BA (Hons) Textiles
Rebecca Lois Burns
This body of work began as a response to the culture shock I experienced when travelling to Egypt and led to a realisation of how different Western culture is to Eastern cultures. I began thinking about how culturally diverse England is but how cultures often clash as they are forced to co-exist. I decided that it would be interesting to look at multiculturalism in the UK and what happens when different cultures collide.
I have focussed on British, Polish, African, Indian and Islamic cultures (as these have the most migrants to the UK)and have created comparisons between them through visual imagery.
Through hand drawn sketches and motifs I have tried to create a body of work which demonstrates how the different cultures can work together and, although they sometimes clash, represented in the work by clashing prints, there are aspects of each culture that can work together.
becky_lois_burns@hotmail.co.uk
www.rebeccaloisburns.com
'Brits abroad'. In this design I wanted to almost mock the British reaction to warm weather. As soon as the sun emerges we all head to the beach and take off our clothes to relax, this is a stark contrast to warmer continents where people have to work hard despite the scorching climate.
'Angry man'. Since I created this design I have referred to it as my angry man design. The anger shown in the face of the sketched figure reflects the anger and racism which arises when different cultures collide.
'A woman's' work is never done'. As with all my work this design carries a story. After the recent political problems in Sudan the Sudanese army have been continually bombing South Sudan, forcing the Nuban people to flee to the Nuba mountains. From here women have to walk for miles just to find food or water, for a Nuban woman her work is never done as it is a constant struggle to provide for her family. I wanted to contrast this with the popular culture in England where some people don't work hard/ at all a WAG seemed an appropriate image to use for this.
This print uses inspiration from the crackle print backgrounds in African Ankara textiles from Nigeria and the traditional Polish handcraft of Wycinanki cutouts.
'Instruments of War'. Regrettably Africa is known for it's child soldiers, a topic which has recently been brought to light by the ' make Kony famous 2012' campaign which aims to bring the worlds attention to Joseph Kony, leader of the rebel Lords Resistance Army in Central Africa, and make him answer to the war crimes and crimes against humanity he has committed. One of which is the abduction of children who are then forced to become soldiers in the rebel army. Compare this to children in the UK who have the right to freedom and a good education but turn it down to play on their latest xbox game or sit on a park bench drinking cans of cider underage, and we can see the extent of how different British and African culture really is.
'Gay Pride' Homosexuality has and will continue to be a controversial issue and so I have created a necklace based on this theme.
