carousel 1956

I decided that watching the film based on the musical carousel, my chosen vinyl. Before i watched the film I read a lot of reviews so I could communicate a basic understanding of the film to my tutor. I presumed that it was a sad story about a man struggling through life, one bad decision after another. I felt sorry for him, I thought that I would cry throughout the film, especially when he tragically dies. 


However after watching the film I had a completely different response to everyone reviewing, it seemed. I didn't find the film sad at all, instead I was left filled with pure anger. I am fully aware that the film is set in 1873 and many things have changed since then but I cannot accept domestic abuse. From the storyline to the song lyrics it belittles women and describes them as objects that men own. Being called a slut for having a mans arm around your waist or being screamed and shouted at to go away when trying to tell your husband that you're pregnant.


A quoted from the blogpost below which I believe sums up the musical perfectly: 

"It’s a film with dizzying dance sequences and well-known musical numbers to be sure, butit’s also a film in which women are valued and treated with respect only while pregnant, and who are otherwise disregarded, objectified, slut-shamed, abused, or infantilized, and who are expected to accept the actions of the men around them without judgement, regardless of the harm those actions may cause."


http://www.btchflcks.com/2012/09/women-and-gender-in-musicals-week-carousel-a-fairytale-screen-adaptation-of-the-2012-republican-anti-woman-agenda.html#.U1_RSMaBHnY

lino prints

One of our first projects back after Easter was based on lino printing, introducing analogue techniques back into our course. We were all given a letter to create a lino print from, I was given Z. I decided to create both versions of a Z, a normal one and an inverted one enabling me to line them up perfectly. When zoomed in the layered up ink creates a beautiful finish but is hard to achieve from the quality of a phone camera. I intend on taking better photographs with my camera once the print is dry at uni and I can take it home. 

choosing my vinyl

I decided to go to a car boot sale because I didn't want to end up paying a fortune for a vinyl cover. I paid from 50p to £1.50 for each of the above, which I thought was an acceptable price to pay. The top image shows two vinyls that I found first, of which west side story was my favourite, particularly because of the strong use of colour. I loved the vibrant red that steals the show as well as the use of stairs that I was looking forward to experimenting with. Then I came across Carousel with its beautiful pastel feel that took over my love for west side story. Without meaning to I had chosen yet another musical vinyl and in this case the vinyl that I would redesign for my project.

the suitcase of...

I found this project particularly difficult as I struggled with the idea of performance art. All of our ideas were big and seemed unachievable, I wish that we started the project with more realistic ideas. Its good to push ourselves but it became very clear that our dreams of an ice sculpture was too technically challenging within the time frame. We ended with a Charlie and the chocolate factory style theme although mixed with the concept of cocktails. I produced all of the gummy alcoholic sweets which was a long process however gave great outcomes. I was disappointed that we didn't make anything else to go along with them, I feel that if we had other forms of sweets it would have lifted our project. In general this whole project was a struggle with a uneven disproportion of enthusiasm and input across the group.