Big Brother is Watching You
23:03
So my newest project at college is based on the book 1984 by George Orwell, which I still haven't finished reading but shh!
For those of you haven't read it, or know nothing about it, it was written in 1948, about the future of a corrupt government and their mission to seize control over everything that you are. The story is based around Winston, a character who does not agree with the strict and ridiculous views of the party, so he obtains a diary, any form of self expression is against the law, he begins to write, and so on and so forth, I haven't gotten to anything exciting yet.
I swear I keep meaning to finish it, but the book is on my phone and it hurts my eyes and there are other distracting things going on in the world!
Over the Christmas holidays I was meant to be doing research and I just felt completely uninspired and anyone that does art knows that that is really not good at all and that you might as well crawl up into a hole and die (which I kind of did, because I got ill the second day in and had to stay home). So after talking to my tutors I decided to look at slogans and stuff like that, political things, other opinions and just stuff really, so here's some stuff ive done so far:
When reading the book this is how I picture big brother, he is meant to look like Barty Crouch from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, however I wanted to make his moustache bigger because I thought if I drew him exactly like the images from the film, he would have looked a little too much like Hitler, however he ended up looking like Hitler anyway, which although it was appropriate to the story, isn't how I wanted him to look. However, it is rather funny in lessons making sheets and sheets of photocopies of "Hitler's" face, all of the lower art students much think I'm a rather strange person when I'm walking around the halls with Ingsoc party slogans written allover my sketchbook.
 |
| Made from Shrink Plastic and hanging from my Sketch book. |
 |
| This is one of the sheets I was on about that is covered in "Hitler's" face. |
One of the artists I've been looking at in my research is Barbara Kruger:
She uses found photographs, layering them with text, such text usually questions our views on feminism, classicism, consumerism and individual autonomy and desire. These ideas are contrasted with the images she uses, usually taken from mainstream magazines. Some of her more famous slogans are ones such as "I shop therefore I am," and "Your body is a battleground."
I used her ideas to create a couple of my own posters, I used the classic "Big Brother is Watching You" against the image of just his face which I photocopied from the original poster I drew (the first image). The repetition of his face, really does emphasise that you can't escape the watch of the party. For the second poster I used the three slogans of the party against the repetition of the original poster pattern.
The face will definitely be a motif within my work, but soon I will be moving on to individual opinions, still at important part within the book, although perhaps keeping the theme of politics by asking the views of random people from the street or from college or from anywhere really, this will all be part of my primary research. By getting others opinions I can create new slogans, new ideas, maybe even twisting them to reflect the views of the Big Brother Party.
If anyone has any ideas for artists I can research, or perhaps ideas for my slogans, then please please please feel free to comment or email me.
I hope everyone is having a great weekend, tomorrow I'm off to Liverpool to look at some of the galleries and hopefully I won't fall over on the ice!
So remember, each day, live a little, laugh a little and love a little. ♥
0 Lovely messages
I love reading all of your comments and I promise I will reply to all of them, so remember to check back.
Love you all! ♥
xox
If you leave your link, I'll make sure to pop over. If you don't know how you can find the code here!