Big papercut number 3

The last two days I’ve been working on my third full body papercut.

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I need new blades for my craft knife, I’ve had to put a plaster and bandage around my middle finger to stop the blade pressing into it. But I managed to push through and finish it. Initially I thought to just do the top half of the body since that was the original source of the image I had used. The initial message as well wouldn’t have filled up a whole body and still look strong visually, so I did a bit of brainstorming and imporvising for the bottom half of the figure

Nope. Wasn’t kidding about the bandage. lol

Now that I’ve finished this one I’m starting to see how my work for the degree show will form, and is getting me quite excited, but also a bit nervous as it marks the end of my road as a student and enter the real world as an artist.

And this one reads

We have been appropriated to fit a particular image of beauty. An image constructed by a predominantly white, patriarchal system, for a white patriarchal society…sculpted to fulfill the desires within a consumer culture.

 

As a personal preference, I think this one works the best. Again I had to really consider the message I wanted to portray and the wording. It sums up my opinions after further reading from Bell Hooks, and also my opinions that were shaped from doing the research for my dissertation unit. The body language of my figures are supposed to contradict the inner message and get people to engage in every way possible….

I think this will be the last large scale papercut I will probably do (with text in the container)…

 

Big papercut number 1

I wrote down a lot of notes from Bell Hook’s book and tried to interpret them in my own way, and I think it has definitely influenced my opinions. I want the messages in my work to definitely have substance and be direct, so I’m considering my language and the tone behind words that I use.

A few days ago there was an “article” circulating and being shared amongst a few friends on Facebook, so me being the curious person that I am decided to have a look. It was titled “Why the Hell Am I Still Dating Black Women?” So that already had me, i figured it could relate but not sure how.

As I read through, I felt the author had made about 2 or 3 interesting points regarding the mentality and attitudes that SOME black men possess about black women, and also served as a reminder of stereotypes that appear to linger around. The link to the article is here.

http://realnewspaper.wordpress.com/2014/03/06/why-the-hell-am-i-still-dating-black-women

While I already begun to feel this and explore such opinions in my work, I think reading this article helped spur me to actually create a new image. I decided to do a full body papercut on a larger scale, just under A2 size. Again as more paper was cut the more fiddly it was so I was worried that I might cut too deep into the image accidentally.After hours of cutting away I finally managed to finish it. It’s a summary of the negative experiences black women have faced. I was a bit worried about the placement of the text afterwards as my partner tried to read it and got a bit mixed up. The text within the body reads as follows:

I have been criticised by all around me…Abused by White men…Insulted by Black Men…Exploited by White Women…Judged by other Black Women. I am rebuked for asserting sexual freedom despite it being the most dominant and accepted image available. Offended by the weak for asserting my strength.

 

The wording might seem like general sweeping statements, however it isn’t actually intended to say that all white men have done this or all black women have done that and so on. However I don’t think the point would have come across clearly if I had used singular terms because it is probably not the case for every black woman that has lived-past and present-because there have been different accounts of female experience.

I might have to rethink this message or the more likely thing would be to create more papercuts that evoke different messages and take into account different female experiences in order to not sound bias and also show a journey.

 

More drawings…more ideas!

Ok so the self promo unit really kicked things into gear so I could actually get my ideas on paper.

One of the first things I wanted to explore is the notion of the “bright eyed, fair skinned” image of beauty that still seems to dominate the covers of magazines and advertising.
I begun to recall a few things I’d seen over the past year or so on all of my social media such as sterotypical things associated with ‘light-skinned’ black people and ‘dark-skinned’ black people. While they were probably intended on being humorous and not having malicious intent I couldn’t help but wonder if there was real depth to this kind of thinking, and whether there had been real psychological effects on women’s outlook of themselves and others(which in turn could possibly have a physical effect).

By accepting terms such as ‘lighty’, ‘red-bone’ ‘yellow-bone’ to describe us physically, and accepting the ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ stereotypes that come with such terms, I think that contempt has been bred and that these are also responsible for creating divisions within black communities all over the world. Accepting one thing as being more beautiful than the other and criticising those who don’t “fit the grain” breeds insecurites. This is what gives media power.

From this I started to think about Barbie dolls. I remember being a kid and only ever seeing one or 2 black barbie dolls being sold over here in the UK. I searched ‘black barbie dolls’ in google and noticed that they all had a similar look to the white Barbie doll with their hair being long and straight, or curly. I started to question why wasn’t there ones with natural hairstyles: afros, or braids or locs-realistic physical markers that are assoicated with black people…and this again led me to question wheter or not it was trying to portray a particular image of beauty amongst black girls and women.

Amongst doing this search I stumbled upon an article from the Huffington Post, which mentioned a women in America who also felt these things mentioned in the last paragraph, took it upon herself to create a new line customized dolls of different skin shades, with natural haristyles not seen in stores:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/09/natural-girls-united-dolls-hair-makeover_n_4065398.html

I then remembered my “Christie” doll- the first black doll that I ever owned myself. She’s probably stored away in a box in my cellar so I google searched and saw the hair…lol what a mess. Her figure was impossible. And her eyes. I never noticed before, but she had blue/purple eyes. Really? In my mind I genuinely thought…WTAF and chuckled. This then spurred me on to try add text to the above observational painting. I wanted to be direct, but I didn’t want to sound too angry, so I don’t think saying “WHY THE F*** DO I HAVE BLUE EYES FOR” would cut it. I eventually resolved this image and I think it worked well.

From the dolls concept I then started thinking about marionette puppets. I felt the concept was so strong and that I could connect it with the notions of mass media being manipulative; plays with our self-esteem, constantly telling us what products will make us “better” in order to create an image of constructed beauty that doesn’t truly exist. I originally wanted to do my marionettes in black papercuts but I felt I didn’t have enough time in keeping with the self-promo unit. So I drew them digitally to see how it would come out and again I was quite happy with the outcome. I think the papercut versions however will give it more relief, and I can also make them life-sized.

Like the papercuts I did from negotiated study I wanted to have text within the containers of female bodies, so I went a bit crazy and bought as many fashion magazine publications within my means. There really is a lack of publications that feature and represent black women in comparison to white women; both in popular ones such as Vogue and Glamour and even magazines such as Black Beauty are quite hard to find in conventional shops. Anyway I drew the above images using my new Inkling pen and neatened it up using Illustrator and Photoshop. I picked said images to try and coincide with each message:

• “I am judged for going with the status quo”

• “I am judged for going against the status quo”

• “I am now the ideal vision of beauty”

   

The refined versions are on display in the slide show below

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I question whether or not I have been directly or indirectly effected by these factors I’ve researched in one form or another, but I’ve taken quite a personal approach within the images so far, whilst taken into account outside teachings and opinions also. Then again if I didn’t take it personally then I wouldn’t have been affected at all…right? And these images wouldn’t be as powerful without substance and actual feeling toward the issues I’m looking at. I’m hoping I can continue pushing forward with these.