The coming year...

It seems I have abandoned my little resolution to remember to blog frequently.... In my defence after weeks of 1-9 shifts at Topshop blogging has been the last thing on my mind. 
Despite this, my final year at university is looming and I think its quite important that I keep a record of what I'm doing. It will enable me to set my thoughts straight at the end of the day and will also be useful in seeing my progression throughout the year. 

So...for my final year I want to delve into multiculturalism. We live in a country which is so culturally rich and I want to look at the good and bad aspects of the mixing of opposing cultures. I intend to look at pattern and artwork from select places and also how the life of people changes when they come to England.


This idea came to me after visiting Egypt, I felt like it was a complete culture shock to me as the customs and the way people dress are so different to my surroundings in England. I also found the Egyptian decoration extremely inspiring and so this will be the starting point for my work.

table with a tessellating pattern

Some designs painted onto boats.

I loved this colourful ceiling in one of the stalls we went in to.

I really like the blue tiles used in the Mosques and want
to use this colour in my work.

These hanging lamps were sold almost everywhere, up close
they were really beautiful and ornate

colourful spices in a shop window.

Egyptian decoration.

The novelty shot- me and mon petit amis on camels.

After watching border force Uk on tv and looking at how many illegal immigrants try and enter england I decided to do some of my own research into which countries have the most migrants to the UK. I found the following table on http://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/briefings/migrants-uk-overview#kp5

Table 2 - Top ten sender countries of migrants by country of birth and nationality, UK 2009

Largest senders	Country of birth	Percentage share	Nationality	Percentage share
1	India	9.9	Poland	12.3
2	Poland	7.0	India	8.1
3	Pakistan	6.0	Pakistan	4.1
4	Ireland	5.8	United States	3.3
5	Germany	4.4	South Africa	3.1
6	South Africa	3.3	France	3.1
7	United States	2.7	Italy	2.9
8	Nigeria	2.5	Germany	2.9
9	Jamaica	2.2	Nigeria	2.9
10	Kenya	1.9	Portugal	2.5

If we take away all european countries from the statistic table the top senders of migrants to the UK are India, Poland, Pakistan, South Africa and Nigeria. Based on the research from this table these are the cultural groups I intend to look at in my work. I also want to look at the increasing presence of Islamic culture within England as, although it is not in this chart I think it is important when looking at Multiculturalism.

With this idea in mind, I am looking forward to the year ahead as there are so many aspects of this topic I can look into:architecture, lifestyle, food, traditional dress, art....it will be difficult for me to run out of ideas. I am a little concerned, however, that my topic is too broad but i can always home in on one specific area later on.