Carol Harrison
About
A level Art, Distinction, aged 15
Mural Painting / Mosaicist
Martial Arts / Women’s Self- Defence Tutor
Jewellery Maker
Lifeguard
Firefighter- London Fire Brigade
Bare Juice Underwear- designer maker
Community Printworks- Oxford House
BA Creative and Media Writing
Core Arts, Textiles
Tutor Morley College - Bra Making, Lingerie and Sportswear
Statement
I am a 56 year old Grandmother/Student living life back to front. The challenge of learning a new process brought me to the Royal College of Art. I have many creative and constructive skills; drawing, painting, collage, print, knitting, sewing, making all self- taught and practice based. I think with my hands and problem solving is at the core of what I do. My views are anti-elitist. I believe that all creative expression is Art. Art is for Everyone and can be by Anyone. I made my first animation in 2007 as the final project for a degree in writing. In the combination of forms; drawing / telling stories / relating experience, there was a way to express my reaction to where we were in the world in a visual way and a perspective both personal and political. Age brings another Lens. My MA project A Memoir looks back 50 years to document the time and place I grew up in specific detail. I’ve had space to collaborate, experiment and develop my own film making process. It is the discovery in the process that motivates me to do such labour intensive work. My method; an immersion in documentary research, to support the world building and reconstruction of my own visual, spatial and sensory memory. I wanted to incorporate and reframe the source material into something new, using rudimentary methods and a hands-on approach to make a 3d physical environment / puppets and 2d cut-out work in stop-motion.
I’ve just begun to explore the creative possibilities of using film in this way and will be working on ideas for what to do next.
The Personal is Political
A Musical Animated Memoir set in London 1968-73
A reflection and re-creation of the years that shaped who I am.
A time when protest and resistance were part of everyday life. What was personal - politicized when people came together to fight for their rights.
The actions of Students, the Women’s Movement, Gay Liberation, Squatters and Claimants Unions, provide a documentary framework for what are in essence personal memories, a child’s POV.
The political message is traced through the means of communication; hand drawn comics, screen- printed posters, leaflets, placards, papers, pamphlets and the underground press. They reflect the concerns of the time, relate directly to what’s going on today and feel just as relevant 50 years on.
An exercise in trace memory associated with home. A sensory journey through the textures, colours and sounds of childhood, re-constructed.
The sound has been mixed for head-phones, please wear them for best experience.
Medium: Film, 2d cut-out and 3d modelled, Stop-Motion Animation
Size: 8.37
In Collaboration with:
- The Poster Workshop
Source Material; Political Posters The Poster Workshop existed at an exceptional time. It thrived on the energy generated by the belief that huge changes were possible - indeed were already taking place around the world, through growing movements for equality, civil rights, justice, freedom, democracy and revolution. The posters made there show the extraordinary diversity of those who came to the workshop. It was a microcosm of much that was happening nationally and internationally. It was an expression of that time - of excitement, change, and hope. - David Hoffman. Photographer
Source Material; Featured Photographs. Often raw and uncomfortable, Hoffman’s work is both dispassionate documentary and steely social challenge. By engaging with the image, we are forced to recognise the world as others live it and to consider our own position. - Peter Sweeney. Musician, Composer
Peter Sweeney wrote, composed, played, organised and arranged the music for The Personal is Political. Singers; Anjelica Wright, Lizette Juhl, Cecile Kaasgaard, Robert Pinniger, Amy Hannam. - Grace Wong
- Gail Evans
Sketch, Make, Build
Short film - Making The Personal is Political. Music Yes We Can Can
How it all came together, working method and process.
Collaborators:
Grace Manning: Bricks
Gail Evans: Shoes
Ben Sweeney: Mouse
Medium: Film
Size: 5.57
In Collaboration with:
- Ben Sweeney
Liberation
Revolution
Capitalism has created pseudo-needs to increase consumption
The Time is Right.....
Leaflet produced for the Miss World Protest 1970
The competition will soon be over we have been in the Miss World Contest all our lives, as the judges judge us, living to please men, dividing other women into safe friends and attractive rivals, graded, degraded, humiliated. We have seen through it
Mecca are super pimps selling women’s bodies .........
Women’s bodies used by business men to sell their garbage, but they are only small time pimps in our everyday prostitution, -
Legs selling stockings, corsets selling waists, cunts selling deodorants
Mary Quant selling sex – our sexuality is being taken away from us, turned into money for someone else, then returned deadened by anxiety,
Women watching why are you here
The man’s making money out of us
We are not beautiful we are not ugly we are angry
Medium: Reshaping Research Materials
Collaboration Music
Collaboration is an essential part of film-making. Music sets the emotional tone to communicate on a different level.
Peter Sweeney: Peter@podogo.com
Peter Sweeney wrote, composed, played, organised and arranged the music for The Personal is Political