Half Term : Rounding Off Project - lots of sewing! December 2021- Jan 2022

Working on this project has been one of my greatest challenges yet, in terms of my creative practice. I have realised all the more that patience is such an important quality to possess as an artist / designer.

I’d like to deal with a few points here which I have been expressing recently in conversations with my mum and people around me.

The difficulty of the making reflects the heavy topic I am discussing?

-Making this piece has at times made me feel: Powerless. Small. Helpless. Incapable to deal with its size. Challenged. Weak. Lost in the great swarms of cloth that drape from my sewing machine onto the floor, my body, my feet. It has been awkward to transport the piece, to sew into it, to even look at the piece as a whole due to its physical size and my inability to hold it up by myself.

Half way through struggling with these issues I realised that if this piece had been ‘easy’ to make, it would have almost felt wrong. I began to view what I was making as representative of the issue of child poverty, a heavy, insurmountable topic which is hard to bear the weight of alone.

The whole process has felt mentally and physically taxing, cramped, claustrophobic- but this reflects only some of what people living in small spaces day in day out must feel.

The fact that the piece has been difficult to make AND deals with challenging topics has also been frustrating for me. I’m asking myself as I see the patches of fabric together: is this even helping the people who need help? Is this action futile?

I need to keep going so that when I display the piece, it may have an impact. It’s hard to know how much of an impact you can have before you’ve finished the piece!

I just wish I could do something with this project which actually helps the Alhusien Family. How much of an impact can art have on society?

I know, I believe, I trust, that art can impact society, but is this belief alone enough?

I have learnt so far this year that drawing is about not allowing ideas to fade as quickly as they arrive, to make these intangible passing light bulbs tangible.

How can I make an idea to help people real?

Maybe also through drawing..

Making? Does this help? Maybe this piece will lead onto another piece, maybe I will spend many years exploring this topic before I create something which more concretely helps people. Maybe it will take much more researching and discussing and fighting before I can create tangible change.

Maybe yes, maybe not, but none of this will happen if I don’t try

;)

Sorry I’m going on a tangent, but writing all of this down is helping me work through some of my recent thinking and questioning.

//

As I mentioned before, the making of this piece has felt a little representative of the weight of the issue, which has made me felt even more demoralised. As I have sewn I have surveyed the swathes of cloth and felt even more powerless , both over the piece and over the issues im trying to discuss. Then I try to open my mouth to ask: why are there young people starving every day? Why aren’t we doing anything about it? How do we change this?

But then it feels as though im stuck to change anything and like no one cares enough to take the issues seriously..?

Why do we only care when something affects us?

—

Okay bullet point - what can I do to improve this?

What is the issue?

Families not having enough food, space.

Children starving.

Why is this happening?

What is being done at the moment, which isn’t enough?

-there are food banks, but a lot of families are too ashamed to use them.

-The existence of food banks isn’t something to celebrate. They shouldn’t HAVE TO exist, people shouldn’t HAVE TO depend on them for their survival.

-shortage of safe, comfortable, social housing

-famines are caused not because of a lack of food, but because food is denied/ held back from a group of people purposefully.

-food prices are too high. Cheap, healthy food isn’t available

-years of conservative rule, neoliberal society, austerity, cuts to benefits and living wage, zero hour contracts.

Solutions?

IMMEDIATE:

-Free School Meals

-Less food wasteage

-communal food sharing?

(-rather than under the idea of going to a food bank, people go to events where everyone bakes: brings a dish, there are more community events where there is food?? )

LONG TERM:

-vegetable gardens in the city?

-more social housing available

-empty homes USED!

-Less shame/ stigma around food bank usage (even though ideally they shouldn't have to exist)

-A more empathetic government which can increase standards of living for people, reverse right to buy, reverse cuts, raise living wage and benefits

-get people to CARE about this issue, so that we all put our heads together and try to actively change things, we're in this world together, we are all connected and hold collective responsibility for each other.

Reflection

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