During the Uncensored project we were asked to produce in secret a postcard. This post card was to be hung anonymously on the corridor wall amongst all the other postcards. The theme would be of our choosing but the initial premise is that we would do it in a style or fashion that would not be instantly recognisable as being by that individual.
I based my idea on film censorship. Using the small 5×3 white paper postcard supplied I decided to make a collage. This collage was constructed from cut outs from the autumn 2017 ‘Tate etc.’ magazine. The main image was that of a young boy which was a still from the 1961 film ‘The Innocents’ by Jack Clayton. The Russian propaganda insert is from a poster by Nina Vatolinas called ‘Don’t Chatter Be Alert!’ (1941). The rest of the Russian text translates as ‘In days like these the walls have ears, its a small step from gossip to treason’. I entitled the postcard ‘The Rapist’. The title has the French spelling of ‘the’, trying to give the poster a foreign subtitled feel about it with a black and white picture and possibly an independent film quality about it. The font and type face for the title letters which were also cut outs from the same magazine have a punk rock, edgy feel about them reminiscent of the sex pistols music posters of the 1970’s, the first two letters being in the RA font giving an alternative feel of the establishment or the elitist quality associated with the Royal Academy. The idea of putting the poster credits across the boys face also hits at censorship of the under privileged and that of political and cultural cover ups.
Michael Palmer 