WORK OVER CHRISTMAS

The work I have completed over christmas has been primarily on my artifact. I have started dying my fabric and sewing into it. At the moment I am not as pleased with where it is going as my other piece which I completed earlier in the process as a practice and purely out of curiosity. Therefore a problem occurring during this is how I am either going to make my artifact better or how I will work on changing my plan.
I had the idea of changing my final piece to the piece I made earlier and completing my final artifact as a practice, I will ask my supervisor if this is at all possible because I have far more I can write about my other piece.
Another small problem which occurred these two weeks was my sewing machine breaking and therefore not allowing me to complete my artifact efficiently, to get over this I had to spend time trying to fix it and workout what went wrong.

PRESENTATION AND BEGINNING MY ARTIFACT

Yesterday I did my EPQ presentation. It went well and I said everything I needed to say, talking about my organisation, development and reflection. Before the presentation I had a rehearsal with my supervisor and there were a few things which needed touching up including things that needed adding. My supervisor told me that I needed to talk about how my EPQ has developed me as an artist and so I added this in.

I have also stated creating my artifact and finished my mid-project review and am meeting all the deadlines I am setting for myself.

PROGRESS WITH PRESENTATION AND ARTIFACT

Over the course of December I have been working on my sketches for my artefact as well as getting my presentation together.


The sketches for my artefact have gone into my research book and I have picked a favourite which I will begin creating as soon as possible.


I have had a rehearsal for my presentation in which I have got back loads of useful information from my supervisor. To make my presentation better I need to include more about the process I undertook and the things that I have learnt over the course of EPQ. I have made cue cards and the next stage is to do the presentation on Wednesday.

END OF NOVEMBER UPDATE

I have sent out emails and received 2 replies from professors and 1 from an artist, these have all answered my question to some extent however two of these people suggested that I change my question to make the topic narrower however it is far too late to do this. This has become a problem and in order to overcome it I must look carefully at how I plan to answer the question, perhaps there is no answer, this is what I need to think about.

In addition I have also finished my final sketches for my artifact so now I can start creating it.

Lastly, I am starting to draw up a presentation as I will have my rehearsal for this in about 2 weeks.

EMAILS FINALLY!

After much procastination on this part of my EPQ I have finally sent out emails to 'experts' to get their opinions on my chosen question. I sent a few to art history professors around the world, one to Barbara Kruger (one of the artists I am researching) and one to a mexican artist who states he focuses on the 'clashing of cultures' and may have some information about Frida Kahlo another one of my artists.
A problem occurring through this was trying to do my research on the people whom I was asking. It is hard to find information on these people and of course I wanted to make sure that what I was emailing them was worth while. I overcame this by just putting in the time to check different websites on these people and making sure that the emails I drafted incorporated relevant questions.

PRESENTATIONS AND FINAL PIECE

I am now at the stage of my project whereby I am starting to look at what is going to go into my presentation and beginning to put it together. I have also started my final piece sketches. I have sketched one piece which I am not happy with at all, I have stuck it into my book and will keep it to look at what has gone wrong. I have another plan for my final piece and will sketch this as soon as possible. I am setting myself a deadline to finish my sketches and start actually creating my artefact by the end of November.

Almost mid-project update

This week again I have been working on finishing my research so that all that is left to do is email intellects on this subject and complete my artifact. I have taken part in an art trip to Venice and during this trip we visited museums that had artists I was inspired to use in my EPQ, for one we went to a renaissance painting museum which I believed could be used for my research.

The next stage of my work is to start draft emails to intellects, which I have been slowly starting to do throughout the project but I believe that now I have got all this research I know what I want to talk about a little more.

My supervisor has told me that the idea of using craftivism in my project is good and I should look more into this if I am to use it within my artifact. It is good because it often uses the medium of textiles which is what I also wish to use.

A problem that has occurred this week is simply trying to relate the artists I am researching to the question in hand. For example I started looking into the surrealist art of Max Ernst however he didn't seem at all interested in influencing culture like political art for example would, consequently there was a lot less to say about him. I've worked with this problem by making sure that the artists I am looking at have definitely had an impact on society whether they were trying to or not.

WORK OVER HALF TERM

This half term has been spent completing my Frida Kahlo research so that all the artists that I have chosen to research in depth are complete. I actually found researching Firda Kahlo the most interesting due to there being far more information on the artist on the internet and in books than I thought there would be. She seemed to have a life full of ups and downs (mainly downs) and this influenced her work however not only this but the effect it has had on the upblic over years has been quite exceptional and therefore works to argue the idea that art is an effective platfomr for culture change.

A problem that has occurred to me throughout doing my artist research is that it is impossible to find any statistics, facts or figures on how effective art is as a platform of cultural change primarily because it is an opinion. Therefore in order to answer my topic title and overcome this problem I am going to need to use my own attitudes towards the subject gathered from all the research I have done.

The next step in my project is printing out pictures to go with my artist research, doing slightly less in depth research into other activist artists and then planning what I am going to make for my artefact. On top of this I also want to email some art historians and therefore I need to begin drafting those and working out who I wish to contact.

In terms of the less in depth artist research my textiles teacher has suggested looking into the craftivist movement as well as other artists. I first heard about the craftivist movement when I went to a uni openday at Falmouth arts university. Durning the textiles lecture it was brought up as one of the pathways graduates go down, therefore this is not only interesting research for my EPQ however will also give me some insight into what I may want to look at in university.

END OF OCTOBER UPDATE

I've almost finished my artist research, just completing Frida Kahlo and the other artists. Once I've done this my supervisor told me i'd need to start planning what i'm going to do for my artefact. We also had a talk on referencing today and how to use the Harvard reference system, a problem I have encountered with this is that I have already used sources without making references. To get over this problem I will have to use the websites I linked in refme.com and attempt at matching my sources to these websites.

WEBSITE REFERENCES SO FAR NOTES

http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/exhibitions/touring/grayson-perry-the-vanity-of-small-differences
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/turner-prize-2003/turner-prize-2003-artists-grayson-perry
http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/grayson_perry.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayson_Perry
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/21/grayson-perry-tapestry-portrait-gallery
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/grayson-perry-cross-dressing-happiness-4479815
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/travel/44439/grayson-perrys-a-house-for-essex-unveiled.html
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/oct/23/grayson-perry-who-are-you-recview-it-takes-a-real-artist-to-get-to-the-heart-of-chris-huhne
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/grayson-perry-who-are-you-national-portrait-gallery-review-sublimely-beautiful-9820710.html#gallery

https://coolerlifestyle.com/style/mia-meets-laura-callaghan.html
http://magculture.com/interview-with-laura-callaghan/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jul/06/barbara-kruger-modern-art-oxford-review
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-kruger-barbara.htm
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/barbara-krugers-artwork-speaks-truth-to-power-137717540/

CHANGE OF INITIAL PLAN

I have spoken over my question with my supervisor whilst drafting emails to lecturers and decided that my question gives me too large of a scope to actually come to any conclusion. Therefore I am re-thinking my question to make it not only simpler however far more directed at what I want to research. My new question is;
'What makes art an effective platform for cultural change?'
Also today I am doing more Barbara Kruger research and putting it into my sketchbook.

BARBARA KRUGER AND EMAILS

I have now finished my research on Laura Callaghan and have started focusing on Barbara Kruger. I have also this week made a list of artists and lecturers I would like to get in touch with over the course of my project to get their views on my question. I have got their emails and this week I plan on starting to draft these. Problems that have occurred include trying to find emails or contact details of certain people, I am surprised by how difficult it was to find something for Grayson Perry yet how easy it was for Barbara Kruger.

In addition to this I went to our college library to have a look at past EPQ's as examples. I tried to find art EPQ's in particular however there were very few of these. I learnt how the project would look when finished and the amount of work that gets put into them.

END OF SEPTEMBER UPDATE

This week I have put my Laura Callaghan research onto paper in my sketchbook. By the end of this week I want to have finished her and moved fully onto my next artist which will most probably be Barbara Kruger. I need to look at getting in touch with experts such as art historians and also places I can go to further my research. A problem I have encountered is the difficulty involved in trying to get in touch with experts in this field.

STARTING LAURA CALLAGHAN RESEARCH

This week I have moved on from Grayson Perry and begun looking at my next artist, Laura Callaghan. Her work has interested for a long time now. Despite being a recent MA graduate in illustration from Kingston University she appears to be at the for front of the media. I have found an interview on 'mag culture' and looked into her commissioned pieces. What stands out most about this artist in relation to the question is that her work is usually exhibited in places which get a large amount of public attention for example social media, fashion advertisements and even murals in central New York.

You could say her work takes a feminist approach however the question really is; does she illustrate women because she believes in changing stereotypes in the patriarchy or is it simply because this is what she knows best? Working out whether an artist uses their medium because it is what they enjoy most or whether they feel it is a subject which needs attention is the most pressing debate

Tictail Marketplace NYU

MTV Horoscopes

SUMMER WORK

Over summer I have continued to develop my research sketchbook. I have almost finished my Grayson Perry research and now need to provide a response to his work. My findings throughout researching Perry is that he likes to draw upon traditional methods and focuses on class and how that effects our taste in Britain. It is clear to see that he is definitely approaching cultural issues in his work, the amount of influence it has had on our country however is hard to tell.

 After I have done this I will go on to do the same with my other artists and hopefully that will give me the scope to answer my question.

WHAT MAKES ART AN EFFECTIVE PLATFORM FOR CULTURAL CHANGE?

RESEARCH COLLECTION

This week I have started producing my research sketchbook. I have collected a lot of artists work that I will then put in my sketchbook. I have started with Grayson perry and put all the research and references I have brought together over the last few weeks and put it on paper. At the moment it is still in draft and note form but at least i've got the project off the ground.

Start of sketchbook, collected notes and pictures

Collected artist imagery

Notes and research on selected artists

PLANNING THE PROJECT

This week I've started planning how I'm going to approach my chosen question and what sub-topics I want to include. Some worth taking note of were; popular cultural topics artists focus on, how much publicity this art is getting and history of ethical art.
I thought I could research how the artists I have chosen decide to approach cultural issues and whether it has worked. For example in Laura Callaghan's illustrations she envisions women with extravagant and materialistic lifestyles however they always look ridiculously bored with their lives. In Grayson Perry's work he plays with the idea of social classes in Britain and uses traditional art forms such as pottery and tapestry to produce modern fine art reflecting this. Hope Gangloff paints the people she's closest to in the way he wants to by twisting the image ever so slightly, it's her way of 'teasing' people, describing it as his sense of humour. This would be an example of art that could potentially be interpreted as influencing body image and what we 'want to see however this was never initially Hope's intentions.
Therefore by researching more into specific artists I have learnt that often the artists does not intentionally wish to have an influence on cultural issues however does so in the process (Hope Gangloff). Perhaps looking more down the path of how the artists vision differs from the audiences interpretation would be an interesting field to look at.
what I am struggling with most at the moment is trying to find artists that are open with the intentions of their work. Many like to leave it open to the audience which seems like a perfect answer to my question as to whether their work is intentional however what it does not tell me is if they are politically and socially aware or if their work is simply for trivial purposes and putting cash in their hands.

DEVELOPMENT OF IDEAS

This week I have furthered my research and realized that doing 'ethical art' as a question is extremely vague and must limit my research. Artists I have looked at include Grayson Perry and Laura Callaghan. I like the idea of using illustrations on everyday life. The philosophy of Henri Lefebvre states that by using everyday life in art it can shock audiences. His critique of everyday life being one of his most infamous pieces.
I have also looked at many more artists whose work interests me, however I need to look further into whether their work actually has any relevance to cultural and social issues. These artists include;
-Grayson Perry
-Laura Callaghan
-Adams Carvallo
-Ani Castillo
-Michael Kvium
-Cara Thayer
-Hope Gangloff

-Inge Jacobsen
-Lauren Dicioccio
-Kirsty Whitlock


The last thing I did was update the question I wanted to evaluate and this became; 'Do artists approach cultural issues in a mindful attempt to influence the public and considering this, should more of us be 'campaigning for change' through the platform of art?

INITIAL IDEAS

In the first EPQ session we gathered ideas and tried to pin point a particular subject of interest that we could explore further whilst also making sure the question we chose appealed to us initially.

 As a textiles student I wanted my extended project to involve textiles and I knew that I wanted my outcome to be an art piece, taking a similar form as a painting or piece of fine art however much like a tapestry or wall hanging it was to be made entirely out of fabric and textures. I also wanted to include another A level, this narrowed it down to a project involving textiles and either History, English or Philosophy. I am most interested in philosophy so it only made sense to go down this route. Philosophy as an A level is split into two main studies; philosophy of religion and religious ethics. This gave me two ideas for my project question, one encompassing each area of philosophy.

First and decidedly my favourite idea was to do a project on so called 'ethical art'. I wanted to explore this further as my knowledge on ethics in art is very limited however I'm fascinated by how many artists, particularly contemporary artists, use the platform of art to demonstrate and even advertise their social concerns. When I started jotting down what my question could be I came up with; "How influential is ethical art on humanities moral issues and should more of us be 'campaigning for change' through the platform of art?"  In looking into this further, the only problem that arose is that ethics is an extensively broad topic and perhaps reducing the question to a particular part of ethics such as feminism, racial prejudice or war and peace may be better. What stands out to me in my philosophy course in particular however is not any of these it is in fact cultural ethics. The way artists view cultural change and how culture is often discriminated or misinterpreted and fighting this through art appears to contribute hugely to societal change. Therefore my second question idea stemmed from this and became; "How influential is 'ethical art' on cultural development and should more of us be 'campaigning for change' through the platform of art?" By doing this question I can then look into specific artists and why they have chosen to campaign through their artwork. I can then finish it off with my own piece of ethical art in the form of a tapestry or textile piece.

Another idea that I had involved the religious aspect of philosophy. The only way I believed I could incorporate religion in textiles in a way that would give me a large enough bulk of information to work with would be to look at how religion has influenced textiles in various traditions. For example looking into religious tapestries throughout global history. At first this was definitely my preferred subject area as religion is a huge field in philosophy that interests me greatly and always has. However with this came some starting research and honestly it was very hard to find any real information on religious textiles, perhaps because of the sparcity of medieval or ancient religious tapestries and the information that goes with them. This idea quickly dwindled into a very vague question that didn't have any basis for research.

Therefore, taking all of this into account, I have decided to go with an ethical approach to not just textiles but also art in general and the question; "How influential is 'ethical art' on cultural development and should more of us be 'campaigning for change' through the platform of art?"