Movement in Memory: A Comic Book Workshop - Tate Modern

In Movement in Memory: A Comic Book Workshop at Tate Modern (blavatnik building) we weaved together autobiographical and fictional narrative to explore displacement. What happens when our very own memories are interrupted by the sudden need to Emigrate?

Portsmouth Comic Con 2019

Great to put my work out there whilst I'm going through the long process of illustrating, it's given me a burst of creative energy. It was also wonderful to meet so many talented creators at Portsmouth Comic Con. 

Lakes International Comic Arts Festival 2018

At LICAF I spoke about the graphic novel, Mongrel, which l'm currently working on in an interview with Aileen McEvoy titled Caught Inbetween Two Cultures.

https://www.comicartfestival.com/guest/sayra-begum

https://www.comicartfestival.com/news/lakes-festival-focus-sayra-begum

Inside Job - Tate Modern

I exhibited a few chapter from Mongrel in the Inside Job exhibition at Tate Modern.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/mar/31/tate-modern-gallery-staff-art-exhibition-london

http://therebelmagazine.blogspot.com/2018/03/introducing-sayra-begum.html

Mongrel

A Good Muslim is the fourth chapter from my graphic novel, Mongrel.

Peeling a Coconut with a Boti

A Way Home

A light-hearted, short story about a women's journey immigrating from Bangladesh to England.

Imagined Worlds - Kubla Khan

My drawing, Longing for Wonder, was displayed in the Imagined Worlds - Kubla Khan exhibition. 

Longing for Wonder is similar to Kubla Khan in two ways. The first is the narrative within the drawing. A girl is confined in her room, so she sits on her bed and peeps through the curtains. She observes. Presented with the ordinary, she imagines what is beyond the visible. What hides behind the rows of houses and the tiny stretch of horizon? She has yet to explore the world so her imagination is not limited by knowledge. She imagines a better world. Inside her mind she finds her only escape from her reality. The viewer interrupts her vivid daydream. She turns to acknowledge them.

The second link is the context within which the drawing was created.

Similar to the poem, Kubla Khan, my drawing, Longing for Wonder, originated with a real person and a real place. It was once a reality, but now it exists only in my mind. The oversized furniture and the warped perspective suggest that my imagination has distorted it. This is now my creation.

Sophronia Exhibition

The exhibition, Sophronia, presented the works of MA Authorial Illustration students at Falmouth university. I exhibited the graphic novel Mongrel, which I wrote on the course.

I was awarded the Atlantic Press Graphic Literature Prize, for the work I created in Mongrel. 

On one side of the wall I created a collage from the inner pages in Mongrel.

I did not want the illustrations to be displayed as flat images, so created books to be used in the collage. Some books were nailed open, some had flapping pages and some were nailed shut. The closed books represented hesitancy towards sharing personal narrative.

On the other side of the wall, I presented a framed original and two versions of the book. One version contained the three chapters I had managed to finalise on the course and the other version, the manuscript, contained the whole story at different stages. 

           

Mongrel - Memories of Waterland

For every chapter I start by creating basic thumbnail drawings for every page. This helps me plan the pacing of the story as I decide how many panels will be on each page and what they will communicate. For Memories of Waterland I wanted to shape the panels  so they look like puddles. 

This chapter was slightly difficult because I couldn't figure out if I wanted the words to be kept separate from the imagery, so I created a draft with both options to help me judge. 

I decided it was best to display the poem on the first page and have a sequence of images following it.

The Collaborators Exhibition

This drawing was exhibited at The Collaborators exhibition at The Exchange Gallery, Penzance.

The Story Republic

I created a number of illustrations to accompany poems created by The Story Republic. The drawing were projected whilst the young writers read their poems at an event the The Exchange, Penzance.

Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange

On this postgraduate placement I created a booklet based on the two exhibitions, Artist Rooms: Robert Therrien and In Search of the Miraculous. As well as researching both exhibitions, I wrote, designed and illustrated the booklet. I created questions to help viewers engage with the artwork and designed creative tasks for visitors to take part in during their visit.

Think & Do Booklet

On the placement with Newlyn Art Gallery I am making a gallery guide for young people aged between 13-25 years. 

At the start of the project I had the idea to create a guide that felt like an artist scrap book. A mock-up of this idea can be viewed below. I felt this idea was appropriate as the aims of this guide was to help viewers engage with the art on display, to encourage curiosity and make the gallery space less intimidating to those unfamiliar with it. I believe the warmth looseness of a scrap book design like this would encourage creative thinking. However because of the very quick turnover I had for this project, it was not possible to do this. Instead I had to opt for the quickest medium to work with which is digital media. 

 

Although I could not go ahead with the idea I was set on, I am pleased with the result using digital media because it has created a simple, bold look and lets the illustrations capture the focal point. The colour scheme in the font reflect the colour scheme used in the galleries branding. 

Our Daily Rice

I have finalised a draft section in order to create a clear reference point for myself, using this mock-up to refer to, as it captures the narrative and illustrative voice I wish to embody through out the rest of the project. This section is at the centre of the rest of my script writing.