Contextual Research

Chila Kumari Burman

Riot Series (1981-1982)

During this period of Burman’s practice, alongside master print-maker Stanley Jones, Burman looked to document and create discussion about political events including anti-government riots and how the police reacted to or even caused the violence that followed. Through a use of different printing methods overlaying one another, Burman managed to amplify the violent subject matter of the work, with technical conflict caused by using different methods such as screen-printing upon etchings.

If There is No Struggle, There is No Progress, Uprisings - etching, lithography and paint on paper, 1981

Her work ‘Triptych No Nukes’ features three images of riot police wearing gas masks, that have been etched for progressively longer periods, becoming more disintegrated and therefore darker and harder to decipher, reflecting the anti-nuclear concept of the print. This is another example of how Burman uses process as a direct correlation to and a way of enhancing the subject matter. This is perhaps what interests me most about this series of prints; a reoccurring theme within my work is the decaying of society from a working-class point of view under contemporary capitalism, especially under the current government and this element of decay is one that I can create through the etching process, similarly to how Burman has worked to create ‘Triptych No Nukes’.

'Triptych No Nukes' - etching, aquatint and screen print on paper, 1982

Glenn ligon

Ligon started off and was devoted to making abstract expressionistic paintings and did not wish to abandon this approach to making work. He however, similarly to me at present, found that to convey the massage he intended, he would have to alter his final outcome, making his intentions clearer of what he wanted to achieve, whilst working with his preferred medium.

"I was into abstract expressionism with an emphasis on expressionism. I had a crisis of sorts when I realized that there was too much of a gap between what I was trying to say and the means I had to say it."

He achieved this through taking quotes from influential figures and the media etc, before painting them onto canvas, making them harder to decipher, drawing in the viewer and challenging the audience to see through or passed the abstract mark making in order to fully grasp the concept of the work. Perhaps this would enable his audiences to become more engaged with his paintings and understand what he wanted to convey?

In relation to this, I also intend on experimenting with text in a similar way. Viewers may be interested in text-based work with clear imagery - but also maybe they aren’t? Audiences are constantly reading clear texts whether it be on their phones, newspapers, letters, advertisements etc and I would like to at least experiment with a different approach to conveying a message, one which perhaps dictates the audience read closer and with more focus in order to solidify the message I am trying to forward.

Untitled (I am an invisible man) - oil stick on canvas, 1991 (76.2 x 43.8 cm)

Antonio Gramsci/Thomas Hirschhorn

I was introduced to Antonio Gramsci’s work when researching the work and projects of artist Thomas Hirschhorn. Hirschhorn’s ‘Gramsci Monument’ (2013) was a large-scale installation/project based in Bronx, New York and aimed to ‘establish a definition of monument,’ by provoking encounters through creating an event. The project involved the working-class residents of the area with regards to its creation and set out with an agenda to bring forward Gramsci’s ideas and writings into the 21st Century. This was the fourth and final project of its kind curated by Hirschhorn, who had organised similar events – based on other writers/theorists (Spinoza, Delueze and Bataille) previously across Europe. From this I have been inspired to also bring forward these ideas, in order to highlight examples of hegemony within a contemporary climate.

It is Gramsci’s theories regarding cultural and political hegemony under capitalism that have particularly inspired much of my work this semester and will continue to do so moving forward. In short, his ideas outline the ways in which the ruling/higher classes dominate that of the worker through social and economic institutions, something I find particularly relevant still almost a century later. The content of much of my work has focussed on contemporary examples of this including ways in which the government are undermining its workers through poor conditions and inadequate pay.

Stills from Hirschhorn's 'Gramsci Monument'

Charles Bukowski

Hank ‘Charles’ Bukowski was a writer, novelist and poet, who’s stories and texts were influenced by his life and that of his colleagues and others who belonged to the poorer classes of his home in Los Angeles. His writings address themes such as alcoholism, gambling, depression, relationships and fatigue which he associated with that of the life of the working class. Many of his writings relate to work directly including his somewhat semi-autobiographical novel ‘Post Office’ as well as a letter to his friend and publisher John Martin which I have been particularly drawn to and have quoted throughout my work.

Hello John:

Thanks for the good letter. I don’t think it hurts, sometimes, to remember where you came from. You know the places where I came from. Even the people who try to write about that or make films about it, they don’t get it right. They call it “9 to 5.” It’s never 9 to 5, there’s no free lunch break at those places, in fact, at many of them in order to keep your job you don’t take lunch. Then there’s overtime and the books never seem to get the overtime right and if you complain about that, there’s another sucker to take your place.

You know my old saying, “Slavery was never abolished, it was only extended to include all the colors.”

And what hurts is the steadily diminishing humanity of those fighting to hold jobs they don’t want but fear the alternative worse. People simply empty out. They are bodies with fearful and obedient minds. The color leaves the eye. The voice becomes ugly. And the body. The hair. The fingernails. The shoes. Everything does.

As a young man I could not believe that people could give their lives over to those conditions. As an old man, I still can’t believe it. What do they do it for? Sex? TV? An automobile on monthly payments? Or children? Children who are just going to do the same things that they did?

Early on, when I was quite young and going from job to job I was foolish enough to sometimes speak to my fellow workers: “Hey, the boss can come in here at any moment and lay all of us off, just like that, don’t you realize that?”

They would just look at me. I was posing something that they didn’t want to enter their minds.

What I find particularly interesting about this piece is how relevant it remains even in today's society almost forty years later. In my work I aim to document this in relation to cultural hegemony and its impact on working lives regarding hours, condition and pay. He is stating here that people are simply acceptant of the way things are at work and that 'that's just the way it is' - this is one of the key concepts of Gramsci's theory of social/cultural hegemony.