This week we are to write a 300 word piece based on an object. Like any of the past 6 weeks of Falmouth Flex, my brain instantly went on scan mode.
I don’t make the habit of “keying” the project with the lecture materials, I instinctively would go for something that I’d feel right about first. I moved out with my fiancee and is too busy to go back to my parent’s to my Cabinet of Curiosities I left behind, I did visualize what I left in there: edition beer bottles and soda cans, packaging, action figures Western and Japanese, a limited edition Bruce Lee Zippo lighter given to me on my 18th bday, rocks…but I don’t feel like those are relevant enough.
So again checking on my status on getting this mug…in order to purchase an item on shop.grossdomesticproduct.com one has to submit a short answer to the question “What is Art?”, and get approved to be a genuine art collector before they’d send another email with the bill. I chose the mug because it’s the only thing that’s not too expensive, only later on finding out that Banksy got kids to draw his work on to these mugs. I’ve been anxiously waiting on a reply for around 2 weeks now. In search for an item to write about, my mind clicked when I checked my email again for the 20th time.
The only description given for this mug was that it was created based on the comments “my kid could do that!”. Banksy has always been known to highlight social or even global issues and phenomena, and has obviously made a name for himself doing so.
So when my gut pointed me to write about this mug, the realization of this act of Banksy and the issue of child labor has only then entered my head then, “THIS IS BLOODY BRILLIANT!” as I shared my new found discovery with my fiancee…whilst making me want this mug even more 0_0″ (check email again).
To join the link for my writing, I went to my bookshelf to flip through my copy of Banksy : Wall and Piece, thinking to myself “HA! I have his book to quote from”, but only to find out that the Slave Labor mural is not featured in this book…and the book doesn’t have much writing in it anyway. So left with no options on my shelf, I could only result to the internet.
I found it amazing that a mug I want and a 300 piece writing to have had me go through around 8 articles. But on my mission to end at exactly 300 words, I had to turn a lot of what I learnt from these websites in to my own writing, and also be really careful of balancing the content evenly. Having to link the mug’s rather un-explained intent with child labor issues, I knew I had to take up some paragraphs to talk about Slave Labor mural to make my point.
Another interesting thing is that the intent of Banksy making his protest against the use of sweatshop’s on Jubilee and Olympic items and such was interpreted by an unknown origin, people has only made this assumption due to the timing of this piece having appeared in 2012, year of the Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics. The reason why it was on the side of a Poundland shop was “probably” due to a report in 2010, a supplier of the shop was found working a 7 year old Indian boy named Ravi 100 hours a week, paying him only 7ps an hour. (info retrieved here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2144677/Banksy-Diamond-Jubilee-graffiti-sweatshop-boy-appears-overnight-Poundland-wall.html )
So that’s my workshop challenge for the week. I wish I had more other sources to turn to, but in the process having experienced the full circle of info hunting to complete this relatively short 300 word piece, also this shrunken 1 week process gave me a scope of how one answer could lead to another question and how sudden discoveries could pop-up and drive the project or even my own thinking to another level of realization.
I’m going to go check my email again.
ANDY was here
ANDY was here 🤓 