Photography

In these photographs I wrapped wire around my face and photographs them up close. I then edited them and cropped them in photoshop.

Spool of thread woodcut

I made a 6 colour reduction woodcut print of a spool of thread. I wanted the image to be child like to bring forward the concept of child slavery.

After this I began a detailed drawing of a spool of thread

T-shirt

I bought a child's stripey top and in black thread I sewed an image of shackles onto the front. However, I made the shackles look almost like a smiley face so when you first look at it, all you see is a smiley face, and on second glance you realise that they are shackles.

Photocopies

Here I photocopied the photographs with the sewn in lips. I think that this adds a more ghostly/eerie effect and the detail of the thread and needle still remains.

Stitching into photographs

As stitching into paper was something that I began to do from the start, I began to start looking into the idea of stitching into photographs. I wanted to stitch into the images of children's mouths. Unfortunately there are a number of restrictions when it comes to the photography of children for obvious reasons. I decided to find photographs of children's faces, and re-photograph them. I then scanned them in to the computer and cropped them all to the same square size. I first printed them out on glossy paper and stitched into their mouths using coloured thread.

I wanted the images to be unsettling, contrasting against the bright thread. However the glossy paper and the quality of the photographs didn't work and didn't capture the effect I wanted. After talking to my tutor, I rescanned them in and faded the opacity by more than 50%. I also used a nice water colour paper to print them onto. this did give a better effect.

Silkscreen

I decided to create silkscreens using bitmap of the photographs that I took of the toys wrapped in wire. I chose bright pastel colours for the background, to represent youth and innocence. On tope of this I screened the images of the shoe and the doll. I edited them on photoshop before screening them to give them a contrasting/eerie look when put of top of the pastel block colour.

Photography

I wanted to create images that focused on the destruction of children's innocence as a result of slavery. I began to stick with the imagery of toys that I first started looking at while researching the marionette. I began to wrap these toys tightly with wire - a process which I was inspired to start by researching the Irish artist Bill Penney.

More Sketchbook Work - Paisley

I began looking at the paisley print as it originates from India - where a vast majority of sweatshops are present. Child slaves are very popular within the stitching of garments as their hands are very small and can create intricate detail. The paisley print, also has the same shape as a drop - blood drop or a tear drop? Both of these visual images fit well into the unhappiness of stitching such patterns.