The practical visual investigation in this project has been based more on the research i did on political satirical cartoonists. The work throughout the concertina book consists of attempts to create imagery that have some kind of political weight; that could be read on a surface level but also could be analysed further to see what the elements within the images represent within our society. I will try to use the colours of the world's two leading political ideas, right and left wing symbols, red and blue, as a common motif throughout the sketchbook. The reality of satirical cartooning is very difficult. To create an interesting drawing with an equally interesting message; also catering to an audience of mixed prior political knowledge you have to make the drawing work on many different levels.
One of the pieces created depicts the president of the free world Donald Trump behind a podium, as he is often seen, spewing faeces from his mouth and drowning the statue of liberty. This is a president with no political background who specialises in business and treats political discussion and public addresses like he would approach a business pitch. Massive exaggerations, ghastly subjective opinions and complete lies fly from his mouth, people don't even seem to bother challenging him as much anymore because they have learnt to understand he doesn't talk in a logical reasoned manner.
To portray him literally ‘talking shit,’ not only is amusing but upsettingly accurate. Trump seems to revel in the ‘post-truth’ era;
Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.’ -dictionary definition.
I see the statue of liberty as a symbol of the american dream, freedom of speech, strength, excess and grandeur. A gift from the French, the statue of liberty was the first thing immigrants would encounter when coming to america to seek a better life. Donald trump with his extreme right wing politics and ludicrous social media presence where he seems to blurt out unfiltered rage, could bring the end of liberty through war. I drew the statue of liberty looking at Trump with a very upset expression as if pleading, ‘why would you do this to us.’
Trump’s loose cannon of a mouth could lead america into its downfall and right now with the tension in north Korea this is more likely than ever. In hindsight this image could be improved by maybe making it clearer that trump is making a public address whilst the excrement spews from his mouth. This could be achieved by drawing him in a more animated position with his hands mid gesture or with an audience beneath him slowly being submerged by the flowing, unrelenting torrent of faeces. Also the drawing of Donald Trump could have been further exaggerated with more ridiculous alterations; larger head, fatter body, more chins and an even more scrunched up face.
‘The mark of a good caricature artist is someone who is really going to see a feature on somebody and is not only going to exaggerate it but play with it and really be able to have that guide the viewer to dial them into what's interesting or unique’ - Justin BUA
The depiction of donald trump was maybe a little obvious, i don't feel like i played around with his distinctive features enough.
The second drawing i will analyse is one i did of both Theresa May the unelected tory prime minister of the UK and Donald trump getting rid of concepts that do not fit in with their ideologies or politics. In this drawing and fitting into the previously discussed idea of post-truth politics, donald trump is flushing truth, peace and knowledge down the toilet. Trump made it to power without a great deal of socio-political intelligence, massively bending the truth and he has already showed to the world that he doesn't care for peace by threatening eastern countries and ordering armadas/airstrikes. Therefore in the drawing he is depicted flushing these ideas as if destroying the evidence; thus changing future politics for the worse. Theresa may is a right wing conservative from a very wealthy privileged background. Her policies seem to revolve around essentially, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Her cuts to public services and reductions of inheritance tax for the rich mean that she is making things very difficult for people with low incomes, the everyday workers and therefore making the divide between rich and poor even greater. Depicted pouring petrol and burning a pile of money labeled money for the poor with an evil grin on her face, she is clearly not a person that cares for people with less money. Perhaps the message of this piece was too obvious, it could be slightly more subtle, however subtlety doesn't seem to be in fashion right now. Maybe this was played a bit safely and i could have subverted a less obvious icon and used it to the same effect. Or used famous imagery and added to it, like the Vietnamese massacre image i analysed in the second essay, the image was taken by a war photographer but the text was added by a group of artists, using the readymade subverting it and thus creating a more powerful different piece of political artwork.
The skills required for intelligent satirical cartooning should not be underestimated, without a good understand of global politics it is difficult to create interesting illustrations that are not too obvious but convey a clear message. I have found it interesting and will definitely be continuing my work on political imagery into the future, reacting to current events and illustrating the news.
Interview on Drawing Caricatures with Justin BUA | ArtistWorks
http://artistworks.com/blog/interview-drawing-caricatures-justin-bua
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