gray's school of art degree show 2014 - fine art
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Celebrati ng the tenth year of sponsorship by BPOpen to the public June 2013
Sat 15th - Sun 16th: 10.00 - 17.00Mon 17th - Fri 21st: 10.00 - 20.00
Sat 22nd: 10.00 - 17.00
Enquiries: (01224) [email protected]
www.rgu.ac.uk/degreeshow
Gray’s School of ArtRobert Gordon University
Garthdee RoadAberdeenAB10 7QD
It is a great pleasure to welcome you to this year’s show, which is also the tenth anniversary of BP’s sponsorship. Once again this year, our graduates will have overcome many obstacles in developing and presenting their work, and some of them will be rewarded with the coveted BP Awards in both Fine Art and Design. Henry Ford once said, “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal”. For the Gray’s graduating students of 2013, the focus of their goal might now change.
At a casual glance it might be assumed that their recent goal has been getting a good degree, to learn things, and to achieve things. For some, this is indeed a laudable aim in itself. But it is not the sole purpose of an art or design education at Gray’s. The real experience of that process is firmly focused on developing the individual student in order for them to be able to best engage in their chosen career path and achieve their life ambitions. We would hope that the experience will also have developed sensitivity and respect for others and the environment; will have given them highly effective, transferrable skills in solving problems; the ability to apply their creativity in new contexts; expertise in using knowledge in effective ways, and to ultimately focus on achieving excellence in everything that they do.
A few years ago the Arts Council of England was accused of only seeming “to be interested in access”, and that “excellence didn’t get a look in” by Jonathan Reekie, chief executive of the renowned Aldeburgh festival.
Welcome to theDegree Show 2013
At Gray’s we would not necessarily differentiate the two. We would encourage our students to strive for excellence in their practice, but to also strive for excellence if their practice were focused on participation, in situated contexts, or in developing audiences. Why would participatory practice or even curatorship, be secondary to producing artefacts or other cultural outputs? Through a long history of being a challenger to post-industrial thinking, and by placing artists and designers at the heart of societal, industrial and policy contexts, Gray’s has built a persuasive heritage of creative intervention as well as the more obvious and visible creative production - and none of this at the expense of excellence.
Visitors to Gray’s Degree Shows frequently notice that the graduate artists and designers are exhibiting both artefacts and interventions, often within the same portfolio, sometimes within the same work. I firmly believe that this is the product of an educational environment that focuses beyond a closed academic experience and award, and which addresses real ambitions and aims, set in contexts that have many obstacles to success. The issues addressed are often unsolved because of this very difficulty. Sometimes when we set our sights high we can miss our intended target, but the experience of addressing the obstacles is always the real value of the experience, and that which we will carry forward to future success.
As Thomas Henry Huxley said, in his Life and Letters of Thomas Huxley, “the rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man’s foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher” - to be permanently in-motion, perhaps?
So, to our graduates of 2013, my colleagues and I would like to say: you have done well, we are all proud of you and your achievements so far, and we wish you every success as you find higher and higher rungs that will undoubtedly herald those difficult, and as yet unseen, obstacles of the future. But don’t focus on them, focus instead on your future success and your onward path.
And of our guests and visitors to Gray’s Degree Show 2013, we would ask that you might help our new graduates to celebrate their current success as demonstrated through their current work, whatever that might be, as they embark on the next exciting stage of their own, personal journey.
So, my thanks to BP for their generous support over the past ten years and thank you also for coming. We sincerely hope you enjoy the show!
Professor Paul Harris FRSAHead of Gray’s School of Art
What’s On
Fine Art
BA (Hons) PaintingBA (Hons) Photographic and Electronic MediaBA (Hons) PrintmakingBA (Hons) Sculpture
Annirose [email protected]
07793090697
‘Andesite’
My work explores the use of found or handmade objects as the source for creating an abstract image. This then forms the foundation for my work, developing the relationship between the abstract image and the surrounding space. Working in large scale allows me to approach the work in a very energetic/aggressive manner. Through a process of building up and removing certain sections of the image there is often a hint of something familiar conveyed in the final piece yet the image itself as been completely disconnected from its original source.
Catriona [email protected]
Traces and shadows; space and emptiness; covering and concealing; colour and neutrality. Through these ideas I seek to produce images that are contemplative. My work is initially influenced by the curtain and the screen, and theatrical themes based on stage and set design. My interest in the concepts related to layering and erasure inspire images in which empty space is as important as the detail. I am interested in the energy that is created by the juxtaposition of space, scale and form, and work that becomes more than the sum of its parts.
Sharon [email protected]
‘Study for (skirting around orange)’
How individuals relate to one another in society and the effort involved maintaining a multi faceted public persona fascinates me. Through photography I record the movements of individuals going about their daily routine. How interesting it is to observe the rituals and etiquette most participants in society adhere too, just to make the negotiation of public spaces workable.The information gathered is then deconstructed and certain elements of the original photograph are replaced using collaged images. This new composition is then painted; the place and participants in the picture plane now reside in an imagined space.
Robyn Boylerobyn_boyle90@hotmail.co.uk07845641369www.artsawrite.tumblr.com
‘Gone’
My Grandmother’s name was Annie Donnachie. She died last August one day shy of her 84th birthday. After I started to come to terms with her passing, I resolved to use her memory as the basis for my final year show.
The architectural drawings featured in my work are places that would have been familiar to my Gran. They have been lived in.In the drawings I contrast the feeling of presence and absence and in doing so attempt to suggest that although no longer inhabited, through memories and belongings, traces of her life can still exist.
www. jbradley.org
‘Study’
Obituary columns endeavour to contain the remnants of a life. Conscious of the fact that the objects we leave behind post existence appear to define us, I come to integrate the two. Painting with latex enables the transfer of the printed text, allowing the medium to act as a skin while at the same time conveying the transience of existence. The idea of preserving the lost is pivotal in using resin with its ability to both encapsulate and contain. Interested by the way in which objects can attain a relic like status when displayed within a certain context or format, I’d like to perpetuate that which remains of the absent.
I am interested in the idea of imagined place; places that exist, or have existed, but that I have never been to before. My research in this area has led me to investigating building floor plans. Through a process of construction and painting, I give real space to the flat two-dimensional plans. Those plans, which enable a building to be realised, are the source of a new place of my own creation. The layering, color and physicality of paint are introduced to reveal the character of the created space - discovered through my imagined experience of being there.
Rachel Scarlett [email protected]
‘Proposal Drawing’
I am interested in the relationship between humans and other non-human animals, as it is humans that dominate the earth and are able to control other species. The idea of speciesism and whether or not non-human animals have souls drives my work. I find it odd that humans regard themselves above other animals and how they seem to fuel us in many ways. They feed, clothe and often entertain us, an example being dog fighting. The work I produce is an exploration of the environments in which animals are mistreated and attempts to try and recreate the atmosphere using art.
Thomas [email protected]
My work has a strong focus on history. I have always enjoyed the architectural and painting styles of the past and have tried to celebrate them in my work. However, I didn’t want to fall into the trap of just recreating ancient styles that have baggage associated with them. I have looked at the repeating patterns of retro computer games and drawn on that visual style, mixing it with historical imagery in order to create new and interesting artworks.
Fiona [email protected]
07969369560www.fionamccubbin.com
I am predominantly interested in minimalism and the aim of my work is to capture the postmodern sublime, by exploring the connection between light and perception.
The sublime feeling that cannot fully be termed in words, for me can be illuminated lucidly through the creation of a painting. I deem the Sublime to be almost of a hidden mystical world - something in-between, or the intersection where effects meet. With reference to sacred geometry I inaugurate adaptions of the circle to represent the sublime.
David [email protected]
‘Prop’
The architecture of power when used as a tool for propaganda is what currently drives my studio practice. Size and scale is an intrinsic tool in the design of power architecture and my work explores how such grand structures affect the emotions and behaviours of individuals. Installation and presentation is key to the way in which the viewer reads my work. I incorporate materials and working methods associated with power art and architecture. For example, my decision to paint on plaster and cement nods to the traditions of fresco painting and construction. Scaffolding represents a typically temporary structure, which outlasts any other man-made structure by being forever present in the process of construction.
Laura McGlinchey [email protected] 07852310371
I am interested in the theory that life is semi-controlled. We are restricted and directly influenced by our immediate surroundings, the people within them and the events that occur in everyday life.
Process is a very important aspect of my work. The materials I use constantly refer back to the idea of semi-control and everyday life within an urban space, in that I use a lot of found paper, coloured smoke bombs and experiment with home made paint. Through exploring personal memories contained by specific surroundings I aim to discover how I became who I am.
Grant [email protected]
‘Study for CB’
The works I have produced focus on the aspects of daily life that we tend to overlook. This has manifested itself into many different forms, but predominately highlighting the spaces artists inhabit. I find inspiration in the studio spaces of my fellow painters. I wanted to capture a snapshot of each individual space to highlight not only the chaotic nature of what we do, but also the sparks of creativity each space emits.
Arianna Moran [email protected]
07792553257
‘I AM’
“Language is key to my artistic practise. My work focuses on how I think and how I visually respond to this. Using text and writing as objects I look at the uses of lists and hierarchies to try and represent how I think. Organizing, being playful and the ability to juxtapose ideas allow my paintings to feel like an extension of my brain. My aim is to share with the public my thoughts, ideas and opinions. I am interested in the essence of communicating a message; I don’t want my paintings to simply be just a “pretty picture” on the wall in a gallery. “
‘Corium’
My practice deals with an investigation into the body and it’s relationship to brutality, exploring this connection through painting. Process is an integral part of my working method; I make use of the methodology of painting to create works that deal with a representation of the explored themes rather than the literal. Mixing unconventional mediums such as latex with the typical, I attempt to treat the materials in a similar manner to physical and visceral components, tying together the physicality of the body and the static and inanimate form of painting to create a viewing response of curiosity and unease.
Stuart [email protected]
07885710349www.stuartcnoble.co.uk
‘Proposition XI’
I am currently exploring the sense of space between the real and the imagined: fact and fiction. In these spaces created amongst unverified accounts and documented fact anything could exist, creating a multitude of new possible realities with which to interact and interpret. This has presented many questions as to the nature of art convention, the art gallery, the ubiquitous ‘white cube’, and any of the assumptions that underlie this through passive acceptance of norms, or unchanging fact. Working with models, paintings, drawings and photographs a level of reciprocity is created that both challenges and informs the progression of my practice.
Karen [email protected] 539063
‘American Psycho’
There is a place between conscious and subconscious being where thought and action come together. In that place painting becomes a moving meditation. The brush becomes an extension of the body, and the canvas provides a place to record the immediacy of experience. My work is a process of creation and destruction, where myriad human forms intertwine beneath the accumulated marks that will eventually become the painted surface. Each painting attempts to capture the kinetic energy of the human body, whether energy trapped within the many suspended figures, or energy released through the act of painting itself.
Emma [email protected]
07858918853
The art of origami is a fascinating skill fundamental to my creative process. For me, the simple act of repeatedly folding a piece of paper not only utilises my interest in and need for personal control but also provides a rich open-ended environment in which to create work. Through manipulating paper one can enhance it’s characteristics, allowing these forms to become an intriguing ground for exploration, and heighten the principle means of interaction; sensory experience. With that in mind, I feel that the way in which my work is presented is just as important as the work itself.
Vivian [email protected]
‘Fishing Hands’
The predominant focus in my work is the subject of remoteness; especially relating to my home of Shetland and time I spent in Finland. Within these works traditional methods of craftsmanship and preservation techniques become central to my practice and I use them as a means of exploring relationships between materials and surface. It is important for me to tie together disciplines of both painting and making, allowing me to import ideas of remote living into the studio and gallery environment. This visual patchwork of personal experience makes reference to heritage and skills that would have aided the struggles of everyday life in extreme locations.
Jamie [email protected]
07889051343
My work focuses on the physicality of space and how the presence of man made structure can redefine space from being a transient body of nothing to having metaphysical properties where the space can be interacted with. I reflect on how space is interacted with and how different spaces hold stronger significances than others. I approach this in a voyeuristic way, by taking images of inside buildings that hold a strong significance with me and display them against a vast nothing to contrast the sentimental value of the two spaces.
Tomasz [email protected]/tomaszwrobel
‘New Wave’
I am interested in a world between the man-made and the natural. I am inspired by the waste that we in society create around us. It becomes a part of our life. Waste records our history. These thrown away objects are the futures archaeological finds. Washing machines, cars, furniture, electronics etc….they become absorbed and embedded by nature’s undergrowth, mud and ground; re-placed to different locations where they still exist as rubbish. Everyday material that is now redundant. In my practice I’m especially keen on electronic waste (e-waste) as the world embraces the constantly changing digital technologies. With this subject matter and through the old age materials and processes of oil painting I make art which becomes similar in nature to this process of decay and waste.
Holly [email protected]
“Vulnerability is important. It means we are completely alive and this is an extremely important space.” – Marina Abramovic
Exposing ourselves to the other can effectively diminish our sense of who we really are. The disjunctive connection between our internal and external selves contrasts with how others view us. Using performance to explore the different dimensions of self, I strive to break away from these anxieties of self, other and society. The self is continually adapting from the influence of the other, whilst exposing our vulnerable side weakens our certainty and threatens our self-perception; the unity of mind and body we so long to achieve.
Alan-Frier [email protected]
www.granitegramms.tumblr.com
‘Eyes’
The photograph is a surreal object. It is a footprint, an illusion, an attempted copy of reality. The camera then becomes an instrument in which we seek something that is unattainable. That as soon as the shutter is triggered and we capture light, time moves on and what we have captured is no longer in front of us, but something new.
My practice looks at the camera and its function in how we experience consciousness. The camera becomes another eye, although mechanical and therefore as the viewer, we seek meaning and understanding of the image.
Enda [email protected]
Photographing urban environments and urban landscapes, my work deals with socio economic issues drawing from both narrative and documentary photography using digital manipulation to explore the relationship between the real and the imaginary.
My work explores spaces that admit no identity, places on the edge of existence, places that show the isolation, desolation and sadness of our environment and the effects of modern civilization, industrialisation and Colonialism.
Alain [email protected]
07925067602
My interest in Gaelic culture and tradition has been at the foundations of my work and a starting point for many of my ideas. The vernacular nature of my native language has provided many opportunities for me to extract visual poetic narrative from the culture and traditions of the past. I believe many of the themes addressed in historical works to be relevant and applicable to modern society. My work aims to reflect the poetic flow of the language and in turn recontextualise the symbolisms of the past in a visual manner that poses questions about a sense of place and identity in modern Gaelic Scotland.
Lloyd [email protected]
‘surveillance‘
My work often consists of themes and connotations of documentation, decay and ethics whilst referring to the use of technology, surveillance and monitoring. In our densely populated society our consumerist lifestyles have never been more pressured, fragmented or surveyed. Combining this with the proliferation of technology in the 21st century - the inevitability of complications arising is significantly increased. In society these issues and concerns are most often communicated through the use of verbal forms of expression whereas I attempt to use photography as an alternative communicative and expressive medium.
Maggie [email protected]
07879620679
“If you see the human condition as being mind internalized within a body and the status of our built environment as buildings that contain bodies, then what is the nature of human nature immersed in this second body of architecture? What does it mean that the human animal chooses to live within this second body?” - Antony Gormley
With similar concerns to Gormley, my practice aims to interrogate the meaning of ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ both as state and concept, as well as question of what constitutes a human habitat. I believe there is a pure version of ourselves existing underneath, a version that gets submerged in this ‘second body’ during our early conditioning through culture and our entrance into language.
Hannah [email protected]
‘Reaching For Love’
Words have the ability to change the world.
The artwork I create would not be possible without the words we so often hear, or the words that we wish we could forget. A world without these words would be unrecognisable to us, and so we need to appreciate the power that comes with saying a few simple words to an individual.
“I love you.”
“I hate you.”
Paulina [email protected]
www.amatterofart.tumblr.com
Why do we create? Why do we destroy? Sometimes to create we need to destroy. To express ourselves we need to go into the process of devastation. The beauty that we once created has to be crushed and deformed to evolve into different form. Only by these certain destructive actions can we accomplish true creation.
“There are two kinds of light - the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures.” -James Thurber
Aaron [email protected]
When I iron my cords, corduroys, I do so as I would a regular pair of trousers. When my Mother irons my corduroys, she turns them inside out, so as not to put such direct pressure on the cord. If one could gently wear out a pair of corduroys cord channels, uniformly and avoiding holes, would they become mere trousers?
Marie [email protected]
‘Try Some, Buy Some’
The concept of “reality” isn’t black and white; fantasy and reality are closely entwined creating the world that we live in. The work I create reflects the fantastical nature of my “reality”. Futuristic dystopias fuel the work and creative process; this is the world where I take ideas and concepts from the ‘now’ and mould them into the ‘if’. I try and source as much as I can from our ‘reality’, mix it up and introduce it into the worlds I create, leaving a slight impression of what might have been and what is now.
Michael Astbury [email protected] 07747891768
‘the voyeurs chair’
Presently I am working with and exploring the ideas of voyeurism. My journey to Gray’s, from my flat at the harbour, throws up a variety of interesting subjects for me to use visually. My work involves aspects and subjects that I see on my journey; bridges, buildings, trees etc.
Depth, space, picture making and perspective play a big part in my work. I attempt to create a sense of the real. I simply make work with an instinctive thought process. Over the last decade, I have become obsessed with the surrealist and illusionistic painters and movements.
Gemma Balfourgemma.j.balfour@gmail.com07765420263www.typewriterart.wix.com/gemmabalfour
‘Moorie – Caavie”
My current practice responds to the physical qualities that harsh weather and erosion play upon the landscape, examining both the permanent and ephemeral properties of the land. Originally from Shetland, I am drawn to the prominent scarification left behind on its coastal line due to the growing results of erosion caused by global warming leaving its cliffs scarred with craters and fractures. I have arrived at working with manual vintage typewriters as a drawing tool to create imagery. These marks are beautifully translated within my work through typewritten imprints and impressions, creating my own idiosyncratic visual language.
Clare Louise [email protected]
07772529434
‘Hands on Sanity’
As children many of us have our own inner world which can be distorted and shaped by our experiences in the world outside our minds. As I have grown into adulthood, I have found that on occasion I tend to sink back into my inner world as an attempt to understand the events that have shaped it. In my work I attempt to depict both the positive and negative events and characters that have influenced my inner stability. My work is completely cathartic and is a necessary tool to my sanity.
Kate [email protected]/katefahey
The nature of my practice is organic and ephemeral, dealing with polymorphous forms in a state of transformation. Sequence, movement and tension between dichotomies such as digital/analogue and 2d/3d are key to how emotional liminality, transition and flux can be manifested through process and making. I am drawing on the threshold between apparent and implicit meaning which reflects the essence of liminality itself and the tensions between structure and anti structure. Through the fragmentary nature of imagery I am chronicling a journey through an emotional landscape by means of a visual code. This forms an incomplete and fragmented whole, it’s final realisation lying in the eye of the beholder.
Kirstyn [email protected]
07855553919kirstyn-fordyce.tumblr.com
In a day where technology is king and everything digital is slowly replacing our beautiful familiar, we are living within the beginnings of a ‘throw away’ culture. I use my art practice to salvage the most vulnerable objects in a bid to stop them from becoming redundant. Society is beginning to neglect or see the value and beauty within our soon-to-be historic objects. My hope is that by placing them within a fresh art context; they can become significant in a new environment. Bringing them back to a value status and allowing each object to become the artist and narrator of it’s own story.
Rachel [email protected]
With new medical studies stating that there is a genetic link between creativity and mental illness, I was inspired to research these discoveries and found them to be stimulating subject matter. I investigated symbols associated with mental health issues and considered common stereotypes that people connect with the topic. I explored wallpapers to combine the patterns and textures with relevant imagery. Taking a motif such as a cog, which is associated with the mechanical and altering it in such a manner as to make it more appealing, my process turns these mundane, everyday objects into something visually elevated.
Richard [email protected]
www.richardmaguire.weebly.com
‘Rites of Krymska’
Through relics and social artefacts I attempt to venerate people and place and the performative aspects of our own culture. Image and word amalgamate in various languages to illustrate the constant link between people, items and places; imposing agendas on items which are reflective of our social history to substantiate a personal narrative. Through processes within printmaking I can articulate a specific vernacular, preserving the momentary fluxes between people, manifesting the temporal such as: verbal, physical and spiritual interactions. Through these practices I allow people to both experience them and for them to develop a state of tangible permanence.
Donna [email protected]
‘Water Mosaic’
Water at first sight is simple. When one begins to look at the vast range of areas that water touches, namely 71% of the Earth’s surface, you realise how water forms the cycles of our planet. I see water from a swimmer’s viewpoint, of contact with the liquid form and all that it encompasses. To this point I have embraced the use of coloured ice to ask a question, “What is the colour of water?”
The answer is whatever is contained in the water itself and therefore reflected back to the viewer.
Lauren [email protected]
07899721525
‘Studio’
The aesthetic of the drawn line plays a huge role within my practice. Each line marks time, a moment. Repeating these marks allows me to think and breathe. Drawing has become a vital and meditative tool for me to create. Through these lines, a somatic presence of human life is indicated with a visual reflection of psychiatric theory and ephemera.
Printmaking is crucial to my work as I use traditional processes to layer traces of the human condition and identity. These pieces of work are my heartbeat, my language, my voice and my thoughts.
Amber-Rose [email protected]
A shock of yellow and black poured down the drain, fermented liquid sweetly spicing the air. A trap worked too successfully. The accidental slaughter of wasps, layered without escape. The guilt that came with it obscured all other thoughts.
Hours of straining through microscopes, seeing the little beasties on a higher magnification than many others ever will, has shown their allure - each individual, but all one in part. Using the traditional hand drawn method, and the photo-mechanical etch, printmaking allows science and art to become one.
Mary-Ann [email protected]
07531295252
‘The Last Migration’
There are instances where, as an artist, one simply cannot find the words capable of annotating a visual experience. Words become superfluous, the information and metaphors that are transferred via the visual pathway and the ‘image’ transcend explanation. The visual image lingers like a shadow in our sub-conscious, long after the sound has been turned off, it is that lingering, the memory that will never be erased, that has the power to effect change.
Yasmin [email protected]/pages/Yasmin-Oskooi
‘Deforestation’
My work focuses on a visual narrative through a poetic pictorial journey that involves the use of symbolism associated with the environment. The emblematic imagery of Aboriginal indigenous art has been inspirational in my practice through mark making, symbolism and the exploration of the meaning of trees as metaphor and narrative. I am especially interested in researching the mythology and cosmology of work that explores ideas through image making with storytelling, the oral tradition and poetry. My iconography focuses on the pictorial potential through juxtapositions of trees, animals, symbols and figures.
Hannah [email protected]
07710999029www.hanaisabellarussell.wix.com/printmaking
‘Frances Pryde’
My practice stems from information - visual, factual, apocryphal and textural, discovered through researching the histories of my family tree. My multi-media outputs are a collection of found objects and images composed together to create pieces of memories and ephemera. I aspire to build a sense of warmth and familiarity, fitting together like family.
I wish the audience to uncover the archeology of my family through interpretation of the visual, and its impact from generation to generation. I am fascinated with a wide plethora of methods, presentation and technical approaches. The methodologies are representative of the variety and breadth of information I have discovered on this journey.
Kirsty [email protected]
‘Duvet and Piss Mat’
‘Home’ promises to fulfil our perpetual searching for a stable centre; making tangible our psychological need to belong. Whilst homeliness is suggestive of safety and nurturing, the foreign is associated with danger.
My current practice exploits this universal familiarity with the notion of home. Through reconsideration of the domestic, I expose home as an extension of the unknown. Objects reminiscent of idyllic homeliness contradict themselves, revealing the possible unpleasantness of this situation.
Home is destabilised as the boundaries of the familiar and foreign are blurred.
Hannah [email protected]
07447907690www.hannahthornton.co.uk
‘Memories’
At the heart of my current practice is a need to explore the meaning of existence with a focus on the theme of identity. It has been my own crises of identity that has led me to produce this body of work. My obsessive inner-self drives my need for meticulous organisation. I am constantly striving to structure these feelings and desires in an ordered way. Out of this order a great raft of work has been created from expressive diaries, including self-referential lists and textured mark making. The end result is a multi-layered graphic image made into a selection of print-collage, paintings and prints.
Harriet [email protected]/artist
‘Quothe The Raven’
Mental health and how it is perceived in society fascinates me. I attempt through printmaking to alter the reality of recognisable imagery, challenging audiences to consider perceptions of what is normal or real? Obscuring existing data communicates a visual language, addressing misinformation surrounding mental health, its prejudices and stigma.Juxtaposing precisely measured grids with appropriated portraiture of icons reveals to me methods to somehow understand and explain the complex and unknown nature of the human mind. I wish to construct images that are slightly disconcerting, exploring the familiar and the role of duality within the viewer and ultimately their reflection.
Rachael [email protected]
07897077702
‘Ideal Expectations’
Looking at how women today are influenced and affected by contemporary media such as magazines, television, social networks and so on, my studio work is based on ideas concerning body image, and how media informs, shapes and controls our ideas of beauty and sexuality.
It could be said that young girls are growing up in a world where it has become normal to sculpt and change bodies to meet certain beauty ideals portrayed in the media. My work is a visual intervention, reflecting the negative contemporary representation of women. I aim to change the way women and young girls look at themselves.
Melissa [email protected]
07877478876
‘Elm Series’
My material of choice is wood, mainly natural unseasoned timber. I cut and slice the material myself using a chainsaw and band saw and dry it out to my preference, then reassemble. With this process I witness so much movement in the material which in many cases works to the advantage of the art work. I control the material to a certain extent and then have to step back and let nature take control. Artists that have inspired me to continue on experimenting with wood are; David Nash, Andy Goldsworthy and Keith Rand.
Conor [email protected] www.conorbaird.com
‘(lacking in supply of) Wanting’
My practice consists of live performance, video work, documentation and drawing.
I am interested in the power of performance as a medium. How does ‘the live’ impact the viewer? And how is this impact transitioned into the contrasting static document?
The resulting work is heavily based on the self, and the artist. Sexuality, romanticism and tragedy. Doubts, desires, fears and frustrations. Cleansing the soul. Therapeutically expressing. Directly explicit. Confrontation.
Marina [email protected]
07599289630
‘Suspended’
My practice is a voyage of discovery. It is how I make sense of the world and my place in it. Boundaries are pushed, relationships are negotiated and narratives formed. Despite these apparent tensions, there is quiet discovery and developing acceptance of the sublime beauty of imperfection and authenticity.
Through the choice and process applied to a material, it is imbued with meaning; conflicting beliefs, values and thoughts eventually find form. There is a point between the rise and fall, good and evil, life and death, where equilibrium and peace can be found.This is my search for that place.
Alexander “Twig” [email protected]
‘alexanderchampion.co.uk’
I am but a twig attached,To this world, a leaf a-float,In the river of heaven.
My practice is entirely built around the act of walking and the work I display is documentation of that act. Documentation in poetic form is a recurring theme. In these poems I follow a structure of 3 lines of seven syllables, bearing similarity to a haiku but remaining my own poetic style, adhering to the same Zen rules: wabi (simplicity), sabi (solitude) and mujo (impermanence). In walking I attempt to achieve a spiritual, meditative state of mind by which the creation of such poems flows freely.
Catriona Gailey [email protected]
07540165519
After Carl Andre - ‘Pile of Bricks’
I am fascinated with the Impossibility of Originality. It is not that I don’t believe originality exists; I believe it is has taken a new form.
Studying artists such as Sherrie Levine and Elaine Sturtevant and seeing how they have created careers from appropriating works of art, I want to learn how to do this for myself. It isn’t simply enough to steal or copy a work of art; you have to recreate it to make it your own. ‘If the law condones this, why not abuse it?’ I want to challenge copyright and see how far I can push it.
Laura [email protected]
‘Visual Sound’
Our ears and senses are how we absorb and create knowledge; everything around us is vibrating and causing reactions for humans to piece together. Sound is one of the main factors which has driven and inspired my work; how sound affects, moves and interacts. My practice has looked at how we can sometimes forget to stop and react to our surroundings; if we stop and listen we might just hear sounds that we have not acknowledged for a long time. If you take these features of sound and look at them directly and how they can be altered, they become more than just an everyday occurrence.
Kyle [email protected]
kylehowie.tumblr.com
Primarily speaking I’m interested in the relationship between order and language, though essentially what my work looks to do is represent ideas or themes through use of form. I tend to adopt various processes with regard to the specific nature of the work, though what seems to fundamentally appeal to me about accumulating materials is the utilization of chance and accident as a means of removing control.
Miss Brenda J [email protected]
‘AD15101’
Throughout my work I have been transitioning, and dissecting a word search I created, to the point that no words are left visible, leaving an unusual pattern and shape. I am now attempting to increase the scale of my art work, as I think it would totally change what you previously perceived it to be. I would like my work to have much more depth, find a balance between what is seen, looking deeper into what has not been shown, to entice or intrigue the viewer. Taking the viewer on a journey into a mystery that doesn’t necessarily have to be solved; they gain more of an experience that consists of more than just the story.
Natalie Kerr [email protected]
07825882270
Within my practice I facilitate situations where I am the catalyst for conversation. My main focus is connecting with people and listening carefully to the audience and learning through them, in order to tell stories, producing a running dialogue with ‘self’ and ‘others’. I explore the various spectrums within the audience and encourage veering away from the notion of the spectacle, attempting to level the playing fields between artist and audience. I think the most important aspect of my work is harnessing our ability to learn from each other and grow as individuals, an awareness of our tacit knowledge- knowledge which encompasses our ability to explore our surroundings- this exploration enables us to expand on our understanding and knowing of our world.
Ashley-Louise [email protected]
Through performance art a greater sense of awareness of body and self is achieved. A transformation occurs of the mental and physical. I believe this transformational process to be therapeutic. I use my own body to create sculpture considering how art interacts with space in an organic fashion. My work is generally spontaneous, working on instinct and impulse, and is based on personal emotions, urges and desires. A recurring aspect to my work is the exploration of human endurance. During a performance, I normally will not interact with the audience but silently invite them to bring forth their own energies and share in the experience with me.
Laura [email protected]
aura-reilly.tumblr.com
Drawing is an instinctive process that we engage with before we are able to write. It is also a fairly mysterious word as it functions both as a verb and as a noun. When we put material to surface and begin to create lines, marks and traces, it can be said that we are drawing a drawing.
Jitka [email protected]
‘Untitled (Cabinet), 2012’
I am interested in spaces, in finding and enhancing original ones or in creating new ones. My idea of space follows Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s definition of space in terms of ‘another spatiality’ of myth and poetry.
Space as something alive, changeable, unpredictable, difficult to define. It is a divine and mysterious mass swapping decisively invisibility for visibility, density for thickness. Space as a feeling or a body perception, a colour, music, scent, a shape or a volume, a tactile matter. Spaces which could be calming, recharging, confusing or even hostile...
Disclaimer
The material exhibited in the show represents thetalents and skills of students of Gray’s School ofArt, Robert Gordon Univeristy and the show issupported by a grant from BP Explorationand Production North Sea.
Gray’s Degree Show is an annual event and ismanaged by Gray’s School of Art. The views andconclusions contained or represented in any ofthe work exhibited at the show or within this exhibition catalogue are those of the studentsand do not represent the official policies, eitherexpressed or implied , of BP Explorationand Production North Sea.
Produced by The Gatehouse Design and Print Consultancy inassociation with Stage 3 Graphic Design placement students:Manvir Mangat and Lewis Allen
Photography by: Abigaile Fraser
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