Wednesday, 15 May 2013

FMP

FMP

I took symbols from the Adinkra prints and symbols from the tribal prints for my final piece. I did a few samples before I went on to working on my metre of fabric.












Finally after sampling, I created a moodboard












And then moved on to my final piece



Tuesday, 14 May 2013

Adinkra

http://www.adinkra.org/htmls/tattoos.htm
http://www.adinkra.org/htmls/adinkra_index.htm
http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aaAdinkra.htm


Adinkra Symbology
The Origin and Meaning of Adinkra Symbols


Adinkra is a cotton cloth produced in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire which has traditional Akan symbols stamped upon it. The adinkra symbols represent popular proverbs and maxims, record historical events, express particular attitudes or behaviour related to depicted figures, or concepts uniquely related to abstract shapes. It is one of several traditional cloths produced in the region – the other well known cloths being kente and adanudo.

The Akan people (of what is now Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire) had developed significant skills in weaving by the sixteenth century, with Nsoko an important weaving centre. Adinkra, originally produced by the Gyaaman clans of the Brong region, was the exclusive right of royalty and spiritual leaders, and only used for important ceremonies such as funerals – adinkra means 'goodbye'.

Over time the Asante further developed adinkra symbology, incorporating their own philosophies, folk-tales and culture. Adinkra symbols were also used on pottery, metal work (especially abosodee), and are now incorporated into modern commercial designs (where their related meanings give added significance to the product), architecture and sculpture.




Sunday, 5 May 2013

Research

Tinus de Jongh
Born 1885, Amsterdam

Self-taught, he began his career as a decorator in the Netherlands, and then pursued painting full-time. He achieved some note when the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam purchased one of his early pictures. He arrived in South Africa in 1921, the light and landscape of South Africa soon caused him to abandon his muted palette in favour of more saturated colours. His formulaic approach to painting Cape landscapes with gabled farmhouses created such a demand that he abandoned his considered brushwork in favour of a broader palette knife technique.
 
Although Tinus de Jongh's work is completely different to what I did with my work, his really captures the eye and I think that's what inspired me to make my work really powerful to look at. His work is very sharp, and that's exactly what I wanted my work to come across as.


Friday, 3 May 2013

Spider diagram

I made a spider diagram of all the different areas within the African culture to help me with research.

By making the spider diagram it was easier to find what I was looking for and it was easier to help me decide on what was important to research for my fmp fabric.