Coffee bean Puppet

Still using the idea of a marionette as a metaphor for the control and enforcement associated with slavery, I decided to make a 3-D marionette puppet. So out of wire, papermache, and lots of glue, I made a little man with moveable limbs. I then painted him in black paint and glue on lots of coffee beans. I chose coffee beans as I have already been looking at the coffee bean slave trade. I made this coffee bean puppet for photography purposes, as I did not want the puppet itself to be the finished piece. I wanted the image to look like a childrens toy, discarded and not being played with. I wanted the viewer to realise on closer look that he was actually made from coffee beans. I wanted this to be a metaphor for child slave labour, how these children work all day instead of having a childhood, how the coffee bean trade has taken over and they themselves have lost their identity and how a destruction of innocence is present in the work.

Lino Cuts

I decided to create a lino cut. I wanted the image to be of a hand as this is what I have been looking at a lot recently in regard to my subject matter of modern day child slavery. I am also looking at the idea of a marionette as a metaphor for the control and enforcement that is central to slavery. The marionette handle controls every movement that the marionette makes - this is very similar to slavery as the slave never has a say is his/her actions and its only up to the slave owner commands. The marionette is also a childrens toy, so this carried my message of child slavery.

So for this print I cut a marionette handle with strings attached to a hand. The hand is reaching out for help as it being control.

I did get rather carried away when cutting into the lino, and if I had to do it again, I would have created more tonal qualities/layers etc.

 

After this, I drew an image of a fist wrapped in barbed wire in my sketchbook.

I liked this drawing, and the barbed wire detail wrapping around, which is representing the pain and trapped feeling inflicted onto the victims of slavery.

 

I then created a 3 colour lino cut of this hand but I would have preferred a lot more of the detail and now think that an etching would have created a more desired look.

 

Editing Photographs of Childrens hands.

Sketchbook work.

Childrens hands

As I am also looking at children's hands, as child labour is very common in modern day slavery. Luckily my mother runs her own playschool for children aged 3-5 so I got the opportunity to go in for half an hour and with the parents permission photographs the children's hands. My mother also used this as a teaching opportunity for the children to show them that everyone has different hands, different skin colour and different fingerprints.

Stitching

I have started stitching into paper and other materials as I am currently researching sweatshops where hand stitched garments are the goods which are being produced as a result of modern day slavery. I'm really enjoying this process and think that the results are turning out good. I am hoping to stitch into silk screen prints next week as I have had technical difficulties this week and only have one layer of ink down. Im also stitching into drawings and using stitching as a method of drawing itself. Im currently stitching a lot of hands as I am still looking into hands as a body part and tool of labour and many case studies state that hands become very damaged from stitching all day long as they do in the sweatshops.

I also purchased a young boys tshirt from penneys. Penneys is known for using sweatshops to produce their clothing, regardless of what they say. I stitched an image of handcuffs onto the front of the boys shirt. I did it in a way that from a distance it looks like a smiley face but you then realise that they are shackles.

Casting

I made a cast of my hand in plaster last week, it turned out pretty successful as none of the fingers broke, which is very possible when casting hands as the area is so delicate. Im hoping to make more casts in the future, using different materials, hopefully wax & resin. I also want to immerse materials inside the cast aswell. More than likely the goods which are linked with slavery.