Journal of Illustration - Volume 1, Issue 1, 2014

This article aims to question relationship between illustration and folklore by discussing how today’s illustration recovers and uses folklore as a language, suggesting a new paradigm which presents itself as a possibility of semantic innovation, one seeking to discover and promote a collective identity1 through individual expression.

The article considers the affect folk art has on the development of a vernacular visual language in particular associated with the expression and translation of the graphic line in illustration. It is argued that this process of translation and transference results in a conflict between aesthetic readings of the vernacular line, associated with the kitsch and the agency of the illustrated image/object. In adopting Alfred Gell’s (1998) principle of the agency of art a more objective consideration of illustration in relation to its functional role in society, rather than the aesthetic value of the image/object can be developed.

Traditional models for operating as a commercial illustrator are being affected by a rapidly changing media landscape and a reduction in commissioning budgets. Illustration as a discipline can use this time of financial uncertainty and change to reflect upon related fields in the creative industries as well as referring back to its own core values, skills and objectives.

In the context of fine art there have been a number of terms and practices discussed over the last decades that centre around social engagement and collaboration: relational aesthetics (Nicolas Bourriaud), new genre public art (Suzanne Lacy), connective aesthetics (Suzy Gablik) and dialogical aesthetics (Grant Kester). Similarly, design has seen a variety of initiatives and organizations that focus on engaging with communities in order to improve people’s lives in meaningful ways while taking into account complex social, political and environmental challenges.

Illustrators can use elements of these practices to expand their remit while continuing to take advantage of their core skill of giving visual form to externally given content for a particular audience. Taking responsibility for generating content through outward-facing engagement while also having a stake in the methods of distribution opens up a wealth of opportunities that promise to be productive for the discipline.

This article examines the role of folk art and ritual in British design and popular culture as a horrific and subversive force. Whilst British folk tradition has been championed by the artists and writers Barbara Jones, Margaret Lambert and Enid Marx, and recent revived interest means it remains an enduring and popular inspiration across design disciplines, its deployment to intimidate and the occurrence of horrific narratives and depictions of folk art and ritual remain unaccounted for. In view of Raymond Williams’s text ‘Dominant, Residual, Emergent’ and Antonio Gramsci’s ‘Observations on Folklore’, British folk tradition can be identified as a residual culture, which dominant culture attempts to incorporate as a ‘leisure function’ of itself through reinterpretation and dilution – demonstrated by the shift in common meaning of the maypole. Folk art and ritual such as hair work that threatens the predominant image of an idyllized and frivolous folk culture is marginalized, or othered to the extremity of the horror story. The horrific rendering of British folk traditions in The Wicker Man speaks of an anxiety of their affirmations – that mankind is subject to the sublime chaos of nature and that society and nature are entwined. Folk art and ritual occupies a dual position in British culture and although residual, in its adaptation by the artist or designer it evolves continuously and is bound up with the dominant culture it permeates.

This article examines the relationship between folk art in China and contemporary art practice. The main focus is on paper cutting and the work of Lu Shengzhong, a renowned Chinese artist and head of the Experimental Art Department of the Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA), and how his work is rooted in the folk-art tradition of China.

The article starts with a short overview of the tradition of paper cutting in China. It then discusses the work of Lu Shengzhong. Lu has taken the traditional Chinese process of paper cutting to a new level, transforming it into large-scale monumental work. There is a brief examination of the practice of collecting folk art from the countryside in CAFA; and the folk-art study unit at the Experimental Art Department in which Lu’s students learn about traditional Chinese crafts from extensive field research. Melanie Miller, senior lecturer in the Department of Design at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and co-author of this article, attended a paper-cutting workshop given by Lu Shengzhong at MMU in 2010; the final section of the article discusses the body of work made by Miller in response to the workshop. Through Lu and Miller’s work we see how the ancient art of paper cutting becomes transformed.

This article refers to a specific case study, i.e. collaborations between folk artists and an independent publisher in India – Tara Books – with the purpose of creating book narratives. Central to this article is the concept of the folk artist as author and illustrator as well as that of the publishing process as a community effort. The article begins by reflecting on popular definitions of folk art with the aim of providing an understanding of ‘the function of folk’ in the Indian context. Using examples of two titles – The London Jungle Book (2004) and Following my Paintbrush (2010) – on which this author has worked in the role of book designer, the article examines and illustrates with visual examples the roles and nature of collaboration between folk artist, publisher and book designer. It looks at the development of a folk-art book from concept origin through to completion. The article explores the challenges of working with folk art within the constraints of a commercial book market and queries what place folk art conventions have in the context of communication design.

This article explores the process undertaken by an illustrator to represent the Green Man as a character in a novel written for children by the author, Linda Newbery, published by David Fickling Books in 2010. Using the sketchbook as a research tool, the illustrator describes how the process of observational drawing can aid understanding and interpretation of an author’s text, and help identify the key components in visual representation of a folk character.