THE WORKING CLASS
- PAINTING SKETCHES THROUGH THE FIVE STEPS OF GRIEVANCE
For this dissertation and my experimental work for this project, I questioned myself
and my art practice, in particular the content of the work. Am I approaching appropriate research material within my work? Am I depicting what my research and final pieces represent? I wanted to challenge my painting and drawing skills. As one of the goals for this project I wanted to learn how to stop outlining my work and make the separate subjects merge together. I feel I need to develop this skill and have chosen to do so by looking at the work of Marlene Dumas and Oscar Sancho Nin. In particular their painting techniques and colour themes. In my work for this project I also took inspiration from the practice of post-mortem photography. I used themes coming from my research – which I developed in my own style. I also developed ideas and working skills already learnt, I have tried to express my emotions in my work, I studied the work of Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in an effort to understand these emotions. |
Postmortem photography (the taking of photographs of the recently
deceased) was not uncommon in the nineteenth and early part o from the twentieth century. It is also known as a Memorial portrait or Daguerreotype of the deceased. Some of the earliest examples date back to 1839 and it peaked in popularity around the end of the 19th century. The practice was more affordable for those who were unable to pay for a commissioned painted portrait. This cheaper alternative provided the middle class accessibility to the memorialising of dead loved ones. Postmortem photography is still practised in some areas of Eastern Europe, particularly among faithful Eastern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Christians. After the death of my mother and at the suggestion of a close friend I considered The Five Steps of Grievance introduced by Swiss Psychiatrist Elisabeth KüblerRoss in her 1969 book, ‘On Death and Dying’, inspired by her work with terminally ill patients. She describes that they are not meant to be a complete list of all the possible stages of emotion that could be felt and that they can occur in any order. This has helped me understand about my Mother’s death and perceive the emotions with it. The five steps of grievance detailed by Kubler-Ross are: Denial and Isolation Anger Bargaining Depression Acceptance I will later explain how I have expressed them in my art work for this project. I should also explain two themes used in my project work – examples of which are shown on throughout this dissertation. Some works depict some subjects wearing gas masks. This theme was inspired by the 100th Year Anniversary of WW1 at the start of the project (2014) and their use in that war. The gas mask was used to protect the wearer from inhaling air borne contamination and toxic gases. Airborne toxins such as sulphur mustard and chlorine gas used in WW1. My work explores how the working classes were vital in the rebuilding of our country, through hardship and dedication. This aspect of my work this year does entwine with the same theme - reached by different routes - in previous years. For instance I briefly discuss my intentions for FAP 301 - ‘Feeling Empowered by the Gas Mask’ painting series of eight artworks (October - December). That series involves a science fiction approach exploring murderous women and children from the Victorian era and gas masks. For this project I looked into truthfulness within my content of work and process of work. I also use a black and white theme which has continued from last academic year in my drawing series of ‘Tattoo Portraits’ using contemporary ‘selfie’ images combined with a tattoo motif, consisting of one hundred and fifty black and white portraits with only their tattoos true colourings. Produced in charcoal and soft pastels on un-primed MDF board, this allowed the rawness of the surface to seep through the pastel to create skin like tones. Executing this rawness allowed me to manipulate the surface and create ominous tones throughout to the final result. However, I do want to move away from outlining my work and create mark-making that seep and melt together with painting. While documenting my back up of my process throughout the three paintings supporting this dissertation.. |
The body of my work moves within drawing and painting
practices in visual representation as well as through observation and studying subjects, allowing me to become more physical with the paint, surface, medium and subject matter. My art is a game of structural truthfulness; works are physical, sensual and visceral. I began with my gas mask themed work in Term One, then looking at Victorian tattoos in stage two. Revising the manipulation of work exploring tattoo portraiture and how we represent ourselves through social media, emphasising on cropped imagery with a black and white theme, but also revealing tattoos in a subtle nature within portraits, using charcoal and soft pastels as my main medium. My work comprises of a series, of themes and of narratives. Depicting truthfulness is an important factor of my art practice and this gas mask theme, but also using this cross gender science fiction woman character. I intend to question my painting ability with my drawing skill. I intend to further my understanding of historical and contemporary research to incorporate within my artwork. Part of my research will aid me in creating new work and gain insights into the ideas I will explore further. Looking at postmortem photography intrigued me and improved my understanding of how the Victorians mourned. This vintage imagery is very strong and is evidence of what was happening at the time. When I went deeper into the subject the question arose as to why most of the deceased subjects were children? There weremultiple reasons for the fatalities, such as air borne pollution, the insanitary water system and environmental contamination. Such factors as poor nourishment (often related to poverty) and the mistreatment of children were also involved. Murder rates were also significant. Interestingly this family based mourning portrait (right) displays less Russian influences when compared to the two girls (right), where a prop (called a Brady) has been used to make the deceased look alive by holding them in a standing or sitting position , images are found imagery on Google.com search. I’ve been looking into historical, theoretical, cultural and conceptual investigations into the relationship between the gas masks with women and children. In regards to the creation of new visual work it will be interesting to see what adventure it could lead to. Part of the aim of this project is to investigate my own art practice and see what doors it will open onto my work. This path led me to a new series of paintings that developed a narrative of its own, increasing the content of the work which I will discuss later on. Postmortem photography can be quite deceptive due to the photographers being prone to use handmade props to make thedeceased subject more suitable for the photograph. They did this in a variety of ways – for example, by giving the subject false eye pupils,by using makeup, using a standing post prop to make the subject look more alive (as touched on above) Some of these techniques are more obvious due to the photographic process at the time needing longer exposure times; the subjects that are living are slightly out of focus and blurry, while the deceased (and therefore completely still) subject is completely infocus. Mary Warner Marien, describes that "postmortem photography flourished in photography's early decades, among clients who preferred to capture an image of a deceased loved one rather than have no photograph at all." (Marien, Mary Warner, 2002) ‘It would seem that the Russian photographic culture differs from its Western counterpart most notably when it comes to post-mortem photographs. If the other rites of passage the differences in the practice of photography’ ................................ ‘it is precisely the iconographic canon of Russian and Western photographic cultures that differ....’ ‘The absence in Russia of the custom of photographing the dead as if they were alive,’ ............. ‘of people posing in front of the coffin could be explained by there being less emphasis on individuality in Russian culture: the main person in the funeral ritual for bearers of the culture is the deceased individual, and not the person who will put this photo in his or her album or who will go on show it to others.’ (‘Albert Baiburin, Catriona Kelly, Nikolai Vakhtin. - Chapter: 'Don't look at them, they're nasty', page 215) At this point in my research I started to establish a narrative within my experimental work and my research developed towards considering murderous Victorian women who killed children or men. When I finished the first painting I realised that I’m continuing with the black and white theme as an unhesitating understanding of the dark misery era as it is most often portrayed. I have produced these on MDF hardboard with thin layers of oil paint to let the brownness of the surface come through. This glazes to the effect of taking the saturation from the image which emphasises an overcast shadow from the night sky where the moon is highlighted. Incorporating this cross gender concept has pushed me to finding how women use their seductive power to manipulate situations to their advantage. In my experimental work my paintings developed a narrative showing this elusive female lust and a murderous structure of power. Looking into the truthfulness of that narrative led me in a different direction, more into the truth of fact than fantasy fiction in FAP 301. |
The paintings have all the same painting methods and use five
different types of markmaking which correlate to the Five Steps of Grievance, in a book by Elisabeth KublerRoss (referred to earlier) The steps of mark-making include: Denial and Isolation - shown through dripping; Anger is shown by a stabbing motion (foliage); Bargaining was shown with the way I have painted the smoothness of the skin which then brings up the questioning of myself and what happened between my parents; I showed Depression through the fluidity of desaturation in the foreground; Acceptance is shown through the white highlights and questions what it is, and if I will get there. From this I want a different direction to not make all my three of my projects the same but with the same Victorian theme during the academic year, producing three distinctive routes. Using this painting discipline throughout the year has helped me develop an understanding and appreciation of The Five Steps of Grievance and has also helped me comprehend my Mother’s death. This has, in addition, made me realise where I am on the ‘step-ladder’ in The Five Steps of Grievance. I don’t want to use my mother as a direct subject within my work as it’s still painful for me to think about, let alone work on, so I have used other people’s lost loved ones through postmortem photography. Queen Victoria influenced how women should represent themselves. This came from her studying how woman portrayed themselves in medieval Rome, which had emphasis in education, clothing, articulated speech, stance and wealth. These murderous women mostly used stealth as an approach and poison to kill their victims. Some often killing their family, then this obsessive drive begins. The crucial elements are deadly and deceiving. Using this intensity of manipulation often let these women evade capture for their crimes. Depicting these working class people seems important to me as their strength of will and determination were vital in the rebuilding of this county after the first World War. It is apparent that these working class associations helped rebuild the majority of the cities to regain normality. In my experimental work I particularly collected Victorian imagery of the working class and picked out three that stood out for me. I have looked at photography by other artists depicting the Victorian era. This has helped inspire my own works as they show the working class of that era and depict truthfulness of that time. By doing this it has made my work look more foreboding and brings forth a terrifying narrative. This led me to looking into the working class generation at the turn of the century, such as housemaids, servants, porters blacksmiths and carpenters: ‘During the 1980s the theorists of post-industrialism, post-modernism and/or flexible specialization dismissed the industrial working class from the stage of history. No one was more dismissive than the dean of post-industrialists,’ ..... ‘the traditional goods-producing workforce was declining as a proportion of the total workforce and even in absolute numbers in much of the developed industrial world. Furthermore, as the flexible specialization theorists emphasized, the average manufacturing workplace was getting smaller and centralized production complexes were giving way to clusters or chains of smaller producers.’ (Kim Moody , Article, 1995) ‘Capitalists concentrate wealth through the efforts of more and more individuals working for them, and more and mor e acquisitions of land, machinery, and other companies... eventually owning means of communications & news (TV, phone companies, radio stations, newspapers, computer networks), owning means of food production & distribution (farms, supermarkets), owning land, factories, apartment complexes, etc. Eventually capitalists own everything of importance to human survival and happiness this way, which gives them a considerable amount of power and influence over the lives of the rest of the people on the planet. At this point, capitalists are designated to be members of the ruling class. They "rule" over the land and all other things, because they own and control them.’ (Kim Moody , Article, 1995) |
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One influence within my markmaking came from Marlene Dumas’
(Born, 1953) explicit use of colour within her subjects and content of work. For example, in her exhibition ‘The Image as Burden’ located at the Stedilijk Museum, Amsterdam (December 2014). It consists of 100 watercolour portraits of African women and men, called ‘Models’ – arranged in a 25 by 4 grid of individual portraits. This piece was physically very large and visually powerful. To me, the desaturated look on the faces was similar to those of postmortem photography in the way she crudely painted them. Marlene Dumas’ truthfulness within her work has striking use of colour to engage the audience with her subject matter. Colour choices affect your portrayal to the intended audience. Colours can have different meanings (connotations) that can indicate a message or sign. Colours can also increase or detract from an artwork’s readability depending on the use of technique or subject matter used. I was able to see this exhibition in Amsterdam when I attended the Hans Brinker Budget Trophy Competition with other competing Universities in December 2014. The Painter (1994), which is a snapshot of her daughter, the girl is naked in the picture with her hands and part of her body covered in paint. Marlene Dumas describes in an Interview with Douglas Britt: “In a sense, (portraits of) me or my daughter run through the work and come back and forth in different paintings...Why I like to start the show with The Painter – I did in New York, too — is that she sums up, for me, the dilemma of a painter who works with figures. Because I do like the human body and all those things, but it’s also (just) a painting. You can paint anything — whatever colour you want — and there’s also a freedom of imagination that people who read (the image) only as a thing that stands for something else forget. That’s a tension in the work for me...It’s based on a snapshot of my daughter, in real life … (when she) actually painted herself. I was talking to a friend, and she was playing in the pool and also painting with watercolours, and when I turned around, there she stood. … And I found that such a wonderful image on all sorts of levels. … Although that was my daughter, she’s also a standin for me as a painter.” (Marlene Dumas in her own words, 2009 | By Douglas Britt) The previous experiments evidently shows that there is something not quite right with the subjects, without knowing any research or thought behind them. Using the black and white theme gives emphasis to the abnormal faces. Using this type of imagery extracted from the BBC’s website, I am able to get a vast amount of resources to work from. I tried not to typically outline the deceased but to make the lines of the images melt and merge together to form an ominous effect. Poststructuralism by Catherine - Belsey, describes: ‘The issue here is not what exists, but what we can accurately say exists. Faithful to Saussure, poststructuralism is concerned with what goes on in language. Truths (or otherwise) are told in language. Poststructuralists don’t (normally) doubt that there is a world: their anxiety concerns what we can claim to know about it with any certainly.’ (Postructuralism, 2002 ,page 71) Another inspiring artist is Oscar Sancho Nin (Born. 1980, Spain) for his magic and mystery. He uses contrast and enigmatic forms within his portraits which comprises of figurative and abstraction elements. Mostly selftaught he believes “Without black, there would be no light” (http://www.oscarsanchonin.com/#about/c240r) and this is one of his strongest characteristics. Producing these slightly terrifying narratives within his work, has got him worldwide recognition with this ongoing painting series. He had a great influence of Francisco Goyas’ (30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) black paintings. These are a series of intense, haunting pictures reflecting both his fear of insanity and his bleak outlook on humanity. The paintings originally were painted as murals on the walls of a house, then transferred onto canvas in 1874. Currently they are held in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Juan Elorduy, artist and art critic describes “Oscar opens us many unusual doors into unexplored territories … breaking the fears, facing the unknown and showing some of its sides”. It’s quite funny how I was just reading this afternoon an article about how our brain “reorganizes” itself when watching a horror film (from an article published on Science based on Erno Hermans’ studies), how we become more alert and we act “quicker”. I sent an email to Oscar Sancho Nin asking about his work and it’s influences as I could find no information on his website – or on-line generally I asked if he could explain his thinking about the paintings: ‘Audrey’, ‘Lincoln’ and ‘Elizabeth II’ due to them being iconic figures. He replied: “Hello Keshia, I could explain you a brief resume. These artworks were painted in second half of last year and this year. These paintings, as all mine, are acrylic on canvas. You can take photos off my website. These artworks are iconic images, taken from some photos, but faces are transfigured. In the subconscious we have these images (as we seen on the photo), but it is strange to see it transfigured on the painting. What I try to do is transform the icons. Hope that could help you with your writing. If you have some other questions, let me know.. All the best Oscar” |
Using Oscar Sancho Nin’s technique on the Post-mortem imagery produced an interesting end result. It was
important to make the mark making loose and free, producing visible brush strokes. While working on it wet I could create contrasting tones with the wetness and dryness of the chalk, allowing the rawness to come through leaving a mysterious experiment. Coming back to the truthfulness in art and in my personal experiences with my own ideas, I wanted to start looking at truthfulness in my markmaking. I started looking at human behaviour and came across the work of Sigmund Freud. I had heard of him before but didn’t appreciate the recognition of his work. BIRD, 2015 - SKETCHBOOK EXPERIMENT, WATERCOLOUR, CHALK AND CHARCOAL, 2015 |
Sigmund Freud (6May 1856 - 23 September 1939, Austrian) is a widely considered to be one of the most influential and controversial minds in history. He created a new approach to the perception to human personality, he described the theory that human beings have an unconscious in which sexual and aggressive impulses are in everlasting conflict with predominance. His theories were hugely influential, despite being subjected to some critism during his lifetime (and into current day). His ideas have become a part of our culture with terms such as 'repression' and 'denial' appearing in everyday language. His stages of Psychosexual Development Stages conclude: The Oral Stage; 0-1 year old, The Anal Stage; 1-3 years old, The Phallic Stage; 3-6years, The Latent Period; 6- years old - Puberty and The Genital Stage; Puberty to death. Explained in more depth below: In The Oral Stage, the infants primary source of interaction occurs through rooting and sucking reflexes from the mouth, a natural instinct. The child derives pleasure from oral stimulation through activities such as tasting and sucking. Due to the lack of mobility the infant is completely dependent on his parents or caretakers and develops trust and comfort relationships. The weaning process allows the infant to become less dependent on carers. If a fixation occurs, Freud believed the person would have issues with dependency or aggression. Oral fixation can result in issues with drinking, eating, smoking, or nail biting. In The Anal Stage,Freud described that the primary focus of the libido was on controlling bladder and bowel movements. The major accomplished at this stage is toilet training, the child has to learn to control their need for the toilet. Developing this control moves to a sense of independence and satisfaction. Positive experiences help with productivity, capability and to become creative adults. Freudtheoried that during The Phallic Stage, young girls distance themselves from their mother and instead focus their affections towards their father. This is due to that fact that she realises that she has no male genitalia (penis) calling this ‘Penis Envy’, the opposite to ‘Castration Anxiety’(boys): "Girls hold their mother responsible for their lack of a penis and do not forgive her for their being thus put at a disadvantage," (Freud suggested (1933). Psychoanalytical theory suggested that personality is mostly established by the age of five or six. Early morals and experiences play a large role in personality development and continue to influence behaviour later in adult life. The Latent Period is where the libido suppresses. This is when children start attending school and become more aware of peer pressure, anxiety issues peer relationships and other interests while taking up hobbies. This development of the ego and superego calm in this period, however sexual energy is still present but provide intellectual direction and social joining. The Final stage of psychosexual development is The Genitals, beginning at puberty and lasting throughout the individual’s life, developing strong sexual desires. In the earlier stages the focus was on individual’s needs and the benefit of growing stages. The goal is if all the steps are completed successfully the person will be warm, caring, creative and wellbalanced according to Freud’s theory. Most importantly, the development and relationships of social and communication skills with self-confidence. Initially, Freud suggested that the cause of hysteria were developed in childhood sexual abuse. He later changed this theory and instead emphasised sexual desires in the development of a variety of obsessions and illnesses. Today, many say that rather than reject Freud’s theories, use the focus on developing new theories on his original ideas. Mary J Oates describes, "Freud revised his theories many times as he accumulated new data and reached fresh insights. Contemporary analysts should do no less" (‘Liberating women’, 1977). |
'Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign', (Peirce, 1931-58, 2.172). This lead me onto Saussure, depicting a visual memory of signs and messages. Human nature is driven by desire to make meanings of in
our lives. Signs take form in many ways, such as words, acts, flavours, sounds and odours. My sign is depicting the truth in my artwork and
investigating methods of doing that, producing a body of work with experimentation, has developed my understanding with my final pieces, and my
research subject.
‘The two prominent types of what represents a sign are the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure by the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. T Saussure offered a
'dyadic' or two-part model of the sign. He defined a sign as being composed of:
· a 'signifier' (signifiant) - the form which the sign takes; and
· the 'signified' (signifié) - the concept it represents. ‘
(Saussure 1983, 67; Saussure 1974, 67)
our lives. Signs take form in many ways, such as words, acts, flavours, sounds and odours. My sign is depicting the truth in my artwork and
investigating methods of doing that, producing a body of work with experimentation, has developed my understanding with my final pieces, and my
research subject.
‘The two prominent types of what represents a sign are the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure by the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. T Saussure offered a
'dyadic' or two-part model of the sign. He defined a sign as being composed of:
· a 'signifier' (signifiant) - the form which the sign takes; and
· the 'signified' (signifié) - the concept it represents. ‘
(Saussure 1983, 67; Saussure 1974, 67)
I have put together three paintings to support this
dissertation, with many experiments and a sketchbook to log my findings. I wanted to produce something truthful by sourcing authentic Victorian imagery of everyday life in that era. Choosing the right content is an important factor in my work. Gathering the found imagery I was able to collect what I thought would be the best concept by using the working classes. Using a completely different painting method to that which I am accustomed, I’m using the influence of Dumas and Sancho Nin with the colour schemes, from my experiments using visible mark-making but still continuing the monochrome theme, depicting factual research and showing visceral ominous content throughout the paintings. For instance the painting ‘Reflecting Vainness’ 2015, depicts a woman dressed in a white gown gazing at herself in the hand mirror. Even though she has a gas mask on, the woman still desires her beauty and her appearance. Showing this vainness interprets the higher classes lifestyle culture during the hardship of war. Her servant is putting up her hair to help with her appearance. However the servant does not have a gas mask, being a lower class citizen she was not afforded a gas mask and would have to breathe in the toxic fumes from gas bombs. The room is empty of property, furniture and obvious items due to them having been required for the production of weapons and other necessities of warfare. . Without outlining the work to what I normally approach, such as in my ‘1/150 - Tattoo Portraits’, 2013, I was able to make the paint seep and bind together, somewhat like the photographs used as an influence, as the imagery is about one hundred years old and deteriorating. Creating this slight fuzziness with focusing details on the painting made the end result of this work visually interesting. I saw the repressiveness and denial state that relates to the Five Steps of Grievance. Additionally showing this border line seduction by using the paint thinly and watery at first to build layers of the basis of the surface, I was then able to manipulate thicker paint, due to the base surface being wet and slippery. In conclusion, I have developed a new painting technique by
using truthful references from history and using the found vintage imagery from the Victorian era - from several sources. Furthermore I introduced myself to the PicPac application on my mobile phone to create these short time-lapse videos, that show the process of my development# but also to back up my learning of a new technique. Furthermore I have related the Five Steps of Grievance with Sigmund Freud's theories with denial, denial states and experiences that occur frequently throughout a lifespan. From not just my own reasons but also other people who have dealt or are still dealing with their own personal experiences of grievance individually. I have also, through my research for this dissertation and experimentation with my artwork come to understand and accept some of the events in my life. This self-understanding has influenced my artwork. By Keshia Bird I would like to say a huge thank you to the Fine Art faculty for their resources and workshops, especially Phil Power, Jenny Meillings and Martin Brooks for their impeccable knowledge and guidance throughout my studies, consistently supporting and encouraging exploration of ideas. To my Grandfather for always being there, with the high and lows but more importantly for inspiring my art from a young age, drawing and painting flowers in his amazing garden. I hope to spend many more years with you, your sensational attitude and spirit has helped me throughout my grieving process. To Robert Trevelyan and his Father, Fred Trevelyan for their constant support through university and home life, balancing the two very different lifestyles required. |
By using the discipline I set myself at the start of the academic year, with the markmaking relating to the Five Steps of Grievance, was difficult to produce at first as I desperately wanted to smooth the brush marks out. But by achieving this goal I have executed a new body of work for myself to explore further and additionally, improving development towards my painting skill and not outlining subjects as in my previous work. In the stop motion video of the ‘The Blacksmith’, 2015, you can see the difference in the development process compared to ‘Reflecting Vainness’ by using the feathery brush strokes, using the paint to sketch the content. Again using a watery base I can manipulate the paint on top, acting like the qualities of watercolour but with a thicker medium. The blacksmith is faced straight on in a relativity relaxed pose, in his workshop, which is dark and dreary, only the coal fire light illuminating the room, highlighting only the outline of objects in the room. It additionally adds staggered shadows which enhances the mark-making effect. This piece is the strongest work of the three in terms of painting art and content. I believe it shows the most relevant part of my research, with the monochrome theme, really highlighting the elements of the workshop and more importantly, it shows my development by sticking to discipline throughout the execution of the art pieces. I also used the same technique on the third painting, ‘The Nurse -(The Healer)’, 2015. It depicting a nurse holding a patients hand. You cannot see the patient lying in the bed but it’s enough to show the theme within this work. The setting is different than that in the other two pictures; it being situated in a well light room, in contrast to the others being quite dark. Again recording the process you are able to see how I’ve been painting the content using a brush and a water substance to sketch, is very different. Duplicating the found imagery wasn’t enough to support my writing and I had to manipulate the majority of the content in the imagery to make the subjects doing something practical in everyday life. |