‘Realise’ Project Proposal
My project analyses timeless disparities in life, the way society creates it and needs it to function. I’m going to be exploring how the concept of ‘the other’ manifests itself through time and geography and I shall attempt to answer this through the perspective of their tragic inevitable death.
I visited the Crossbones cemetery where 16,000 bodies of women and children were buried in unmarked graves. These women were denied a proper burial by the church because they led a “life of sin” as prostitutes. This was in stark contrast to what I saw at the Brompton and Highgate cemetery. Upon researching, I found that this wasn’t the only instance of dehumanization, marginalization and erasure of identity…Bosnian War, Sri Lankan Civil War, Stalin’s Soviet Union and now when India is taking a step towards a Hindu nation
This leads me to question, why have we not broken the timeless patterns in history is inequality a fundamental need of our society? Why do we dehumanize those who do not meet our expectations/ fit societal norms? And how we group people together and rob them of their individualism
Using time based media such as frottage, videography and photography I shall visit and revisit old and new sites in UK and India and discover where it takes me.
…
Questions
What is the concept/idea behind your proposed project? What is unique about it?
Concept
- Timeless disparities in life; the way society creates it and needs it to function
- Attempting to give an identity to the dead
- Remembering people by the grave events
Ideas
- Dehumanization
- Death
- Apparitions
- Timeless
- Inequality
- Individualism/Identity
- Colonialism
- Rejection
- Poverty
Unique Factors
- Idea – Exploring a timeless idea of dehumanization and marginalization
- Technique – Frottage + Photography
What are the aims and objectives of your project?
To Question
- Why have we not broken timeless patterns?
- Is this a fundamental part of society and human nature or can we change it?
- Why do we deliberately create inequality / divide people?
- How do we dehumanize those who do not conform to our expectations?
- Why do we group people together and the way this robs them of their individualism?
What research will you undertake? How does this research relate to your developing practice?
- Researching historical and contemporary precedents
- Researching similar events / people who have been denied a proper burial/cremation
- Primary Research such as interviews and surveys
| Historical Precedents | Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia Peter Bruegel, The Triumph of Death James Ensor |
| Contemporary Precedents | Simryn Gill, Masao Okabe, William Kentridge, Dan Eldon, Rachel Whiteread, Miroslaw Balka |
| Similar Events | Bosnian War Graves, Sri Lankan Civil War, Duirappa Stadium Saddan’s Iraq Stalin’s Soviet Union |
| Primary Research | Interviews Surveys |
If you are making site-specific/ID work, how will your site inform your project?
- Using time-based media such as frottages, on site watercolours, photography or videography while investigating/visiting and revisiting sites in Calcutta and London
- I am going to be exploring how inequality, dehumanization, marginalization and erasure of identity manifests itself through time and geography
- I shall also explore contemporary events
How will your experimentation from the previous project become a resolved body of work?
- By using the process of elimination and integrating feedback into the process of developing final pieces from the experimentation
- Analysing which aspects of the pieces from the experimentation brought me closer to what I wanted to portray
| Learned | Papers/Base matters Frottages + Photography Life drawing led to more figurative works Synaesthesia Working on site – watercolours, creative writing Usage of collages (inspired by contemporary practitioners Dan Eldon and Peter Beard) Usage of charcoal (William Kentridge) Printmaking with found objects |
| Not To-Do | Frottage on layout paper Declutter Be precious with my work Conform to a colour or a medium |
| To-Do | Anything which helps me get closer to my aim Frottage + (Photography), (Painting) Printmaking Smaller collages? |
| Test | Expanded painting, sculptural works Usage of lightbox Life size or large scale pieces of work |
Elevator Pitch Chart
Feedback
Time-Plan
| WEEK | ACTIVITY | METHODS/ MATERIALS/ PROCESSES | RESEARCH | NOTES |
| Week 1 Research /develop | Maquettes and prototypes | Paper, watercolours, gouache, sketchbook | Jonas Dahlberg Suzanna Castleden Materials for final works | |
| Christmas Break Research /develop | Visit investigative site in Kolkata – Park Street | Photography, frottage, white bed sheets, acrylic fabric paint, white sari | Read Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari Understand the repercussions of CAA and NRC in India | Material prep for future works |
| Week 2 Experiment | Riso experiments, Charcoal Works | |||
| Week 3 Refine | Sculptural works (expanded painting), Lightbox with frottages and photographs | Plaster, acetate and translucent sheets | Learn how to build a lightbox with frame | |
| Week 4 Produce | ||||
| Week 5 Finish |
Yash's Blog 