LAUIL503 :Studio Brief 3 - Project Proposal

BAIL – LAUIL503

STUDIO BRIEF 3 PROJECT PROPOSAL

What is an ‘Author’?

NAME: Kimberley Burrows

What are you responding to?

·      Who is your author? Agatha Christie ·      Why have you selected them? A number of things draw and magnetise me to Christie. She is the epitome of the Classic Author and has so much rich imagery repeated throughout her catalogue of novels. Often referred to as the 'Queen of Crime', her books combined are the best-selling in the world - second only to the Bible. She was largely popular as a female writer when men still very much dominated the genre and writing in general, and broke down many barriers. We have many things in common as people including our love of British heritage, travelling to new places, writing, being alone, a love for dogs and being by the sea. She lived a fascinating life outside of being an author, as a nurse during the war ad going on many archaeological expeditions with her second husband, even ‘disappearing’ for a few days when she was younger and her first marriage had collapsed - creating a real-life mystery for herself which was highly sensationalised by the papers, with a national search party! ·      What is their work about? Christie often focuses on themes of mystery, crime and murder, with poison as the murder weapon, often referred to as a woman's weapon of choice. She had a great knowledge of plants and poisons, being a nurse during the war and dispensing medications. Her settings were often exotic due to her vast travel experience and archaeological knowledge, ·      What are you responding to specifically? I.e. poem, song, book etc… I will be responding the novel ‘The Murder on the Orient Express.’ The strong symbol of the train paired with the sense of adventure and travel juxtaposed with darker themes of murder and mystery excite me greatly and the visual outcomes will be both challenging and fun to experiment with.

What processes do you intend to use? (a minimum of 2.)

·      Which processes are relevant to your own creative practice? Cut shapes, type, monoprinting / gelliprinting ·      Why? These were some of the most successful processes in my Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Dracula brief pieces and I would like to revisit and expand on the skills I have gained so far. Cut shapes and gelli printing (similar to monoprinting) gives the aura of the handmade and the analogue, providing many textures that imbue elements of mystery and intrigue – something that can marry well with Christie’s work. Type is an essential aspect of Christie’s practice as she used an old typewriter. ·      Which were the most successful/challenging? Type ·      Why? I’m not used to using this as an aspect of illustration or design as I previously saw it as something a graphic designer would do, completely separate from myself, but am I not a designer too? Since creating my own handmade type for Dracula, I feel like I have gained a new skill and a newfound appreciation for how strong type can be within a composition and how it can be used to convey a feeling. ·      Justify your choices…

What outcome do you intend to pursue? (speculate at this stage)

A publication to marry with the fact she is a published author. I plan on experimenting quite a lot with the aforementioned selected processes both in analogue and digitally so a number of outcomes produced will exceed the prints or the gif. While I found making a gif enjoyable, and it retained the hand of the maker, I’m not sure if it is a suitable outcome for what I want to make. A series of prints feels very limiting.  I want to experiment more with paper stock nd how it can juxtapose or compliment my outcomes which I found to be a successful aspect of my Dracula screenprint.

Considerations: Dimensions, a belly band for the publication, compositions, paper stock, colour palette, the type process I want to use (digital type on the computer, handmade type, type in the print wood from wood block and why)

Be critical and reflective. Make sure that you justify your decisions through your research. Staff reserve the right to VETO any unsuitable proposals. This should be a minimum of 100 words.