Within my practice, I enjoy playfully repurposing familiar visual languages, making aesthetic contradictions between my subject matter and material/typographic choices, in attempt to subvert and reframe traditional narratives. Informed by a love of history, my work is motivated by concept-led briefs and archival research. I hunt for potential lines of connection between dissimilar objects and cultures, contrasting the historical with the contemporary, weaving together the allegedly ‘highbrow’ and the ‘low.’ With an interest in identity, community, and heritage, my main project this year has explored English football fandom through the lens of the Church of England, juxtaposing and appropriating the visual languages of both of these ritualistic, English tribes. One of the defining changes in the English cultural landscape over the past century has been increasing secularisation. Nevertheless, football has filled this spiritual void, with fans demonstrating devotional behaviours traditionally associated with organised religion.
In my extended essay, I examined the relationship between dark tourism and souvenir culture, exploring how different souvenir typologies amplify touristic gazes and manipulate the histories of places associated with death and trauma. Considering the concepts of the tourist gaze, hyperreality, kitsch design, and death as a spectacle, my essay discussed the dark tourist’s role as an ‘amateur semiotician.’ Symbols within the ‘dark’ souvenirs confirm tourists’ preconceptions, privileging the ‘visual’ over accurate historical representation, which in turn can ensue significant political implications.
In my extended essay, I examined the relationship between dark tourism and souvenir culture, exploring how different souvenir typologies amplify touristic gazes and manipulate the histories of places associated with death and trauma. Considering the concepts of the tourist gaze, hyperreality, kitsch design, and death as a spectacle, my essay discussed the dark tourist’s role as an ‘amateur semiotician.’ Symbols within the ‘dark’ souvenirs confirm tourists’ preconceptions, privileging the ‘visual’ over accurate historical representation, which in turn can ensue significant political implications.
