Summer PROJECT

Concept 

My concept is about exposing the racial division and problems caused by 'Brexit' in youth culture as, being half Algerian and French, I've recently felt the division and tension in the country even if people can't make out what race I am. I've seen this become a huge problem especially since the rise of knife crime in London since the EU referendum.
The overall concept is how the country has become divided since this happened in politics, and how the people are afraid to show who they are and what culture they are in.

I want to capture people from different races and cultures, and those who've dealt with racism since the Brexit campaign showed people that it was okay to be racist. I'm also going to capture the misery these people have felt, through the use of photography and neon lighting to portray 'nighttime' and when knife crime pops up in the streets of London. I also want to use this current concept for a future idea for my dissertation film.

To capture the suffering from racism, I'm going to interview those whom I take the photo of and use their thoughts overlaid on the photographs I capture.

Research 

I've carried out my research focusing on the format of how I want to produce my message about 'racial division in our country since Brexit'. I wanted to focus on graffiti and billboards being used as my format for my concept as it can be placed anywhere, and still make the person looking at the art think about what they are looking at. I also took pictures on holiday in my hometown 'Aix en Provence' in the South of France as a part of my research as to how billboards are placed in that quite racially diverse area.

For my location and format research, I was travelling to France to see my family and I captured all the billboards I could take pictures of and local graffiti since both of these are relevant to how I want to format my concept onto a billboard. I've also seen empty billboards on the train to London Waterloo at Sevenoaks, and from what I've seen anything you can see on the road to a destination is way more impactful than being in another location which will create a different reaction compared to seeing art in a gallery or where one chooses to look and respond.

My first idea was having moving images of the people I captured with words in animations going over their face being played on multiple TVs stacked together to make the concept shocking to the audience, but this would not allow me to place the installation in a location that people will have to see it.

I watched documentaries about graffiti:

From this documentary, I learned that graffiti in the city of Berlin is a form of kids and adults self-expression within their political situation or to express what they are going through in their city.

From the documentary Bansky vs Robbo, I learned about the real feeling behind doing graffiti and what it means to that person defacing and creating art, as a graffiti artist myself I relate to both graffiti artists and their self-expression of what they want to say.

From the documentary illegal billboards, I learnt that billboards have become a more powerful way of advertising, self-expression and being something people have to be forced to look at even if they don't want to which helped me with my project format as people are looking at it without choice.


I also listened to a BBC radio 4 podcast on aesthetics and the hostile structure of benches so I had the chance to think about the location for displaying my art and how it would have an impact on the people reacting to it.

You can listen to it here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00081w8

I also took photographs of things that reminded me, or inspired by the project:

How I'm going to take photos of people whom I interview:




Inspiration from everywhere I've travelled:



Local Graffiti and billboards in Aix En Provence, France:

My biggest inspiration for this project is the film:
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, 2017 as the film and storyline of using the billboards for her daughter's death to get justice in the court on how she was r*aped and murdered.
I find this film incredibly inspirational for this idea because it's on sensitive subjects that make a bigger impact from being displayed on a billboard, on a road, in your face, compared to something you might not notice.

Paddock Post, 2017.

How I'm going to produce it:

For my project, I want to capture people of different cultures and races so I can add how they feel about recent politics and the ongoing racism. The words will be written on their faces either in post-production or on their actual face with makeup in soft coloured lighting and neon gel shadows around them. I was inspired by writing words on their faces by my friend Milly Cope who took pictures of me and my ex-boyfriend, but during that time I remember she wrote "AMOUR'  and 'PEACH" and something romantic on both of our faces and those images stayed powerful.

For the display of my work, I am going to present it on multiple billboards in Brick Lane, Camden Town, and the Southbank as many tourists visit those areas but also locals and regulars are aware of the hidden spots and history. These areas are all very diverse in race, class, and culture giving the installation a broad exposure. The billboards must be located in areas where people HAVE to look at them, for example on bridges, outside tube stations, etc. This is going to be displayed on 6 billboards with photography of all different races and cultures but with words on their faces about how they feel currently about politics or their lives in this country.

These billboards are also going to include live graffiti by local artists representing things these people have felt, to make it even more powerful and shocking to the viewer as graffiti is already a shocking act.
The project is based on seeing people for what they feel rather than thinking about their race and their culture, and how their cultural experiences make them feel about what's currently happening.

Bob Marley's inspiration is still relevant to what's currently happening in our society.

"That until there no longer

First-class and second class citizens of any nation

Until the color of a man's skin

Is of no more significance than the color of his eyes

Me say war

That until the basic human rights

Are equally guaranteed to all

Without regard to race

Dis a war"

Milly Cope -
https://www.millycope.com/

From the photoshoot:

Rough ideas of writing over portraits:

Sketches of the different billboards and orderly fashion:

Locations:
Southbank
Brick Lane
Camden Town

Evaluation:

For my overall concept and idea, having my final work displayed on billboards across London will make my message heard, and provoke a response. I want people to know about the hard times in our society right now.