During my time looking at the topic of Identity and Community in year 12 and year 13 I have learnt various ways in which to produce a final image or piece, in turn discovering what themes, mediums, movements, techniques and methods inspired me the most. With this I mainly focused on the medium of photography, however I have also explored how this form of expression can be elevated by incorporating other mediums such as embroidery and animation into my work. This was evident when looking at the works of Yulia Makeyeva, who adds to her photographic pieces by including textile and needlework in and around her images. We were also given the opportunity to take part in a workshop with her, learning the art of embroidery and experimenting with collage and stop motion animation.
Yulia Makeyeva
I was also fascinated by embroidery artist Billie Zangewa, who relates to the theme of identity and community through her autobiographical portrayals of womanhood and motherhood, using the technique of needlework. Another aspect of Zangewa’s work that interested me was her representation of the importance of women in society and the oppression they suffer coinciding with the feminist movement. In addition, I have also explored the medium of animation and learnt how to use programs such as Adobe After Affects in order to create such pieces, through the workshop with local animator Liam Nunn. With this we experimented with different sequences and movements, ultimately creating a ten second simple animation. This linked with the identity and community of the island due to the fact that Nunn has worked on various projects that showcase our islands unique identity with companies such as Jersey Dairy.
During year 12 I also developed my understanding and gained a new appreciation of the original photographic process and pioneers of photography on the island during the late 19th century and early 20th century, such as Emile Guiton who used the Autochrome process invented in 1903 to develop his photographs. This knowledge was gained through class visits to the Jersey Archives, which holds thousands of images that tell stories of the islands evolving identity. With this I found this particularly interesting as by looking at archived images it gave us an insight to the types of people and communities existing in Jersey at the time. We related this to our personal identities by researching our own family archives, and learning more about our lineage and regional backgrounds.
Overall however, what inspired me the most was when I had the opportunity to look at the work of Carolle Benitah, and her use of stitching and collage using archived family photographs to display her own personal identity, and how she wants to change it. This work inspired me to create work in a similar style to her, to showcase the identities of different people’s regional backgrounds, experimenting with collage.
