Shona Slemon
K00136247
Whenlifegivesyouslemon.blogspot.com
Headlines and
stories; blending politics,
Pop culture and pictures to tell a story.
A child’s innocence in precious,
their trust, loyalty and naivety are treasured qualities. Unfortunately a lot
of children are surrounded by people who don’t see this, people who violate
their rights, even though a child’s rights are just as important as anyone
else’s. Children are not strong enough to defend themselves and stand up for
their right and there are people in this world who take advantage of this.
People who use a child's dependence for their own benefit, to make their
clothes, to fight their wars, to satisfy sexual needs and to bully because they
know a child is too weak to fight back.
This violation of children’s
rights is something we deal with on a daily basis; we hear about the 400
children detained, tortured and killed in Syria in the paper, we see
advertisements for brands like Nike and Sony, when we know the products are
most likely made by a child who is under paid and over worked, we see images of
young girls at beauty pageants and in high fashion magazines, sexualising
themselves at an age where they should be embracing innocence.
In my prints and drawings, most of
the figures represent the child who is abused and neglected. I intended on
dramatizing the vulnerability of these children who are forgotten all over the
world.
Protest
Where would we be without science in this day and age? It’s hard
to know, science has brought us so far in medicine, technology, and science has
taught us so much about the world around us. Nearly everything we use and know
has been altered, improved and tested by science; our foods, our hair and
beauty products, our medicines etc. Unfortunately this comes at a cost. Everything
must be tested before human consumption or use, now some companies (i.e. Mac,
Benefit make up companies) morals are higher than others and also they are
higher earning that they can afford to test their products in a way that does
not harm another creature. It’s an interesting argument, this scientific experimentation,
to physically harm an animal for the sake of the newest mascara or hair dye on
the market does seem unnecessary, it seems immoral and shallow to endanger a
living creature for the sake of beauty... It has been said... ‘There’s no
beauty without pain’. But in other cases, more serious cases when this
scientific experimentation is saving lives due to stem cell research it is hard
to know.
I began with the idea of animal testing and scientific
experimentation in general and the ethics surrounding this. Think of the
Frankenstinian Science behind it all, the mutation, the hybrids, scientists are
trying to blend embryos mixed with human genes and a cows DNA, a test tube
animal/human hybrid. The morbidity and grotesqueness of it all, odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantastically ugly or absurd; the bizarre, anything that evokes a feeling of
uncomfortable empathic pity. This are the themes I wanted to
bring into my prints, the unethical and wrongful experimentation that surrounds
us today.
