During the Summer Holiday I began developing a theme that began with some research into Tedder House, Haus Helfa. I decided that a good theme to take further was the use of the Tedder Carpet to bomb large scale areas where many civilian casualties would occur.
After researching Arthur Tedder and his involvement in World War 2, I began to contemplate the fact that carpet bombing still occurs today and the fact that after all this, the world is still at war. Most pertinent to me is the humanitarian cost of such warfare and the civilians who lose their homes, families and livelihood because of the actions of war.
In World War 2, many children were evacuated from the major cities in the UK to more outlying areas where they would be safe. In more recent times children and the victims of war torn areas have been evacuated not only to different parts of their own country but to other countries, creating in itself a humanitarian crisis the world over and an immigration nightmare in the UK in particular. As a pacifist, the human rights of these evacuees weighs heavily on my mind, and has become the impetus for this project.
After receiving the Dada Punk brief, I was quite bemused, however quickly became aware that I could incorporate this into my Extended Practice piece.
I decided to continue with the theme researched and developed in the Summer months. Looking into Dadaism, it appears quite clearly to me that a rebellion against the principles of war gave Dada artists material to base their ideas upon.
My first piece of work is a tongue in cheek response to a primary icon of War, Adolf Hitler, and his lack of remorse for the crimes that were committed against the Jewish community during World War 2. Tony Blair makes a small appearance, given the public opinion that he should be tried for War Crimes, this is to show that the atrocities of war continue to prevail and that our world governments appear, albeit outwardly to have learned very little in the past 70 odd years since World War 2. Hitler is sporting a typical punk hairstyle as an iconoclastic statement.
During our first critique, it was suggested that my piece looked like a magazine cover, so I decided to complete my 2-D work for this brief in the same way using the same overriding theme but in a more relevant way, focusing on the Syrian Crisis and the public figures involved.
I continued to collage in my sketchbook firstly pages describing Dada and Punk.
I then followed on from my theme of protest against the atrocities of war.
For my 3D pieces I decided to use everyday objects, toilet brushes and plant pots to create some Dada puppets that were inspired by the piece Cabeza Dada by Sophie Tauber-Arp.
Research
I spent today looking at the artists highlighted on the Dada Brief and visiting the recommended websites.
- Sophie Tauber-Arp (Textiles)
- Hannah Hoch (Photomontage)
- El Lissitsky (Visual Communication)
Kurt Schwitters (Visual Communication, Collage, Experimentation)
She's a Fine Artist 