Zine
This home made DIY zine for Thought Bubble Festival UK was created using initial images from my Context of Practice sketchbook and then edited digitally using Photoshop. The themes approached in this zine are Human-animal relationships specifically focussing on Human Dominance, the Evolutionary Perspective and the Postmodern Animal. The zine is printed in black and white but the original images are mixed media, combining collated images, drawn illustrations, writings, painting, and cutting/etchings into the paper. Overall I am really pleased with this zine as I have only made a ‘book’ once before which was in first year, so this was a good experience to give a quick DIY zine ago. I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t sell many because I didn’t create it for the target audience at thought bubble. This was because I was more focussed on creating a book showcasing my human dominance themes in my sketchbook for my COP3 project… I can’t imagine that many people would like to own a zine like this as its not very comforting or cute or even has much of a story line! As I had to create this quite a few weeks before the deadline as I was abroad, I had to give and take on the content… however next time I create a zine I would love to create one from scratch with a moving story line and characters! But personally this zine really worked for me and I found the whole process of making it and editing my work really beneficial to my practice!
I should have used a specific programme to create page setup etc which is what I did when I created my other ‘book’ in first year. However due to time restraints I created it in my spare time at home where I did not have this particular programme. I did not find this much of a problem, just took a bit more effort and thought than it would have other wise as I had to work out in my mind the layout of the pages for printing as obviously the pages must be paired up accordingly to how it is presented when the finished zine is folded. I used a mock up paper zine folded with page numbers then unfolded to work from and Photoshop to do this and create accurate page sizes. I created two similar but separate zines as I had quite a lot of images I wanted to incorporate into the zine. One is much more collage focussed, the other with more hand drawn and painted imagery. I used the same front and back cover for both, I chose the illustrations depicting the wording ‘Homo sapien, Latin: Wise Person, The Only Surviving Species of the Genus Homo’ as my covers as I think this is bold but also adds intrigue as most people don’t know much about the other species in the Genus Homo! One theory is that we drove them to extinction either through competition for their resources; we were more developed in language and tools and skills so sapiens took over their food, land and water supplies; or we directly hunted and killed them. The following slides show the page layouts for my two zines:
‘Plato’s Atlantis’ I thought this would be a good piece to start the zine with. ‘Plato’s Atlantis predicted a future in which the ice cap would melt, the waters would rise, and life on earth would have to evolve in order to live beneath the sea once more or perish. Humanity would go back to the place from where it came.’ I think this quote helps to inform the viewer of the themes beneath the zine; the evolutionary perspective and human dominance. This quote shows the viewer the importance of evolution, evolving in order to adapt to survive within the changing environment, it also proves the importance of nature which I take to link to the natural order of animals in nature; we are just part of the animal kingdom, we are not omnipotent, although we often choose to forget this.
‘Birds’ I chose to include these separate pieces of work in my zine as they follow the theme of birds. I obviously put them on a double page spread for this link. I chose to create work looking at birds for various reasons. Firstly I was thinking about the role of the postmodern animal and how to portray the animal as obstacle. With this in mind I used a physical obstacle of a cut out through a human face, this stops the viewer being able to fully read the other human face because there is an animal in the way. Secondly I think birds are really important when acknowledging Homo sapiens dominance over animals as they hold one skill we have not naturally evolved; the ability to fly! We have created tools to do this in an attempt to be as good/better than them however we still are unable to individually fly whenever we want. If you ask someone what their super power would be, it is often flight, this proves how envious we are of their evolutionary adaptation. I really enjoyed the process of using mixed media for this work, both hand rendered and using Photoshop. Cutting out with a scalpel and adding layers was really fun and I felt it add a lot more depth both aesthetically and conceptually to the illustrations. The next page also looks into this play with bird imagery and flight.
‘I Smell You’
In this work I really wanted to convey the theme of predator vs prey, the hunter vs hunted. I also wanted to use senses to really enhance this feeling of the hunt. Without senses we would not survive, being able to smell prey or predators as well as being able to see them makes for a successful Homo sapien. I don’t think we often think of ourselves as Homo sapiens, as predators, but that is what we are. (Debatable for vegetarians but as a whole species) I used collage and mixed media for this work and I really enjoyed mark making with cutting out and sticking as well as using my hands and finger prints with paint. I think this helped with portraying a human as predator/prey element as I used scratch marks and finger prints as the identity of humans.
‘Spear Man’ I paired these two images together because they both show the core elements of ‘man’. Spear man was made to experiment with the simplicity of communicating the form of the Homo sapien, and Homo sapien as hunter. I really like how I have bordered the quote. I painted on the background and then used white pen to work into it by drawing relevant imagery such as eyes and spears, all centred round the theme of ‘the hunt’. I used the quote: ‘Drawing is the most primal artistic activity available to us- an instinctual creative pursuit that can stop time, connect us to the deepest parts of our being and document our most intimate moments and feelings. It can also be, as Louise Clarke admits, a painfully exasperating business.’ Which was relevant because I wanted to appeal to our instinctive nature as Homo sapiens, I wanted to link our instinct as hunters to our instinct as creatives. We have separated creativity from normal life in the way that authorities have categorised creativity as a subject in the form of the arts and something that you can either do or you can’t. ‘I’m just not creative. I can’t draw’ – A very idiotic statement as it is instinctive in all humans and it is used in so many formats, mainly as a way of communication or story telling or gossiping. If you didn’t speak someone's language you would probably try to draw a picture or diagram of what you meant. It is very unlikely that any Homo sapien is incapable of being creative, we have just been taught to separate it from our instinctive behaviour, even though creativity comes into most of your decision making every day, what flowers to buy etc.
‘Asmat Culture’ The writing here is from two different sources. The first is from a gallery magazine interviewing artists, the latter is taken from some information at an exhibition found at the Metropolitan Museum when I visited New York earlier this year. “I am interested in how people commemorate the past, and how the past affects the future- how we deal with remembrance – and this applies to family, relationships, industrial cultures… It’s almost like ‘industrial archaeology’, you could say.” “The Asmat artist enjoys some real advantage over the artist of the Western world. The Asmat culture offers the artist a specific language in form. This is a language whuch every artist can interpret and use accordingly to his genius, and a language which has a very symbolic meaning for the entire culture. Our culture offers the artist no such language. The result is that each painter or sculpture must discover his own means of communicating in form. Only the greatest geniuses are able to invent an expression which has meaning for a nation of people. Further more, the Asmat is a culture where art is a necessary and integrated element. There can be no war, no feasting, without the expenditure of tremendous effort of the part of the sculptor. Thus as long as he culture is intact; art will flourish.” – Michael. C. Rockefeller, November 16, 1961. These two quotes are relevant to the themes of my zine as they focus on the integral instinctive and intuitive part that art plays in human life, it focusses less on Homo sapiens relationship with animals and more on the evolutionary perspective regarding creativity and the production and process of artworks in society.
‘Dominant’ On the left is a collage of a girl in a magazine, I picked her because her pose is socially recognised as one of power, dominance and aggression. I originally used red paint to cast strong brush strokes across her mouth and hands, aiming to convey to the audience a violent but not morbid presence of the death of the animal to aid in the survival and power of the Homo sapien. Caught ‘red handed’ this woman also has the symbol of a crown cut into her head, which in Homo sapien cultures is recognised as part of the shared myths of a ‘royal family’ this family is the most dominance and powerful due to its access to the most resources, (money/food/shelter etc). They have control over most other sapiens, not just animals, although under this shared myth, all animals belong to them too. I paired this with a page with a painted background with the word ‘hunt’ painted onto it using a scratchy dry brush technique- I did this because I wanted it to look harsh and scratchy, it wouldn’t tie into the themes or raw human behaviour of dominance if it was smooth and cautiously drawn. I then wrote on top of this a mixture of quotes from an internet page about humans and the natural environment, and my own opinions. I write about the conflicts Homo sapiens face regarding their own selfish desire of instant survival- for example cutting down trees for fire to keep warm and make food edible; which conflicts against the survival of future generations – e.g. we will need wood in the future to continue the species survival. This can explain why conservation of animals and plants/nature is such a controversial issue.
‘Skin’ I picked these images out of the magazine to collage as they were wearing garments which had the appearance of animal skin. Animal skins have played a huge part in Homo sapiens survival and our ability to dominate over animals has meant that these resources have become easily accessible. Even though today we have other options to fur and skins to keep us warm and protected, they still are used as a statement of power and wealth in fashion. Homo sapiens will find powerful animals such as the snake and crocodile, kill them and steal the materials that sapiens are naturally lacking, such as hard strong scaly skin, and make it suitable for human wear. So not only does it take the powerful characteristic from the animal to add to our own power, but it also shows that we have the ability to kill this powerful animal, we are dominant over it.
‘Faces’ I wanted to focus on pack mentality in this illustration so I found an image of a group in a magazine and used this. I cut out the faces with a scalpel and then cut into the face further and took away the individual elements such as the eyes and nose. I wanted to play with what makes us recognisably and categorically human. When we look at someone what makes us register them as human? And after we do this how can we work out if they are friend or foe? I used this collage to play around with proportions and layout of the face but I did not want to push it too far for example in a Picasso type way, as I just wanted to create a slightly unnerving view for the audience, still recognisable as Homo sapien. I think their expressions are hard to read but seem defensive, which is what I wanted to portray as part of this pack mentality when confronting a lone individual. On the opposing page is quite a plain image. I really liked this image in the magazine and thought it would be good to spike her fingers into claws and then cut her face out and put it on an unnerving tilt. Homo sapiens pick up on the smallest things in order to classify and categorise everything, particularly living things.
‘Horns’ Here I just used found image and collage as well as simple paint work to explore how the Homo sapiens form is rendered recognisable. I also wanted to focus on animal parts such as horns, used as products for Homo sapiens in order to escalate their power and dominance. Horns on the head, like the Vikings battle wear, definitely increases fear in those that approach it, good for the Homo sapien when it wants to appear threatening, so no one confronts it, or when it is actually a threat aka being a predator in war or to animals. The first point goes somewhere to explain why animal parts such as horns are used in fashion, you want to appear threatening, you want to be powerful, looked up to, you don’t want anyone to mess with you- you want to look ‘cool’. Fashion magazine may seem a boring place to pull and collate images from but I thought about it and it seems an obvious place as where else is human dominance over animals so obvious than haute couture.