'Keep Me Safe' Layla Mercedes Penfold

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By Junior Signature Art Prize 2022
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Dimensions (HxWxD):

59 × 41.7 × 0 cm

Materials:

Acrylic Paint, Metallic Ink, Arabic Newspapers(Background)

Primary Medium:

Painting

Medium
2022
Signed on Back
Ready to display
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About the work: I chose to submit this piece of work as my signature art piece as I feel it strongly presents an expression of my emotion and may be relatable to others. I created this piece during February after visiting the Mosaic Rooms in January, which had on an exhibition called “Stateless Heritage”, focusing on Palestinian refugee camps in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. I felt a strong connection towards this exhibition as my family are originally immigrants from Palestine and Egypt due to war and genocide. I have always felt a deep interest in art based around North African/Middle Eastern culture and historical art from this part of the world as it is something I grew up around, which is also the focus of the Mosaic Rooms’ exhibitions. Th ose living in the region have always had to cope with the volatility of the politics there. My family were from the city Haifa, in Palestine, and had to escape in 1949 to Cairo, Egypt due to Isreali forces invasion of their homes. This further inspired me more to create a portrait of my own family in a ‘Madonna and Child’ style pose. In most biblical imagery, baby Jesus and Mary are portrayed as white, which would have in fact not have been the case as they were from Jerusalem, Palestine in the Middle East. I think it is time to challenge these eurocentric views and interpretations, and reclaim, and portray this style of art in the way they arguably should have been from the start. My art is special to me as it portrays what Mary and baby Jesus may have looked more like in reality. Another aspect of this reclamation is through pride in language and culture. There is Arabic scripture also surrounding the portrait with words that associate in my mind to immigration and the aftermath of it, for example ‘family’, ‘pressure’, ‘strength’, ‘love’, ‘war’ ect. This is extremely personal to me and I intend on it to feel relatable and create understanding to other children who come from immigrant backgrounds and are 1st or 2nd generation immigrants in the type of emotions and ideas brought up by this art. I have studied art for GCSE and am now taking it for A Level. I have always been extremely interested in the subject becaused a lot of my mum's work involves art and she has always encouraged my creativity. I have often used art to express feelings and ideas which I may not speak about, or find easier to express through creativity.

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