My final body of work for degree show focused in on the idea of making politics easier to engage with for young people. It's an area I feel particularly passionate about but one that is often, as with a lot of issues relating to politics, dealt with in a serious way. For this part of fulfilling the brief, I again played on the figures of Nicola Sturgeon and Jeremy Corbyn, creating silly and ridiculous facial expressions that make people laugh. But I also wanted to create something more hand-sized that could be handled and passed around more easily in a workshop setting.
The face cushions have been created using digitally printed collaged fabric and embellished with embroidery and flocking.
In terms of their use to make people more comfortable engaging in politics, they were used in the workshop to get people to think about the role a politician plays, what they do and what the participants believe they think of young people. The participants were asked to fill out the blanks on the cards attached to the cushions as part of a "Design you own Politician" themed activity.