her community art projects in South Africa, Ghana, as well as in northern Nigeria, Ibadan and Lagos have strengthened marginalized communities’ identity and cohesion." - Sandra Mbanfo Obiago

She is able to present both an outsider 's and insider's view into our culture and traditions. She also uses handwriting in her work. I find it simply beautiful and personal. William Chechet's work on the other hand is completely different from Polly Alakija's. He uses a combination of photography and graphic design. In the foreground of his pieces are magnificent images of Nigerian people in action, whether playing a musical instrument of wearing some sunglasses. However, these images are in black and white with only certain small details being in colour, for example an image of a person wearing sunglasses could be in black and white but the sunglasses would be in colour.

The background of these black and white files is was drew my to Chechet's work. The backgrounds were simply fantastic. They were bold colours and sometimes even prints. They made the figures in black and white really stand out. Think this is a smart technique and would very much like to explore William Chechet's work further. 

23/12/17 - Colour In Your Environment

Today I decided to go out and take photos of the streets of Abuja. We drove all around the city in order to capture people going about their daily routines. There were a lot of trees on the rood, a lot of people selling food on the sidewalks and many vibrant buildings all around the area. We went as far as the outskirts of town where all one could see was a sting pf vehicles on the highway. 

I realised that the most prominent colours were green, yellow, red, orange and blue. The Keke Napeps were green in Abuja. In kano state, they are yellow. Keke Napeps are Tuk Tuks (three tyred bicycles). There were numerous green crates of soft drinks for sale and upon visiting the market I was surrounded by people interested in finding out about my project and why I was taking pictures like an oyinbo (a foreigner). I enjoyed this experience and hope to use my images to inform my research development.

25/12/17 - Colour In Your Environment

After a year abroad, today I arrived at Kano state, my home town. Kano is the state capital of Kano State in North West, Nigeria. It is located in the Sahelian geographic region, south of the Sahara and is the most commercial city in Northern Nigeria. Kano is the second largest city in Nigeria, after Lagos. Kano is known for it's history in trading as well as it's beautiful sand houses in the ancient parts of the old city. 

Although we arrived at night, I was able to get a glimpse of the familiar crescent shapes above the local mosques and the faded tan colours of the city walls. The walls surrounding Kano are an important part of our history. They date all the way back to when our ancestors built them as defence to protect the inhabitants of the ancient city of kano against other clans.  Kofar Na'isa , which means 'The door of Arrival' was built between 1095 through 1134 and completed in the middle of the 14th century. The Ancient Kano City Walls were described as "'the most impressive monument in West Africa".

26/12/17 - Colour In Your Environment

Taking a look at traditional Northern Architecture dating all the way back to when the city was first founded, I found myself wanting to incorporate the designs of the walls as well as the warm colours of the building interiors to my work. 

I was able to visit Gidan dan hausa, which translates to 'the home of the hausa speaker'. Hausa is the language I grew up speaking. It is a Chadic language, spoken as a first language by about 27 million people. The ancestral language of the Hausa people, said to be one of the largest ethnic groups in Central Africa. The language itself is has a very gentle and soft tone, a contrast to most Nigerian languages. What I love about it is it's mixture of West and North African languages including Arabic. Due to colonisation, the hausa language now contains some words derived from the English language as well. 

03/10/18 (Wednesday) - Colour In Your Environment

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We did the soot today. The horse was embellished from head to hooves with traditional Durba attire. It looked magnificent. I was able to wrap my polaroids around it's head and it worked out pretty nicely. The person the brought the horse to our home also brought along four different outfit changes for the rider so we were able to do a full blown photography session in the backyard. I wanted to take it a step further so I used some of the colour bombs that I purchased. However, the horse was really afraid of the smoke being made and kept moving away from it. I used this to my advantage because this gave me the opportunity to take photographs of the horse in motion. 

Having tried and failed with the colour bombs, I brought out the back up plan: Colour powder. The horse really liked it. We set a trail of colour powder on the ground and the horse followed it. I was really pleased with the way the images turned out.

04/10/18 (Thursday) - Colour In Your Environment

Having finished the photoshoot in kano yesterday, I returned to Abuja today and started preparing for the Abuja photoshoot. This consisted of the embroidered polaroids and two volunteer models. I wanted to tell the story of the people. It would be as though through the polaroids we were being taken on a journey, experiencing the everyday life of a typical Nigerian. I took photos of the models wearing the polaroids and doing their daily domestic tasks. I was happy with the way the images turned out.

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06/01/18 (Saturday) - Colour In Your Environment

I have returned back to England and I am currently finishing off the colour project. I decided to edit my images using photoshop. I am extremely pleased with the way this project turned out. I hope to be able to explore some of the theme of culture and tradition in later projects. It was refreshing being able to work with familiar topics. However, I am open to trying out new things. Although it was a struggle finding a flow with this project and trying to stick to one train of thought, I am pleased with the series of images I got in the end. I hope to compile the images into a book that shows the narrative of the project clearer than my sketchbook does.

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09/01/18 (Tuesday) - Corduroy Project

Collage Workshop

As part of the initial research for the corduroy project, we were told to do some imagery research. Today we had a collage workshop. We were told to bring in at least 6 images as well as materials such as thread, drawing materials, cutting boards and scissors in order to collage our images. I had a look on Pinterest last night and found images of ridges. I want my project to be about labour, so I am looking into the various aspects of labour. I am exploring physical labour with the miners working on mines, farmers on field and plumbers as well as construction workers. This was inspired by the workwear which is vastly made from either denim or corduroy fabric. For the mental labour part of my research, I got images of people working in the corporate world e.g. people working in offices, walking to walk on the street, briefcases and so on. I really enjoyed this collage activity. Even though we were limited due to time (each task was about 5 to 10 minutes long), I was able to produce decent work. 

 

Knit Workshop

I learnt how to knit today after several failed attempts. It was far more difficult than I ever thought it was. I had to be taught by both my tutor and my peers, however once I got the hang of it I was able to do it by myself. It was especially difficult due to the fact that I am left handed and everyone else was teaching me how to do it the right handed way. Now I know how to do a basic knit technique using my right hand. I would actually like to include a bit of knit in this project.

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11/01/18 (Thursday) - Corduroy Project

We did the colour workshop today. We were told to bring 10 items of the following colours;

- RED
- YELLOW

- BLUE

- MONOCHROME

Themes the colours could signify;

Community, Experimental, Changeable, Powerful, Trends, Descriptive, Flat, Textured, Gender, Emotive, Political, Complimentary, Personal, Cultural and so on.

I decided to bring 1- monochrome things because I am still unsure of my colour palette for this project. I am still experimenting with the idea of labour and I know that for manual labour such as working on the farm and mines dark colours are best.

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We got a series of images from this colour experimentation as well as numerous observational drawings. I never thought of colours as having properties. I learned that some are shiny, some are matte, some look textured while others flat.

15/01/18 (Monday) - Corduroy Project

I have narrowed down my research and have stared to produce samples using lino-printing. I have become increasingly intrigued by this form of printing. I was able to carve out various indicate designs that resembled the human cell structure. This was inspired by my research on mental labour, which led to me looking into laboratories and scientific experiments. I was intrigued by scientific mutations and finding out what happened if an experiment went wrong. I wanted to incorporate this into my print designs. 

16/01/18 (Tuesday) - Corduroy Project

The tutor went through my work today and suggested that I go in a whole new direction. I have come to the realisation that I tend to over complicate my designs and a simpler approach was advised. I set aside all my previous prints, focused on the colours pink and grey seeing as those are the prominent colours within my work and got to work. I produced a wide variety of backgrounds all in pink and grey but with different tones and saturation levels. I found that the cool tined samples worked much better than the water toned ones. 

Having created these backgrounds, I decided to combine my previous prints with them. However, rather than combining them on a flat surface like I normally did, this time I got a clear plastic tube and folded my prints and pushed them into the tube. Having one this I stuck the tube prints onto one of my backgrounds. It looked really lovely. I am so glad I realised my mistake. The simpler the better in this case. I was able to come up with 5 new prints today and hope to produce many more using this technique.

17/01/18 (Wednesday) - Corduroy Project

Today I continued on from what I was doing yesterday; creating new prints. I am finally beginning to be happy about the way this project is turning out. The prints have moved away from being cluttered and are now looking more professional. this project has taught me how to learn quickly form my mistakes and become more flexible in my way of working. I am very pleased with the way my prints look. I hope for them to be a stand alone piece of art. I designed the interior of a few living rooms to show how i'd like them to look.

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18/01/18 (Thursday) - Corduroy Project

3D Workshop

For the final day of this project we did a 3D workshop where we turned our drawings/illustrations/samples into 3D structures. Seeing as my samples are extremely flat I found it very difficult to do this task. All we could use was paper. After much contemplation, I decided to do circular shapes to represent the tubes in which my prints went. This looked quite interesting. I proceeded to stick my structure on the wall and take images, taking note of the negative spaces within the structure. Although I feel that this did not really have a great impact on my project, it did give me insight on how to transform 2D marks and samples into 3D structures. I am also happy I got to experiment with scale seeing as most of my work is usually done on a smaller scale.