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UAL Foundation Diploma, Final major Project. Display.

BULLETS FOR BREAKFAST

UAL Foundation Diploma final exhibition piece

Blending the themes of Satire and Seriousness, Bullets for Breakfast questions the validity of what we (the general public) are told by the media and by our governments. Its depth can even be seen to go beyond that of the war in Ukraine.

This piece takes aim at how the media has trivialized issues in the nation that have lead up to this conflict. Denied its roots, profitted from the war itself and now tell us the end is near with the threat of armageddon. All whilst our governments stoke the flames of war by arming and funding the crisis.

On both sides propergander has been rife. But to what degree?

I guess it is a matter of opinion. Still it cannot be denied. From the "Ghost of Kyiv" to the defiant soldiers of Snake Island, stories surrounding this war have repeatedly come out only to later be proven false... And, if we had access, 'm sure we would find the same was true in Russia.

Terms like NAZI in the modern day have almost become throw away terms, used so often as a simply insult it has almost become meaningless. Both sides of the conflict have used it as a way to discredit the other.

Allegations have arisen about sitting Presidents and their family caught up in dodgy business dealings in Ukraine. Previous Presidents have been accused of being in league with the Russian State.

Western brands who pulled out of Russia are now rebranding, renaming and opening up shop again. Fuel prices are on the rise, energy prices are skyrocketing and food shortages are about to become a major global issue. Largely in part due to the wheat supply typically grown in Ukraine. The food we do get is full of chemicals and is leading to a global health crisis.

Yet it all seems to play right into the hand of the elites. It furthers their global agenda, even the war.

Getting cars off the road, bringing in tougher laws, a cashles society, consolidating government, population tracking, unifying a one world government the list goes on. Whilst people suffer and die, someone is profiting from this war.

How do we know what is true? How do we now what to believe? With all the scandals we have seen in our media and elites in recent years, is it really so far-fetched to think this is all part of some hidden plan? That world leaders, at some point got together and conspired to have all of this play out in a certain way?

A wise man once said... "It's a big club. And you ain't in it." And I wonder how that statement was.

Are we really closer to world war, or is it all a giant show? The distopian future we have been warned about so often in the past is perhaps, now closer to being a reality than ever. And it doesn't come with jagged teeth and a mosterous roar. No. It comes with bright colours, catchy slogans and corporate advertising.

WORLDS COLLIDE

UAL Foundtion Diploma final exhibition piece

Representing the USA/Europe in blue and Russia/China in red. Worlds Collide

explores the opposing world views held by the two blocks.

These differences are far more than simply geographical and are entrenched

in the fabric of each society and their respective cultures. Extending to a

difference of morals, ethical considerations, human rights and even respective

views of history and world events. Such differences have led us to almost live

in different worlds.

Whilst we believe and are taught to believe that Russia and China are lesser

degrees of dictatorships, echoed from the past. Both intent on building Empires

of their own and becoming the dominant world power. They in turn believe Britain is nought, but a shadow of its former self and the EU are nothing but gullible puppets for

an imperial America that is as deceptive as it is dangerous.

One day, whether it be today, next week, next year or ten years from now.

(As we have done with countries like Germany.) Our nations must find common

ground and accept each other without prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination,

or condemnation of wrongs committed in the past if we are to take humanity into

the future.

Failing this our worlds are doomed to collide.

THE EERIE OYSTER

UAL Foundation Diploma final exhibition piece.

The Eerie Oyster is a piece of Anti Far-Right that takes a shot at the extremist groups. Whom without question do (or at least did before the bombs dropped) occupy areas the nation of Ukraine.
From being front and centre in the Euro-Maidan uprising, to standing in solidarity next to American politicians backing the revolution. To shaking hands with their infamous foe and now being rolled into the Ukrainian military by Ukraine’s Jewish President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
As hard it is to admit, by volunteering to fight Russia and its supporters, the Ukrainian Far-Right have become heroes in their own nation.
As much as our media would like to hide or deny this, and despite Russia using the presence of suuch people as a poor excuse to justify military action. We cannot deny the reality of their existence and meteoric rise in popularity over the past few years.
Painted in the colours of the “Right-Sector” flag and depicting an Oyster from the sea of Azov (an area of which the most famous of Ukrainian Far-Right nationalists take their name, Azov Battalion).
The Eerie Oyster represents the beautiful pearl of Ukraine, born from and haunted by this spectre of the past.
Recognising the presence of the Far-Right is not a condemnation of Ukraine, nor does it justify Russia’s invasion. However, without it my fear is that (should things escalate) our Western Governments will ignorantly prop up a Far-Right government (inadvertently emboldened by Russia’s invasion) inorder to halt Russia’s advance. Leading to the potential
repeating of events leading to and during WW2.

TRAGIC MUSHROOM

UAL Foundation Diploma final exhibition piece

Displayed in the form of a miniature diorama, a small town or city sits in a green valley with a giant mushroom in the centre.

But this mushroom contains no magic. Only tragedy and the utter wrath of nuclear devastation.

Surrounding this is a ring of very fragile, colourful figures watching and witnessing the spectacle, in awe, wonder and shock. These are representative of the common people of the world looking on helplessly as events play out before them.

A Tragic Mushroom highlights the potential direction the war in Ukraine could go if worst comes to worst. With Russia now seemingly bogged down in Ukraine. Sweden and Finland under pressure having chosen to join NATO.

Europe, the UK and the USA all sending arms and weapons to the region. I cannot see things getting better for a long time.

Now with the threat of new Hypersonic Missiles like Russia's SATAN 2 and its destructive power we are all potentially in a grave situation. Yet what can we do? What can we the common people of the world actually do to stop this madness?

If the world is heading towards nuclear war, its heading for it. We (the people) can do nothing to stop it. Sadly, true power is still held in the hands of the few and for better or worse, it is they who shall determine the outcome of our species.

So why worry? Why fret? Why drown ourselves in fear of something that is out of our hands? Instead let us gather round and get a good view. Enjoy ourselves on this rarest of occasions. For the end of the world does not come every day and what a show, it is set to be.

FACES

UAL Foundation Diploma final exhibition piece... The faces have also been used in the Monatti Streets Music Video.

There have been many acts of remembrance given to those who have fallen in times of war. Statues to heroes. Flowers laid, artwork made, graves and monuments erected. Like the Cenotaph in Whitehall London, or the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier in Arlington Virginia.

Faces however goes a step further in representing and honouring those who have fallen and shall never been seen again. No one knows they are gone, and there is nothing left of them to be remembered. They simply do not exist anymore.

Whether it be a lonely old lady with no family or a homeless person in the wrong place at the wrong time when a bomb fell. There are people in this war who will simply disappear, and no one will ever be the wiser. Their families (if they have any) will never know what

happened to them. No one will ever tell their tale.

This is of course the case in every war, however partly due to my own heavy focus on the subject as part of this project, this war has obviously hit harder to home.

This piece of art is therefore purposefully made in contrast to my other pieces and is dedicated to those fallen people. Everyone is someone's child. Be they a ruthless soldier or mercenary from halfway across the globe, or a local kid fighting for his freedom.

Everyone who dies deserves rest.

This is my attempt to give a face to the faceless people who have died in this conflict. Those who are now at peace and hopefully, in some way, pay them respect in their passing.

CHOCO CHERRY (PROJECT: MY ARTIST AND I)

Questioning Bushido

Depicting the Japanese hara-kiri/seppuku ritual as a romantic dessert, Choco-Cherry is inspired by the book entitled, The Lie of Japanese People, by social psychologist professor Yamagishi Toshio, along with compositional abstraction, and a number of artistic influences, references and thought processes.
Japanese culture is one that evolved out of necessity and in response to great calamity and natural disasters, becoming one of social groupist thinking. Yet after 150years of isolation, and multiple nuclear disasters the nation has risen to the top of the world stage.
However Japan is currently facing many social issues in the 21st century. People who need care are left neglected, rising suicide rates amongst the young, a rise in domestic violence cases. People working long hours for little results. One of the highest numbers of mental institutions in the world. Massive rates of foot additives and pesticides, a very real gender pay gap and a rapid drop in population.
This piece therefore questions whether Japan as a nation is doing more harm than good to itself by romanticizing the "good old days" when Bushido (The Way of The Warrior) was law.
…..
For the "My Artist and I Essay", more information, links, context, research, influences and the build process please visit my the sketchbook/blog.

THE EGGS-O-CUBE

Speaking to the issues facing the people of China the rigidity of the shell represents the hard structure of Communism, as the people are made to conform to a way of life that is forced upon them, instead of being allowed to flow.
I am sure you can work out how the egg white, surrounding the yellow yolk could be taken in bad taste, however, I admit I didn't think of that until after it was done.
I do not regret it though as I feel it adds value, eluding the long history of the west itself trying also to surround and control the Chinese peope.
For a long time they have been a people trapped, confined, but I hope soon they shall break free from their shell.
The chained chopsticks not only speak to the issues facing Hong-Kong in recent years, but that of the Uighur muslims who have suffered their own oppression.
Whilst the people ,ay support their government and their way of life, ultimately are food for a regime that chains them into an oppression most are unaware they even live under.
We in the west are not immune to this either. Do we see our chains, shells and walls in our own lives? Are we really being ourselves, or just trying to be what others expect us to be?... Or are we just food for the machine?

House On A Lake (A Non-Reflection)

This piece is a simple build that came to mind whilst scrolling through images on the internet. I was intregued by an image of a small deralict house, sitting next to a body of water with a lovely reflection in the calm waves.

It wasn't until clicking the link that I found out that the lake and subsequent reflection were added effects using photo editing software. So in a sense it was a reflection that didn't exist.

Simply taking in the shapes of the house and the way the creator had shaped it to form a reflection, I saw potential to do the same using foam. I wanted it to be something you ould walk around and from any angle, see a reflection that wasn't actually there.

A TWISTING FATE

Image Subtitle

My first ever Gif and my frst ever charcoal drawing. The wings represent good and evil inherent in all of us. The possitioning of the man, is meant to represent balance and our weighing of our own judgements upon ourselves.

The darkness relates to the hopeless choas that surrounds us in the world today. Whilst the serpant signifies external temptaions that encircle us, and lead us astray from our duty as the most sentient of beings on this earth.

Our duty to protect, nurture and look after this jewel of a planet we have inhereted.

I chose to lean heavily on religious iconography in the piece as I think it offered the best metaphors for what I wished to portray.

A TEMPTING FATE.

Representing our struggle as humans to succeed, our want to be free and happy, to better ourselves, and our willingness as people to risk life, limb, incarceration and even the wrath of God to achieve this end, “A Tempting Fate” questions the motive behind people’s impulse and ambition, when knowingly doing things that may bring harm or unwanted problems upon themselves. And through said action itself, or in other aspects of our lives, we can be seen as striving for liberty whilst simultaneously forging our own downfall or breaking into our own imprisonment.
This can be through temptation, addiction, lust, envy, curiosity, hatred, spite, fear or a myriad of other “deadly sins”. All the way to such things as fracking, deforestation, poaching, pollution, and the list goes on. We humans have always courted disaster, walked on thin ice and danced with the devil, as a species and in our own lives.
We cage ourselves in the struggle to succeed. We push away those we love in order to protect them. We willingly risk, pain, suffering, even physical incarceration for acts such as justice and our human rights. We perform hunger strikes, put tape over our mouths, chain ourselves to trees; restrain and confining ourselves in order to achieve a social or political goal. We wall off society to help manage our anxiety. Abuse substances to fill voids. We lock ourselves into ways of thinking and ultimately create victims of ourselves.
Are we heedless? Naive? Gluttons for punishment perhaps?…
Taper
We have chosen to use the apple, because as a metaphor it captures the essence of our theme perfectly. It holds at its core a sense of what it means to be human; Being our God given desire for knowledge, truth and understanding about ourselves and the world around us. Whilst playing with the concept of the original sin; Our natural born urge to defy the will of God.
In the story of Adam and Eve, this resulted in humanities expulsion from the Garden, and our internment into “mortal lives of suffering”. Whilst the Garden, still containing the fruit of knowledge remains guarded by angels at its gates. Some might say, like a prison.
If the garden were a physical place, how far would humans go for one more taste of that fruit? How many times would we have attempted to break in? And how much worse would we be today for it if we had?

The beauty of our artwork however, is that the item you place in the center can add its own connotation to the piece and be as personal as felt required… For example money may have a different significance and meaning to say, cigarettes.
So, we pass it to you the viewer to reflect on…
What cells have torn your way into? What prison have you created for yourself? What forbidden fruit has you, tempting fate?

COLOUR OF SIN

An abstract expression of the traditional seven sins, shown through colour and shape. Note... Orange "bubble" effect turned out to be a little more red than I hoped for.

Purple - Pride

Red - Wrath

Light Blue - Sloth

Orange - Gluttony

Dark Blue - Lust

Green - Envy

Yellow - Greed