I have decided to make a series consisting of 5 paintings, to illustrate the brutality and grim reality of sex trafficking of women and children. At the moment, I have only done the ink work and plan to colour in with watercolour later on.
More progress pictures and updates to come!
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.
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.
Warning: NSFW content, child abuse, sexual abuse, graphic lyrics, and flashing lights.
Found this music video and since I am focusing on child prostitution and the Child sex tourism industry, this music video about such subjects are very relevant and definitely shocks you.
Plot of the music video is about an abusive father who sexually abuses and prostitutes his young daughter. Cannibalism is mentioned and whether it is literal or metaphorical is up to the viewer.
This music video is an amazing form of visual activism, combining amazing visuals and music to create a shocking visual text in the eyes of an abused young girl. It is shocking because you are experiencing her life rather than being a bystander.
Kikuo is the artist who had created the song; he is famous in vocaloid circles and fan base (vocaloids being a program you can create songs with voice banks, often they are voices of celebrities). His work contains dark subjects such as child abuse, death, abortion, mental illness, and so forth with upbeat, cheery music.
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.
Mirzoeff’s idea of being a citizen in the era of globalization means immersing ourselves into our visual culture, think about the world going on around us through social media, graffiti, film, art, etc. To be a citizen of today’s society is to be exposed to visual activism and think visually. We as individuals are visual thinkers and activists. Mirzoeff states that allows us to create “a new self image, new ways to see and be seen, and new ways to see the world”. (Mirzoeff, 279).
I feel like, though the world has globalized and advanced at such an unprecedented level, we still have problems like Sex Trafficking of women and prepubescent children. As of 2013, this is the third largest criminal industry. I will be exploring this particular issue in depth over the next few weeks; whether I break it down to one issue (such as Child Sex Tourism, JK Business, etc) or to the entirety of the issue will be more obvious as time goes by. Really if you had to breakdown Sex Trafficking, there are many factors involved such as:
My Aim: I want to create a series of visual images that demonstrate visual activism; to provoke a reaction and to create a discussion. Whether it pushes the audience to do something about this issue or make them think about it, who knows. The media I want to use is watercolour and ink and create a painting series; at the moment I do not know the number of paintings within the series but I do want to portray the grim realities of sex trafficking and its consequences.
Above are ads raising awareness against sex trafficking and uses iconography associated with sex trafficking mixed with thoughtful compositions and slogans.
Next week I will create mind maps on the issue in depth, visual activism/thinking, gather more information and book readings.
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.
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
Wenqing Yan is a Chinese-American digital artist; she had graduated UC Berkley practice of art. Her subject matter in the bulk of her works are focused on the environment, cyber activism and how the human presence is harming the earth through waste, over-consumption and taking more resources than we need.
Her art style is largely Japanese anime/manga based, with works such as Hayao Miyazaki films as an inspiration (the films also have similar themes of environmentalism such as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away). Yan uses strong, powerful themes and messages to create thought-provoking artwork.
Cellar-FCP or Fung Chin Pang, is a Hong Kong based digital artist. Whilst his main subjects are mostly anime/manga inspired and lighthearted, his Prostitute series for the illustration book, “鶯~EROTICA”, says otherwise.
In his Prostitute series, Pang doesn’t aim to make his subjects erotic or sexy but instead, show his audiences a glimpse of the sex industry, sex trafficking of women and children and it’s grim realities. Most of his subjects are somber, expressions looking for help or a way out or in resignation of their fate/self loathing. Pang captures the sordid reality of sex trafficking in his series and I wish he had done more or expanded the series.
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