Throughout my research I realised how much it has taken an emotional toll on me. I am constantly researching, looking up, reading and watching news update after news update. By immersing myself in all of the news I can’t help but feel Obliged to document as much as I can, incorporating it into my work, by using QR codes linked to articles or photos, which I will imbed in my collages. Through constant stimulation I plan to take advantage of news that just at my fingertips on my phone and include the actual screen shots into my work.

These are just some of the large collection that I have seemed to have collected over the past few weeks. (my space below; a visual mind map of all of the articles, artist influences and mental notes I  have collected.) The collecting has been a huge part of my project and is what tends to be my biggest inspiration and main drive to continue to work, on such a hard and emotionally heartbreaking subject to me.

An image of some of the signs that had been collected from protests all around the world. This inspired me to look into art in protests and the power they had all over the world.

After researching I discovered Peter Hapaks article and photography series. He documented portraits of people who had been involved in a protest. Each was interviewed and asked to bring something that was significant and reminded them of the protest. I was inspired by the series and have started to collect objects and save articles that trigger an emotion in me; whether its frustration or pain, and am trying to incorporate this idea of an object having a significant sentimental value that triggers pain.

“Mannoubia Bouazizi, the mother of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, says, “Mohamed suffered a lot. He worked hard. But when he set fire to himself, it wasn’t about his scales being confiscated. It was about his dignity.”

“El Teneen, a prominent Egyptian graffiti artist, wears a homemade gas mask.”

“Ahmed Harara is a Cairo dentist who was blinded in one eye by a rubber bullet during clashes in January. In November, he was shot in his other eye. Now he is completely blind. “As they say in America, power of the people will change everything,” Harara says.”

“Yahi Abdel Shafy, left, is a Salafi and a doctor who works in the field hospital in Tahrir Square. Egyptian protester Saleh Mohamed, right, uses a Maalox mixture on his eyes to counter the effects of tear gas.”

“Egyptian protester Nehal Marei. Right, a tear-gas canister in Egypt.”