Monday, 12 March 2012
Inspiration
I came across this piece of cloth hanging up at the Whitworth Art Gallery recently, which bowled me over. It's a length of stencilled 'adire eleko', mid c19th, made using starch resist and indigo-dyed cotton. It's from Nigeria, possibly a copy of a design first produced in Manchester for the African export market by Hendersons.
And another piece of inspiration from the Whitworth's Global Threads exhibition by Aboubakar Fofana, called Les Arbres a Bleus (2007, metal, pvc, sand and indigo-dyed cotton).
This explores the tree as a traditional sacred symbol in Mali and the long history of dyeing and patterning cotton with indigo.
http://cottonglobalthreads.com/case-study/aboubakar-fofana/
Saturday, 18 February 2012
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Here is my (alas, unsuccessful) submission for House of Illustration's recent competition, with The Folio Society. The competition was to illustrate The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter, a collection of ten short stories, closely based on fairytales.
The Bloody Chamber is a dark, gothic tale, based on Bluebeard, with blood, corpses, keys, pornography, lots of lilies and a mother who rescues her daughter in the nick of time.
"You never saw such a wild thing as my mother...her hair was her white mane, her black lisle legs exposed to the thigh, her skirts tucked around her waist, one hand on the reins of the rearing horse while the other clasped my father's service revolver..."
The Company of Wolves is an adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood.
"The forest closed upon her like a pair of jaws"
Puss in Boots is a romp with the cat as a con-man.
"I went about my ablutions, tonging my arsehole...one leg stuck in the air like a ham bone...Love? I withdrew my head from my privates and fixed him with my most satiric smile..."
Monday, 6 February 2012
More Alice in Wonderland b & w
Some more Alice in Wonderland images, but with a lot more Alice. Many thanks to all who have given me feedback on the poses at different stages.
Sunday, 22 January 2012
AOI Images 36 Annual
Blk Art Group exhibition
On a recent visit to Sheffield, I called into The Graves Gallery to find a fascinating exhibition up from the Blk Group, featuring the work of Donald Rodney, Keith Piper, Claudette Johnson and Marlene Smith.
This radical group of young black artists came together in the 1980s to make ‘defiant and thought-provoking’ work . Donald Rodney (1961-98) suffered from sickle cell anemia, and used x-rays to make up his images and examine the social/political ills of British society. Below is his image from The Britannia Hospital Series (1988). Keith Piper’s powerful Black Assassin Saints (1984) challenged Britain’s business links with South Africa at the time of apartheid. Claudette Johnson painted strong dignified women in images such as And I have My Own Business (1982).
The image that stays with me, though, is Do. Please. A Happy Ending 1987, by Marlene Smith. It is based on a family wedding photo and made up of papers, ink, gouache and pencil in black and white, where the women are especially highlighted with more white. It has a very fragile and yet fairytale quality to it that is very haunting.
Well worth a visit.
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=50013
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
