Piece 1 Progress and Completion

Rita Kim, “Taken”, 2016

Though I didn’t make a draft for this, I had an image of adult hands reaching out for a child prostitute whilst reading Lydia Cacho’s, Slavery Inc. With that idea in mind, I drew on 250gsm watercolor paper. I penciled the initial drawing, then inked it, coloured the now lined drawing with watercolours and then redefined the ink lines. I wanted really dark colours to symbolize the grimness of the child prostitute’s reality but at the same time, I made her “client’s” hands red. Why I had done so was for 1.to make them stand out against the bleak colours and 2.red represents blood; these clients are contributing to a multi-million dollar industry that traffics children for sexual gratification. The girl is branded with a bar code, to show that to these clients and pimps, that she is a product, an object to be used.
The colours for this first piece will set the tone for the rest of the series as it goes.

 

Book Research: Slavery Inc

Slavery Inc: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking by Lydia Cacho is a book of Cacho’s findings of Sex Trafficking around the world. Cacho is a Mexican journalist who risked her safety and life to uncover these stories, statistics and victims testimonies from Turkey, Israel, Colombia, Mexico, Thailand, Argentina and more. This book shows the sex trafficking industries links to Tourism, arms and drugs industry, the corruption of government and law enforcement and the constant battles fought by NGO’s like AFESIP (Acting for Women in Distressful Situations) and ECPAT (End Child Prostitution) to rescue women and children from the hands of traffickers.

For this assignment I will reference this book as Cacho’s findings of the Child Sex Tourism industry is extensive. To me, it puts a human face to the problem and is more relatable as the book is written by someone who made it their mission to uncover sex trafficking and its intricate network rather than just listing out statistics by numbers. One part of the book that really got to me was:
“The psychologists explain that, once the girls understand their captors rules, they learn how to be seductive so the traffickers mistreat them less. They are perfectly aware they are trained to be prostitutes. They do not understand why, but at nine or ten years old, with their sweet, childish voices, they believe this is what they were born to do.” (Cacho, 63)

Resources:
Cacho, Lydia, and Elizabeth Boburg. “Cambodia: Europe’s Hideout.” Slavery Inc.: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking. London: Portobello, 2012. 63. Print.

Visual Activism: ArtWorks for Freedom

Artwork for Freedom is a visual activism website that uses artists and their works all over the world to spread awareness about human trafficking. Their vision, which is written in their website, is to use the power of “…imagination to end human trafficking.” To them, art is a medium to create awareness – the website and its artists work locally and globally to engage art in all its forms (this includes installations, performance art, film, etc).

How ArtWork for Freedom works is that they work with NGO’s who are partnered with the campaign to help them spread awareness and fundraise. From the looks of it, ArtWork for Freedom host art based events worldwide, from the US to Mumbai, have blogs with Q&A’s of their artists and a page to contact and donate to the website. This is one of the most powerful, well thought-out social media type visual activism I had seen.

The Virgin Trade in Colombia

A reporter investigates the “Virgin Trade”; local gangs in Colombia seek out young girls under the age of 14 to sell as virgins, sometimes to hundreds to thousands of dollars. This video shows interviews with victims, girls still in the trade, a mother who was told her girls, aged 11 and 6, would be taken away to be sold as virgins, local gang members who procure these girls and a British national, imprisoned in Colombian prison for grooming two girls, aged 12 and 14, for the purposes of sexual satisfaction.
What I find alarming personally, as I research further into sex trafficking of women and children, is that:

• The government and law enforcement cover up with false statistics, or too slow to react to these crimes, leaving NGO’s and journalists to help victims of trafficking themselves. Most of the time, government and law enforcement are interlocked with the trade, making eradication of trafficking so much harder.
• The trafficking of humans is closely interlocked with other criminal industries such as drugs, arms and organs. There is no wonder that human trafficking is the 2nd largest growing criminal industry in the world.

Resources:
Channel4News. “Virgins for Sale in Colombia in ‘world’s Biggest Brothel'”YouTube. Channel 4 News, 2014. Web. 25 May 2016.

Child Prostitution in the Philippines

A harrowing like at child prostitution and sex trafficking in the Philippines. A reporter follows social worker Marlyn Capio, a former sex slave, now working to rescues girls who were in a similar situation and rehabilitate them and eventually,  reintegrate them into society. The video shows Marlyn going undercover into the red light district to rescue minors, helping the rescued girls through coping methods, etc. This video shows me that, as an NGO or social worker, you can do so much to help these girls. You cannot eradicate the problem of child prostitution or sex trafficking, but you can start little by little.

Resources:
Deutschewelleenglish. “Child Prostitution in the Philippines | DW Reporter.”YouTube. Deutsche Welle, 2016. Web. 25 May 2016.

Child Sex Tourism

This is a tourism industry for the purpose of engaging in the prostitution of children or minors – this commercially facilitates child sexual abuse. This is has many negative and horrendous long term consequences for the abused, exploited children such as the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, AID/HIV, drug addiction, pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism and even death.
Child Sex Tourism is part of the multi-million dollar global sex tourism industry and victimizes approximately 2 million children all around the world. These children are often lured or kidnapped into sexual slavery; more than often they are sold by their own parents for money or with promises of finding jobs in larger cities, such as Bangladesh and Bangkok. The majority of sexually exploited children are under 12 years old.

The Tourists
The “tourists”, who use their status for the sole purpose of sexually abusing these children, are not necessarily pedophiles like the majority believe. These tourists often called situational or preferential users – Preferential Users exploit children under the belief that the risk of venereal disease is much lower. Situational Users who do not actively seek out children but the actual act is opportunistic; often these users do not care about the age of the children before sexually engaging with them. They use the internet to plan their trips by seeking out, trading information about the sex tourism industry and where these children can be found. Offenders can be local or international travelers, man or woman, from different age groups and backgrounds.

Why does this happen? Who are the victims?
The Child sex tourism industry is linked closely to poverty, armed conflicts, rapid industrialization, and exploding population growth. Street Children, in places like Southeast Asia and Latin America, often prostitute themselves as a last resort. Additionally, these vulnerable children are easy targets for traffickers. Sex tourism targeting children creates huge monetary value to traffickers, and there is a market demanding a supply of children. The suppliers are often family members such as parents, friends, or trusted acquaintances. They lure and trick children into sexual slavery to gain a profit from themselves. Victims are usually from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds; they may also come from ethnic minorities, displaced communities, and other marginalized social groups. Victims, who are often no strangers to abuse and neglect, are of both genders. Working children or those even born in a tourism destination are more than often exploited.

Global Response and Law enforcement
In recent years, there has been an increase of prosecution of child sex tourism offences. At 38 countries have extraterritorial laws that allow them to prosecute offender’s specifically for child sexual abuse crimes committed whilst aboard and 31 nations have more general extraterritorial laws that could be used to prosecute offenders for crimes committed during sex tourism trips. NGO’s, the tourism industry and the government have addressed and trying to combat the issue. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) established a task force to combat CST. The WTO, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) and Nordic tour operators created a global The Code of Conduct for the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism in Travel and Tourism in 1996. As of April 2013, over 1200 travel companies from 40 countries had signed the code. US immigration and Customs Enforcement participate in investigating and capturing child sex tourists.  In 2003, they arrested more than 11,000 child sexual abusers, with an additional 1,100 outside of the United States alone. Whilst Immigration and Customs Enforcement refuse to comment on their methods of operation; reports have suggested the use of undercover agents, sting operations, and sophisticated technologies.

Resources:
“Child Sex Tourism.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 20 May 2016.
“Understanding Child Sex Tourism | The Code.” Understanding Child Sex Tourism | The Code. The Code. Web. 20 May 2016.
ECPAT International. Combating Child Sex Tourism: Questions and Answers. Bangkok: ECPAT International, 2008. Print.
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Found. 1854 – 55. Pen and black ink, framed in pencil, on paper. Tate Gallery, London.

Inspiration: Bradherley’s Coach

Bradherley’s Coach is a single volume manga by Hiroaki Samura of the Blade of the Immortal fame. Bradherley’s Coach’s plot is about the mysterious Lord Nicholas A. Bradherley, one of Europe’s leading aristocrats, who sends his coach to various orphanages to adopt young girls and train them for his famed opera troupe. However only a select few a selected for the stage – so what happens to the rest? The other girls are chosen for a more sinister purpose in the name of a “greater good”.

Samura’s plot follows themes and motif’s of human trafficking/sexual trafficking, morality and it’s codes, false hope, and survival. It’s character’s vary from the girls (before being taken away or during their ordeal), people who were involved in trafficking the girls and prison staff; so there is various story lines to follow and different perspectives to look at. I feel this can be a huge inspiration for my project and it does have powerful imagery relating to sex trafficking of women and minors.

Chapter 7: Changing the World Summary (Or bite sized pieces for me to understand)

• Activists and groups take advantage of social media and networking, even far as the 90’s.
• Changing media and politics are two parts of the same process to some.
• Hactivism – a term to describe online activism that seeks to disrupt the operations of government or corporate websites.
• Approaches amount to a new form of “representation” in an era of globalization. There are two distinct meanings to representations: one is how we depict people or events in other forms such as film, photography or other mediums. The second means a representative system of government, in which individuals are elected or appointed to represent the interests of others. However, once in place, these representatives have a good deal of latitude on how they act.
• Right of the City – the young, urban, networking majority questioning both forms of representation.
• Can the new global majority represent itself both politically and visually or will the visible oligarchies generated by globalization continue?
• Social Media plus political action often mix.
• Assert the right to look, be seen, online and in the city space. This new self-presentation uses smart phones, graffiti, websites, social media, demonstrations and occupations.
• Some movements were the first to use global social media to try and create a visual thinking about resentation and social change.
• Some acts, such as setting oneself on fire as a form of protest, may not resonate with people earlier. Why? Because social media didn’t exist when it happened. News spreads fast due to social media. It allows dissemination of information.
• Artivist – a mix of artist and activist.
• Artocracy – the rule of art
• It created the possibility of political action and gave new meaning to the concept of public space. In short, it was both a new form of visual representation and the claim to be politically representative, cross-hatched in a new experience of space.
• The Philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau described what he called the “general will”, the force and power of public opinion.
• Social movements in Egypt produced new forms of visual thinking, including street art, graffiti and video collectives. Egyptian dictatorship had maintained absolute control of public space, so graffiti is new.
• Ganzeer or Mohadmed Fahmy, calls himself a “contingency artist”; his work responds to the needs of the moment in whatever way seems right. He thinks of this as participatory art in this sense; “art that participates in dealing with the immediate struggles and concerns of the audience.” It thinks along with it s audience, rather than for them.
• Online counter-archive is a key tactic in creating new means of engagement. Mosireen had used this in 2011, using video to show the world what was happening in Egypt in the face of domestic censorship and international ignorance. They archived the revolution with 10 terabytes of video collected.
• “As long as there’s a camera, the revolution will continue.” Meaning that as long as people can see what is being done, they will continue to demand a regime that truly represents them.
• People combined social media with street protests and online archiving to create a new form of visual culture activism.
• In high censored countries like Tunisia and Egypt, the chance to depict yourself and others in public, let alone to express political opinions, was a rupture with decades past experience. The resulting visual thought created hope, made revolutions possible and helped them drive forward.
• Mixed with a young, urban, networking population, experiencing such problems like food shortages had made visual activism on and offline was the key component to urban uprisings.
• “Cultural jamming” – a satirical play in mess media intended to cause the viewer to question what they see.
• Tumblr played a huge role in the movement, “WeAreThe99%’ – a form of creative and emotionally powerful form of visual thought that appealed to young people and soon became widely known. People posted photographs of themselves holding written texts about their living and financial situations. These were powerful because they were compressed to one image with only as many words as they could fit into a single sheet of paper.
• Meme – a widely reproduced visual image
• Some photographs are spread by mainstream media rather than the protesters themselves; could be orchestrated.
• Mainstream media now reports perceived wrongdoings, such as wrongful use of pepper spray by law enforcers. This has also turned into a meme.
• Media representations of the scene bought many other people into protest. What began as a social media meme has become a mainstream media pattern of reporting that unintentionally reinforces the events that are being covered. This set of effects, from protest to social media, mainstream media and back to protest, is indicative both of how the new global situation has changed and how change itself is now a key subject for anyone interested in the visual.
• People are adept at sharing and disseminating media content, especially in a media environment that is already saturated with images, therefore the audience is skilled with visual analysis.
• Creating a meme takes conscious effort and in order for it to work, it requires a pre-existing network.
• Visual culture has to respond day to day in its effort to understand change in a world too enormous to see but vital to imagine. It seeks to understand the total visual noise all around us every day as the new everyday condition. And it learns how to learn about the visual imagination, visual thought and visualizing combine to make worlds that we live in and seek to change.

Artist Inspiration: Advertisement and Child Abuse

Advertisements found from all around the world, raising awareness for Child Abuse and it’s lasting effects on children later in life. It is definitely something that you cannot walk past and ignore like most adverts you see on the streets. These are thought-provoking, grabs your attention, moves and shock you.

Artist Inspiration: Banksy

Banksy is an anonymous, English based Graffiti artist, political activist and film director. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combined with dark humour with graffiti, executed with a distinct stenciling technique. His works on socio-political commentary have been featured on the streets, walls and bridges of cities around the world. Banksy’s works had grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborating with musicians and other artists. His style is similar to Blek le Rat, a Parisian stencil artist from the 80’s.
Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls and self built physical prop pieces. He considers his art as a form of under-class “revenge”, that allows an individual to snatch away power, territory, and glory from a more powerful, well-equipped enemy. He is known to mock centralized power, in hopes his works will show that power does exist and seeks to work against you.
Banksy’s work also explores themes such as anti-war, anti-consumerism, anti-facisim, anarchy, as well as critiquing the human condition like greed, poverty, hypocrisy, etc. His works rely on visual imagery and iconography to put his messages forward.

Resources:
“Banksy.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 16 May 2016