student Number 00009545
FA6010
Future Destinations
Visions Through Spheres
Firstly, it is important to mention the exhibitions that have been to this year. Above is last year’s work The galleries were closed because of Covid, most of the exhibitions I have been to have been online. I’ve also attended talks in this way. I haven’t been out much because Covid totally debilitated me affecting my memory, so I have mostly been indoors, but luckily I have family around so I haven’t been alone. This year I’m not doing major projects so will be focusing on following on with smaller projects that concentrate mainly on making. The approach for work/study this year will mostly involve research with small drawings photography and ceramics projects.
Following up researching black activism. At the moment flicking between projects. Reading chart needed.
Need to speak to people maybe online now about issues with race and domicile.
you have to find the things that give you the most inspiring. I like things that echo ancestral inspiration and learning which I feel renew energy personally and for those around me. Also, any new work which brings inspires me to work.
At the moment I am also trying to work through past traumas which are shared experiences with some of those that view my work.
Here I am looking at the activism of which I have been on the ‘outskirts’.
I have More interested in feminist and disabled issues. Recently
Black activism was something I observed while under society’s oak of racism.
The differential effect of discriminational is multiplied by the separate views of each person. Places in society in which debates about authority and discrimination in western society while in other societies the colonial and cultural bug bear stands out.
Lucy Lippard (..Y….) sees it as some sort of ‘gift’, ‘watch dogs’, ‘consciouses’. Displaying or unpicking ‘hard to swallow’ social and cultural phenomena. The rallying of ‘grassroots forces going on into other spheres. When Lippard writes of the value of this type of art, who is making it, displaying it, buying it? She points to the rich and elite. But, presently in black art, It is still the same people for example the most. Notable black artists are academics who also have made long-standing connections with prominent galleries and have campaigned to display the art of minority British art. For example artists of the Black British School have now become the most prominent black British artists while the buyers have become more varied than just the past elites with nouveau rich black diaspora buying such art.
My Activism
Attended lectures as well as online workshops. to be able to look at contemporary art and attended discussions to actively debate art and activism.
Talk:
Roberto “Mukao” Borrero. Taino community Leader. President of the United Confederation of Indigenous People.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdONHIEAhoo&list=WL&index=6&ab_channel=HolyokeMedi
Future Destinations: looking black Actism, Dreams, Spiritual Awakings…
A number of Dreams surfaced during the Covid Lockdown which centred on snakes, spiders and ancestors. This with my interest in my cultural history inspired ideas around the self morphing into forms with the air earth and sea. With the Global trama of covid and black annihilation through policing. This in turn led to research on ancestry and myths incorporating strength and black activism. Stylisation in art and my own ideas on depiction.
1:54 African Art Fair 2020
gallery event…
Dennis Osakue. The Power Of Black and White. 1:54, African Art Fair. Signature African Art. Photographed by J. White. Sept 2020
Now at https://signatureafricanart.com/
O. Osakue has worked as a photographer as well as in advertising. Modern Pop art? Popular Culture.
Working Ideas: Sketches
Working Ideas: This sketch is a proposal for a live display. Using cotton string and other media. Using Afro-Caribbean folklore and dreams….
Ideas about the African diaspora and the new world now take focus in my work. The myths that are underlooked but that have great significance. The snake and the resonate throughout the world. The dream worlds. Lost kingdoms. The lineage of ancestral memories steers people in different directions …..
…..
This is the beginning of my composing a work based on dreams the black experience, history and continuation of my string work.
Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens visit
Searching for African Flora
African Lace Tree
I was looking for something akin to the African Lace Tree but became engrossed in all the African and tropical funa. some representations that I could use within my project.
Work has been done on the history of the African Lace Tree in Jamaica last year. This year I have included extra research with more beautiful pictures of craftwork from …..
Black art conference at Art Expo 2020 Philadelphia online.October Gallery. Eventbrite.https://octobergallery.com/
Following up researching black activism. At the moment this involves flicking between projects., books, articles and online material. A reading chart is needed.
Need to speak to people maybe online now about issues with race and domicile. Started by attending a gallery and seeing what global artists were doing.
Grayson Perry
First exhibition visit. I always find Grayson Perry’s work interesting especially in relation to my ceramic work as he takes both a political, personal and cultural view in his work. He has included the present political climate to do with the Trump Presidency, Brexit and elitism. All these all topics I have covered in some way over my last few years in university, whether in essays or practical work. His work with the public and Channel Four Television I have also covered. In this exhibition, his pot-work was of major interest.
Grayson Perry: The most Specialist Relationship Victoria Miro Gallery. September 2020
Late-summer visit to 1:54 African Art Fair, Summerset House, London. October 2020
This fair is a recurs in my research because the artist themes are so relevant to my work. I keep coming back to it as my memory sparks while doing my project. The stylisations and themes. The connection to ancestry. These 1:54 African Fairs are the only global black art events. The artists are listed below.
images (starting at the top, left to Right):
Anya Paintsil. Anya or Anum (2020), Acrylic, wool, human hair, Kanekalon hair on hessian. 56 x 94 inches. Self Portrait Acrylic, wool, human hair, (2018), Kanekalon hair on hessian, 1:54 African Art Fair, Somerset House, London. Latch hook and punch needle embroidery.
Bam, Ranti. 50 Golborne. Beomi (2020) Terracotta
Moustapha Baidi Oumarrou
Instant de joie (Diptych), 2019
Acrylic and posca on canvas
180-120cm each
kimmerbly Crensure
Something that I have been looking at for the last few years
The name of the person who came up with it is kimmerbly Crensure
The present debate is about inclusion. Also about taking seriously as intellectual properties and not making the minority a token. The black live protest has brought this to the fore. with the media making a show of “Karens” and “police brutality.”
Sustaining the Studio – Sustaining Self, Two-Part Online Symposia
Jeff Jones:
Open door access st Ives Leach Pottery
Participation and collaboration.
Collecting History and Amorphising it into Art.
It has been hard to formalize a path of practical work. This year has been particularly difficult because of the pandemic lockdown. What has been interesting is the level of connection through social media
The one-to-one conversations with artists. Closer inhouse bonds with friends and relations. Trying to academise the historical events and cultural shifts.
attending the above events helped. It gives an idea of what artists are thinking around the world. how they encounter and
David Uzochuwu Recently gave an interview to Autograph BPN’s Bindi Vora. His works are emblematic of my recent works with dreams and visions. He has worked with FA Twiggs on a Nike and with Parrell Williams with Coocnac on advertisements. The works that are close to my musings are Buoyant, fromMonstrum/ drown in My Magic, 2019, and Rising From Mare Monstrum/ Drown in My Magic 2019 (Pictured in the Autograph interview). Autograph.
Evaluating the year, the amount of growth through research has been amazing. Starting with the championing of black activism with Black Lives Matter. the move to internet research. looking at museums and art fairs far afield. money requests and art backups.
Art Connected to project
Glasswork veiwed in Brick Lane 2020
Ideas through sketching
Morping Human/spider
Selection of research
This is a section of research. Some book research but also online gallery visitation and talks on black activism, black history, and afro-futurism through music and graphic comics and YouTube videos.
Research involving animation, filming and cartoons
Research: African Folklore
Ceramic Sketches
Not doing the project model most of my work has been in drawing form and will end up a photo montage and sculptural string work.
Shoot for final design
using the same model that was used earlier entering afro-futurism. The dress I had seen earlier was going to be the model myself. By the time I could afford it was a few sizes down. I want the model to bend into the background as an Earth mother. Anansi is a trickster always one step away from death, yet always coming up with cunning plans to outwit those who try the eat the little spider.
The spider is so scary to the westerner. Yet while standing on a Jamaican veranda under hanging cobweb being held “They will do you no harm”. While later a big furry monster hangs over a doorway. Father slapping this spider bigger and fatter than his hand. Laughing out loud “Wa wrang with unu, a only Anansi.” His middle-class correctness slipping ‘once’ into Jamaican patois.
The hundreds of tiny spiders over the veranda scurrying among the night lights invite the mosquitoes to feast and smile with us, till we ‘foreign’ no longer notice them but relax under the stars rum and reggae relaxing our souls.
joanneelasminwhite.art 