flag development over the last couple of days

Since the arrival of my third and final tea towel over the weekend and the decision to use the three colours in the order of the New York City tricolour, the flag design has come on leaps and bounds. The tea towel medium is far easier to manipulate than that of the j-cards as I am not limited to just print media or tape but have a third option of stitching into the material. The deliberately shabby stitch style is quick and easy to do a convenient considering the impossibility to use a showing machine this short notice. I feel the branch out into textile design has been a welcome addition to my work, giving me greater confidence to work with a range of media. Cross stitches over elements of existing design and adding the words NEW and NO to the York tea towel have further the theme of nihilism and the rejection of society and authority through obstruction and destruction. Even the scruffy, stitched typeface is consistent to some degree with the handwritten glyph on the J-card as the Basquiat E is once again referenced. 

The final major flag development was added today, in the form of a screen printed coat of arms within the central part of the tricolour design. To undertake a screen print this morning is a testament to my new found confidence with the medium as I had a couple of hours spare before going down to digital print, so decided to have a bash. I exposed a paper screen by mistake without thinking and went for a screen that I could see had some imperfections from what looked like paint applied directly to it without emulsion. This search for imperfection was based on the aim for obscurity and the translation of the volatile time period I'm trying to portray. However, these imperfections actually barely came through on the screen and the paper screen handled the fabric specific paint excellently. The process itself was a lot different to paper printing than I expected, so made sure I did a test print first on white cotton before moving onto the final print. Once the ink had dried it is then ironed to help it set and hold. Visually I feel the design has really lifted the flag as it given the middle panel some needed character and strengthens links to the original context. The ink did dry slightly lighter than the navy/black it was printed but still had the desired effect. The progression tomorrow will be to reattach the NO from the crit over the top of the coat of arms to maintain the impression of rejection of order and not glorify the state.