ESP Project 1: Migration

Unit Title: Exploring Studio Practices

Identities and Place, Migration and Graphic Storytelling

”The aim is to create here in Britain a really hostile environment for illegal migration” – Theresa May Former British Prime Minister

This unit will introduce me to specialist forms of image making practice through the lens of four studio area.These studios are focused on practical exploration and interrogation. The aim is to open our mind to possibilities that we have not yet experienced.

The aim of this first project called ”Identities and Place, Migration and Graphic Storytelling” is to engage with identity and social engagement. To explore the understanding of how visual practice and social relationships combine to indicate where we are in our human culture and how this impacts us and our society.

We are asked to combine image and text to create a short graphic story using our own personal experience of migration.

The final artwork is open to us but we have to be experimental and interactive. While working in groups, we will be asked to explore the relationship between objects, subjects, and the interrogation of contemporary image making practice.

Task 1: Preparation for workshop.

>Choice of century:
19th Century/ 20th Century/ 21st Century

>Choose what keywords that indicate to you from this list:
Asylum Seeker, British, Caucasian, Emigre, English, Ex Pat, Foreigner, Illegal Aline, Immigrant, Migrant, Person of Colour, Refugee

Construct at least two possible plots for my graphic story using these two options.

First story plot 21st century and immigrant

My personal experience of migration.

Diary entry one:

I have migrated to London from my home country Poland with my family when I was 10 years old. Living in a small village my whole childhood, with very small opportunities; I could never imagine that my life could change so much. As a small girl still trying to understand the reality, I thought London was like a Disney Land, a place so big where all the celebrities live; I think I imagined to be a place so colourful that my head would spin and spin from all the magical places! But the first day I have arrived it was raining- and in the eyes of a 10 years old girl, it looked so gloomy…. it was gloomy very often.

My first experience of going into Primary school was very stressful, I was in year 6. With small knowledge of the language, it was scary to be around people, because it was hard to speak to them, let alone be understood by someone. There were days where waking up and going to school was terrible, some days more, some days less. With every strength that I had, I somehow managed to go and learn as much as I can to communicate with people. Through all my experiences in Primary school and high school I have grown into the person I am today.

My high school experience came after a year of being new to this country. Which meant I had to change schools again and in year 7and I went to High school where all the big kids were. Through some experiences of being bullied, but still having very strong friendships, I have grown a protective layer around me, which sometimes still is visible as I grow older. My high school experience was transferring my emotions into my style. I was very gothic and emo. I was always expressing my emotions visually where people can see-to this day but this time with art.

Standing out in the crowd was never my cup of tea. However, expressing myself with colours, accessories and dark make up made me feel braver.

Second Plot 21st Century and Refugee

A story by my beloved friend.

”Homeland is an island of memories that are not drowned by the mightiest waves. It is the grains of sand that make up our features, our feelings, our present, our future, and above all, our dreams.” – Ryazan Al Zyoud (Arabic poet)

Being forced to leave the place that you imagined building your future in is very hard especially, when you are at the age of 9. A kid’s dream like mine was always to finish school and graduate with my friends. I Imagine what the dreams of the older people who thought one day they will achieve them but, it was pulled away from them instantly. Imagine your own home that has all the memories you have built with your loved ones taken away from you. Families separated in different countries. Imagine your religious celebrations such as Eid or Christmas or Hanukkah has no meaning anymore.

This Is what exactly I have been through.

There are absolutely no words that can describe this pain. This agony. This heartbreak. What every child like myself had to go from one country to another knowing that there is no place called your homeland anymore. Leaving behind everything that had the definition of home. It was something that slowly killed me on the inside. I slowly began to realize that uncertainty in life is inevitable.

Being an Immigrant and a refugee to a new country means the worry about new language, new life, new friends and new home. No child should ever have to worry about those things. For some children their houses were replaced by tents, a bed replaced by a mattress shared with four people, toys replaced by rocks, smiles replaced by tears and joy replaced by worry.

I am now 19 living in London. This country has given me the opportunity to finish my education and start studying architecture. I am very blessed to be here. This country has helped me grow in ways I had never imagined. It truly has shown me that hard work can open up doors to thousands of opportunities. I am grateful for the people I have met along this journey making me feel and reminding the meaning of home. Perhaps building me another one. I will always be grateful.

Findings and Research:

Artist: Sarah McIntyre

Sarah McIntrye is a very colourful person just like her art. The artist is both a writer and illustrator. She is an artist who gets inspired by children’s drawings. In her Ted X talk she explains to the audience how she convince kids to start drawing. She tells them ”draw bad books. and the teachers often looks at me a bit funny. but you’re never gonna get the good books unless you do the bad ones.” She says connecting with other people is important as well as connecting with your materials, you have to cherish them. Looking closely at her website, I love her details to work like the front image as you enter her website. I really like when she is promoting her book, there are some pdf activities for children to learn how to draw her characters like she does step by step. McIntyre illustrations are very bold, exaggerated and have lots of colour. Her stories are often brought to life with a lot of humour and plain

2. Artist: Seth

Seth was born in Paris and started expressing his creativity on the city walls using graffiti sprays. Using the walls of the streets and buildings for his own pleasure. Throughout his career as cartoonist, comics, advertising, he developed a subject of childhood. In his website he says ”Using the wall as a blank page, Seth relies on one hand the individual or collective imagination – local gods, myths, or tales. The child becomes a spokesperson, a messenger of his investigations. He puts into play his image of innocence, and places his character in difficult social, political and geographical contexts. ” Seth’s work often include children characters, usually with a great vibrant colours. The murals tell a story, very poetic stories, stories that make you think and feel great amount of emotions. His style of painting is very realistic, colourful and mysterious. His work speaks without words.

Artist: Julie Doucet

Julie Doucet is a French cartoonist and book artist. Her work is influence by topics as sex, violence, menstruation, male and female issues. In her website she says ”Her deeply influential stories are candid, funny, and intimate, plumbing the depths of the female psyche while charting the fragility of the men around her.” Her drawing style is very punk-ish and unique . Her comics are usually black and white, and through the use of black filter pen she blocks the areas in the story. Her style is something that you would see in the old newspaper articles.

Research and Definitions: What is Migration?

Migration is ”The movement of a person or people from one country, locality, place of residence, etc., to settle in another; an instance of this.” (Ourmigrationstory.org,2019) People migrate to different countries and regions their whole life, it is very normal for people to change places this is usually to build new and better life for themselves. People strive for new jobs and opportunities because this is what life is about, to always be step away in a better place. Some reasons for moving are different to others, for example moving because their country is in war.

Asylum Seeker is ”A person who has left their country of origin and formally applied for asylum in another country but whose application has not yet been concluded. Wherever possible, we prefer to describe someone as a person seeking asylum as we feel that the term asylum seeker is dehumanising.” (refugee council,2019)

Refused Asylum Seeker is ”A person whose asylum application has been unsuccessful and who has no other claim for protection awaiting a decision. Some refused asylum seekers voluntarily return home, others are forcibly returned. For some, it is not safe or practical to return until conditions in their country change.” (RefugeeCouncil, 2019)

Refugee means from the definition to the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugee is: “A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”

British
Cacucasian
Emigre
Ex Pat
Foreigner
Illegal Alien
Immigrant
Migrant
Person of Colour

Show knowledge of the keywords, show how you going to tell the story, animals migrate, what is migration and what it means to me, facts about migration, understanding migration from political world, from intelligent point of view, ask family members what are their stories, frames from fictional novels, creative outcome- build a character, banksy, images with text, black sad book,mollycrabapple,visual scrap book of ideas,

Poetry inspiration 11/10/19

Throughout my research I have been greatly inspired by poetry about migration as it captures very strong emotions and feelings in every possible way, that can be turned into powerful illustrations. These two poems have inspired me by Muna Abdulahi and Rupi Kaur.

Screen Shot 2019-10-11 at 17.09.54.png
-Muna Abdulahi

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”i am haunted by the chilling and inhumane realities faced by children and their loved ones at the US border. history is filled with those who tried to hide their alliances with evil behind convenient excuses like: “i was just following orders”. this is a systematic crusade designed to dehumanize and divide. and children are their leverage.” – Rupi Kaur said in one of her Instagram posts.

Art Therapy with children+ how children react to colour : Research and Findings (personal interest)

art therapy page

Digital Class with VJ 14.10.19

-Understanding frame by frame animation on photoshop
-Understanding marketing strategies on social media
https://plotaverse.com/#!/?tab=loops&search-category=members&profile=Portfolios&preview=Comments
-cinemographs
-giffy page -Gif created by me out of Rupi Kaur illustrations in order to practice making animation in Digital Workshop with VJ.

Creating children’s story book:

Some edited pages for my Children’s story book called ”Mr. Peanut Moving out adventure” slideshow.

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My favourite pages from Mr.Peanuts moving out story.

To answer the topic Migration we were given I decided to explore my personal experience of migration and my friends.

From the previous session, my idea has changed, because I decided to create a children’s story book as lately I have been inspired by few stories.

I managed to create few illustrations as my starting point. I wrote a small story about this little creature who wants to explore the world and move out to a different planet he thinks is much more colourful than his. He later discovers that in the new planet it never stops raining, and he is scared of the rain, and scared to go out

Mr.Peanut’s Moving Out Adventure!

Mr.Peanut started packing his clothes to move out from his colourful planet!

He was very happy to move out to a different planet and discover something he never saw before.

Mr.Peanut had to travel through the mountains.. away from his colourful planet..

Mr.Peanut had to travel through different planets.. miles and miles..

..seeing the beautiful views as Mr.Peantut walked.

Mr.Peanut finally arrived and green planet full of nature— he never saw such planet before.

Mr.Peanut never saw rain, he did not know what it is.

By entering the house, full of wet

The story will finish with him enjoying the rain and at the same time exploring the deepest of nature. In this story I wanted to highlights the obsticals of moving out to a different country and things you have to overcome through journey.

I have also experimented with film where I played with the rhythm and lyrics of the songs, this is also a little starting point which I am still working on. In this video I wanted to show a journey of migration as a small experiment as I like to use any sorts of visuals to make my creatively flow more. By joining clips of moving image with a song to create a narrative I feel much more inspired to create more.

The experimentation movie can be viewed here:

I am currently working on the development of my final idea which will be a children’s story book. I am very interested in creating a perfect story for children about migration.

16th December 2019

After much more thinking, I felt the need to change my idea, as over couple of weeks I did not feel like I want to continue it. I did not feel inspired by what I have drawn, and I ended up not liking the concept, and the style I drew this children’s story in. It was about to be finished however a lot of the illustrations were drawn in a very low quality.

The inspiration to change my idea came from attending ”Targi Plakatu” in Warsaw, in other words Poster Fair.

This is where I have found inspiration from such amazing illustrators showcasing their work. One specially, have stood out for me she is known as Zavka. I was inspired by one of her comics which I have brought.

”The very old work” (2011) by Zavka

The story is very weird and bloody, maybe that is why I have picked it up. However, when I saw this artist style, I felt like I forgot about my style in this children’s story. I always loved bright and bold colours. The gooey pattern. Other work Zavka has is also very inspiring.

Personal work by Zavka

I love how she uses the grid pattern to create clear storyboard/comics. I love the colours she combines, as these are the usual colours I use for my work. The text and small details are tiny bits and pieces that makes this style so special.

Now I guess it’s the time to create my very own story comics! It made me release that I can do much more drawings on one piece of paper, and the comics can be very tiny but cute and clear!

Sometimes something just strikes you, and you can’t continue something you are not proud of and feel it does not belong to you. That is why I want to take this challenge, and create a new comic book that will make me happy at the end of the day. Even If I don’t manage to create 20-30 pages, after this project I can always continue it.

17th December 2019

What is my new idea for the comic illustration book?

The new idea for my comic, came from an idea about the migration of weather, specifically rain. I decided to create this comic about a poisonous rain that attacked a human creature on his planet. With later imagery of the poisonous rain being shown in the creatures stomach, migrating to all his parts of the body. The comic is created to seem quite weird and bloody. I have used three colours black, pink and green. Of course, for some details white.

The idea is that, rain always migrates to different countries, it travels everywhere, it moves from place to place, but this time in this planet, it is poisonous and changes people. It enters to the deepest of someones body. What happens with them when it enters?

I decided to use the simple grid of squares as the change of my final outcome idea came quite later, as part of my children’s story before was nearly finished. But I believe both outcomes can be finished to good standards and the first story improved.

26 December 2019
Few pages of the comic book at the development state:

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Character development :