10/02/18 (Saturday)

UNIT 7 PROJECT BEGINS

I have decided to explore a few different themes for my Unit 7 project. Having been online and taken a look at the presentation on Moodle, I have decided to draw some inspiration by the topics provided to us. I quite like the idea of Security, Identity, Law, and Tradition. At the moment I know that I want to do something that involves women. I want to do a project that shows our strength as women. I have been inspired by my Aunt who is currently writing a book in the Hausa dialect (a northern nigerian language) which revolves around teaching children about the unsung heroins of our country. I read a few of the pages she emailed to me and was actually really surprised that I had never heard of a lot of these remarkable women. I have now been introduced to heroines such as Queen Amina of Zazzau and Aisha Dan Fodio. It saddens me that my generation may not know much about these figures who played such a huge part in out country's history. I feel that it is the right moment in time to focus join celebrating black women. 

11/02/18 (Sunday)

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I feel that whatever my project ends up being titled, my main focus would ultimately be on women in Nigeria. This means that I am at a disadvantage because I will not have a lot in terms of primary research seeing as I am not in Nigeria nor do I plan on travelling there during the course of this project. As a result, I contacted my mother since my family plans on visiting London over the easter. I decided to ask if they could bring anything cultural that told the country's history in some shape or form as a starting point for me.

12/02/18 (Monday)

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I wanted stones, stamps and even old Nigerian currency just to show aspects of colonialism as well as gender inequality. We have no females on of currency. I am so happy that my mother is able to get a hold of these items. I can incorporate them into my work through various ways such as prints or even as arrangements to take photographs in the style of Jim Golden. I have been taking a look at his work and have become increasingly inspired by his style. He takes forgotten object and make such beautiful compositions. He creates series of images all showcasing the numerous objects he found lying about. Since I am thinking of forgotten female heroines as the title of this project, his approach might be a good one to consider. 

14/02/18 (Wednesday)

At the moment, I am entertaining the idea of  being "cherished" as well as being "forgotten". This is because although Nigerians cherish folklore and all these stories about female heroines, we are slowly but surely forgetting them. I had a conversation with my grandmother and she was telling about all sorts of tales her own parent and grandparents told her. Most of which, of course, I had never heard of before. She even said that she might be able to get a hold of some books for me. That would be quite useful for this project. I hope to tell the tales of the Nigerian female heroines in a creative and visually interesting way. In fact, having had these conversations with my grandmother, I am thinking of including women in my family that inspire as a part of this project. This would make it more personal.

17/02/18 (Saturday)

I had a slight revelation today. Instead of just focusing on unsung heroines and looking at stories that are being forgotten, I feel that I should also take a look at current political issues happening in Nigeria. This will not only add credibility to my work, but will also help shed light on issues women are still facing today and start conversations amongst young Nigerian women on what we can do to begin to bring forward a change in this systematic abuse.

I am choosing to include the story of the Chibouk girls in this project. I want everything to be centred around these girls because their story is really close to my heart. I want to  take a more personal approach to this project, which is something I haven't done with all my other projects. At the time the girls were kidnapped, I was in school in a nearby city called Kano in northern Nigeria. I was only about 13 years old and had never been more afraid of anything in my life as I was of Boko Haram, the terrorist group that kidnapped the girls. I have memories of bombs being dropped and our houses shaking from the impact. I remember people crying due to the fear of death and the long nights many would stay up wondering when peace would come.

To me it indicates the failures of the Nigerian government and society when it comes to female rights and education. What happened to these young girls is the epitome of of that failure. The terrorist group that kidnapped; 'Boko Haram' is in the Hausa language and the direct English translation is 'Education is a Sin'.  They claimed to follow Islam, yet all they preached was the opposite of what Islam stood for. It was a very confusing time for me, I just could not understand why all this was taking place. I hope for this project to be some sort of a way to push me closer to reaching that understanding.

18/02/18 (Sunday)

Having recently discovered my senegalese roots, I wanted to incorporate this into the unit 7 project. I found out that Senegal was one of the major areas in Africa that slaves were being traded. Not only this but the allegations and tales about a specific location called  'The House of Slaves' really intrigued me. 'The house of slaves' as the name suggests is a tan coloured building where africans were stored before being put aboard a ship and sent to the western world in the name of slavery. Even though this on its own is so awful, what stands out to me about 'The House of Slaves' is a particular door now referred to as the 'Door of no return'. It is believed that more than a million slaves passed through the doors of the house.

It is located in a building called was has since been reconstructed and re-opened as a museum in 1962. It is believed Although this has not been confirmed, I find it highly tragic. Even tough I am an African, I have been lucky enough not to have been so affected by our involvement in slavery because it was not practiced in Northern Nigeria. Unlike in southern Nigeria where chiefs sold people into slavery, in the North our rulers never allowed it. Learning about my senegalese ancestry and 'The door of no return' affected me because now I am aware that there is a possibility of some of my ancestors being slaves. It is not distant anymore but something that is deep-rooted in my own family and people's history. 

I feel that this reseasrch is useful in terms of being able to compare the ways in which the mentality of slavery still manifests today in the form of social injustices such as the role of African women. In light of disasters such as the Chibok girls kidnapping, I have come to realise that living in a patriachal society where numersous men feel that they have ownership over their women can be compared to some aspects of colonialism and how imperialists felt as though they had ownership over the locals.

20/02/18 (Tuesday)

Finalising My Unit 7 Project Concept:

I went to study support today in order to get help with my proposal writing. Having read my proposal, the tutor established that my writing was good, however my ideas sis not flow well. I have a lot of themes around gender inequality, the african culture and history, which I needed to narrow down. I have also been playing around with the idea of lost identity and how one reclaims things. The tutor told me that my proposal was more for a dissertation than a project because I have not really outlined how I physically need to create the work in my project. She gave me a list of questions that might help me narrow down my ideas and make them clearer:

How do you save things for history?

How do you reclaim things?

Can people appropriate it?

How does it relate to how we present ourselves?

How we compose ourselves? Purposeful Identity

I also did an exercise where I had to identify what was similar between all the images I chose to include in my brief. I noticed that most of them had either of the following; Colour, specific composition, value (changing currencies - use - sentimental value), Matriarchs - female warriors/heroines, headdresses, jewellery, things that mean something to people or meant something once, Identity and feeling lost.

I needed to narrow this down so I asked myself: Who, why, what, how, where

Who: Strong women.

Why: To shed light on tragedies like the Chibok kidnapping and pay homage to unsung heroines of Nigeria.

What: Gender roles/ Patriachal African societies. 

How: Through a series of prints, perhaps by using African folklore and symbols to tell their stories.

Where: Nigeria.

Many young girls wonder what their place in the world is. They ask what their place in society is and why they often feel inferior. In numerous underdeveloped countries, women are still trying to discover their voices. I hope to go back in time and interpret the tales and legends of heroines such as Queen Amina of Zaria that have been passed down many generations. The aim of this project is to think about how these stories present themselves as memories, photos and mementos. 

Objects have sentimental value and can be cherished just as how people are treasured. I would love to visit museums in order to see heirlooms passed down many generations. Having done these excursuses to try and figure out what I want out of this project and what this project means to me, I have come to the decision that this project is going to be a celebration of the unsung heroines of my country Nigeria as well as an exploration of the type of history passed down over the years. 

During the research stage, I hope to explore  to use my own ancestral roots to explore areas in Africa which have been subjected to harsh lifestyles due to their patriarchal ways.

22/02/18 (Thursday)

Having made a decision to stick with the chibouk girls as being a part of my project (perhaps even the central focus), I was obliged to begin the physical sketchbook work by sharing their story. However, I had a problem: I had no idea how to incorporate the girls into my work. I kept asking myself how I was supposed to make samples with these girls when all the images I had were of them wearing dark coloured hijabs and standing in rows. Then an idea hit me. I remember looking at newspapers when I was in Nigeria In December and seeing numbers on the front cover at the side. These numbers were the number of days the girls have been missing for. Each day was a new number. This lead me to think about the number of girls that were actually stolen. It was over 200. I had all this information but something was still missing.

It is evident that these issues are very close to home, and I wanted this project to be very personal. I have images of explosions and soldiers and just needed to make that personal connection. Having done all this thinking, I realised that I needed to explore basic human relationships. Thats when it hit me. The first thing one does when meeting a stranger is to introduce oneself; we say our names. The perfect way for me to introduce all these girls into the project and make it personal is to use their names. I went online and found an article which had all their names, even categorising them into religions. I copied the names into a word documents and printed them out. Something was still missing. I decided to revisit the word document and make some changes. By mistake I highlighted a section of the text blue. This mistake happened to be a blessing in disguise as when the printer printed out the text and I saw the highlighted parts, I was convinced that I had a solid idea for what to do next.

 

23/02/18 (Friday)

After yesterdays mini revelation, I am happy to say that today I produced a large body of samples focusing around the text idea with the names of all the chibouk girls. I was able to highlight the names in different colours in the word document. I though that the prints which looked best and produced the best outcomes in terms of samples were those done in the colours blue, pink and yellow. Maybe later on in the project I can use my knowledge from the colour project I did previously and try to consider the meaning of these colours because colour really does affect the mood of ones' work. 

24/02/18 (Saturday)

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Experimented with roses today. Rose is a symbol of love and unity. Seeing as I am doing some research on the chibouk girls and Boko Haram, I thought it would be the perfect contrast to include such a positive symbol amidst chaos. I want to juxtapose harmony and disharmony. I decided to start of by letting the roses dry for days in order to symbolise how the families of this girls suffered for months on end, not know where their daugtyers and sisters were, having nothing but love and hope to keep them pulling through. 

Then I plucked the petals and lay them on the names of the chibouk girls. However, I felt like something was still missing. This led me to look for images of the actual girls that were kidnapped. Not only did it look better aesthetically, I feel that the viewer will have more of an understanding or even connection with the sample simply because he/she would be able to see the girls and not just have to read text (their names).

25/02/18 (Sunday)

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Leading on from yesterday, I decided to take things a bit further by trying to experiment with some mark making. The way in which I started out the project makes it seem very text based. Although this is not a bad thing (since I hope to make prints as an outcome), I feel that including some drawing as a contrast would look really got.

Unfortunately for me, I don't have a lot of primary research. This is simply because of my location (the project is about women in Nigeria and I am all the way in London). Seeing as I literally had nothing to do some observational drawing with, I decided to draw out the shapes of the chibouk girls from when they were sitting in rows from the famous footage published by Boko Haram. I then included a nit of text on the drawings to see how it looked. I think it looked good, as long as the drawings do not over power the text.

26/02/18 (Monday)

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27/02/18 (Tuesday)

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When I first saw the image above, I was quite confused as to what to think. All I had in mind was the fact that it seemed to be a series of images that perhaps tell a story of the various locations being shown. This reminded me of my own idea of showcasing the various parts/locations of Africa in which the women suffer the most. For example, I could look at areas in Nigeria where the Chibouk girls may have been during their journey to the forest where they were kept hostage. I might even be able to create a series of print designs, making these locations the background and at the focal point have the name of each girl printed on it. Of course, this would be quite difficult to achieve, as I am not in Nigeria and would have to find another way of getting images of these locations. Sometimes, the project itself seems quite difficult to develop due to the fact that I have no access to physical materials. This ultimately means that I have less to work with. However, I am determined not to let that hinder my work because I am confident in my decision that this is the perfect topic for me to do as my unit 7 project. It is a topic so close to home and one that I can really relate to as a young Muslim Nigerian girl.

I often have conversations with my mother where I tell her that we embody everything society despises. We are women, we are of African decent, and we are Muslims. Living in a world like this is sometimes really difficult when one is being judged even before being given the opportunity to introduce themselves. We were the hijab, and that does the introduction for us. Many think we are oppressed due to religion, however by focusing on the Chibouk girls, I want to that religion is not the problem here. Rather it is the men that feel that they have the power to take this religion and alter it, turning it into something that will benefit them in their own evil endeavours that causes havoc open our women and the country as a whole. This took me a long time to realise. Therefore as a person who is personally affected by these issues, I feel that it is my duty to represent these girls and celebrate them and all the other unsung heroines who deserved to be heard.

28/02/18 (Wednesday)

My focus today was on my own Identity as an African Muslim girl. This was inspired by the research I had done earlier in the day on Hassan Hajjaj. I feel that as a muslim in Nigeria, there is a conflict between religion and culture. Religion says do one thing and culture says the complete opposite. I feel as though this is simply because the culture in Nigeria is so high and strong. The traditions are still practiced today and there is huge emphasis on them even in day to day life. I would like to explore these issues, however I would have to be careful in doing so because this subject matter could even be a separate project due to how broad it is. 

01/03/18 (Thursday)

I decided to go and take a look in my diary because I wrote a few entries during the time the issues with Boko Haram was at its worst in Nigeria. I was shocked at what I had found. I had totally forgotten what I was going through at the time; what we were all going through as a nation. It amazed me how easily one can forget things, even memories as traumatic as these. I remember showing this diary entry to my mother who showed it to my Aunty, a journalist. She told me to write more about my thoughts on Boko Haram so that it can go on the newspaper. I never got to continue with the writing. I hope to use this information in my project by putting heavy emphasis on newspapers. I told my father to collect some Nigerian newspapers so that he can bring some over when he comes to London  It would be interesting to combing the newspaper text with the text prints I made using the names of the chibouk girls. 

A Diary Entry From 2012 highlighting my thoughts on the events taking place:

People must be at home before Magrib. People must be extra careful at all times. People must try not to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. If children are killed during the bombing sessions and if parents refuse to get their kids to safety and what so ever, the police won't take responsibility. No more motor cycles must be seen on the road at 6pm. Cars should also follow the curfew. If anyone is found disobeying these rules that person must be punished......
They never end! Its been a week. Tears filled my eyes as I watch and listen as what used to be our peaceful Kano crumble to pieces. Why?  This is so unfair for the people. Innocent people, innocent children and maybe even animals were killed on Friday. As if that wasn't even enough, now we have to follow some rules and curfews. From what I see here, our old Kano has disappeared as if it had never been. It has been replaced by a battle field. I don't even know if it will ever be back to normal. Can I never be able to call Kano my sweet home? Could this be the end of it? Have these people finally gotten what they want? No, they haven't and they will never. Someday, somehow this would all be history and I would want to live to see that day. The day every man is joyous, the day we will all be peaceful and happy, the day Kano will rise and be glorious, the day we would be proud to call Nigeria our home. All that seems so impossible, but after these passed weeks, I don't believe in the word impossible anymore.  Last year I would have told a person who said there would be a huge crisis that would cause buildings to combust and people to burn, silly. I would have told a person who said Kano will change insane. But now, look at us. Who are we to believe in the word impossible. We never new what we had then, was enough. Peace was enough, but we were never grateful until it was snatched from us, like some piece of candy being snatched away from a baby. I feel so scared, so empty....so lost. All we can do now is hope for the best. That was the only thing that wasn't taken away from us, the only thing that keeps us going. The thing we shall all cherish now, forever and till all this is over. Hope.

02/03/18 (Friday)

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My father, having heard I am doing a project on Nigeria, decided to send me the images above as a form of primary research. These are traditionally woven quilts he bought from the local market place. I absolutely love the colour palette. I also love the patterns and the symbols within the fabric. I wonder what they mean. Perhaps I could look into this further and do some research on traditional Nigerian weaving methods. I could even try combining weave and print for this project, after all I mentioned in my brief that I want to explore as many textiles fabric constriction methods as possible.

03/03/18 (Saturday)

LIVE PROJECT

The main focus today was to do some primary research. However, that was not looking likely. I visited Selfridges with family and was surprised to find that it served as a starting point for the live project. I wanted to explore the building in order to find things it had in common with Harrods. I noticed that there were large pillars all around the building, reminding me of ancient greek coliseums. I love how elegant they made the interiors look. Harrods has a section which is made to look Egyptian in terms of the decor. I love how both buildings harbour such a strong sense of culture through culture to their interiors. There was a small exhibition on the top floor of Selfridges: 

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What I noticed is that they had items from various cultures, including the African culture. It was interesting to see how others interacted with the objects on display. I am now inspired to try and include as much culture as I can in this Harrods project. Maybe I can go there and take pictures of the Egyptian section of the the department store. I can't wait to see where this project takes me and if I decide to carry on with it.

04/03/18 (Sunday)

LIVE PROJECT

Today I did some sketchbook work focusing on my findings on Harrods keeping lots of wild animals in the basement of the department store. I was so shocked to learn about this that I had to include it in this project. I learned that they even sold a lion called christian to two Russian men. There is a documentary about it, which I hope to watch. I started off with mark making and then decided to combine that with images. I also wanted to do something with snakeskin, seeing as snakes are also on of the main animals they kept. 

05/03/18 (Monday)

LIVE PROJECT

We did some further research in school today. I decided to go ahead and do some more research on animals and the Egyptian culture. It was interesting to see what the others are focusing on. I really liked how some people were focused on the structure of the building itself rather than a concept they came up with. It is a good way to approach such a project. At the moment, I don't know where my research will lead me. I am hoping to create prints but I am open to trying out knit as well.

07/03/18 (Wednesday)

LIVE PROJECT

I worked on some prints today, focusing on the Egyptian desert. I want to combine this with my mark making using snakeskin. I also decided to add some wires as a form of 3D element to show contrast. I don't want the samples looking too flat. Having added the wires, I really like the way they are looking. They remind me a bit of the samples I did for my corduroy project. I feel like I should try and move away from my usual style of working and be more experimental. 

06/03/18 (Thursday)

LIVE PROJECT

Today at school I was given a bit of feedback from my peers. They said they liked the samples, but that I should try working larger scale. They even suggested that I go down and use the printer to blow up my sections of my print samples and see if they would make a good design for fabric. I decided to try that out, however it was really difficult for me to get the printer to work the way I wanted. With my friend's help, we were able to blow up a couple of samples and even change the way it looked by moving the paper around in the scanner while it was copying the image so that it had a zigzag effect. I had no idea one could do this. It came out really interesting. 

10/03/18 (Saturday)

During my research session today, I was surprised to learn about an all female village in Kenya. A part of me was ashamed that I did not know about this. It inspired me to have a chat with some of the members of my family and a classmate of mine. Upon asking them what they thought about a village where no men were allowed, most of them asked the common questions; How do they reproduce? What is their law system like? How do they earn their living? Why and how does this even exist? It influenced a great debate within my own mind because on one hand, I applaud these women for going against the norms and on the other hand I was sad for my fellow Nigerian girls because they didn't seem to have the confidence to do this.Our culture is so wrapped up in its traditions that tradition is the law. To go against the law is to go against the ancestors, and the people, and the voice of the people are the men. 

I was truly inspired by the stories of these strong women who chose to defy everything they were taught in life. Tradition is a huge part of our lives in africa. and the fact that these woman chose to defy it, to do what many of us only dream of doing truly astounded me. It made me see hope for the dire and it made me which the same for my nigerian sisters that have been so beaten down by our partiacjal laws and traditions that step is off any opinions or rights to speak out against the injustice. 

This is really personal to me because just a few months ago, a Nanny that worked for my family came to seek refuge in our home in order to escape an arranged marriage. This is still happening today. Even though I am luky enough to have been brought up in an educated and forward thinking house-hold, I still have nightmares of arranged marriages simply because it is so integrated into our culture. 

12/03/18 (Monday) - Progress Tutorial

Feedback On Progress:

Harrods
I think you've done a good job with the project so far, however, I feel as though I have seen this from you before. I would like for you to take more risks when approaching your projects. Be aware of your safe space and try to push the limits of that. You do not want to be repetitive.
 
Unit 7
Your unit 7 project is absolutely AMAZING!!!!! Things to do: get down to the 3D workshop and play with perspex - you could cut out some of the shapes that you are creating within your collage and add the perspex on top? You could cut 3D shapes and create almost sculptural elements which exist outside of your book? Consider working in a more 3D space or playing more with exaggerated layers. Introduce ankara fabrics into the work? Love the choice of materials. The strong with the wire around it. I think it is great that you are highlighting materials and imagery unique to Nigeria but also that you give it a twist by adding something more contemporary. Your colour choices are great! Love the pendants and the paper samples and would love to see you develop that into something outside of your book. Maybe create a sample made entirely out of the pendants and the paper creates the collage? Think intelligently about the choices you make. Carry on! Great materials! Great message! Really strong project!
 
Workflow
You need to really work hard on your workflow! You should be reflecting daily! You need to evidence that you are analysing and critically reflecting on the process of your project. Without evidence of this to a high standard, you will
not be able to achieve a high grade. Your research is wide ranging but not enough! You must make sure that you analysis every 3rd - 5th reference image.

My Response To The Feedback:

Having been given this feedback, I now know that I should carry on with my unit 7 project. This is simply because I connect more with the concept and I'm more ambitious with my use of materials. What I need to focus on now is workflow. I need to ask myself the following questions when analysing research images: Why have I uploaded the image? Is it the process the artist has taken? Is it the aesthetics? How does it inspire me to move my work forward? From now on I need to try and outline the connections between my work and the research I am uploading. 

13/03/18 (Tuesday)

I took a break from the live project today and decided to go to the library in hopes of attaining more research images for my unit 7 project. I had a look at a few books in the library, one of which is called Nbele. I was absolutely in awe of the beauty of the architecture of the huts in the villages as well as the people's attires. What really drew me to the culture are the bold colours and large shapes within the patterns of the walls of the buildings. I was honestly baffled because the houses were nothing extravagant. They were all mostly huts and very simple in form. However, the way in which the surface of the mud walls embellished with the paint and patterns made them pieces of art. It is safe to say that I had no idea these types of structurs existed. In my hometown Kano, we also have painted mud houses in the ancient part of the city, however, not to this type of scale. I really hope to use the patterns in some way within my work. Perhaps I could even try an recreate some or combine them with text. I'm thinking of combining them with the printed names of the missing girls. Maybe I could use acetate paper to layer the text onto the images. I am excited to see where this takes me.

17/03/18 (Saturday)

I decided to evaluate my live project today just to get it out of the way and focus on the unit 7 project. Although I wrote a mini evaluation on theursday, I feel that I should write a proper one on here.

Harrods Project Evaluation:

My Harrods Project is influenced by the ways in which the Department store used to store wild animals in the basement. I found this highly shocking. I could not wrap my head around the fact that they took animals out of their natural habitats for the purpose of gaining profits. I decided to create a series of patterns inspired by that animals that were being kept in the Department store. My main focus was on snakeskin. This was also inspired by the ruby/sapphire/diamond encrusted Rene Caovilla Sandals that were being guarded by an actually Egyptian cobra.If I had more time or was continuing with the project I would have gone more into the store's relationship with Egyptian culture. I did however, do some research on Egyptian desserts and landscapes. Overall I feel that this project would have benefitted from more experimentation mark making and drawing wise. I have learned that I need to step out of my comfort zone and try to create less controls samples. I need to be more experimental in my approach. 

20/0318 (Monday)

I showed the tutor my work but she said that the perspex she meant were the tube ones that I can use to stuff the ankara material. I hope to go to the wood workshop tomorrow and see if I can buy some. I have already checked on amazon but unfortunately they did not have the ones I wanted. I hope to also cut the m up smaller so that I can include them in my samples not just finished final outcomes. I aim to also combine them with the pendants. Maybe there is a way for me to stick the pendants at the end of the tubes? I'lll fond out soon enough when I buy the tubes tomorrow.

20/03/18 (Tuesday)

Wood Workshop Day

Having had my progress Tutorial, I am now aware of what needs to be done for my unit 7 project:

- Get down to the 3D workshop and play with perspex

Regarding the perspex, I am hoping to be able to buy them from the wood workshop. When I get them, I the aim is to cut them out into various shapes. I can then use these shapes as a part of my collage. Imagine: an image of a woman that inspires me collaged with the text print (names of chibouk girls) and with coloured transparent perspex on her face to highlight the chosen figure. I could also have it the other way round and have the perspex on certain bits of the text. So for example I could have orange coloured perspex on the words Schoolgirls to highlight it and bring the viewers attention to it instead of having to look at seemingly meaningless words and letters on the samples. This would give me the more exaggerated layers I need for my samples.

- Include Ankara to my work

I could use tube perspex and stuff the Ankara materials through the tubes. Ankara (African print fabric) would be a good combination with the text. I went to the wood workshop and thank goodness the tubes were available. I was able to purchase three of different length.  Some of the tubes had wider holes so it would be easier for me to stuff the fabric through them. Others however were much smaller. The big ones I will hopefully use on my final outcomes, while the small ones I can use as testers on my samples.  

I managed to purchase some perspex as well. I was afraid they only had the non transparent coloured ones but they had the ones I needed. I got about four and they are pretty large in size. I did not know ow much of it I needed. Hopefully this is more than enough. The aim is to come back tomorrow and start cutting them up into smaller and more usable sizes. 

21/03/18 (Wednesday)

Wood Workshop Day

I had no time to waste today. As soon as I got to school I headed down to the wood workshop. I desperately needed to cut out the perspex I bought yesterday. They were so wide. It was a read hassle trying to get the machine to cut them out straight. The technicians were really patient with me and kind enough to show me how to cut the perspex into strips. This is useful because I can then use letterset to print on the chibouk girls names onto the perspex. This would look really cool when combined with the vintage styled images I have of the women in my family.

If I had more time I would have drawn out the shapes I wanted and use those as a form of stencil to help me cut out the others. However, seeing as I only have today and tomorrow to use the wood work shop, I just cut out lots of random shapes in hopes of them being useful later on. If I had more time in the wood workshop I would have definitely planned the cutting out more thoroughly. Despite the limited amount of time, I was really pleased with myself because I managed to get a lot done today without injuring myself. The technicians had to warn me countless times that my fingers were too close to the blade. I am surprised people haven't had accidents yet because it is so easy to slip up and mistakenly get close to the sharp blades. 

I also rummaged through the free wood section in the workshop. I think I should take my 3D sampling to a whole new level and make the prints on wood. Not to mention, I have been looking for natural materials to work with. This may be the perfect solution.

22/03/18 (Thursday)

Wood Workshop Day

Today is our final taught day before we have to work independently for the next 2 weeks. As planned, upon arriving in school I headed straight to the wood workshops to finish off the remainder of the perspex shapes. When I got to the workshop, I noticed a pile of long wood in a box. Since it's free I decided to experiment with drilling wholes into them because I wanted to make my pieces more interactive. I have previously been given feedback by tutors and even classmates that say that it would be amazing if my samples could interact with the viewer. For example they wanted to be able to remove things and put them back into the samples again. They also advised me not to make the samples flat and have higher and lower surfaces. By drilling holes into the wood, I can place the pendants in there. I have also recently been playing around with ropes and twisting coloured wires onto the ropes. I could definitely put some of those in the wholes or even into the perspex tubes that I bought so its not just ankara fabric thats in there. I managed to drill as many holes as possible before it was time to leave. I am excited to see what I can do with the scrap circular wood. I could make mini samples with them or have them on top or my other samples. 

23/03/18 (Friday)

Today I did further work on developing my print ideas for the Heritage project. I was really inspired by the posters I saw in the book "Black panther movement. They were images from Emory Douglas. I absolutely love the way they presented text with images - not just images but drawings. It was more graphics than textiles in nature but I am trying to keep things open for as long as possible before finalising my designs for the final outcome of this project. The posters really inspired me to try also combining images with text as I had done before, only this time, there will be a relationship between the two: 

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As can be seen in the sample above, my aunty is on the left with all the pink text, will my uncle is on the left with the blue text. This is my way of using imagery, text and colour ad Emory Douglas has sone to share a message and make the viewer think. Pink is stereotypically for girls and blue for boys. Maybe I can create more samples switching roles and putting the girls with blue text while the boys with pink. I now know how powerful posters can be; they are weapons of the arts. 

26/03/18 (Monday)

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I received these tile samples from a friend today. They heard about my project and thought this could give me some inspiration. I really love the tiles, however I feel that it would have been put to more use If I was still carrying on with the harrods project. This is simply because of how luxurious they look. It would have been interesting to see what they would look like if I combined them with my snakeskin prints. 

Voice Note Recorded On 29/03/18 - Ideas on sample presentation

31/03/18 (Saturday)

Starting To Work On Final Piece Outcomes

I am finally starting with my final pieces today! I have decided to make a combination of wall art and necklaces inspired by the idea of female warriors (Dahomey female warrior tribe as well as Dora milaje from the Black Panther movie). I have different types and sizes of wooden boards cut from the wood workshop. The long ones can be taken to be spears while the short square ones as necklaces that only women of the tribe/army are entitled to wear (by this I basically all women). It is a celebration of women, flipping the roles and finally being seen. I hope it all works out as I plan. 

I decided to pain some of the wood yellow, blue and white. This is so that there is a contrast and it is not just all text. Less is more. Unfortunately I did not have any paintbrushes with me so I had to use posca pens and hand paint the rest. Nonetheless I am super proud of my self because they turned out really good. I hope to use images from my mother's first birthday. This is simply because I consider it to be the beginning of everything. It has almost all the aunties I admire in one image, including my grandmother. 

An important interview with Abba (Father) explaining what Boko Haram means - Recorded On 02/04/18

03/04/18 (Tuesday)

I found some really interesting images online today. They were of various army general and soldiers in aggressive poses and some even giving speeches. I decided to print out a few and experiment with including the chibouk girls names just as I did the first few samples in sketchbook. However, this time, instead of focusing on Boko haram (Education is a sin) I decided to change the name into Boko Halal (Education is permitted). This gives it a positive twist, to have men advocating for female education. I don't know of I want to take the project down this route because I want the for to be entirely on women, however it is an interesting perspective. feel that I can use this in me work and take it further. 

Although it was a good concept in theory, in practice it was a whole other story. Due to the fact that the images were all in black and white, it  did not compliment my colour palette very well. I also had issues trying to decide on the composition of the sales. was I going to that the text covering the soldiers faces or was I placing their figures on the text? In the end I tried both and decided to experiment with Ankara fabric (african patterned fabric). I was really thankful my mother had these scraps of fabric because the really helped. The most successful samples I made today was with the fabrics. They ended up being the solution to my previous issue.

05/04/18 (Thursday)

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I have managed to create a series of necklaces using the square shaped wood I got from the workshop in school. I also bought a few circular shaped wood pieces off amazon just to add some contrast to all the squares and rectangular shapes. I am so happy with the way the pieces are looking. Now I want to start adding the ankara fabric to the pieces. 

07/04/18 (Saturday)

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Today on the group chat, I found out that the new deadline for the project is the 9th of April. Even though it was really lovely catching up with my friends and peers, I was a bit worried about this new information because I was unaware of the email that was sent out about this new deadline. I am glad to almost be done with my final outcomes. All I have left to do now is workflow and finish off my sketchbook work.

08/04/18 (Sunday)

Photoshoot Day 1

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I had the photoshoot of my final outcomes today. Thank goodness my grandmother and mother agreed to do it. I wanted them to do it because essentially I did this project because of the fact that they inspire me. I wanted to take the pictures in the park, but unfortunately it rained today so everything was wet. We had to switch locations. However, I feel like it worked out for the best because the white background will not take away form the pieces and their traditional attire. Having taken their images, I decided to still go to the park and try taking a few of myself with the piece. I actually think that the images I took of my mother, sister and grandmother were more successful. Overall, I am really satisfied with the way the images turned out.

13/04/18 (Friday)

Photoshoot 2

IMG_5392.jpgI had the biggest fright today. I thought I had lost all of my final pieces for Unit 7. The Photoshoot was at 3pm and my pieces were still no where to be seen. However, after much stress, hassle and panicking, I was able to track them down in the school building. Unfortunately since my grandmother was too shy to be a part of the shoot, my pieces had to be shot on their own. I was a little disappointed at first. However, when I saw the way they looked being played across a white cloth covered table on set, I knew that everything worked out for the best. The images looked absolutely wonderful and I am happy to say that I am immensely proud of how this project turned out. I started out with a vague idea of wanting to celebrate unsung heroines of my country and ended up not only doing that but pain homage to the young girls of Nigeria and showing my gratitude for the women in my life who keep inspiring me today.

16/04/18 (Monday)

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Today at school everyone was working on their A2 sheets and preparing for the final deadline tomorrow.

END OF PROJECT