The Fine Art for Design graduates of the Batley School of Art, an establishment with over 100 years’ history, recently put on a small but unexpected show in the Old Truman Brewery.
Wu Xiaofei: BA (Hons) Fine Art for Design. ‘Mechanical Instrument’
If you were to enterthis display room, you would not be able to miss its huge installation. Anyone
who sees it plays with it, and anyone who plays with it smiles: audience interaction ultimately proves the success of Wu Xiaofei’s work. In this installation, randomly pressing the keyboard produces an unexpected song, often to the delight of the audience. Xiaofei describes his art as ‘curiously stimulating’ and says that encouraging children and adults alike to be curious and explore the unknown is what satisfies him.
Simon Wells: BA (Hons) Fine Art for Design. ‘Peter Pan Pan’
The 1951 Walt Disney film ‘Peter Pan’ inspired this set of prints from hand-drawn animations by Simon Wells. While Disney perpetuates American dreams in which ‘the good guy always wins’ and ‘everything works out well’, Simon, who first encountered the film as a 5-year-old, distorts these characters through the perspective of an adult. He depicts the relationship between the boy and the girl and the
children’s flight into Neverland with a simple but random style.
Amanda Walker: BA (Hons) Fine Art for Design.
Fairy tales were also part of the inspiration for Amanda Walker’s creepy and surreal costumes. We can see, more specifically, the influence of the brothers Grimm’s stories about the transformation of humans into animals. Amanda started the work with illustrations and recreated them in a three-dimensional form. The piece aims to express ‘the emotional journey of growing up through unpredictable situations’ and leaves free space in which the audience, using its own imagination, can complete the story.
In one of the Free Range shows a while ago, Newcastle University exhibited works from its BA (hons), MA and PhD students in School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape. Presenting in-depth researches into the function and nature of architecture and raising advanced and innovative conceptions, this exhibition is inspiring and thought-provoking.
Raichel Warren: ‘Cabinet of Ethereal Curiosities’
At first glance, Raichel’s design seems to be a cosy workshop situated in the centre of a park; with a closer look at the explanation, however, the lovely cabinet is of further importance. The ‘Cabinet of Ethereal Curiosities’ aims at archiving technological achievements and impeding the obsolescence of digital data, so as to keep records of our information age for future historians. The location chosen is Bletchely Park, a site known as home of the code breakers in World War II which, hopefully, will become the home of modern coders as well.
Lauren Wedderburn: ‘SCHOOLS OUT… (and about)’
Holding the view that ‘children learn through experience and play rather than through instruction’ and that ‘learning should be rooted in a specific social and cultural context in order to be meaningful to children’, Lauren reconstructed a building at Middlesbrough town centre into a school that challenges its traditional architectural typology. With ‘a careful manipulation of materials, lights, views, height and colour’, the new school allows children to have an experience in which they can observe, explore, reflect, imagine, and learn.
Hanna Benihoud: ‘Mend: Hiding in Plain Sight’
Capturing the desire of being anonymous and free from the disturbance of fame, Hanna has designed a safe house for people to break away from their routine life and escape from society for a little moment. Located on the rooftops of Eldon Square shopping centre in Newcastle, the safe house is invisible from plain sight. In addition to this innovative concept, one of the most attractive ideas in Hanna’s work is that in the model, the viewing points around the shopping centre are marked, so that the audience can look through the frames and have a real view which strengthens interaction and enriches your experience.
Alex Fotherby: ‘The Finish Institute’
This irregular, peachy building is an institute designed by Alex to provide workshop spaces for local people to get together and learn shop craftsmanship skills by practice. Influenced by Alvar Aalto’s furniture design, Alex made the irregular curvy walls that ‘rest and stretch away from one another’, ‘creating many different voids and vertical spaces’, so that the users within the building can ‘have direct views of the learning spaces’. The whole design is stylish, artistic yet practical.
For more works from students of Newcastle University, please visit: Nclarchitecture.org.uk
Displayed from 5th to 9th July, ‘Feral’ presents the work of the Fine Art, Illustration and Photography graduates from the Arts University College at Bournemouth. It has demonstrated the students’ potential for commercialising art and design. The following are some of my personal favourites.
Hollie Mackenzie: BA (Hons) Fine Art. ‘Downfall’
There are different interpretations of ‘Downfall’, a wooden staircase made by Hollie Mackenzie. Some think of the notions of utopia and dystopia; others see the metaphor of the contemporary woman’s attempt to climb the career ladder. No matter what the original concept was, it is a demonstration of masterful skills, and a great success, causing great interest among the public.
Website: Mackenzieartist.co.uk
Emily Browne: BA (Hons) Illustration
The drawings of Emily are full of childlike fun and fantasy. Emily uses fluent lines and bright colours, and depicts humans, animals, plants and objects in a lively style. These lovely images can be easily adopted on T-shirts, book covers, cards, or other commodities, making the audience smile at a glance.
Website: Emilylucy.com
Louise Byng: BA (Hons) Illustration. ‘Please Wait…’
Sparked by observations of the world around him and adopting rudimentary materials and techniques, Louise’s drawings resemble life – common yet unique, spontaneous and ongoing. This group of illustrations named ‘Please Wait…’ captures the waiting moments in daily life, and expresses the philosophy that waiting, which is dismissed as an obstacle in the way of progress, can be an exquisite pause or a serene moment that gives us rest, solace, time to think, freedom from demands, and everything else that we are rushing around trying to achieve.
Website: Louisebyng.co.uk
Julie Bellemann: BA (Hons) Photography. ‘Here’
Julie’s photography series ‘Here’ depicts the exploration of human’s physical and psychological connection to nature. Hair is juxtaposed with natural elements such as grass, sand, and leaves, and together they harmoniously constitute the photographs. Julie shot the photos in natural light and made the wooden box-frames by herself, aiming to offer the audience a chance to escape from their urban life and experience the wilderness and peace of rural landscapes.
Website: Juliebellemann.com
Claire Huish: BA (Hons) Photography. ‘Huish’
Graduating with First Class Honours degree this year, Claire already has rich experience in taking fashion photography for magazines. She is a master at matching the models and costumes with the environment, and creates her feminine and exquisite signature ‘Huish’ style in each and every photo.
Website: Clairehuish.co.uk
From 5th to 9th July, Bath School of Art & Design held an exhibition named ‘Site Unseen’ as one of the Free Range Graduate Summer Shows at The Old Truman Brewery, the avantgarde art quarter in East London. The show displays works by its 40 brilliant Fine Art graduates. Here are some memorable ones.
Katie Andrews: ‘Cupio’ Gilded Leaves
No-one in the house will miss this grand golden leaf formation ‘Cupio’ by Katie Andrews. Katie treated the worthless dead leaves as valueable objects, putting golden coats on them and placing them in a circular shape. This art work realises our subconscious desire to destroy valuable things.
Website: Katiejandrews.carbonmade.com
Sarah Johnston: ‘Manifold’ Archive Inkjet Print
Sarah’s work demonstrates the perfect marriage of technology and art. Using light sensitive materials, she ‘paints with light and shadow’ to create these intriguing patterns with 3D illusion, which stimulate ‘a sense of liminality – the space between inside and outside, life and death, light and dark’.
Website: Sarahjohnston.me
Samuel Weller: ‘Skips’
Samuel has a talent for viewing usual, mundane things from an unusual perspective. In his photography series ‘Skips’, for example, he takes photos of bins from a birds eye view, and adds fun and beauty to the waste that people tend to throw away in life. You can go to Sam’s website to see the world from a new angle.
Website: Samweller.co.uk
Joseph Tellet: ‘Shell’
Entering the room with these huge snails felt like watching a film about giant alien creatures attacking the world. In the world of ‘surreal and uncanny’ created by Joseph Tellet, even mundane
beings like molluscs can be special. Though confused by the existence of ‘Monster Molluscs’, viewers will probably see them again in their science fiction dreams.
Jason Hobbs: ‘The Vernacular Workshop Project Vernacular Workshop Project’
In this project, Jason attempts to bring surreal creatures into the real world. In order to demonstrate ‘alternatives to the current reliance on technology and energy’, Jason attempts to build a workshop without using any mains electricity or fossil fuels. The show displays drafts, emails, and photos that record the process of the project. You can follow further development of this project on Tumblr.
Website: Vernacularworkshop.tumblr.com
‘Site Unseen’ impresses with diverse forms of art and its perfect combination of science, technology, and psychology. It inspires us to see familiar as unfamiliar, and to make ordinary into extraordinary.
Website: Siteunseen.co.uk
A couple of weeks ago, the work of Leicester De Montfort’s art and design graduates were exhibited at their campus building for all to see. There are ten floors to the exhibition spanning an array of courses, from fashion design to game animation and product design to illustration. Here are a few of the graduates that stood out...
Jenny Benton BA (Hons) Fine Art
Jenny was inspired by artists such as Georgia O’Keefe and Frank Stella who inspired her to create this installation called ‘Jungle foliage evolution’. It is a very large piece that is made using a number of medias, and creates a link between the beauty of nature and that of urban street art.
Deborah Sowah BA (Hons) Graphic design & illustration
Deborah has a unique illustration style that she has used to make her own greetings cards, gifts and a children’s book entitled Lilly’s Wall drawings. Her technique mixes loose sketches with various ways of rendering in a colourful and endearing way. Her work is influenced heavily by nature and also by the Japanese art of paper folding, origami.
Amy Baxter BA (Hons) Design Crafts
Amy has a passion for floral prints and commercial design so for her this collection was a way to communicate just that. Her range of kitchenware is made from a mixture of porcelain and earthenware as these materials give a good, ‘canvas-like’ quality for being decorated. Her pieces
work very well as a collection but also as one offs.
You can see Part Two of Leicester De Montfort's Art & Design Graduate Show later in the week, or if you can't wait until then, the university's website hosts a selection of graduate pieces here.
Nothing is more inspiring than a graduate show. Free from the pressure of commercial success or customer requirement, works by art students are always full of creativity and personality. From 14th to 21st June, Winchester School of Art is having an exhibition of painting, photography, installation, video, book, fashion and fabric works by BA graduates from Fine Art, Graphic Arts, and Fashion and Textile Design pathways. The annual degree show aims to celebrate the accomplishments of the students and showcase their work for their development after graduation. For visitors, it is a visual and audio feast. Here are some of my favourite works in the show:
Chloë Gooch: ‘Animalistic Nostalgia’ BA (Hons) Fine Art
In the collage series, ‘Animalistic Nostalgia’, Printmaking student, Chloë Gooch shares with us her sweet childhood memories. Inspired by photographer, John Stezaker, Chloë replaced some of the
heads in the old photographs from her family with animal heads cut to a similar shape and size. Such simple collage technique gives an amusing yet realistic touch to the old photos. The collection not only brings us nostalgia for the good old days, but also explores the relationship between animals and humans.
Website: Cesgart9191.tumblr.com
Zeyao Wang: ‘Where am I?’ BA (Hons) Fine Art
Painting student, Zeyao Wang, answers the philosophical problem ‘Where Am I?’ with a group of paintings. Zeyao uses a little dark figure to represent ‘I’, and places it into grand landscapes. Constructed by pure colours and simple strokes, the paintings give us a serene feeling, as if we are standing in the mysterious dreamlike world created by the artist.
Anne-Laure Lecomte: ‘Otherness’ BA (Hons) Graphic Arts
The intriguing ‘Otherness’ collection by the Photography student, Anne-Laure Lecomte featuring distorted faces highlights ‘the ambivalence between the way we want to be perceived by others and how it deforms our own images’. Without any digital modification, Anne-Laure managed to shoot photos with unusual effect and strong impact by taking people’s reflections on the water at night using only a light focused on the faces. The mysterious images haunt us and immerse us into the reflection of our relation to our own image.
Website: Lecomtephotography.tk
Be.net/allecomte
Lucy Cox: ‘Lucid’ BA (Hons) Fashion and Textile Design
As the name of the collection suggests, ‘Lucid’ by Fashion Design student Lucy Cox features clearness and freshness. Red and white are chosen as the main colours of the collection, marking a straightforward personality; knitting is skilfully used to build the innovative construction of the clothes or enrich them with delicate details, demonstrating the designer’s great creativity and craftsmanship. The whole collection is youthful, vigorous and stylish.
Ellie Major: ‘Elegant Decay’ BA (Hons) Fashion and Textile Design
Combining watercolour drawings of plants and court-style decoration elements, the design of Printed Textiles student Ellie Major embodies both idyllic romance and Rococo glamour. Unlike
many textiles which dazzle us with the same patterns repeated mechanically, Ellie’s work refreshes us as a breath of flora fragrance.
Website: Eleanorma.tumblr.com
In addition to visiting the show, you can also participate by joining in the online conversations about it.
For more information, take a look at WSA website: Southampton.ac.uk/wsa
Currently taking place at Southampton University’s resident art gallery, the John Hansard Gallery, is Quarantania. Featuring the works of three up-and-coming international artists, namely Eva Kotátková, Neha Choksi, and Taus Makhacheva, Quarantania is all about exploring the personal lives and social environments of its artists.
The exhibit of Russian film-maker, Taus Makhacheva, is the first to meet you on entering the gallery. Her filmic works grapple with the idea of belonging. Above is a demo of one of Taus’ short films, The Fast and the Furious, made in 2011, exploring ‘a series of social shifts that illustrate the impact of visual media on contemporary society’. Taking its name from the 2001 feature film about an underworld of Los Angeles street racers, The Fast and the Furious depicts the exploits of illegal street racers on the highway linking Makhachkala and the Dagestan Republic’s capital to its airport. Taus describes the street racers as ‘an elite, exclusive, members-only club into which only real men are allowed. She goes on to explain ‘For an alpha male the car is an extension of his body and his sense of self’. The Fast and the Furious explores notions of masculinity, acceptance and infiltration, asking how, and to what extent, are we willing to sacrifice ourselves for the desire for acceptance and belonging.
Next to greet you are the sculptures, drawings and collages of Prague-born artist, Eva Kotátková. Her sculptural works in particular were an intriguing installation. Made of forged metal, they resemble pieces of everyday furniture, from cribs to lamps and beyond. Eva’s drawings and collages
take on a more conventional form, presented on paper and canvas with a range of mixed media. Her works are both visually appetising and incredibly imaginative.
Finally, Neha Choski’s work combines short film with photography, collage and sculpture. Perhaps one of her most interesting works is the bed seemingly held up by vases of dying flowers. Interesting because of its ambiguity, Neha’s bed sculpture invites a plethora of interpretation into its midst. Perhaps it represents the increasing power and sovereignty of humans over nature, or perhaps it plays with the very notion of interpretation – a sculpture to be thought about, but never fully understood.
The works of Taus Makhacheva, Neha Choski, and Eva Kotátková make for an intriguing and thought-provoking exhibition well worth visiting if you’re in the Southampton area. You can view it until 9th June.
For more details of the artists and the exhibition visit: Hansardgallery.co.uk
Over the next few weeks, from today to Sunday 13th May, The Brooks Shopping Centre will be playing host to an exhibition of painting, print, sculpture, video and performance art, by a group of second year students from Winchester School of Art. The exhibition’s aim is to explore ‘the limits associated with the creative process. Whether testing the boundaries of a material’s properties, exploring the physical restrictions of time and space or confronting current political and economical concerns, Beyond these Limits invites the public to consider what role art can take in addressing these limits and […] the potential for creativity to emerge’. Lets take a look at some of the artists who will be showing off their work in the coming weeks:
Nessa Green:
Nessa’s intriguing images deal with the tension between the destructive and the constructive, the ability to destroy something, but create something new. She uses collage, photo-manipulations and paint to create her evocative works, including vibrant coloured overlays to ‘suggest psychological and emotional stings’. Indeed, her images seem to emote a sense of melancholy and restriction, these bright overlays appearing almost mask-like in their composition.
Lorna Barnshaw:
Lorna is another artist who creates through destruction, ‘employing the material nature of celluloid film that allows it to burn, blister, mark and contort, producing abstract still and moving images’. Her work ‘explores the current coexistence of analogue and digital mediums in both film and photography. Taking advantage of the materiality of celluloid film and the ethereal elements of digital, the two are united portraying a sense of nostalgia whilst welcoming the future of technology. True motion can only exist in reality or analogue format but it is digital that enables the work to exist everywhere’.
Michael Davies:
Michael’s work explores how the patterns and structures found in nature can be recreated in the artistic medium; particularly, through the process of printmaking. Michael explains ‘The attention of my practice is directed through my curiosity and investigation into the creation of natural and delicate forms and capturing processes which sometimes go unnoticed’. The resultant works are beautifully textured, providing a unique aesthetic.
Natalie Sparrow:
Sparrow’s model-work is an exploration into human resourcefulness, the way the homeless survive with just their bare essentials. Made of materials like bronze and plaster, it is Natalie’s intention to leave her models in unexpected public spaces to discover what happens to them when left outside. Natalie’s innovative and intriguing experiment showcases just some of the diverse talent the Beyond These Talents art exhibition has to offer.
Roseanna Jones:
Roseanna’s art prints at first meant to depict the prints and patterns found in the natural and animal worlds. However, once completed the talented artist quickly realised they were in fact a pictorial representation of the migraines she had been suffering. ‘I aim for my migraine series to produce a feeling of overwhelming unease.’
You can catch a private viewing today from 4pm-6pm, where you can enjoy live painting, edible sculpture and human pic ‘n’ mix, and a live performance via Skype from an artist on an exchange in Australia. If you miss that then not to worry as you can have a wander round when the show officially opens on Monday from 10am-5:30pm.
See more of the artists’ work at: Beyondtheselimits.wordpress.com
FUSSED favourite, Pop-Atelier (featured on the blog in November last year) is not your average art gallery. Described as ‘a new sort’ of gallery this organisation offers space to both professional and part-time artists. Since its launch in April 2011, the Winchester gallery has served the various artistic and creative communities with a running exhibition which changes monthly. Fussed previously covered the Student exhibition at Pop-Atelier, a showcase of what students in Winchester and the surrounding areas had been involved in, and an expression of their artistic passion in a variety of mediums. We caught up with what’s been going on at the gallery and what you can expect to see…and get involved with in the upcoming months.
A number of local artists have already signed up to the gallery to display their work, but Pop-Atelier is always attracting new creations from artists working in any arts media. The gallery is self-supporting and essentially as a not-for-profit organisation, it aspires to provide an art space for new talent and creativity to be discovered. A small commission is taken for any sales but otherwise the main drive behind the gallery is to act as an excellent source of publicity and coverage for local and up and coming artists.
A range of artists working with various materials are currently showcasing their work at the exhibition. Mixed media artist Kate Bartlett (above) has a passion for combining and overlapping different types of media which results in her bold and vibrant work. She incorporates recycled objects and materials into this to create an interesting impact.
Winchester graduate Clare Goodman’s (above) work focuses upon her knowledge of Hampshire and Devon scenery. Her landscape and seascape paintings demonstrate her impressionist style and influence her combination of tone and texture. In a very different style, artist Dave Miles’ paintings (below) are daring and intense, integrating a scientific element within his work. Vividly colourful and adorned, his work reflects his previous career as a welder.
Pop-Atelier is successfully creating a base for new talent and provides an expressive outlet for the public who want to get involved in the arts. Coming up is an exhibition Celebrating Life! It will run from 15th February to the 14th March 2012. The gallery invites the local creative community to get involved by exhibiting their work in life studies. They hope to attract work from a range of media and from both professional artists and those with a creative spark.
For more information and to get involved in this new community based project, take a look at the Pop-Atelier website: Pop-atelier.com.
You can view FUSSED’s earlier post on Pop-Atelier here.
The John Hansard Gallery’s latest exhibition is a collection of drawings, photography, collage, film and sculpture by underground contemporary artist, Terry Smith. The title of Terry Smith's exhibition is more than an indication of the theme, movement or inspiration of the collection; Smith appears to be suggesting a new way of looking at art. The term ‘parallax’ is concerned with observation, and observation is clearly what Smith is examining. What is usually concealed is revealed in this exhibition; the underside of floorboards, the inside of a jacket, the stationary firework. That which appears to be familiar has been inverted to show the part that it not usually seen, the parallactic view, if you will.
Smith confounds the expectations of observation, but also takes it further, drawing on different forms of media to reveal not just what is underneath our observation, but also what occurs in the process of either creation or destruction. ‘Dummy’, a striking piece, is a hanging jacket with one half ripped to reveal the seams and lining of the suit. Although he appears to be destroying the jacket and its aesthetic value, Smith is actually revealing the beauty of the process and creation of it. Although the exhibition offers a new way of observing the seemingly ordinary, I cannot say it is an altogether comfortable experience, but this appears to be deliberate on Smith’s part. Particularly uncomfortable pieces are ‘Light Level’, a light bulb filled with water, a jarring effect to those of us who were ever told off for bringing electrical appliances into the bathroom as a child, and ‘Fuck Nauman’, a film of two talking heads repeatedly saying these two words. Smith is deliberately being provocative, challenging our perceived perceptions in this powerful exhibition.
Terry Smith: Parallax at the John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (22nd November 2011- 22nd January 2012)
Image: hansardgallery.org.uk
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