Art 208 Blog 21 Sept 2020
I'm considering for this NLP, building on the work I did with my last NLP around domestic violence and using art as therapy. Using the previous large pieces of paper art, using paper cutting and quilling to develop on the themes of raising awareness of domestic violence, especially in this current climate. Creating more art works in this theme and potentially using resin with some pieces. Also bringing this art form to workshops teaching quilling and paper art to those who have experienced domestic violence, by using their own DV based paperwork or newspaper articles in their own artwork.
What interests or drives you?
Art that involves issues that relates to woman's issues, such as domestic violence and women's health.
(ii) What materials do you think might best serve your investigations?
Acrylic paints
paper and cutting materials
pencils
canvases
What media / areas possible exhibition sites/participatory project opportunities you intend to explore and research ?
Workshops and or exhibitions locally, in local galleries/schools/college/community centres
(iii) How will you measure your success?
Workshop participants feedback
What is a live project?
Blog 2
My ideas for my live project are to have workshops with schools and survivors. Using newspaper articles, domestic violence statistics on paper, or in the case of survivors using court papers, police statements. During these workshops i want to exhibit my work using paper as examples of the quilling and paper cutting and how they can be a reflective tool therapeutically. Teaching children about domestic violence and its impact on victims and families, how that some of the things they say and do now may be the foundation for them to become abusers or victims in the future. I would like to work in collaboration with domestic violence groups for their input into how domestic violence starts in relationships, the red flags and in particular aim this towards those who may become abusers in the future.
Visualisation - Blog 3
I visual my work, not in an exhibition space but as a backdrop to the workshops. To be used to inspire those in the workshops and give reference for those making their own art pieces. These workshops can take place in school halls, community centres, universities, and colleges.
Dark Beauty Workshop
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Making something beautiful from something dark
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Workshops using newsprint, survivor documents, internet stories to create flowers, papercut pieces to create a personal artwork for each individual.
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Discussion with schools, Colleges, survivor groups
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Work with Criminology department
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Either in person workshops (covid permitting) or virtual with packs sent out to participants.
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In packs – cutting tools/newsprints/internet prints/ stencils for flowers.
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Pre invites sent out with information on how sensitive the workshop is/permission slips.
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Zoom/teams to introduce identifying abuse/coercive control
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Then packs sent out with equipment. Set up zoom or teams group session to introduce workshop, then weekly meetings to see progress, discuss feeling the work has raised.
Blog 4 own artwork reflection.
Working towards a piece for the Shaun Project space
I am creating quilling pieces, which is a technique using strips of paper to create patterns and artwork. I used watercolour paint to ombre the paper in bruised colour, from back to purple through to yellowy greens, so when I applied the paper I can create the illusion of bruising in various stages of healing. I used quilling to create and eye with bruising underneath, reflecting the physical injuries common amongst domestic violence survivors. I also used quilling to create a large wing shape, and using mica powders and alcohol inks with resin created an angel wing to visualise those who may not survive abuse.
Blog 5 Further Research/Own artwork reflection
I want to further expand on my work into making bruising beautiful and turning a negative experience into something positive. I am a member of domestic violence forums for DV survivors. I posted previously for phrases DV perpetrators says and used these in my previous NLP. I requested of the survivors if they would like to provide photos of their bruising and injuries and their stories, and I will turn these into paintings and possibly papercut pieces. Sadly due to covid, im struggling to get responses as a lot of these survivors are not using social media for either safety or not having access to wifi.
Artwork reflection Blog 6
I decided to expand on the quilling eye piece I created, and I used heavily watered acrylic paint to make a piece that showed the pain and fear of DV. I deliberately made the pupil large to show the fear in this eye, and used the watered paint to drip down the paper. I wanted to reflect the physical injuries victims suffer, and the fear and pain. I also used this paint to make two small painting to emulate fresh bruising to stand along side the larger eye piece. The smaller piece where to close in on the beauty of the purple bruising.
Shaun Crit Reflection Blog 7
I went into the Shaun Project Space to display my work. I really felt like these things I had being playing about with, became pieces of art, placed against the stark white wall, they gained life, and validity, and I felt I could compete against 'real' artists, some of my imposter syndrome fell away and I felt I am actually an artist. I liked the collaboration of working with other artists and working together to get the best display for our pieces and advising each other on what will look best in arranging the work. I would have loved to have seen people in the space to be able to get their feedback but sadly due to covid that was not possible, and the disconnect in most of our student year being online it was difficult to gain feedback or comment for those viewing the space.
Artists research Blog 8
I interviewed Paulette Hayes an Australian artist. I sent some questions around her work and methods and her inspiration behind her pieces.
How did your project CONTROL, ABUSE, KILL she’ll be alright mate, come about? What was the inspiration behind it?
You find beauty in such horror, how do you turn heinous crimes into things of beauty
Have the families of victims approached you about the work? Are their responses positive?
Have you heard from any of the perpetrators of these crimes?
What was the inspiration behind Amy and the two perv’s?
Have the families of the victims gotten involved to stitch some of the pieces?
https://paulette-hayes.com/control-abuse-kill-shell-be-right-mate.html
The project CONTROL. ABUSE. KILL etc came about as I read about a woman called Olga Edwards who took her own life six months after her husband shot and killed both her teenage children – she found them when she came home from work. I have worked on memorials for many years including the Myall Creek Memorial in 2000 which was the first memorial to an Aboriginal massacre in Australia and it used my research to start the project. I also made a work called ‘Crossing the Styx’ (on my webpage) about refugees who have died while waiting to be admitted to Australia. The #metoo movement really got me focused on women’s issues and as a woman I too had been abused in the past (my sister raped on two different occasions at gunpoint) and I thought ‘finally’ we are speaking out about it. There was also another young woman called Euridice Dixon who was murdered in Melbourne, Australia and I made a small textile sculpture to her. The sculpture of Euridice was very similar to a young student I was at uni with and coincidentally, Betty (the student) knew Euridice when she had lived in Melbourne. I wanted to come up with a plan for my final year and I made a paper sculpture of Olga (I had done book making in Year 2) and made many prototypes but eventually came up with the idea of the house as a symbol because most of the murders happened in women’s homes.
The crimes were shocking and as I started reading more on the issue I found at times I had to put the books down as it became too stressful to read. (‘See What You Made Me Do’ by Australian Jess Hill was one source). I did not want to make memorials that were about the ‘blood’ but preferred to make something that was beautiful on first appearance but on closer inspection you could see the detail such as knives, bottles, ice pipes etc which showed the cause of death. The beauty came from the flowers and the patterned papers. I read every newspaper story and coroner’s reports and had a huge file of information about the women and the cause of their death. I often could not find out anything about the women of a personal nature and had to glean information such as ‘she loved Christmas’ or had three children or loved a particular colour. Indigenous women were rarely named and there were definitely no photos. I have noticed that the popular media takes an easy path and copies words from facebook pages of the deceased and I think in the future, images will be more available due to FB. I was a registered nurse and have seen plenty of horrible scenes of death and injury but when I read a story from 6-7 years ago that has been sanitised the horror is removed for public content and for me. Coroner’s reports gave the most information but I only went to them if the newspapers could not give me any information. It was important that what I made was a tribute to the women and not just about the horror. I am not a ‘blood’ artist – the message can be sent without the overt and obvious.
A number of families have approached me because they saw the video the ABC (the National Broadcaster) showed 5 times in a two hour slot and added to every regional and state ABC webpage. It was viewed over 800,000 times in the first five days so it had a lot of exposure. (I guess you saw the video on my web page?) Some of the families that contacted my gave me more information and were 100% supportive of what I had done because they wanted their murdered friend/mother/daughter remembered. Kerryn Robertson contacted me as her daughter was included (# 57 Rekiah O’Donnell) and she wanted to know why I had made the house the way I did. She wanted me to change it to suit her daughter’s love of purple and butterfly’s and probably was not happy with the ice pipes though her daughter was using Ice at the time of her death. She sent me a book that she had written about Rekiah called ‘Rehiah’s Law’ and after I read it I compromised on the house by making her another one with purple flowers and butterflies and no ice pipes and sent it down to Victoria to her. This was when COVID first struck and postage to Melbourne was taking over a month to arrive but happily this parcel arrived in three days just in time for Mother’s Day and her mum was overjoyed. I managed to keep the original house as part of the whole and how I had intended it to be.
I have not heard from any perpetrators however, when the images have gone public there have been a lot of men who say ‘it happens to men too’ and I reply that I am an artist working on womens’ lives and issues which has taken me a life time to get to and they need to make their own art about men. They also tell me about the men who suicide and I don’t tell them that I have had a son who attempted suicide but I have made art about it.
Oh Amy and the Two Pervs. That came from a series of figure drawings I did some years ago and I decided to digitise and stitch those designs. (I have dozens) I had also been looking at ‘The Male Gaze’ – also on my web page and what started out as just Amy became the two pervs. I digitised them in two parts as the stitching embroidery frame only stitches 20 x 30 cm and when I was digitising the penis it kinda blew out to be quite large when right and left clicking (curves and straight lines) and so I decided to keep the large penis. I actually put it on a Textile page and boy did it upset people that I was using my ‘god given talent’ the create pornography. I have sold a couple of those – different versions – some have more painting etc. ‘Amy’ the name as I was naming my drawings after my friends – my friend Amy does not know about it though.
Kerryn Robertson (Rekiah’s mum) said she would stitch a panel but because I was doing this as an Honour’s Project I had trouble getting approval as they felt it was ‘high risk’. I did end up just doing Semester two as I realized that getting other people to stitch for me was going to take a lot of time (and effort ) getting them returned and because of Covid I decided to limit it to locals and friends. Kerryn was concerned mainly about being involved because she did not know how to embroider. I am still waiting for 30 out of 85 panels to be returned and have decided not to do projects with lots of other people again.
Initially my houses were about the murder of women but after reading about the controlling nature of men in the relationship, I then focused on that control and the causes (the blue singlets).
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Online exhibition research
https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/467
Gordon Parks 1957 photo essay 'The Atmosphere of Crime'
Park's photo essay is a series of photographs of crime scenes, arrests, prison scene, which are darkly romantic. They depicts scenes of hints of criminals and the police, in their roles in crimes, and the aftermath. The use of light and shadow in the photos, create a gritty narrative, its more what you dont see that provides the impact. What you dont see tells the story.
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is a Black / Iranian visual artist and Oklahoma City native. She is a painter whose work ranges from the gallery to the streets, using visual art to address the daily oppressive experiences of marginalized people through beautifully drawn and painted portraits. Her street art series, “Stop Telling Women to Smile,” addressing sexual harassment in public spaces, can be found on walls across the globe. In 2019, she was the inaugural Public Artist in Residence for the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Fazlalizadeh has been profiled by the New York Times, NPR, MSNBC, the New Yorker, Time Magazine. She has lectured at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Brooklyn Museum, New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center, several universities including Stanford, Brown, USC, and Pratt Institute. Fazlalizadeh’s work can be seen on Spike Lee's Netflix series, She's Gotta Have It, for which she is also served as the show's art consultant. In 2020, Tatyana's debut book Stop Telling Women to Smile: Stories of Street Harassment and How We're Taking Back Our Power released from Seal Press. She is based in Brooklyn, NY.
Blog post 9 hypothetical live outcome
Hypothetically speaking, I would like to have arranged for workshops to be held in schools for an age range of 13-16 year old. These workshops would have the children to look at my artwork and have a round table discussion about what domestic violence is, emotional abuse, coercive control under the control and assistance from Women's Aid and possibly councillors. Then the children would be given materials, newspaper cutting of articles of domestic abuse cases reporting. Internet print offs of cases and reporting. Providing stencils to pupils to create flower pieces and paper cut pieces. Then get feedback from pupils about what they felt about the workshop, how or if their perception of domestic violence and coercive control has changed.
Blog post 10 Hypothetical live outcome
I would like to expand these workshops to incorporate colleges, university students and prisoners. The workshops could be adapted to be aimed towards volunteer perpetrators of DV in prisons, to educate those who have committed DV, in recognising what DV is, and coercive control, and may be offer some understanding into their actions and behaviour. Possibly involving the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance. I would like to work with the criminology and psychology department as they have a better understand of criminal behaviour and the psychology of rehabilitation.