Carolann Parr Art

 Project proposal  My plan for this project, is to explore a made-up counterculture around the idea of taking back control/identity from those who are in authority. This counterculture can be seen in both a negative and positive late, as the people reclaiming their power have been labelled as criminals. On one hand, this could be viewed as in a negative way as the people/criminals deserve the punishment they received, making it seen as unjustified for them to take back their freedom. But it can also be seen as everyday people reclaiming what was unjustly taken from them—those who were wrongfully accused, committed crimes out of necessity to survive, or became victims of their circumstances, not intending harm or feeling remorse for what they did, or simply making a mistake. I will be taking inspiration from Japanese criminal tattoos from the Edo period, which were used to mark someone as a criminal. I'll also be looking at traditional Japanese tattooing, as this form of tattoo...

Talk with my partner Over October 2 week break Today I had a small chat with my partner on ideas around tattooing and concepts as I been struggling with my ideas and linking it more to the project brief of counterculture, I have also been feeling like while i like my idea that it isn't strong enough and i would like to make it stronger or see if there is another ideas that i can work on that is stronger and i will enjoy more. This chat was very productive and I now have a more clear idea on what idea/concept I would like to further explore.  My partner also helped me with research on the Japanese Criminal tattoos, where I found out they was more used to just mark someone as a criminal and where they are and less on specific crimes they have done. This is what helped push my next idea, having a better understanding on what these tattoos mean make me feel more confident on using them in my work and using as a starting point for growing ideas. My partner had the idea of creating a pri...

Ideas/Sketches after my first full talk with Julian These are the sketches and work I have done after having my first talk with Julian (just before we broke up for 2 weeks). This work has been a mix of just putting my ideas onto paper as well as a small experiment with an idea.  These are notes I tock after having the talk. This is a small experiment with using different colours to mean different things, using bamboo as my subject matter. This is some sketches I did in relation to the small experiment I did with making a Teru Bozo doll (unsuccessful) and a paper/tape mock up of a small man plus tattoo design for this man. My plan was to show two sides, one side of the doll being positive meaning and the other side being negative however i only ended up doing one side of the doll. These are some materials I collected around the studio to use in my experiment, as I wanted to work with found materials for this mini experiment. (this small ...

  In Edo Japan those tattoos were used to mark criminals as a from of punishment. Placed on spots like arms and forehead. Each tattoo was specific for the crime, the region or even how many times a crime was committed by a person. Some tattoos say Kyoto, Edo and Tokyo in todays language, which was used to say where the criminal was in prison, whereas some others can say something like Evil for repeat offenders. The forehead tattoos were for more intense offenses. These are some lose translations and meanings behind the tattoos, due to the language barrior and the time difference, some of these meanings may not be accurate to what they meant and are more educated guesses. Province = a location within a country. In these tattoos they can either mean where the criminal is from/committed the crime or where the prison is located that they attend/attended. Magistrates = volunteers who hear cases in their local community 1. Kyoto Province - location 2. unknown 3. Local Governor - (a guess...

 Today I had a talk with Julian on my ideas. This was helpful, as I had a chance to tell him my ideas and he was able to give me more ideas on other things I can explore/do in relation to what I have told him. He mentioned filming myself making these men, in both clay as I planned to do as well as other materials. I like this idea, and it is something that I have done before and think it will be enjoyable to do, as a small experiment with making small films.  Julian also said about making a box to put these men in. I would like to look into making a box, looking a gift boxes/boxes that hold something of value and then design/make a box to hold one or mutiple of the men in. I feel like making a box for these men will make them seem to have more value or give it a more mysterious look to them depending on what type of box i make. He mention looking at opposites as a way to link it more to counterculture, i like this and want to explore it in different ways, both with colours and...

First 2 weeks of ideas/sketches These are the sketches I have done over the past too weeks. During this time I been more focus on putting my ideas on paper and slightly touching onto them as i keep on developing and exploring new ones. I wanted to focus on the documentation of the ideas over fully exploring them as I had a lot i want to explore, having them all down in one place will make it easier to keep track of them and see which ones I'm more interested in and ones I'm less interested in. A un-sketched idea; I had the idea of putting tattoo designs onto images of skulls. This came from the symbolism of 'the need for protection against danger' and something to do with mortality (Edit - I don't fully remember why i wanted to do this, other then a similar reason as to the cat tattoos) I was inspired by traditional Japanese cat tattoos, these tattoos often had other symbolism and images within their fur, kind of like the cats themselves have tattoos as w...

 Today we went down to the Nottingham Contemporary to see their show. Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker. I enjoyed seeing this show, i found that the work he created was extremely powerful when it comes to bringing awareness to difficult medical conditions. Along with his work about his medical condition and his life, he created work on racisms. After we walked around this show, myself and some other of my class mates joined a talk (i don't rember who did the talk), where he spoke about one specific cabinet in the exhibition. Focusing on one photo, The talk was about the books that can be found in his bookshelf, in this photograph.

 Henry. Ferguson & Lynn. Procter (1998) 'The Art of the Tattoo

 Paul. Mason (2005) 'Body Art Tattooing'