Rebecca East UWE Illustration

Research and Development: King saul Development work: Sigils Research: Kingsley Hall Concept Development: Kingsley Hall

 As I had problems with meeting this deadline and completing this project, it's hard to evaluate it as a full project. I didn't get to complete all of the work I intended to, so I will instead just evaluate the quality of the research, development and final work I did complete. I orginally set out to explore different points of view towards mental illness and treatment throughout different time periods. While I didn't find this a difficult topic to research as I already had an existing interest in it, and so had a decent amount of reference material to go off, I did find it difficult to narrow down my research as this is such a huge subject. Early on in the project I found myself feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information I was looking into, and I think this inhibited my early development work.  I did however thoroughly enjoy looking into this subject, areas like biblical attitides were new to me and I found this to be very interesting, I was also able to put my knowl

For my final work for this project I wanted to create a small diorama of a hypothetical room inspired byt Kingsley Hall. I used mostly cardboard and masking tape painted with acrylic and some textile details like the cushions were made from fabric scraps, the rug was woven on a hand-loom. It measures around 21cm tall, 29cm long and 21cm wide. I wanted to make use of lots of different prints and patterns, to capture the hectic feeling that Kingsley Hall was often described to have. I included details like the DSM-3, which was the latest edition of the DSM (Diagnostic and statistical Manual of mental disorders) at the time in the mid 60's. I also looked up best selling books of the time for the books on the bookcase, and I looked for headlines from 1965 for the newspaper on the table. I made the cigarette smoke out of pulled-apart cotton wool. I use Mary Barnes' paintings as a reference for the mural along the walls, and I made small Rorschach Test-style images to put on the wall

 After reading up on the story of King Saul, I became interested in the idea of presenting mental illness through religious imagery. In the book of Samuel it describes Saul being driven mad by an evil spirit, so I started to look into occult imagery of figures like Baphomet; a figure first drawn by Eliphas Levi, a French Occult author in the mid 19th century. This image, originally called "the sabbatic goat" has since been popularly associated with ideas of demons and Satan. digital sketch I wanted to include other references to Eliphas Levi's work; a lot of his drawings were presented as sigils and diagrams, combining this structure with some more decorative touches could be quite pleasing.  I created a small sigil out of scraps of cardboard and masking tape to experiment with how this imagery could be brought into a different medium.

Some concept and idea development looking into Kingsley Hall. I put together a little digital collage to illustrate the king of aesthetics I was working with. I wanted to use psychedelic imagery to reference the use of hallucinogenics at Kingsley Hall, and I was also working with descriptions of the interior at the time: lots of bright prints, cushions scattered over the floor, smoky rooms from incense and cigarettes. I also started playing with the idea of doing some 3D work; I thought the best way to illustrate this building and the kind of place it was, was to create a hypothetical room inspired by the accounts of the people of visited/were treated there. I wanted to include pieces of textile work, paintings inspired by Mary Barnes, references to psychiatric treatments.