EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
CONTENTS 007
FOREWORD
009
CERAMICS Dr Conor Wilson Course Leader
010 012 014 016
Amy Daniels Chen Li Nicola Lidstone Yixuan Lu
019
CURATORIAL PRACTICE Dr Ben Parry Course Leader
020 022 024 026 028 030
Alison Jane Hoare Rachel Jones Lucy Pidgeon Judith Rodgers Shubhani Sharma Ellice Thomas-Bishop
033
FASHION AND TEXTILES Nick Thomas Acting Course Leader
034 036 038 040
Katie Barrass Millie Clake Anna David Emma Fallon
043
FINE ART Dr Andrea Medjesi-Jones Course Leader
044 046 048 050 052 054 056 058 060 062 064 066 068 070 072 074
William Barker Zo-I Chen Julie Dean Jonny Falkus Lucy Gunningham Tomoe Higashi Samantha Horn (O’Neil) Anna Kot Helen McCormick Vicky McKay Kelly O’Brien Thomas Tomasska Kaitlin Trowbridge Nicola Turner Esther Tyler-Ward Shadrokh Vahabzadeh
077
VISUAL COMMUNICATION Dr Andrew Southall Course Leader
078 080 082 084 086 088
Grazia Campanella Chaohan Jin Andrew Jones David Norfolk Simon Taylor Po-Cheng Yan
091
CREDITS
095
Herman Miller in Bath
005
FOREWORD
Dan Allen and Kerry Curtis Head of Bath Schools of Art & Design
Established in the 1850s, the Bath Schools of Art and Design form an integral part of Bath Spa University, with a proud and distinguished history of producing highly successful artists, de-signers, curators and thinkers who have contributed to creativity and society in extraordinary ways. Through the Masters 2019 Degree Show, it is with great pleasure that we celebrate the achievements of our students from postgraduate courses in Ceramics, Curatorial Practice, Design: Fashion and Textiles, Fine Art and Visual Communication. The Degree Show marks a pivotal time in our University’s evolution. The creative outcomes of our talented graduates will not only be exhibited at our Sion Hill campus; the home of Art & Design since 1985, but will also play an important role in the launch of our new Locksbrook campus, with exhibitions running throughout October and November 2019. This remarkable Grade II listed building, designed by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw was built in 1976 and has been redesigned by Grimshaw Architects to serve the next generation of Artist and Designers at Bath Spa University. It is through the creative outcomes of our graduating students that we mark the end of one era and celebrate the beginning of an exciting new chapter in our history.
007
Dr Conor Wilson, Course Leader
CERAMICS We are interested in, and open to, all approaches to working with clay. Our focus is on developing strategies for practice that emerge out of material investigation and related research. Outcomes from process might be text, drawing, photographic image, performance, moving image, installation, or discrete ceramic objects. Our key concerns are with facture – the way something is made – and with developing an intimate engagement, through making, with materials, sites and people. We work within an expanded field. Ceramics, as a discipline, is something to respond to; to define, to challenge, to stretch, but not to ignore. Our graduating students this year are from China and the UK and each has found their own unique approach to engaging with clay; each driven by particular interests that inform production. The exhibition includes inter- and transdisciplinary investigations into clay as a material, and therapeutic touch; socio-political comment on a rapidly changing China and a cross-cultural joy in natural forms. It has been a real pleasure to be part of a team of course tutors, external visiting lecturers and technical staff all have played a vital part in supporting the development of these exciting new bodies of work.
009
Amy Daniels
CERAMICS
Drip, splash, drop, pour, flow, pull, crack, tear, peel, bubble, burst… Through systematic investigations I have developed this collection aiming to encourage movement in the firing process. I am drawn towards a deep exploration of the ceramic process and the minerals that make up clay and glaze materials. I am in search of a point of collapse, breaking, tipping, m elting, pouring or exploding; breaking rules and discovering the limitations of my materials, in search of a transition point between order and chaos. The process of continual change, flow and impermanence have become central to my thinking. Complexity is a term that is used to describe the transition zone within any system where multiple parts interact. I want to capture a dynamic transition extracted from complex rules. In his book Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos, Waldrop states ‘The edge of chaos is the constantly shifting battle zone between stagnation and anarchy, the one place where a complex system can be spontaneous, adaptive and alive’ (Waldrop M 1992: 12). I am trying to capture a dynamic movement and tension by exploring a shared interaction between myself, the materials, and the fundamental forces that govern our universe.
010
011
Chen Li
When I first came into contact with ceramics, I quite liked the different textures of the clay surface, but this texture is often not reflected in many ceramic works. Coloured clay gives me the possibility that it not only reflects the texture of the clay but also has more opportunities in colour. While continuing to study the coloured clay, and through it to present my thinking and attitude become the direction I will explore next.
CERAMICS
475999107@qq.com chen.li17@bathspa.ac.uk
012
013
Nicola Lidstone
I am a ceramicist and a physiotherapist. I undertook an MA curious to see if combining both disciplines could create new ways of knowing. My approach is that of artistic interpretation of physiotherapeutic knowledge - bringing scientific experience into an art experience. My work aims to investigate how touch as a tool could generate new approaches to mark making techniques, alongside new methods for visualising and understanding physiotherapy. My methods involve performing therapeutic techniques onto clay formed upon participants’ bodies. Through this I observe development of my own personal therapeutic somatic gesture; thinking through drawing, ‘seeing’ with my fingers, mapping and actualizing components of my approach.
CERAMICS
nicolalidstone@gmail.com nicola.lidstone16@bathspa.ac.uk
014
Manucaption: visualising therapeutic touch, Nicola Lidstone
015
Yixuan Lu
I was interested in making my own tools to create work, especially in decoration. After exploring a range of techniques for producing texture, I made little, bespoke tools for impressing repeat pattern on porcelain slabs. Each hollow made by impressing same as the footprints on the ground. ‘Walking on porcelain’ is my feeling of impressing on the porcelain slabs. The texture and form of my work inspired by flowers.
CERAMICS
@yixuan0v0 yixuan.lu17@bathspa.ac.uk
016
017
Dr Ben Parry, Course Leader
CURATORIAL PRACTICE MA Curatorial Practice combines theory, history and discussion of current practice with live projects in public spaces. This year’s graduating students have explored a wide range of innovative and interdisciplinary curatorial strategies. Individual projects have ranged from costume exhibits within National Trust collection displays to group shows at local galleries such as 44AD. Collaboration, collective practices and engaging new audiences has played a key part in experimentation with discursive models including a series of public events across the city that have begun to further explore arts relationship to nature, climate change, ecology and ideas of empathy and connection. This has involved running a fortnightly art salon in a local pub, a waste project on the M ediawall at Newton Park and two weeks of live events around ecology and the natural world at Walcot Chapel. Working with other fields beyond art has been particularly rewarding, collaborations with MA Sound Arts, Creative Writing, Fashion and Environmental Humanities and others, has highlighted the relevance and value of the curatorial to the widest forms of creative practice and research. Curatorial activism has been a prominent feature exploring issues of decolonisation, gender, ethics, exclusion of audiences and identity-based curating. In addition, MACP curated its first international conference, Art in the Age of the Anthropocene and Ecocide, which explored artistic, curatorial and cultural responses to urgent environmental and ecological crises.
019
Alison Jane Hoare
CURATORIAL PRACTICE
My ongoing research is an inquiry into the curation of time-based media arts. Recent projects have taken the form of live sound art performance production, an in-depth monographic study of the film-maker Charlotte Prodger, and a look into LUX, an international arts agency that supports and promotes artists’ moving image practices based in London. My study at Bath School of Art and Design was Âsupported by Bath Spa University Enterprise Showcase Fund which enabled me to take part a residency in France looking at video and installation art in 2018 and returning in October 2019 for five days of classes and workshops led by Laure Prouvost.
ajanefrench.com @jane_french hello@ajanefrench.com alison.hoare17@bathspa.ac.uk
020
021
Rachel Jones
CURATORIAL PRACTICE
Investigating, challenging and humanizing structures and systems through curatorial enactments.
@rachfjones rachelfjonesart@gmail.com
022
023
Lucy Pidgeon
CURATORIAL PRACTICE
My background of history and heritage has influenced my interests in examining audience participation on a much deeper level. The role that the curator plays in creating an experience through their own collection interpretation, and focusing on how to engage audiences by breaking barriers.
lucy.pidgeon14@bathspa.ac.uk
024
025
Judith Rodgers
CURATORIAL PRACTICE
An interdisciplinary artist and curator whose practice combines an enjoyment of working with others and bringing together, bridging and exploring entanglements, materials and ideas, aiming to engender new perspectives and possibilities.
judithrodgers.co.uk judithrodgers@yahoo.co.uk
026
027
Shubhani Sharma
CURATORIAL PRACTICE
As a curator, I am particularly interested in curatorial activism, in curating space that calls for more audience engagement.
shubhani.sharma18@bathspa.ac.uk
028
029
Ellice Thomas-Bishop
CURATORIAL PRACTICE
Within this Masters I have applied my BA in Costume Interpretation with Curation, creating an amalgamation of fashion history, costume construction and the curatorial. With this, the combination of intricate fashion construction and historic costume enables the curation of fashion to be explored and displayed with captivation and understanding. This concept was realised through a live exhibition within the National Trust. The history of fashion was explored through portraits of the family. Five centuries of fashion were presented with the use of costume interpretations, historic images, photographs of their archived costume collection and a video. Within the image is a 1750’s sack-back gown being photographed for the exhibition.
ellice.bishop@outlook.com
030
031
Nick Thomas, Acting Course Leader
FASHION AND TEXTILES The MA Fashion and Textiles course at Bath Schools of Art & Design aims to nurture ambitious and visionary minds through encouraging the development and extension of existing knowledge and understanding of textiles, the embracing of new technologies and craft applications, deep investigation into materials and process, and the challenging of ideas and traditions in the pursuance and development of a uniquely personal practice and identity. Course graduates are increasingly visible in the sector, exhibiting at major shows nationally and internationally, selling designs, products or services to agents, buyers and retail consumers, working within commercial industries, and continuing to innovate and move with the times, successfully making their ways in the world. Typically, this year’s graduate portfolio presents a disparate range of thinking and making. Hand and digital interfaces in knit, weave, print, and embroidery, and the diverse vocabularies of material, colour, and surface design and manipulation, have been explored to deliver design, product and concept outcomes for fashion garment and accessory, and interiors and public space, each expressing a unique and sophisticated personal vision. We wish each individual every success with their continuing journeys of self-discovery, creativity and invention.
033
Katie Barrass
FASHION AND TEXTILES
Upon completion of her Master Degree, Katie Barrass will launch a textiles embellishment business, offering design solutions and freelance services to fashion houses and high street. Katie has a creative design studio who’s unique style incorporates couture and commercial embellishment. All designs begin with hand-rendered drawing and painting. The aim is always to translate the beautiful artisan feel of the drawing to the work. Highly skilled in embroidery, print and laser cutting, together with mixed process. Suitable for placements, trims and repeats. Multiple design inspirations from magnificent florals to technical abstracts and geometrics. The business is an additional element to an existing business, Katie Barrass Design which specialises in garment design. Katie consults and collaborates with Âmulti-disciplined industry partners and is responsible for the entire design process from concept to delivery, developing inspirational moodboards, sourcing fabrics, creating tech packs and trims and liaising with factories. In 2016 Katie undertook a Master’s degree in Fashion and Textiles to develop her idea of this additional element to enhance her existing design business. Whilst studying Katie developed skills in print, embroidery and laser cutting.
katiebarrasstextiles.co.uk @katie_barrass_design linkedin.com/in/katie-barrass1/
034
035
Millie Clake
FASHION AND TEXTILES
Millie Clake is a textile and surface designer with an affinity for bold motifs. Using screen print she creates distinctive placement and repeat designs for furnishing fabrics. Her large scale one off prints are characterised by her unique hand, expressive use of colour, and a lively atmosphere. The art of screen-printing is an exciting process due to its unpredictability, making every print unique. Millie’s use of screen-printing allows her to achieve a sensitivity and show her personal hand and passion. Her comprehensive understanding of the technicalities involved in various techniques and creating printed textiles has allowed her to creative efficacious collections. Using various finishes Millie creates tactile and exciting surfaces, ideal for soft and hard furnishings. By taking a playful approach to both imagery and colour, her printed designs celebrate the joy to be found in oversized pattern. Millie takes inspiration from a wide range of sources; she is heavily influenced by her experiences and interactions, and often works from the history of art and her e ver-changing environment.
millieclake.com @millieclake.print
036
037
Anna David
FASHION AND TEXTILES
With a background in Landscape Architecture, Anna’s deep and grounding relationship with nature, environmental design and place-making guides her creativity. Throughout the MA Anna has explored practice led research methodologies and craft skills to refine business opportunities for her homeware and lifestyle brand; Modern Makers. Modern Makers comprises a collection of limited edition homeware products inspired by British landscapes. Committed to an honest approach, mindful craftsmanship and timeless design, Modern Makers acknowledges the benefit landscape brings to well-being and the influence it can have in the home. The Masters Project is led by an experiential practice, underpinned by contextual research and philosophical theorists such as Paul Rodaway, Frédéric Gros and Yi Fu Tuan. The theory of place, observational walking, environmental art therapy and personal reflection inform the experiential approach. Previous collections comprise the exploration of the Norfolk coastline and Forrabury Stitches; a medieval landscape, near Boscastle, Cornwall. For the final project, Anna has focused her attention to British Ancient Woodlands, in particular Hembury Wood, Smallcombe Wood and the New Forest for the realisation of a new homeware range. Modern Makers endeavours to work collaboratively to encourage a conscious and mindful way of living and create products that will bring joy to the everyday.
modernmakers.design @modernmakers
038
039
Emma Fallon
FASHION AND TEXTILES
Taking inspiration from clouds and atmospheric landscape, the work draws upon initial primary research through photography and drawing to inform developing textile designs. Mark making, watercolour paintings and detailed studies of subject matter are explored on paper before progressing into digital designs. The work celebrates the unification of old and new through the use of both traditional craft techniques combined with digital processes. The hand woven collection draws upon a Victorian technique called ‘shadow tissues’ which involves screen printing the warp threads before weaving and is a process which is lost in industry due to being labour intensive and combining knowledge from both weave and print which are ordinarily two different subjects that do not cross paths. A collection of experimental printed warp samples were created before the final collection of samples and scarves. Some pieces were screen printed with further layers of embellishment after weaving. The jacquard woven collection was hand woven on a TC2 loom at Fiona J Sperryn’s studio. The samples were developed from drawings and paintings and then using photoshop to pixelate the designs so that each pixel is representative of one thread, the different areas of colour then represent varieties of structures. The jacquard fabrics were made into luxury homeware products and Emma collaborated with furniture maker Jony Pryor and Ebony Rose Upholstery to create a bespoke, hand crafted bench and luxury cushions.
kulutextiles.com @kulutextiles
040
041
042
Dr Andrea Medjesi-Jones, Course Leader
FINE ART MA Fine Art is a studio-based programme, with an accent on contemporary art production and contexts. The critical nature of the course allows students to immerse themselves into research and to work on developing and establishing their own independent visual language and approach to practice. We are very proud of our efforts to maintain this independence, and to see the outcomes of our students’ thinking and working on the course. It is life changing in someinstances, in others life affirming and inspirational. The standard of students’ outputs and the nature of their enquires is a reflection on the world we live in. As a Course Leader, this is my biggest pride – to experience the variety and the relevance of works produced, that is visually challenging and contributes towards broader conversations and traditions of art production. This year we are particularly proud of the community and the peer-ship of our students, whose self-motivation, knowledge and hard work has not only put up an excellent graduate show, but helped establish life long friendships and collaborations, which will bear great successes outside the Bath Schools of Art and Design. Our thanks and congratulations go to the 2019 MA Fine Art graduates. We wish them the best of luck in their future pursuits and art practices.
043
William Barker
AKARAT
FINE ART
Using imagery from diverse surroundings and painting them, places them in the context of art history, a visible means of deciphering the symbols and signs embedded in the mythologies of mass culture today; painted representation inhabits the space between symbol and icon. This is a knowing return to representational painting as a means of showing the multiple truths surrounding an unattainable absolute truth. Acknowledging, both the static and dynamic image as well as the passage of time. They become markers of the ever changing mythology of the culture of their time. Prophecies, received from the past, about what the spectator is seeing in front of the canvas at the present moment.
044
045
Zo-I Chen
I’m from Taiwan and most of my works are exploring the concept of identity. I often used my body as the medium to perform and record action and experience which I found relating to the self. Rather than provide an answer of who I am or who you are, the works set as the dialogue that constantly interact between me and the viewers, to present and to talk through the struggling in identification and the frustration of living: not belonging but belonging.
FINE ART
zo-i.chen18@bathspa.ac.uk
046
047
Julie Dean
Julie Dean is not an artist. Perhaps I’m a story-teller, probably an animator, maybe a print-maker. I either have too many words, or not enough. I’m looking for answers. Do you have any? I’m trying to find the meaning of life, but I already know that I’ll never succeed. Occasionally I think I catch glimpses. I’m fascinated by statistics and humankind. Profound, prosaic, trivial. Humour is integral, but viewer beware. I’m a mess, I’m sorted, I’m all over the place. I’m a contradiction. Walkaway now. Stay. I am not an artist. I am.
FINE ART
juliedean.studio @jsdean_art
048
049
Jonny Falkus
Jonny Falkus is a painter considering: • • • • • •
Chaos in systems Forces in process Organic in artificial Complexity in structures Distribution in matter Difference in intensity
These themes encompass reflections on contemporary culture, politics, science and technology. They manifest through both the physical process of making and the resultant works, which also operate as a cross section through the history of painting.
FINE ART
jonnyfalkus.com @jonnyfalkusart
050
051
Lucy Gunningham
In my work I am exploring experiences of space Âthrough moving and negotiating around obstacles. I am interested in embodiment and movement as a tool of understanding, how navigating a space can bring an awareness of yourself and the relationship to your surroundings through an investigation of moving, thinking, and feeling. I want to invite people into a space that creates a dialogue between self and boundaries, the physical space is not important but rather the psychological spaces we create and perceive.
FINE ART
lucygunningham.wixsite.com/portfolio @lucyjanegunningham
052
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Tomoe Higashi
FINE ART
I am a Japanese artist, interested in reflecting the truths about life, death and the universe in my art. The painting, Infinity Night, is based on the idea of death and existence after death. Through painting, I have found a way of communicating my dream image in order to understand reincarnation more deeply, prompted by the death of a young friend of mine. The multiple-coloured layers are based on my experiences since I was child. They include the joy of life and fear of death. The written sutras express the feeling of fear and consolation in the face of death. The stencilled flowing water pattern is a metaphor for the idea of infinite life. I use gold to reflect the Japanese classic art of Nihonga which often uses gold leaf to reach a sacred atmosphere. A girl’s eyes are open and express that she knows the truth now she is dead. On the other hand, her mouth is closed so she is not able to say anything. I insist that humans can know the truth about the universe at the moment of death. However, they cannot tell that truth anymore, so nobody knows it. Nietzsche said ‘There are no facts, only interpretations’. She is being covered by moss, disassembling, becoming part of nature. After becoming part of the universe, her molecules can become something new, probably a human again.
054
055
Samantha Horn (O’Neil) Photography is the primary way I am able to create art, my practice is concerned with ‘truth’ and the ways in which ideas of collective identity can fragment through the process of ‘story telling’. In terms of material I seek content concerned with the ‘mythologies of belonging’, such representations are to be found within the narratives of our ‘cultural mythologies’, traditionally illuminated by Christendom and Folklore. I am concerned with the ‘truths’ that the ‘alchemy’ of photography and cinematography are able to confess t hrough their process. The making of photography is set within a structure of disclosure and concealment, where appearance and being do not naturally coincide. Costume and its ‘holding’ nature is an important part of my work as it remains gestural in its transposition towards atmospheres of temporal belief systems. My current work Garland, considers ideas of ‘belonging and boundary’ and in its use of traditional European costume explores notions about identity as being geographic and bound to a period in time. Any genesis of ‘belonging’ is born out of the desire to ‘hold’ something, illustrative of that which could be discarded. My use of analogue film, costume and a camera obscura aims to examine ways in which we seek to collectively ‘hold’ ourselves and in doing so asks “What ‘magic’ does logic disrupt?”. As identified by historical philosopher Louis Mink ‘Stories are not lived, but told’.
FINE ART
samanthahorn@btinternet.com
056
Borderlands, Samantha Horn
057
Anna Kot
While focusing on the compositional aspects of abstract painting, I wish to evoke a sense of the wider context of communication; not only inviting the viewer to engage with the visual syntax but also to be aware of the expressive and personalised nuances that contribute to the overall effect and impact of what is expressed and how it’s received. Enjoying the richness of variation and ambiguity involved in communication, I want to interact and not merely present. Therefore, while exploring the formal elements of colour, line, form and angle, I am conscious too of the different resonance the quality of each mark can bring, or the varying tonal contrast and clarity of stroke and type of border between shapes. A painting sits between the maker and the receiver and while being the vehicle for me to express ideas for you, the recipient to consider, I want to leave room to suggest the possibilities of what might lie behind. I incorporate evidence of the maker in my works and leave traces of past thoughts and maybe errors of judgement. An idea of the interface between me and what I present, between the emotion within and the more measured bearing in the social world. An idea of the T ransitional Space where I negotiate what to present to the world, and how, and what to keep hidden.
FINE ART
annakot.co.uk anna@annakot.co.uk
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Helen McCormick
FINE ART
Utilising manmade materials, I am investigating space, light, line and interaction. I am a maker at heart, yet also enjoy appropriating readymade materials, both bought and recycled. My intention is to encourage the viewer to engage with my compositions and consider the potential beauty, in the unconventional.
060
061
Vicky McKay
I’m an interdisciplinary artist and an unreliable narrator. I’m interested in hauntings and work with what I remember, what I can see and what I’m told. I mediate stories with painting, drawing, writing, and recording. I’m especially interested in syncope, breaks in narrative, and what becomes brittle whilst we’re working.
FINE ART
vickymckay.com @ vickymckay_
062
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Kelly O’Brien
The backdrop for my research has been the precarious aspects of contemporary existence, with a focus on my experience as an American living in the UK during a tumultuous era for both countries. My practice explores themes of power/powerlessness, precariousness, resilience, and hope. I am interested in how these dynamics are expressed through materials that I choose specifically for their fragility and propensity to fail. I pair minimalist strategies with organic expressive materials to explore human issues. Much of my work plays with d  ynamics of balance, tension, and agency while suggesting danger, protection, and trust. Through trial and error, I amass seemingly delicate materials until they acquire collective strength. Sorting out the inevitable falling apart of these experiments teaches me about their resilience. I negotiate a delicate, sometimes uneasy Âagreement with the materials, testing their abilities to rise to the task at hand.
FINE ART
kellyobrien.art @kellyobrienart
064
065
Thomas Tomasska
FINE ART
Always with an eye on ideas relating to the world around us and its ethereal connections to the environment I inhabit, my work has recently seen a surge in development as I embrace contemporary technological aspects of photography. I am interested in capturing the collective elements and essential qualities we have to a time within a place, and in the discovery of new visual territory (in relation to the landscape) derived from rapid recording processes, which eliminate to a minimum the diluting properties of unspontaneous Âintervention. This allows perhaps more than just a simple visual connection with the subject matter. Directly photographing the environment/landscape with my phone, the phone becomes a fluid gatherer of information, a hi-tech extension to my creative palette, here technology becomes very much a part of the connection.
066
067
Kaitlin Trowbridge
Kaitlin is a British Hong Kong Artist. Kaitlin previously completed an MFA in Creative Writing from Hong Kong University. She also studied Mandarin at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Kaitlin works in the medium of art installation featuring film, immersive theatre, and virtual reality. Her work combines the textual with the visual. She has created a world based on a fictional city created in her earlier film work, named Isca, which features elements of Chinese, Japanese and Roman culture. Her work attempts to create a place that reflects a ‘Paradise Lost’ or utopian world.
FINE ART
trowbridgekaitlin@gmail.com
068
069
Nicola Turner
In my art practice I am investigating mortality, vitality, eroticism, mass and fusion. I am exploring the interconnection of life and death, human and non-human, attraction and repulsion. I combine found objects that hold traces of memory, materials from organic ‘dead’ matter (e.g. horsehair) and the shapes of human form. I am exploring the interconnection of humans to objects and each other and the awareness of death, as a way of affirming life forces, amidst confusion and the unsettled. I have found resonance in the concept of the abject, which I see as being about the capacity of the world to disorient and connect to primal instinct. My research has led me to experience an abattoir, a cadaver course and a personal ritual burial. What interests me is the dissolution of boundaries and looking at the in-betweeness of things. I draw reference from the writings of Jane Bennett, Judith Butler, Donna Harraway, Julia Kristeva and Slavoj Žižek and research exploring how humans are ecosystems that exchange and overlap with other ecosystems, not bounded by skin or death.
FINE ART
nicolaturner.art @nicolaturner.art
070
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Esther Tyler-Ward
Working mainly through drawing, writing, performance and video, my interdisciplinary art practice places practiceas-research at its heart, though as an experienced secondary school teacher, this stares uncomfortably in the face of a knowledge-based, progress centred state education curriculum. My work explores how the body can mediate this encounter, creating a space that is often between thinking, drawing, digital and performance processes. I move between ideas, responding to current environments and experiences, but always creating art from a feminist perspective with a critical a wareness of our ‘post-internet’, hyper-productive, ‘self-betterment’ culture.
FINE ART
@etw_evenmoreart
072
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Shadrokh Vahabzadeh
Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, currently based in  ristol, UK. Shadrokh is continually using her intuitive Âsensibility B towards materials, alongside her rich heritage to explore complex topics such as homeland, dislocation and identity. She constructs her work using characteristic materials, which have sentimental value to her and combines with other material until the new form takes over and takes on a life of its own. The materials she uses are predominantly Persian carpet, Persian Kilim, copper, soil from her country of birth Tehran, Iran and soil from her current home Bristol. By using soil from her two homes she believes she breaks the boundaries between two Âplaces and depicts a unity with a boundless harmony.
FINE ART
@shadivezvaei
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Andrew Southall, Course Leader
VISUAL COMMUNICATION The Masters in Visual Communication is a practical course for graphic designers, photographers and illustrators, working alongside one another and also in collaboration to produce diverse visual design. Our students are bright, open minded and enthusiastic individuals and they often have a wide range of experience in more than one specialism. MAVC students develop a visual, critical & professional context for their practice through each of their projects, selecting a final Masters Project that reflects the skills and particular interests they have developed in their time with us. The course encourages students to integrate aesthetics with legibility, encouraging individuals to consider how their work might be read in differing locations by a wide ranger of audiences. Our students gain from each other by sharing views and international experience, broadening the context on which they base their practice and refining the detail within it. This year’s students have developed very individual approaches to their final projects, that clearly reflect their varied interests, backgrounds and nationalities. In the final show you will find projects that are innovative, elegant and distinctive.
077
Grazia Campanella
VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Grazia is a multidisciplinary graphic designer currently based in Bristol. Her work is primarily focused on branding, editorial projects and typography. During her Masters course, Grazia explored the relationship between type design and local culture, embracing the concept of ‘Genius Loci’, intended as the conjunction of nature, culture and people distinct to a particular place. For her degree project Grazia has designed Genius Loci, a sans serif incised font aimed to inform how typography can speak through properties of shape and form, revealing a sense of belonging to the homeland and reflecting a particular atmosphere. The project includes the design of four specimen books and three posters aimed at showing the font in distinct size and settings.
behance.net/grajoy grajoy13@gmail.com
078
079
Chaohan Jin
VISUAL COMMUNICATION
My design practice focuses on bookmaking and posters Âdesigns. I enjoy using elements of my Chinese culture.
chaohan.jin17@bathspa.ac.uk
080
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Andrew Jones
VISUAL COMMUNICATION
For as long as I can recall, I have felt an affinity to Âoutdoor environments and the natural world. As a child, I spent hours playing on boats, venturing onto local lakes and the seas around the coastline of Britain, experiencing first hand the ever-changing forces of nature and their impacts on the seascape. More recently, I have ventured further afield, becoming entranced by mountain landscapes, their beauty, grandeur and power, the way humanity interacts with them and how they evolve over time. In the mountains, I feel an emotional connection to the landscape, and a sense of heath, wellbeing and awareness. I am increasingly struck by our impacts on these environments, and the complex balance of benefits and problems associated with our interactions. As a photographer I have an interest across all genres of photography, although my personal experiences result in a particular focus on the outdoors and mountains. My goal is to capture the essence of these places and I try to create images that transport the viewer there on both an intimate and grand scale, bringing to life both their beauty and telling the stories within the landscape in a reflective and thought provoking way. During my MA, I have become increasingly interested in the use of video alongside photographs, and the way that these can interact to help convey a narrative, exploring this through a number of evolving projects. I plan to utilise these interests and skills in developing my MA show project.
worrallphotography.co.uk @worrall_photography worrallphotography@icloud.com
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David Norfolk
VISUAL COMMUNICATION
I am David Norfolk ARPS, and I first became interested in photography around 1978, when I joined a camera club in Australia. I am interested in fine art and semi-abstract photography – in (as Klee might put it) ‘making the invisible visible’. I want to call attention to those aspects of the real world that people have looked at but not really ‘seen’ - my favourite comment on my photos is something like ‘I’ve walked past here many times and I never saw that before’. I originally worked in the colour darkroom and learned how to ‘develop’ images well before I met Photoshop: I see a RAW image as a digital negative, for further development to highlight what was in front of my lens. As well as conventional photography, I photograph with macro equipment and microscopes. I also use a camera with its sensor modified to see infra-red, as well as visible, light. I am studying the MA Visual Communications at Bath Spa University, in order to expand my photographic horizons.
photographyatdavidrhysenterprisesltd.zenfolio.com flickr.com/people/dnorfolk/ youpic.com/photographer/DavidNorfolk facebook.com/DavidNorfolkPhotography
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Simon Taylor
VISUAL COMMUNICATION
My current work explores our relationship with nature and how it can positively impact on our mental wellbeing. The modern world is full of distractions that can remove us from being in the present, which also significantly affect our health, both physically and mentally. It is easy for us all to become enclosed in micro-worlds, narrowing our awareness on the self. However, if we can find a place and space of stillness and contemplation, we can then allow ourselves the opportunity to find perspective. This can be a solitary act or a shared experience with anyone who is in the same state of being. The aim of my current project is to create a body of work, that evokes a valued awareness of the natural world, as a place and environment, for personal and connected being. The work will, at the same time remind us of our responsibility to look after and respect the, natural environment.
simontaylorvisualartist.co.uk @simontaylorimages
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Po-Cheng Yan
VISUAL COMMUNICATION
I’m a creative who explores various mediums. From visual design, video, to ambient musical compositions, my work is based on addressing experiences from transglobal issues of culture and self-identity. I originally graduated from Applied English before coming to Bath Spa University. MA Visual Communication has given me a better chance to explore myself and my own life. This reflects in my work regarding individuality and personal development. My new work is not only a journey through selfexploring, the struggle between id, ego, and superego, visualizing the p rocess, but also a challenge for myself on my various abilities.
bobyen.weebly.com bobyenkh@gmail.com
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CREDITS
CERAMICS STUDENTS Amy Daniels, Chen Li, Nicola Lidstone, Yixuan Lu CURATORIAL PRACTICE STUDENTS Thuy Bui, Alison Jane Hoare, Rachel Jones, Lucy Pidgeon, Judith Rodgers, Shubhani Sharma, Ellice Thomas-Bishop FASHION AND TEXTILES STUDENTS Katie Barrass, Millie Clake, Anna David, Emma Fallon, Alexia James, Zena Martin FINE ART STUDENTS William Barker, Zo-I Chen, Julie Dean, Jonny Falkus, Lucy Gunningham, Tomoe Higashi, Samantha Horn (O’Neil), Anna Kot, Helen McCormick, Vicky McKay, Kelly O’Brien, Thomas Tomasska, Kaitlin Trowbridge, Nicola Turner, Esther TylerWard, Shadrokh Vahabzadeh VISUAL COMMUNICATION STUDENTS Grazia Campanella, Chaohan Jin, Andrew Jones, David Norfolk, Simon Taylor, Po-Cheng Yan
SHOW IDENTITY CONCEPT / CATALOGUE DESIGN Grazia Campanella Simon Taylor
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE Sponsored by Herman Miller
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The new Bath Schools of Art and Design campus
Herman Miller in Bath
LOCKSBROOK CAMPUS
Our goal is to make a contribution to the landscape of aesthetic and human value. The first Herman Miller factory in Bath was located across the river from the Locksbrook Road site, in what is now Lidl. It did not take long before the company outgrew the site and the search for a new building and design began. Max De Pree (son of Herman Miller founder D.J. De Pree) found the answer in a kindred spirit, architect Nicholas Grimshaw, this led to the Locksbrook building design that opened in 1976. The building was called ‘WoodMill’ and mainly focused on creating items from wood such as desktops and specifically, Action Office panels, which was a revolutionary product from its launch. Gradually the company grew and new buildings were added in Chippenham. In 2015 a new factory and offices were opened in Melksham, which was also designed by Grimshaw. The latter brought all of Herman Miller’s operations for Europe, Middle East and Africa under one roof, leading to the eventual closure of the Locksbrook and Chippenham sites. Herman Miller’s design philosophy can be summed up in their mission statement ‘Inspiring designs to help people do great things’. This is something that is considered in all Herman Miller product designs and developments. It is also at the centre to all of their external design collaborations.
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The Herman Miller ethos is to be people-focused; this was something that the De Pree family felt strongly about. Nicholas Grimshaw was chosen as the Locksbrook architect as he understood this principle and created an architectural design space that was ‘human-centred’. This company concept towards design continues to this day. Whatever we do must be constructively involved with the neighbourhood and civic community.
LOCKSBROOK CAMPUS
Sir Nicholas Grimshaw CBE, PRA, RIBA, AIA, thinking back to the Bath Brief, decided to write a new chapter in the architecture of a 109-year-old design company.
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LOCKSBROOK CAMPUS
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It is Herman Miller’s goal to create an environment that: • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Encourages an open community and fortuitous encounter. Welcomes all. Is kind to the user. Changes with grace. Is person-scaled. Is subservient to human activity. Forgives mistakes in planning. Enables this community (in the sense that an environment can) to continually reach towards its potential. Is a contribution to the landscape as an aesthetic and human value. Meets the needs we can perceive. Is open to surprise. Is comfortable with conflict. Has flexibility, is non-precious and non-monumental.
In our planning we should know that: • • • •
Our needs will change. The scale of the operation will change. Things about us will change. We will change.
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