Tash Burnell - tash_s_lines

Tash Burnell, the committee President, creates interpretive drawings influenced by ethnographic works which she shares on her instagram

The following are some of her creations and a brief description of the ethnographies that inspired them.

Enjoy!

Skill and Self among Trinidadian Garment Workers

Women in Trinidad are "devoted to making a living through sewing". Their dignity, self-determination, and resilience are culturally constructed, around the act of sewing, which were vital qualities for the post-colonial struggle. These women have strategized, giving themselves agency over the unequal distribution of capital, by gaining sewing skills to increase their economic and knowledge capital. This agency is explicitly shown by Antoinette, a factory worker at Signature Fashions factory, by her ‘thieving’ patterns of a shirt she can then use to make shirts for a private client on the informal market, as she now has the agency to seek working opportunities. This shows that women are flexible, they adapt to different working situations and they are determined. Prentice argues that this is exploited by the neoliberal economy as women have become resilient to unfair treatment, such as sudden layoff due to a fall in the market, or the factory employers making it the responsibility of the employee to train themselves to save money. These women seem to configure their identity in a way that fits around the neoliberal market and is consistent with the culture which was formed around the anti-colonial struggle. These garment workers sew themselves into the neoliberal fabric, which they are bound within and contribute to creating.

Prentice, R. (2012) Skill and Self among Trinidadian Garment Workers

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Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization

It is OUT OF ORDER that there is any disparity between the way that people of different races and from different cultural backgrounds are treated and diagnosed, due to stereotyping and biases. This is addressed by Kiara Bridges who studied Alpha Hospital in New York which is a public hospital’ providing for the ‘large number of persons who did not qualify for Medicaid’ or are uninsured. These people are often poorer and are of ethnic minorities. A physician in the hospital, Dr Rose, refers to ‘Latinas’ in an interview as a ‘sexually dissolute bunch’. This means they are more likely to be misdiagnosed ‘with a sexually transmitted infection’ so they suffer by not getting the help they need. Furthermore, Black women are often stereotyped as ‘promiscuous’, therefore ‘gynaecologists would almost automatically diagnose a black woman with symptoms of endometriosis’ (a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb starts to grow in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes) as having ‘pelvic inflammatory disease’, treated with sterilisation. So these women’s ability to have children is taken away for nothing. Dr Rose teaches medical students so is potentially passing on her racist approach. This ethnography suggests the necessity to educate medical students on the importance of acknowledging the bias they may be subjected to due to the stereotyping of certain groups in society. This, along with diversifying the healthcare profession to be more representative of people they treat could increase the equality and standardisation of treatment across different groups of people.

-Kiara Bridges, ‘Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization’ (2011)

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Lotus Feet

‘Lotus feet’- The Chinese cultural practice of foot binding came to an end in the early 20th century.

Women’s feet were bound because tiny feet were once seen as a status symbol, a marker of beauty. It was a source of excruciating pain and infection for many women. If a women’s feet were more than just four inches long a woman was likely to endure the contempt of her husband’s family and the disapproval of society. Binding started at the ages 4 to 9. The toes would be bent inwards under the sole of the foot, wrapped tightly in 6-foot-long gauze strips and crushed with a heavy rock. The bones were broken and prevented form recovering by maintaining constant binding. This deformed the feet and prevented growth. The practice originated in the 10th-century China and gradually became popular among the elite during the Song dynasty (c960–1279) and to most social classes by the Qing dynasty (c1644-1012). This tradition is believed to have arisen due to the dancing of a consort, of the Southern Qi emperor, on floor decorated with golden lotus flower design. The emperor is said to have seen lotus springs from her feet. However, there is no evidence of the consort ever binding her feet. It can perhaps be assumed that her delicate feet resembled image of the lotus gave rise to the term, ‘lotus feet’ or ‘golden lotus’. In 1912, the new Republic of China government banned foot binding due to anti-binding campaigns. Binding was opposed in order to increase health and therefore improve labour efforts, and on grounds of feminist gender equality.

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Managgarai women

In the last 30 years there has been a rise in Managgarai women in the Indonesian Island of Flores who remain happily unmarried. An increase in Catholicism in the past 30 years has encouraged freedom of choice regarding finding a spouse, so less women are coerced into marrying. Unlike the men, women do not have the opportunity to marry outside of their kin group on the island. They have less agency as they cannot travel to find a partner. Not marrying and not bearing children can be beneficial to the individual and their families: These women have the time to engage in the agricultural industry, growing their own crops, and they can look after elderly parents and nieces and nephews. Lastly, these women free themselves from the responsibility of WOÉ (the financial support the husband’s family is obliged to give to the wives’ family. Now part of the husband’s family the women must work to provide for both families). Not marrying, arguably gives these women more agency in their lives.

-Allerton 2007

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Lunch is ready

How eating the same food connects people 🍚🍝🍕🍲🍜🥧🥖When people eat the same food they consequently contain the same substance. This relates to way sharing the same blood connects some families, perhaps sharing food together connects people in a similar way... The Iban of Borneo believe that a genetic line of people is forever linked with a particular genetic line of rice. A new spouse joining an Iban family eats the rice associated with that family. They share the rice modelling the sharing of genes. This shows the way food can relate and connect people together. -Bloch, M. 1992.

Food bonds people. This could be an important idea to consider in this time as many are separated. So order a Curry ‘together’ or recreate your favourite restaurant’s pasta dish, and eat it ‘together’ on the phone or Skype, sitting miles apart. Perhaps this could help us feel closer together even as the distance remains.

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Waiting for migration

WAITING for MIGRATION. Waiting is often written out of the narrative of migrant experiences. Migration is viewed as a male affair. It is perceived that there are more job opportunities for men and the journey across the Mediterranean is more dangerous for women. Migration to Southern European is made more difficult by increases in boarder control, as well as dangerous and illegal crossing points. Women must WAIT. The natives of Tadla Plain (Morocco) are said to have “l-barra f-rasshoum” (the outside in their heads), the women are left behind as ‘waiting beings’, ’ytesannau’ with their lives on hold. -Alice Elliot 2015

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Let's talk about sex

Let’s talk about... Attitudes towards sex which vary greatly cross culturally. Sexual promiscuity is encouraged among Zafaminary youths in Madagascar to ensure the compatibility of a potential couple, making conception more probable. - Maurice Block 1995.

However the Bedouin people of Northern Africa, avoid expressions of sexuality as modesty is highly valued in society, women rarely even engage with their husbands.

- Adu Lughud 1986 (Art inspired by Malika Favre)

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Tulips ... two lips

After reading The Vagina Monologues, an episodic play written by Eve Ensler, which explores women’s consensual and non-consensual sexual experiences, body image, genital mutilation, encounters with reproduction and menstrual periods.

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Nationality

Who are the baby’s parents and what is its nationality?

Daisy Deomampo’s study shows how children born of surrogate Indian mothers in Mumbai struggle to gain citizenship in the county their biological parents are citizens of; Norway and the US. Notions of parenthood and citizenship in; India, Norway and the US.

-In India parenthood and citizenship is recognised by blood and soil. So babies who are genetically distinct from their surrogate mother and are born in India are recognised as citizens and as the child of the surrogate (as they have gained nourishment through the surrogate’s blood).

-In the US notions of parenthood are biogenetic; the baby must be a product of the Mothers egg and the father’s sperm. Citizenship is recognised by ‘jus soil’ being born in the US and by sharing genes with an American parent. Accurate DNA tests are needed to prove citizenship and parenthood.

-In Norway parenthood and citizenship “resides not in eggs but in the womb”, so a surrogate would legally be recognised as the baby’s legal mother not the mother with whom the baby shares DNA. A surrogate mother would have to legally transfer parenting rights to the biological mother. The biological father is recognised as the Dad by default, as nationality is ‘embedded in semen’.

Please visit Tash's art instagram to see more creative pieces or to send her a message.

#tashburnell #tashburnellart #art #interpretiveart #interpretivedrawing #interpretivedrawings #interpretiveartworks #ethnographicart #ethnographies #food #sharingfood #commensality

#trinidad #trinidadiangarmentworkers #trinidadtextiles