Past project, A Level - The Home Front, WW2 Britain

The inspiration for this project came from a few places; the photographs my Grandma has taken during her trip to the war memorials in Europe last summer as well as the photographs of my great grandpa during WW2 and my love for the 1940's fashions and styles.

A collection of British posters and leaflets issued by the government to the public with tips and instructions on how to adapt their life styles during the war. 

Probably the most famous and iconic British war poster is the keep calm and carry on poster, today you can buy near enough everything with the slogan printed on!

A few sketchbook pages, mostly using collage and textiles.

I used Tracey Emin as a contextual link because her quilts use slogans and quotes which reminded me of the war time propaganda posters, she also uses found and recycled fabrics which is in keeping with the make do and mend motto of WW2.

 Below is one of my studies of Emin's work.

As well as Emin, I also looked at the work of Natasha Kerr and Maxine Sutton. Natasha Kerr's work takes old photographs, fabrics and text to help keep the memory of the past alive, she began using her own family photos and expanded into doing both public and private commissions in the same way. 

I used the work of Maxine Sutton because of her use of textiles to illustrate, what caught my attention about her work was the pieces she produced on how to do simple repairs of clothing for example sewing on a button (below) and darning socks. She reflects upon skills that are almost lost in current times but would have been essential during WW2. 

. I concentrated mainly on the woman of Britain at the time and as my final piece I produced a huge hand stitched quilt use war slogans, photographs from the time and in true ‘Make do and mend’ style I uses recycled fabrics and trimmings. I would love to expand on this project in the future and maybe look at the fashions of the time using textiles or the war from a soldiers point of view.