ZSL-Free the mals @(^_^)@

 

Zoo LDNZ – The zoo is bad yet UAL have sent us on 3 trips there probably building up a small fortune

During Another visit to London Zoo, the fifth time I think visiting since being in the big smoke, as a member of UAL analytical clan, I have continuously been left with negative emotions from the experience, the more you visit the more you see the real conditions the animals are in. They seem to be depressed as they circle their cages. For the visitors it seems to be seen as a cool experience to take photos and get shat on by a bat or butterfly. Its a surreal and educating environment to explore but for me it is full of imprisoned living beings, for me, having freedom is the most liberating and exciting part of existence so I don’t have a positive view on zoos.

Also Placed in Camden the CHEEEEESE of London we see the zoo go hand in hand as an attraction to collect pennies, yes the money goes to the welfare of the animals as ZSL states but I wanted to further explore their revenue throughout the project as to me it screams consumer culture, you pay, see some sad animals then struggle to leave without being forced into the gift shop.

 

-Zoo Research- 

https://www.zsl.org/blogs/zsl-london-zoo/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-zsl-london-zoo

https://www.change.org/p/close-down-zsl-london-zoo

Z00 – Facts

Winnie the bear
The name of the bear Winnie-the-Pooh was inspired by a female black bear called Winnie that lived at ZSL London Zoo from 1914 until her death in 1934. She was brought to the Zoo by a Canadian lieutenant while on his way to England. Along with Pooh the name of a swan they had met on holiday, author A.A Milne, named his iconic character Winnie-the-Pooh after many trips to the London zoo with his son Christopher Robin.

I have created work inspired by the story of Winnie the Pooh and Winnie the bear who lived at London zoo, inspired by the way I felt that zoos often sugarcoat the reality of the animals kept in captivity with positive imagery and feel-good atmosphere, I decided to twist the tale of Winnie the Pooh.

Z00 – Facts Charles Darwin and Jenny the orangutan
While writing the Origin of Species, iconic naturalist Charles Darwin visited ZSL London Zoo to study the first orangutan that lived here in March 1838. It was the first time Darwin had ever seen an ape and described our charming orangutan Jenny in the following letter – ( positive) ?

Jumbo and was the inspiration behind the word now found in the English dictionary meaning extremely large.

Zoos can’t provide sufficient space. Zoos cannot provide the amount of space animals have in the wild. This is particularly the case for those species who roam larger distances in their natural habitat. Tigers and lions have around 18,000 times less space in zoos than they would in the wild

What is the meaning of Zoochosis?

Zoochosis is the term used to describe the stereotypical behaviour of animals in captivity. Stereotypic behaviour is defined as a repetitive, invariant behaviour pattern with no obvious goal or function.

“Freedom for Animals exposed a UK zoo in 2009 that was a member of the trade body BIAZA (which supposedly upholds the highest standards) as having a breeding connection with a controversial animal circus. Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm had been breeding camels from the Great British Circus for several years and in 2009 obtained three tigers from the circus.

A female tiger at the zoo had three stillborn cubs and another who died at three weeks old. The mother also died.”

 

-ZOO PICS –

 

 

 

 John Berger Ways Of Seeing –

We see Berger analyse the alienation of human and animal as a consequence of the 19th century , capitalism,

Berger exploring how animals went from initial muses for art work , dating back to cave drawing’s drawn with blood adding a spiritual aspect to animals in the early ages of humanity , to just visual experiences from the consumer.

“This reduction of the animal, which has a theoretical as well as economic history, is part of the same process as that by which men have been reduced to isolated productive and consuming units. Indeed, during this period an approach to animals often prefigured an approach to man.”

Urbanisation and Industrialisation continue to spread , as do the extinction of wild life ,removing them from there reality , I Currently reside in Leyton I can see a radical change in this area with the uprising of the area as it under goes further gentrification , Westfield , The Olympic stadium and the new area East Village currently a ghost town waiting to be consumed further pushing out wildlife with concrete cubes.

Jhonny boy also says

” In the companioning ideology animals are always the observed the fact they can observe us has lost all significance just objects of our ever expanding knowledge”

I enjoyed this reading and have gained a similar opinion to Berger , The fact that animals have been controlled and captivated purely for human pleasure , greed , entertainment , science , knowledge and power , the things humanity continued to sway towards over more compassionate sincere understanding of life its self and the organsims that inhabit and help inspire and bless the planet with us.

Animals also inspire Endless parts of society , The ability to fly a human envy of the bird species , from this animal we were helped to idealise and create one of mans most dreamt for abilities to fly , Every plane we see today inspired by a living species that we live amongst yet we don’t shared respect with these animals, as well as this In the art world endless classic time defining works , Film , Cartoons , Animation , Comics , Painting , Sculptures , Toys all influenced and fuelled by Animals, the  revenue created from animals is unthinkable , you’d think they be respected as god like , but we continue to exploit the less power full or intellectual.

Patterns – I often take Inspiration from the natural colour plates animals s that animals bring to the table , with coloured pattern you can create imagery that is recognised by all as all humans tend to have some interaction or viewing of animals , an almost instant connection to the viewer , I feel when using these patterns it can instantly add an instant understand for anybody making the art work accessible and understandable to the majority of the population this is quite a radical effect one of the most visually recognising parts of pattern and colour design.

More Zoo Pictures –

negative place , mad lady

lonely cold empty , emotionless

1920 ZSL Poster’s 

 

 

 

When researching further into the history of the Zoo I came across these beautiful collection of Old poster promoting the zoo dating back to the 1920’s the graphic design and layout consideration are really aesthetically pleasing and informative at the same time , A good selective colour pallet also creating death and interesting characters of animals, when working on my visual outcomes for the project I will definitely explore this old style mixed with my drawings to see what I can create de-premotion of  the Zoo.

 

 

History of London Zoo Research

druggo’s form Camden can stroll down 2 the zoo

TAKE E’s WITH CHIMPANZEEZ

• In 2017 I was hoaxed in to visiting London Zoo Nights  which is to educate but I still found it kinda odd to see everyone enjoying the zoo and partying as the animals sit in cages all night …. ?

 

 

-Billy Bear Ham –

 

Zoo Drawings 

 

Poo Bear Drawings

 

 

ZOO – COLOUR EDITS

 

 

 

 

 

Zoo Further Digital Pieces – Development 

Taking Inspiration from Old Posters , Keeping Authentic layout , Editing in bits I would like and wouldn’t. – more

 

 

More Experiments 

 

 

 

– Zoo Continued

 

Traces – Brief 1

Traces

 

‘To live is to leave traces’ Walter Benjamin

What do we leave behind when, for example, we leave our homes each day; Memories? A scent? Particles of shed skin? A unique energy? What ‘traces’ do others leave on us? What does a ‘trace’ look, feel, sound and smell like?

Explore the notion of ‘the trace’ through research, personal reflection and visual experimentation.

 

Jamaican Flag and Coat of Arms 

For my project Traces, I decided to create works which focused on my Jamaican heritage,  As I grew up in a split family spending most of my time living in a town in the north of England I would only visit the Jamaican Half of my family on the odd occasion and as an adult even less, the weekends spent in Birmingham were the only times I experienced being a part of a multicultural society. Mixed Race is the term that growing up I would hear a lot but I felt that I didn’t have a deep understanding of the lives of my Jamaican family, and as much of the history of the black community in the UK is quite scarce and sometimes inaccurate, I decided to dig deeper to discover more about their struggle and journey and to create work inspired by their story.

Being a black/white Caribbean youth growing up in the north of England I were an extreme minority as my town was 93.3% white British, the other half of my family were living in the midlands, so growing up I often felt like I were an outcast and didn’t have many people to relate to and share the black cultural experience I had in Birmingham.

As my research into the Traces project continued, I discovered a BBC documentary about multicultural Britain called “Mixed Britannia”, this was the starting point for discovering more about the story of minorities in the UK. This documentary tells of the difficult experience facing people during the 40s, 50s and 60s. The documentary introduces the term “War Casualties” which was used to describe the mixed race children that were born in Britain during The second world war after the black GI’s came over, this is particularly shocking as it shows that society viewed mixed race children in the same way as someone who had been injured in war – almost damaged or impaired. The shows the relationships between the black soldiers and the forward thinking women that accepted them as equals, fall in love with them and have children, which I personally think Is a blessing and a push forward from racism that has scarred our country in the past.

Also in the documentary you can pick up further insight into the harsh realities faced by interracial couples as we see a clip from an ITV broadcast in 1958 called Dan Farson: People in trouble – mixed marriages, in which we see broadcaster and writer James Wentworth Day claim that black people must be “inferior” because “a couple of generations ago they were eating each other”. This continued to add more depth into my research as it informed of the struggles that my family will have experienced as a racial minority in the UK.

Growing up, I was told that my dad was not allowed to come into the house at my Nan’s before I was born as my granddad, who is an Irish immigrant himself didn’t want him in his home. As I have grown up I have realised how this must have been a difficult experience for my father and I have the utmost respect for him for being the better person in that situation. This is only 23 years ago, and  growing I did feel a sense of vulnerability as i felt outcast by each race and failed to feel like i fell into any construct of racial identity growing up. On the other hand, being multicultural in this day an age has been a blessing as I am exposed to two beautiful cultures and freely get to experience both without many stereotypes affecting me. It has kept me very open-minded, but I do believe the black community has been mistreated immensely over the years and I want to push forward for the black community to become equals and work in top jobs over all area’s of practice and feel the confidence to be who they want to be and not be absorbed by any struggle or prejudice.

The stories told in this documentary are quite shocking and emotional, and they are all less than 60 years ago, some people who first hand experienced the same discrimination are still alive and their children and grandchildren are bound to still feel the effects of growing up around those kind of experiences. In the same way people would have also handed down racist ideas to further generations so we still see those views being passed down to people living in the uk, I felt this was seen when David Lammy the Labour MP for Tottenham criticised the wind rush scandal and was told he should “be grateful or go back to wherever you originally came from” despite Lammy being born in north London, and receiving constant racial abuse.

This article links to my project Metro as we can see prejudiced statements are made by newspapers and are often used to sway people’s perceptions and twist views for the newspapers own gain.

British African Caribbean .

Flame In The Streets – London Film based on 58 riot in Brixton , Between Jamaican community and Teddy Boys – First Interracial kiss In UK in cinema – 1962

In the Traces project I initially started working with just sketching about my thoughts and feelings surrounding the subject, as my development of these sketches continued I began to collect things that could also link to Caribbean culture. I had been researching the old packaging of Caribbean branded foods and influences in the things I came across in everyday life such as the famous Jamaican rum by Wray and Nephew and boy its’s fire. With the wind rush generation scandal being very publicised in the media, this became an important part of the project and inspired a lot of concepts and work as it reflects the difficulties and discrimination still felt by that community in the UK, and brought about ideas of belonging and place of home in my work.

After researching I started by drawing in response to the research making notes and creating little illustrations to start to visualise an idea for the project. I find using a sketch books and drawing a very helpful as I can log my thoughts into sketch immediately and then look back and make it into something more, you forget about little idea’s or styles that can later bring a whole final piece together. So I feel its important to document and keep hold of every little scribble or made when drawing, and every line can inspire another.

Gdad’s nickname

 

Harmony korine inspired

mugged – in Bethnal Green new toy cuff “tag”

 

As I researched more on this project, I am reminded of how little we learn in school about the social history of multicultural britain and the black experience. From my own experience and research there seems to no education about minorities in the UK at SAT level and only at GCSE level do we learn of the slave trade and black American history. Passing the history of minorities in the UK down to the next generation allows them to learn and give them a better understanding of the social climate and the things that make a multicultural society good, it allows people to become more open-minded and accepting to different cultures and races and allows people to learn from mistakes made in the past.

For instance, during the late 40s and into the 50s and 60s there was a large influx of black men arriving in the uk looking for work, yet this moment in time seems to be almost covered up and forgotten. Those men who arrived in the uk were harassed and racially abused by some communities, in the work place and by the British government itself. British women and men were also targeted if they were seen to sympathise or welcome black men into the uk which also stirred up a whirlwind of racial tension and ultimately a cycle of hate and depression, this environment for anyone would have a lasting effect on them and their families.

This would have been many people’s parents and grandparents and we wonder why there is an issue with crime and drugs in the community, due to systematic poverty and lack of opportunities created by a hostile environment. I hope to successfully continue my practice and become a role model for young minorities in the UK to show they can follow any dream and chase their goals. I think role models are also an important issue as when we look at highly paid jobs or more academic subjects as we don’t see a enough diversity. I think with the correct education in schools relations between races and cultures in the uk can get better and be less marginalised, being shown documentaries like “mixed Britannia” can show people that the racist past wasnt that long ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_African-Caribbean_people#The_.22Windrush_generation.22

Report on an investigation into conditions of the coloured people in Stepney E1 1949 (CO 876/247) –

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/bound-for-britain/source-4/

 

visiting The Grand Nanny

[ The suitcase my grandmother moved to England from Jamaica with ]

(I’m not allowed to use it at the moment but I would love to use it as a piece of work for the future, I feel this project Is something I will continue to explore in my practice as I grow and learn a better understanding of my heritage.)

As I continued my research I wanted to get some first person real hand information, so I jumped on the train to Birmingham to spend the weekend with my grandmother Velma Saulter or Dotty, as we call her. My grandmother and her sisters all have quirky little nick names Blossom, Cherry and Dotty. My grandmother came to England in the early 1960’s at the age of 19 after already having her first two daughters Claudette and Peaches. As we chatted about her experience she began to inform me about how in Kingston during this time there were a lot of posters and news articles inviting the Jamaicans to the UK. I asked her why she decided to make the move and she suggested that there was not a lot going on in Jamaica and there was no work. So she jumped at the chance to make the move to Birmingham. Later to be joined by my granddad Sedley. Dotty went on to tell me about how when she started her job as a seamstress in Birmingham, she was introduced to cigarettes as told they would warm her up and she never looked back since. After chatting for a few hours I found out more about where she was born which was Orange Bay Jamaica where I have researched further in the project. I was also very intrigued to why she never felt the need to return to which my nan laughed and said there was nothing there and the quality of living in the uk was much better.

Also an interesting fact, My nan named all her children with English names to give them more chance of getting jobs when growing up. Sad that this would be the case to try to work in country that sent invites for work, along with the discrimination of minorities in education and in the workplace.

“Bangladeshi and Pakistani households earn about a third less on average than the median for white families, while earnings in black African families are typically about a fifth less, the Resolution Foundation thinktank found.”https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/aug/07/minority-ethnic-families-earning-less-white-britons-uk-pay-gap

 

During the visit I gathered a selection of primary images of my Jamaican family members growing up , Along with my Nan’s Passport from when she first moved to the UK.

 

 

 

 

 

Sedley Saulter – RIP – The Dancing Barracuda

 

1972 – My Father on the right with his school friend ,  (Ebony and Ivory or what haha )

 

Sedley Saulter – Velma Saulter – Jamaica 1950s

 

PassPort  

 

 

 

Old Letter from mystery family member , Velma has her secrets 

 

❤ ❤ ❤

dumplings / fried not fried /Portland

Orange Bay

Blue Mountain

Ocean to ocean

Maroons Blue Mountain

 

Wolverhampton – Iris 

When visiting my Grandmother I went with my fathers  to see his close friend , This was the first time I was also introduced to Iris Bertz a German artist , who was the wife of my father’s friend , Iris was pleasant and gave me a tour of her house , her mother has also been an artist for the past 50 years so I was also introduced to her mothers art , I have some scans of her business cards , Iris has traveled around the world studying art and also now she teaches art , and creates art workshops for children and is still creating shows.

This was the first time I have ever met someone outside of uni through family or friends that was also very interested in art, It as a breath of fresh air and she gave me advice to just carry on making Iris also told me I should start creating work backed by my ethnicity also as the there is a community I could explore In black arts culture, During this time luckily enough Iris informed me about the “Diaspora Pavilion: Venice to Wolverhampton” and said I must go check it out whilst I was in Birmingham as It would be great for the traces project I am working on currently.

Meeting a working artist gave me a massive confidence boost chasing with her and looking through the art works in her home was a massive inspiration , also the stories of travelling the world creating art and working in multiple residencies , this is something I would like to do in the future , It was a real lucky meeting and got me even more involved with the project.

 

BLIND TRIP TO ART GALLERY

Diaspora Pavilion – Venice to Wolverhampton –

 

Artist Research

Devin Troy Strother  

Devin Troy Strother is an artist who works with a wide range of mediums and techniques which often depict narratives based on his day-to-day experience; often finding inspiration in conversations, television, movies, music and in comedy. He also uses his experience as a young artist responding to old artists as an influence, often creating work that uses literal pieces of work by iconic artists and twisting them in his own satirical and contemporary way. His work is often outrageous and doesn’t shy away from confident themes and issues, his titles are the punch-lines as they are humorous whilst perfectly  documenting the people and language he sees around him. 

The huge aluminium female nudes such as “thats my gurrrl queisha”  they pose in modern “thot” styles which would look more commonplace on instagram rather than in the gallery, but are also filled with movement, curves and attitude which at the same time parallels with the female nudes of Matisse and Modigliani and also questions the place of women in the gallery, particularly black women as Strother adds slang into the title to inject comedy into the work, but also raises questions about the white male high-class history of the art world.

Strothers work plays around with pop culture and stereotypes within his work, in the work in his show “space jam” Strother directly references Michael Jordan as this loved-by-all entity that surpasses racial stereotyping and is a positive role model and a person whom was a superstar in his generation.

Strother stated that “Both of my parents worked all day so I was basically raised by television. They would just leave me at home with the television on so I watched a shit ton of TV and a lot of movies all the time.” Strother meshes art-history and pop culture to address racial issues and stereotypes. “The work is talking about identity and talking about artists’ practices, but I’m facilitating all of that through basketball and the movie ‘Space Jam,’” he says.

I can relate to Strothers use of recognisable imagery and pop culture references in his work, he comments on being a minority and the difficulties that come along with it but in a humorous and celebratory way with his use of mixed-medias and expressive style.

Cheyenne Julien     

 

Cheyenne Julien creates her work influenced by her upbringing in the Bronx, and states realising certain things like the nicer parks were for white children and feeling like she was living in a prison among the brutalist architecture.   As her work is heavily influenced by her idea of place and identity, Julien explores the way that environmental racism can affect us as her work comments on the spaces and situations that feel uncomfortable to her kitschy, cartoony female characters. Often seeming claustrophobic with tones of racial discrimination hanging over her work, the narrative of her work comments on social injustice and the struggle she experiences in her day-to-day in spaces and with memories, she states that “being pushed into a particular space does not allow us to see what is outside of us” I can relate to Julien’s work as her cartoon style greatly reflects my own as I have often felt like a cartoon person and felt outcast by society from growing up in a predominantly white dominated town I felt anxious and pressured in some social situations where I felt alone or focused on. Julien comments on the daily struggle of coloured people and puts the viewer in the shoes of a person who is struggling with belonging and finding a place to fit in, something that many including my family would have experienced in their emigration from the Caribbean. 

 

 

 

 

Final Piece

 

weinercolada.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/traces-continued/