Patti
My daughter-in-law suggested I look at illegal immigration – much in the news these days. I found six of the top countries from which refugees attempting to cross the channel originally came; then found the names, details and photographs of someone from each country who had died in their attempt. I created their passports, soaked them in saline, and then encased them in a box which features thin black plastic, representing the flimsy boats in which these people risk their lives.
Tony
Working to the prompt Forbidden I used a ‘fortune teller’ structure, based on images created by ‘Tom of Finland’ The structure was the perfect way to reference the random, frenetic, cruising shown in the Tom of Finland drawings. I was reflecting on the time when homosexuality was illegal and gay pornographic was forbidden. A trip to the continent gave access to interesting bookshops the type of which Stoke-on-Trent or even Bristol didn’t seem to have. Smuggling an illicit paperback back home was a slightly scary thrill. I put the bookwork into an envelope because I wanted to showcase the postage stamps Finland issued to honour its famous talented son. All images are by Tom of Finland.
Gill
For the theme of Forbidden I chose to make a tetra-flexagon. The book consists of images of things that are forbidden to me as a diabetic; my favourite foods. In the centre is a small book containing alternative words for forbidden, the outside of the book is covered in numbers which are a selection of my blood sugar readings over the last couple of years .
Joan
I made a box, covered in Chinese paper and lined with red silk, about the Forbidden City in Beijing.
It houses my late father-in-law’s annotated copy of Chairman Mao’s ‘Little Red Book’
Alison
I chose an abstract approach to this theme. A box suggesting a present but labels ‘forbidden’ under the velvet ribbon. Inside a tunnel literally bouncing our and inviting the viewer to probe further. What the viewer expects to find might be exactly what is forbidden.
