We visited the British library as a chance for us to engage with, critically respond to and document wider contexts of visual research. I went to the Malorie Blackman and Mervyn Peake exhibitions, 2 people who I didn’t previously know of. Below are some notes about the different choices of galleries we could visit:
The fantastical world of Mervyn Peake: Islands and Seas
This was a free display showcase of Peake’s archive with images all centred around the themes of the seas and islands with a fantasy twist.
These are a series of photos of Mervyn Peake’s work. They’re a combination of ones I took at the exhibition and ones I collected after when doing additional research:
Gormenghast: Peake’s most famous work- a fantasy series about the inhabitants of a castle
The Swiss Family Robinson:
The waves:
Captain Slaughterboard:
Treasure Island:
Notes I made after the visit about the different collections that where at the exhibition:
Reflection: I really enjoyed learning about another illustrator and getting to see some work from his archive. I like his illustrative style and the fine quality of the line work and shading. This is a style I would like to experiment with and bring into my own project. His Treasure Island project is my favourite of his work as he uses lots of intricate hatching to build up the details and depth. Also Peake said that he would often illustrate a text as someone was reading it to him. This is a similar approach to what we did in one of the workshops and could be an interesting way of trying to illustrate the Norse myths.
Malorie Blackman: The Power of Stories: this was an exhibition all about the life and work of Malorie Blackman who is a British writer who was Children’s Laureate from 2013 to 2015. She primarily writes literature and television dramas for children and young adults. A common theme in her work is using sci fi to explore social and ethical issues. For example ‘Noughts and Crosses’ is a fictional adaptation of Britain that she uses to explore the theme of racism.
Here are some notes I took while at the exhibition:
This is a list of some of her most well known books and television dramas:
These are some of the photos I took from the exhibition:
After visiting the exhibition I researched some of her publications and found she regularly works with the Dapo Adeola, a British-Nigerian illustrator who has a really fun and cute style. His work often explores space to tackle issues such as race and gender stereotypes. I like the stylised characters and think they work well alongside his strong use of colour.
This is a screenshot from the music video to Stormzy’s song ‘Superheroes’ where he references Malorie Blackman and her book ‘Noughts and Crosses’. Stormzy had said that this was his favourite book and that Malorie is a huge inspiration for him.
Fantasy Realms of Imagination: this was another exhibition at the British Library. I wasn’t able to visit it on the day as the tickets where all sold out but I have booked tickets to go at a later date as I feel like the topic and style could provide good inspiration for my Norse Mythology project.
This visit to the British library was very interesting and I got to learn about an illustrator and author that I didn’t know about before. The exhibition about Malorie Blackman was really inspiring and uplifting as there was a lot about perseverance and tackling social issues. I really enjoyed looking at the display of Peake’s work as I like his illustration style and would like to incorporate that type of hatching and mark making into my Norse Mythology project.
Samuel Green Illustration 