tea and cake: December 2011

CURA 100 Year1 Term 2

CURA 100

CHRISTMAS PROJECT (2010 /2011)

‘DearJesus.....’ is another piece of work in progress that takes on the idea of christmas existing in a parallel worlds joined only by the thinking of some individuals.

Universe one is informed by a fading history based on legend written by scribes who tell a story of a God, Jesus, heaven and hell, angels and a donkey. The other universe is informed by the voice of Noddy Holder and Frank Sinatra, fake christmas trees, flashing lights, Santa Claus, gift giving and metres of wrapping paper.

The work is in two parts and ideally would be curated in a church. There are 24 sent christmas cards set out like an advent calendar inside of which are two messages, one from the sender and the other a message being sent to Jesus. Above this sits a cross made out of discarded xmas paper, batteries, corks etc.

It is a statement about the juxtaposition of Christianity with Consumerism. Where does one stop and the other begin?

Dear Jesus

Me and Ami have had a fucking awful year. Do you think you could find us an affordable hotel somewhere warm where we could relax a bit before your birthday celebrations?

Yours, Didge

Dear Jesus

Cheers so much for getting us that successful booking in the Algarve. But trouble is that there's now only 14 holy shopping days left days for yours truly. I bought a couple of things but for sure they're not enough, they won't impress. I don't know who wrote "I wish it could be Christmas every Day", we would be seriously obese, bankrupt and depressed. If I hear it one more time I think I might vomit. Do you mind?

If I don't get these presents sorted quickly I'll be more stuffed than the turkey.

Why is it we know that Christmas hysteria goes completely against everything you stand for and yet we still do it? I guess this is the cross we modern humans have to bear. Will TK Max have a present for my uncle? Will Amazon get their merchandise delivered in time?

Yours, faithfully, Didge

Dear Jesus

Portugal is fab. Wish you were here. We are loving the omelettes and the his and hers bathrobes. We're not quite sure whether it's okay to steal the shampoo and soap before we leave, please could you send spiritual guidance.

Yours, in anticipation, Didge

Dear Jesus

we found a feral one eyed cat asleep in the crib in the nativity scene in our hotel. Do you mind?

Yours Sincerely, Didge

Dear Jesus

I think we caught sight of G-d today in the vivid green that engulfed us and the thundering of the waves hammering against the crumbling sandstone. We felt the Majesty in chaos and the urgency of our own mortality. Help to keep us from our own hammering fear and our addiction to suffering.

Ami said she didn't understand why the gift of your birth is supposed to be your death.

Yours Lovingly, Didge

Dear Jesus

Last night I dreamt that your cross had been misshapen into a swastika.

Ami said she once had a dream that you had returned for your second coming. On the international news you offered redemption to all the peoples of the world if they would renounce their warring, materialistic and greedy ways. You gave us all 24 hours to come up with a decision. After 24 hours, the president of the USA announced on CNN that we had decided against. You went home.

Yours Regretfully, Didge

Dear Jesus

Thanks for the holiday in Portugal, it was really cool and I got to use my Portuguese for "good morning, where is the toilet please?"

A bit pissed off when we got home though. Ami got £200 stolen from her purse and I got a phone call from my sister saying that all the electric and heating was off in Orpington so we either had to boil our turkey on the gas hob or stick it over the log fire in the lounge. Jolly glad we had some candles around.

Why does the electric never go in Buckingham Palace? Oh and while you're at it I just wondered if you are giving your blessing to the royal marriage in April that apparently all my family and friends are paying for despite the fact that half of them are losing their jobs.

Yours questioningly, Didge

Dear Jesus

Really appreciate the fact that we had a funeral-free festive season despite the freezing cold. It's nearly time for me to go back to my responsibilities and challenges. I wonder what You would have been like as a landlord? I wonder what you would have been like as a student? Were you any good at essays?

It's hard to aspire when I think of you because they set you up as the perfect human being. I think you were supposed to be a role model but perfect role models and malleable institutions make it tough for us to know how we can be the best human individuals we can and compassionate about our limits into the bargain.

Bet you weren't really perfect after all. Were you?

Didge

Moving Image

“In order to take freedom from the people, Essential truths must be concealed.” Unveil was a film that explored the concept of who decides what gets covered up and why. The first example of this is the fact that in 2003 a truly subversive act was committed in New York City. The tapestry reproduction of Picasso’s famous anti-war painting hanging in the UN security council entrance hall was covered up. The iconic image had hung there since 1985 to remind the member states of the horror of war and how not to behave in the world. The secretary of state, Colin Powell was about to turn the message of Guernica on its head, addressing the world’s media to argue that Iraq needed to be disarmed by force. Weeks later 800 cruise missiles were dropped on a mostly civilian population in Bagdad.

The second was the banning of the burqa and how women are oppressed in both the east and the west by either having to cover up (Burqa) or by uncovering themselves (Jorden)

Moving Image

“Immolare” a short experimental film exploring the loss of La Convevencia a time long past when the 3 great biblical religions lived in relative peace and harmony in Al Andalus in Spain. My aim was to give a voice to this amazing period in history as I found that the Spain of today does very little to acknowledge anything other that the success of the christian crusade culminating in the building of the cathedral in the, once beautiful, mosque in Cordoba.

Studio11 - Year1 Term 2

The ‘Pop corn project’ evolved from the telling of a story by one of my peers about her witnessing, while holidaying in the US, a camel called Mona chewing on the arm an American tourist. I thought that this could only ever happen in America and I remembered when I first arrived there how it smelt of popcorn and how persistent and invasive this smell was. I also felt as if I was in a film because I had only ever witnessed ‘America’ through the screen of a television.

This seed of an idea prompted a number of pieces of very different work based on the idea that America was made out of popcorn and that we live in a consumerist, throwaway society that cares little for community.

To many millions of people popcorn is something you eat while escaping from the intrinsically unhappy lives we are forced to lead. Not only is it in the top 10 most dangerous foods but it was also given to the founding fathers by the Winnoag Indians on Thanksgiving Day.

What I love about popcorn is that something so small and inconsequential can mean so much if one puts it into different contexts, political and historical with different stories, frameworks and happenings.

Studio11 -

Year 1 : Term1

WEEK 1 20/09/2010 LZ102 STUDIO 11

We were given a large piece of Fabriano oil pastels, charcoal and paints, a piece of rubbish and two random pictures from which we were asked to create the essence of the object and not to represent it in a literal way.

My object was a sachet of coffee and a copy of a Modigliani nude which I found very tempting to simply draw. I decided to let this superficial distraction go, for the moment, and concentrate on the sachet. It was vacuum sealed, small, sharp and plastic and my mind quite blank with searching.

It only came to life when I opened, smelt it and dunked it into a beaker of water using the sticky paste and stiff sachet like a paintbrush. This initial ‘blankness’ came to life and turned into sweeping movements, bursts of sunlight and the green muddy coffee soaked Fabriano earth and my own blood as I cut my painting finger on a raised staple.

The incredible, rich, vibrant, intense smell of coffee was drawn into my senses. I realized quite quickly that there is nothing in the world quite like the smell of coffee and that it possesses power beyond its size, name, texture and that is what my picture captures.