Week One – Artist Research – Eleanor King
The main work of Eleanor King of her “Wall Text” series is her work ‘No Justice NO Peace’. The phrase stemmed from approximately 1986, following the killing of Michael Griffith after he was attacked by a group of young white men. However, the saying is also a rephrasing of the famous Martian Luther King Jr quote of “Without justice, there can be no peace.”
The work greets viewers with a polarizing balance of having the words ‘no justice’, being mirrored to ‘no peace’. I was unable to find any definitive explanation from the artist for the work’s composition, so instead I will focus on my own visual interpretation. The slogan is synonymous with the Black activism and especially the Black Lives Matter movement. The words already carry an impactful emotion without the added visual elements, but the way King shows the work is meant to show balance and emphasize what the motives of these movements are. The words no are centred to each other on a small wall with the windows occupying the letter ‘O’ in both words. It gives the transparency of the statement, and shows that there is no alternative to what the message is saying to the viewer. In addition it also tricks the eye slightly to see the balance between the words giving them the same weight. This same weight is meant to bring forward how you cannot have one without the other.
Additional Works in ‘Wall Texts’
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Word Garland
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WEEK THREE – VIDEO CULTURE
The use of social media has become an archive of footage we would have otherwise may have not had access too- making the use of uploading and sharing old concert footage one of the engaging branches of internet culture to me. A mix of both commercially produced footage and home footage from the 1970’s – 1990’s (specifically in the genre of metal / heavy metal) a true insight to the bands and culture can be taken rather than just listening to the records. In a way even never experiencing these performances explicitly, there is a connection between the footage and the viewer with this stand still of the performances.
CANDLEMASS (Live in London 1989)
BLACK SABBATH (Live in Paris 1970)
Another branch of videos related to this are videos I found called “Heavy Metal Parking Lot” (produced by MTV) where fans are interviewed and you see a fully diverse crowd in who was drawn to this music.
HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT ONE
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INTERNET VIDEO LINK
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PARENT VIDEO:
TATTOO PARTY
I had an extreme amount of fun with this assignment for a final work this semester. As someone considering Tattooing as a future career path, it felt very important for me to not only design creative tattoos but also work within the cliches of that subculture. My final piece I decided to do a series of American-Traditional Tattoo designs which feminist / queer conceptual artists as the subject matter. Tattoos are a heavily male dominated industry and instead of focusing on only the interactions of how the tattoo is on the body, I wanted to explore how the tattoo can actively challenge well-established troupes in the community. I chose American traditional because of it’s heavy gatekeeping with male tattoo artists. Something I have heard in the past is “if its real American Traditional then it has to be done by a guy.” This started the idea for the first piece being focused around Gorilla Girls, and their involvement with the Punk scene alongside feminist punks responding to “girls can’t be punk.”
When applied with the body, I wanted to interact with the traditional way of having tattoos in the form of a sleeve. My friend Julianna was the perfect model for these tattoos and allowed me the creative freedom to place them wherever they needed to be. Specifically with the nod to the piece “Nature Drag” and allowing me to place tattoos on their face. I felt very fulfilled with this assignment, especially when people were able to tell me I found my creative language through designing tattoos and helping apply them. Moving forward, I want to expand these ideas into a official tattoo practice and introduce the art of tattooing into a more academic environment next year in my studio classes.
