Developmental Work

After stating off with screen printing earlier on in the year, i really enjoyed it and knew this was the art practice i wanted to explore more in depth throughout my last year at university. After researching into some of the stories of the woman more thouroughly i started to sketch out some designs i could later transfer onto my lino.

Some of the ideas include; tattoo branding such as the King Munch also gang insignia symbols like the dolla sign which is used vastly around gangs. I wanted to incorperate a sense of control and demoralisation within the pole dancing, prostitution and sexual abuse as well as the flowers tattoo cover ups.

Studio Set up

Reflection for the Encounter

So, as it states in my subject reflection earlier on, I had a difficult time trying to find a project theme best suited for the end of year exhibition. This was a stressful time for me as i was running out of weeks to complete some good and something i was proud to show at the end. I powered through over the Easter holidays and was able to put together some decent research and findings also a lot of work to go with it.

I dedicated my time and effort re-depicting the stories of 3 woman who had been enslaved by sex traffickers for many years. The result of their life style involved a lot of drug abuse, rape, prostitution, pole dancing and being branded by the pimps and gang members.I wanted to work on a project i was really passionate about and one that had a strong amount of research and back stories to it so I was able to illustrate this well. After a lot of research i managed to come across an excellent website called Survivors Ink which was purely dedicated to woman who have escaped this cruel life style and been branded but have come out strong wearing beautiful body art.

Of course I wanted to incorporate as much as i could within my theme, also to involve the viewer as much as i possibly could. After having the interview with Jennifer Kemptom the founder and director of ‘Survivors Ink’ she offered to create an audio that would go with my project for the exhibition, as its not just the issue of sex trafficking im illustrating; its the tattoo branding and using the cover up’s as a form of transition to move move forward and start fresh which is what i have tried to convey with colour and vibrant floral designs on the t-shirts.

The exhibition process has been very long and intense. I have tried my utmost best to help out where i could whilst doing my work. It may have been the hardest situation ive been in at university, but saying that, it is my last year so it was always going to be.

My exhibition space was the next issue, after seeing the exhibition built i only came to realise how small my space really was, after a day of trying to picture all my work up, i just couldn’t. Arriane herself kindly offered to swap, as it just made sense too so i had enough room to create a space to truly show off the survivors stories.

I have faced a number of problems before being able to set up for my exhibtion, seding of my original drawings to get professionally printed was probably the biggest mistake i made. The resolution of the colour was unacceptable and i wasnt able to use them so i did waste some money in the process but stuck with my origonals and put them up instead.

On thursday after talking to anna about what was the best soloution for my exhibtion wall and looking through my work, together we chose to use my four black and white prints, my one t-shirt out five and my two portraits out of three which were jennifer Kempton herself and angela. Also, using the audio Jennifer provided, i ended up buying a cheap mp3 player and borrowed some headphones for my exhibtion. I feel that the audio was one of the most imporatnt parts of my exhibtion as jennifer herself tells the story in her own words and brings my idea and exhibtion to life, especially to people who are out of the loop with my project and theory behind it.

As most of my research and contact comes from her organisation/website she asked me to promote her website somewhere so i thought as i was getting into print making i decided to make t-shirts and a logo dedicated to her website and the stories of the women’s branding and cover up’s intertwined into 5 different t-shirts, which she actually talks about aswell.

These were some of my prints I decided to edit on photoshop, not a lot but I thought it may tidy up some of the areas in the background and mistakes printed by the lino. I only chose to use the black and white prints as it looked a lot more striking and expressed emotion towards some of situations the woman faced during that lifestyle of enslavement.

Again for my exhibtion after discussing with Anna, together we thought to have just two portraits for the show would be a lot more eyecatching and as a final exhibtion work better as a whole.

Each one of these t-shirts symbolise a tattoo branding inflicted on the woman by gang members involved in that sex trafficked life style. Also incorperating the cover ups of vibrant floral lino prints , buterflies and birds. I wanted to invlove some of the situations these woman faced while being sex trafficked such as IV drug abuse, prostitution, pole dancing for money, being under someones control and feeling completely demoralised having those scars on your body.

Im very happy with my completed exhibition ready to be marked. The only thing i may want to include for the real exhibtion on the 21st of May is adding all of my t-shirts maybe on a seperate rail, only because i feel my audio expresses alot of emphasis on the branding and tattoo cover ups.

Audio For the Exhibition

After speaking with Jennifer she offered to do an audio for my exhibiton, explaining her story as well as the other women involved within sex tracking and branding, Angela and Tonetta.

Jennifer was so helpful and the audio covers pretty much everything i wanted it too. I feel this plays i big part within my final outcome as you almost get sucked in to their stories and really get a feel of what my work is about and trying to convey.

Skype Interview With Jennifer Kempton

Rosalie Royce <rosalieharrisonroyce@gmail.com>	Mar 11
to jennifer

HI Jennifer,

i am an art student studying illustration as a degree, i have always been fascinated with tattooing/body art and the underlying meaning and how it can change someone perspective on life.

I came across your story and it has inspired me to recreate the stories of woman who have been involved in sex trafficking and other reasons for cover ups. so ive decided to base my final year project on some of these stories, using tattoos designs and printmaking to recreate some of these stories in a beautiful finalised images.

ive researched your website survivors ink and have read the stories of the women involved but as the stories are limited, im not sure if youd be kind enough to give me any more research or personal stories of any victims to help me develop my idea and work further?

Thank you.

kind regards, Rosalie.

Jennifer Kempton <jennifer@survivorsink.org>	Mar 12
to me

I would def be willing to talk to you. Do you have any free time available Monday for a phone call or Skype?

Angela’s Story

A song dedicated to Jennifer Kempton