Evaluation

If I were going to do the project again in the future I would take my time management into consideration because I spent a lot of time researching and not enough time sampling and creating different ideas that could then be used on my final piece, I would also change how I did my final print, I would have rather used a screen than do it all by hand because it took up a lot of extra time that could have been spent on furthering and developing ideas to show that I have the skills and knowledge to do so. 

I think the whole area of tattoos and culture was a huge project I set myself to and in the future I'd like to set myself something more realistically challenging but so I can really focus on the skills I have to produce a lot more work within the set time frame.

The artists I chose to look at throughout the brief were Tyrone Appollis and Tinus de Jongh, I chose these two artists because they're both of an african background and I feel that looking at their work has inspired my own. I found that both artists used colours I could take and use for my own work to really capture that african feel.

Research

African Scarring.

In Africa scarring is shown as a symbol of strength, fortitude and courage in both men and women. It is a permanent procedure to symbolize beauty and to decorate their body. The process in which they scar themselves involves cutting patterns into their skin. Different tools were used to make these scars.

Scarification effects were valued highly but the procedure was slow and painful, during this procedure it didn't only depend on the artists skill it depended on the person's pain tolerance. If a woman was eager to be scarred she would tolerate the pain and this showed that she had the emotional ability to bear children.

Body and facial scarring's made it possible to identify one tribe from another.

Although the art of scarification has fallen away from Africa different countries still believe that scarring is a way to decorate the body and proceed to do so.

Research

http://rattatattoo.com/top-10-tribal-tattoos/

The History of Tribal Tattoos

Tribal tattoos have existed for centuries, as indelible markings inked into the skin. On every continent, evidence has been found that reveals that tattoos were a part of almost every ancient culture. Tribal peoples all over the world created tattoo cultures independently of each other, which means that each continent has its own unique style of body art. Sometimes these ancient body markings used inks and powders to give the tattoos color, but often the tattoos were a form of decorative scarification.

Tribal tattoos generally consist of thick, dark lines in a dark ink such as navy blue, brown or black. Black ink is the most popular color for tribal tattoos as it creates the greatest contrast, giving the finished tattoo a clean, crisp edge. Tribal tattoos are most popular among men, especially among athletes and fighters. The most common areas of the body to have tribal tattoos inked are the back, chest and arms. Most tribal tattoos are large and masculine, entirely dominating an area of the body. Linear tribal tattoos often don’t work well with other tattoos, and so a tribal tattoo is difficult to cover up or add to. Once the tattoo has been inked, little more can be done to it except to have it removed or to re-ink it and refresh the color.

Research

Tyrone Appollis

Born 1957, Cape Town, South Africa

Tyrone Appollis started his art career as a painter and began sculpting in wood seriously from 1990. Currently he views himself as being a sculptor, painter, print-maker, poet and street musician. He considers political and social reconciliation to be a function of art – art as cross-cultural dialogue. Appollis has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in multi-media. These exhibitions have taken place all over South Africa as well as outside of its borders.

I chose to look at Tyrone Appollis because of the colours used in his work, with him being an African artist I found it helpful noticing that some of the colours he uses I could use for my own work to give it that vibrant feel of Africa. I also enjoy some of his black and white paintings because they have that African symbols within the painting and he has taken markings from the culture and used them in his work.