BA FINE ART 2017
BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL OF ART PRESENTS
PARATAXIS
pa-ra-tak’sis,n.[Gr.para,beside, and taxis, arrangement.] In Gram. Arrangement of propositions one after another, the act of placing side by side. A technique in which two images or fragments, usually starkly dissimilar, are juxtaposed without a clear connection. These disparate perceptual elements help form our experience and understanding of the image. Viewers are then left to make their own connections implied by the paratactic syntax.
BA FINE ART 2017
There are seismic changes happening all around us and this academic year has also seen several changes in the school of art. We have a new head of school, Professor Jonathan Harris, who is leading our participation in BCU’s vision for the future. With this comes a range of initiatives to expand our teaching, learning and research activities through creative and critical partnerships implicated in this now global economy, culture and society. At the heart of this activity is the drive for students to develop a creative practice that is dynamic, enquiring, multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural in its references, theories and contexts. It is a practice that is reflective, innovative, collaborative and personalised, one whereby graduates are imaginative problem solvers who can create and respond to a broad range of opportunities. As artists, designers, curators, film makers, illustrators and animators, students develop the skills and confidence to fully express ideas, adapt to change, think globally, to employ and to be employed, work in teams and embark on an understood process of ‘life-long learning.’ This level 6 cohort have played their part, demonstrating their constant drive to develop their own creative practice and engage in a range of activities throughout their studies. This includes three collaborative shows in the concourse, curated with the help of invited guests Niki Russell from Primary in Nottingham; Roma Piotrowska from Ikon; Gavin Wade from Eastside Projects. 'Heart of the Matter', an external exhibition, organised & curated by students at The Gap, Jubilee Centre. A range of study trips to London, Liverpool, Berlin, Venice, Leeds and Nottingham and residencies, projects and external shows with practicing artists, galleries and ex-students. As for myself, I’m glad that in my first year as Head of Undergraduate Studies I’ve had the opportunity to meet such a dynamic and creative cohort and wish them every success in their future endeavours.
Steve Bulcock, 2017 Head of Undergraduate Studies
Featured Fine Artists:
12 Amber Leigh Prescott 13 Rhian Kelly 14 Katie Reade 15 Lauren Godwin 16 Sarah Bradley 17 Shannon Bradley 18 Georgia Lumsden 19 Hannah Davis 20 Amrit Kaler 21 Russell Clark 22 Louise Rynton 23 Natasha prince 24 Leigh Whurr 25 Daniel Price 26 Aurora Kozma 27 Paige Doodey 28 Hana Clayton 29 Lee Santolamazza 30 Jack Webley 36 Aaron Williams 37 Ayesha Din 38 Evi Pangestu 39 Kelly Croutear 40 Rachel Levine 41 Xavier Reeves 42 Vincent Louis Francis Stokes 43 Leanne O’Connor 44 Edward Jones 45 Rafael Stavrinou 46 Elizabeth Aubury 47 Brogan Thomas 48 Apple Man Yiu Ng 49 Rim el Zein 50 Sophia Banner 51 Chen Zhang 52 Gemma Douglas 53 George Caswell 54 Tony McClure 66 Saskia Felstead 67 Hollie Williamson 68 Alex Bird 69 Hangu Zhang 70 Jessica Badley 71 Joanne Kwan 72 Katie Thompson 73 Lucy Hanrahan 74 Georgina Harrison 75 Laura Bateman 76 Thomas Dawes 77 Yan Yin 78 Suzie Hunt 79 Flora Jones 80 Aimee Shanks 81 Beatrice Moreira-Watkins 82 Kieran Tsang 83 Jessica Parr 84 Sydney Marston 90 Demi-Lee Ranford 91 Yitong Ye 92 Lindsey Woodfield 93 Raegan Shaw 94 Rebecca Sutton 95 Sharon Lewkowicz 96 Meredith Allen 97 Rebecca Kent 98 Craig Aldous 99 Darren Withey 100 Magdalena Jasiak 101 Nigel Stone 102 Daniel Yeomans 103 Pat McHale 104 Hannah Carder 105 Jack Miles 106 Laura Riordan 107 Claire Vorstman
alprescott.wixsite.com/amberprescott
Water/Electric
light based installation
Exploring the edges of vision: reflection, refraction, warped imagery and ambiguous forms ask us to question visual perception and subsequently reality. The projections leave haunting afterimages of colour in these otherwise monochrome installations; hinting towards the coloured spectrum within light, and other aspects of reality which cannot normally be seen.
12 Amber Leigh Prescott
Rhian Kelly
I extract influences from my life to create a new perception on the way people imagine the myths surrounding In Vitro Fertilisation. My aim is to refute the arguments and fears surrounding the subject by creating pieces that capitalise upon those very fears.
Imprints unfired clay
rhiankelly1995.wixsite.com/rhiankelly
13
14
Katie Reade
Untitled prints
katielouisereade.wixsite.com/artist
Lauren Goodwin
My work explores immaterial and material qualities of coloured light through surface, form and illusion while working within an expanded field of painting. Multimedia installations involving a combination of print and sculpture are created which extend into the space and interact with the viewer, while exploring coloured light in relation to colour immersion and sensory experience.
Form, Colour, Balance mixed media installation
laurengodwin95.wixsite.com/mysite-1
15
16
Sarah Bradley
My fascination begun with the mechanism of the scanner and its ability to read and collect data through its beam of light. The scanner is an important component in my work as it mimics elements of photography. When monitoring and recording natural light, I discovered how time began to affect the results generated by the scanner, patterns emerged. This discovery fuelled my strict hourly recordings between 6am-6pm on a 30-day period to generate a large collection of light recordings.
Poetic Light film
sarahbradley96.wixsite.com/sarahbradley
Shannon Bradley
My work focuses on the daily thoughts and emotions people and myself contain, but do not say. Channeling these emotions, I provide reflection, understanding, and relief to the public to gain knowledge on what they may be experiencing.
All anonymously created, each quote is beautifully imperfect, giving sentimental satisfaction to the experiences which are embroidered.
Cigarettes and Failure textiles, embroidery
shannonfrancesart.com
17
18
Georgia Lumsden
Buried Without a Name etched acrylic My work is primarily based around the current European Refugee Crisis. I am interested in how we receive and react to information, and how that forms and changes our opinions. This piece seeks to question the medias efforts with the crisis and highlights the power of an image.
wgeorgialumsden.wixsite.com/artgeorgialumsden
Hannah Davis
Most of my life is out of control
My practice engages with the idea of ‘material as metaphor’. This project is a study into anxiety and depression and how these might be embodied in physical forms. I have formed a poetic language that encompasses each element of my work by use of: transparency, light, space, air, synthetic materials and text.
“I have a feeling of being at the edge of my skin”
mixed media, metal, plastic & text
hannahlouisedavis.wixsite.com/artist
19
20
Amrit Kaler collaborative work:
Going Upstairs projection, illustration My work explores the language of painting and mark-making combined with everyday objects and ordinary things which is done by the use of a range of materials such as different sized ink pens, paint pens, water colours and spray paints. I make a big deal out of objects that are not really relevant but creating it with such an amount of colour it gives the object a sense of meaning and worth. To emphasis this, these posters are then turned into large scale projections.
amritkaler.wixsite.com/amritkaler
Russell Clark
21
The work focuses on creating and transforming sensory environments inspired by diverse atmospheres and environments such as music events, raves and festivals. Combining elements of abstract projection, intricate geometric linear installation, light and sound my large scale immersive installations push the boundaries of multi-sensory art. My aim being to sensually engage with the audience in such a way that the viewer loses track and almost forgets the original purpose of entering the ‘typical art space’, letting the mind wander freely. The works combine elements of physical precision and free-flowing elements to produce intense visual aesthetics and mind expanding experiences. The purpose of creating imagery and visuals without meaning is so that the audience has the opportunity to engage, feel and react in response to their own perception without manipulation. I prefer to create art that can be felt rather than art that has to be understood.
The Minds Freequency multi-media, light, projection, sound, reflective tape.
russellclark95.wixsite.com/mysite-1
22
Louise Rynton
‘We are what we are because of what we have lived. Everybody keeps images of people, feelings or situations from the past, which blur their visions. These images influence our reactions and behaviours in certain situations, they impact our perception of things happening around. We are all products of our past, our culture, the context, which condition our ability to understand. There’s much more hidden behind the visible’ - Anna Zuber
Memrobillia
photography, photo transfers, installation
louiserynton.wixsite.com/louiserynton
DO IT AGAIN
film, performance
Natasha Prince
natashaprince.com
23
Balance
digital painting, aluminium diabond
lwhurr.wixsite.com/oddly-spliced
Describing or explaining my work has never been simple for me, since the very appeal of this type of imagery lies in how it may touch a place that words or logic cannot immediately reach. There is logic in there, but it is spliced with my own subjective logic. It’s an instinctual drive and so any statement about my work usually requires some degree of philosophical leverage, as well as a certain amount of self-analysis, for it to make any sense.
24 Leigh Whurr
digital
My work is focused on the alteration of digital images and sound (This is to take a sound or image and to change it through digital means being either through sound or visual images). My work explores this with the overall themes of emotion through digital alteration and the way we can interpret emotions through experiences and memories and present them upon the world and what we perceive to be our reality.
Null & Harmonious Void.
daniel-19-91.wixsite.com/mysite
25 Daniel Price
26
Aurora Kozma
Metropolis installation, mdf
aurorakozma.wixsite.com/fineart
Paige Doodey
My current work explores the ideas for utopian and dystopian worlds and how they could possibly, delicately, coexist through my own imagined architectural constructs. I begin with 2D collaged sketches of my imaginings for utopian and dystopian architecture and then later transform these sketched collages into images of 3D models.
Kakatopia digital prints
paigedoodey.wixsite.com/paigedoodey
27
28
Hana Clayton
Deirdre’s Flight film collage
hanaclayton.wixsite.com/mysite
A photograph has two distinct aspects; one is a picture of something real, the other is an abstract arrangement of lines, textures, forms, and colours. They depend primarily on what the photographs represent, as well as elements of shape, colour, and texture to create new artworks. I adopted a purely formalist approach, placing an emphasis on the aesthetic results, as well as the playful, somewhat therapeutic process of collage-making.
Lee Santolamazza
Aesthetika
analogue and digital collage, found and original photography
Lee1993lee.wixsite.com/leesantolamazza
29
30
Jack Webley
First there was doublethink and newspeak then truthiness and then alternative facts. Now we have the TRUETH. The TRUETH – something that can be spun, pronounced or made to be the truth but ultimately is not. Usually believed by the fools that spout it and anyone else too, is a fool.
the TRUETH digital
jackwebley.wixsite.com/theTRUETH
31
Here’s another thing; draw your own conclusions. Parataxis, the title of the 2017 BCU fine art show, is a term applied to clauses, phrases or ideas placed side-by-side and in equilibrium, sometimes creating juxtapositions, sometimes running into each other. In proposing this title, the graduating students offer not just a way of approaching the degree show as a whole but a social and discursive mode for thinking about art and culture today. The means of producing statements and questions that form parataxis enunciations are many and include commas, semi-colons, full stops and ampersands, producing compositions containing different subjective and objective, and temporal and durational presentations. In this, parataxis being a modern and grammatical mode that produces dynamic arrangements is an apt term for the post-digital and information saturated age and, indeed, for contemporary cultures at large. Parataxis then, is non-linear: not ‘not this, then that’ (not the authorial voice of hypotaxis that insists that one thing leads to another, subordinating one phrase to another), but ‘this and that… and then another thing’ (allowing the reader space for interpretation to be explored). Part of the poetic experience for the viewer in parataxis mode, emerges out of the fact that there is no given arc of interpretation to be found in a composition. Instead, one could say in relation to the exhibition Parataxis, the viewer has to decide on the time and relative attention given to a work and the works side by side. The reader/viewer is left to work out the connections and relations of phrases, images and experiences they encounter. And the connections are many but identifiable, with common concerns and themes shared by many. One can see the exhibition Parataxis as a presentation of interlinked formal concepts and thematic threads, woven through the floors of Margaret Street. This should not be a surprise as the school’s studio culture operates not just through development of skills – and certainly not just through personal expression – but collective discussion and debate about the relation of contemporary art, aesthetics, culture and society. One could say of the exhibition Parataxis then, that it is a very specific proposition. One in which, borrowing the concept ‘Aisthesis’ from Jacques Rancière, constellations of singular artistic events and presentations take shape through forms of interpretation that define the paradigm of art. And this is a social dimension of art.
The shared concerns of the graduating students include exploring technologies of representation, translation and indexing; interrogating discursive narrative structures; identifying contested territories; developing the aesthetics and poetics of space. For example, many graduating students are concerned with the role of media in making one thing visible and another thing invisible, drawing upon their personal experience but also critical observations of culture. In this, and in the context of mass and social media, the agency of the subject – in their own making – is a particular concern. Others focus on themes of wellbeing, mental health and medical representations, with similar concerns for agency, representation and the production of subjects and subjectivity. Common to both these examples, and to most works in Parataxis is the relation of the individual to the many, the singular to the general or the generic. One can even say that this is a formal problem explored by many in the exhibition, evident in those compositions, collages and sculptural arrangements that present collections of discrete elements, offering parataxis as a mode of practice and interpretation. A common example of parataxis is, ‘Tell me, how are you?’ An enunciation addressed to another, inviting a reply and producing a discursive space for the other: the space of community; the ‘we’ that is the ones and the others. This relation of, and space for individual voices and collective enunciation (the relation of the one to the many) is crucial for any community, and attention to grammar or presentation can play a part in producing communities in which the singular and the many are not placed in opposition or hierarchy. Parataxis points towards such a society of presentations, recognizing that these emerging artists are individuals, but they are in a community with shared experiences, interests and concerns relevant to their lives and the lives of others. The work of the conceptual art group Art & Language continually, and rightly asserts that art is always surrounded by, and indeed can be said to be in language. Parataxis makes a case for the importance of the spaces, conjunctions, relations and full stops between artworks, which, as Rancière points out, is a social process involving the reception and discussion of art, which art schools (as well as galleries and museums) play a significant role in developing. It would seem that the graduating students propose an appropriate mode for contemporary art practice and presentations is parataxis, suggesting: Here’s another thing; draw your own conclusions.
Jenny Wright, 2017
36
Aaron Williams
Untitled paint mediums
I focus on the juxtaposition between the mundane and the sublime to create new inner worlds and landscapes, by taking the everyday to capture the magical moments within which at times go unnoticed, resulting in very vibrant images with high emphasis of light, which appear to come straight out of fantasy films.
aaronrodneywilliam.wixsite.com/aaronwilliams
Ayesha Din
Art Therapy is central to my practice because I believe it is an important tool to help people suffering psychologically, allowing them to express the freedom of their mind by using art and encourage free self- expression. Therapeutically helping me combat moments of depression. Helping my mental and emotional well-being.
Untitled plaster
ayeshadin.co.uk
37
38
Evi Pangestu
March 13th
acrylic on canvas
evipangestu.com
Kelly Croutear
39
Untitled
styrofoam, acrylic, laser transfer
kellycroutear.com
40
Rachel Levine
reeveslevine.co.uk
Xavier Reeves
41
Reeves / Levine is an artistic collaboration. We create a dialogue by using our bodies as a method of performance, further explored through gestures. Our practise is influenced by choreography of the body and Erwin Wurm’s concept of ‘play’. We combine live performance, photography and film. The work circulates around encompassing a multitude of media; objects, materials, architecture and colour.
performance
reeveslevine.co.uk
Vincent Louis Francis Stokes 42
‘I Saw My Mother Naked And...’ print, textile
My work considers the traditional purposes and historical properties of portraiture and the role it plays in determining character and identity. I am interested in one’s ability to reinvent and subvert, reinforce and adorn their identity through portraiture, creating work that critiques representational techniques and modes of presentation such as the pose and the gaze.
vincentlouisfrancis.com
Leanne O’Connor
43
From an early age I have been transfixed by the concept of the disposable camera, upholding this medium as a nostalgic memory tool, analogue processes and mediums have been a recurring theme within my practice This fascination for nostalgia and the unrepresentable within archival hierarchies has influenced my research, this has fed in to my practice and has become more about the politics of memory and the photograph as a loaded object.
Hands like Shteel print
lfOConnor.com
44
Edward Jones
SPOON: on Life, Time, Death, and The Universe
“You are alive and living now. NOW IS THE ENVY OF ALL OF THE DEAD.”
a visual, scientific, and philosophical essay.
eajones6062.wixsite.com/pablo
Rafael Stavrinou
45
This digital collage consists of NASA photographs from Earth and Space. Also over these layers, you can see planets like Earth and Venus which I connect with women. The etchings, create a more mystical and imaginative atmosphere as they been integrated into the background.
Untitled digital print
rafaelstavrinou.com
46
Elizabeth Aubury
Untitled installation, consumer goods
eaubury.wixsite.com/mysite
Brogan Thomas
47
Ambiguous Bedroom digital collage
Interior Design is a prevalent subject in my work. I create collages of recognisable interiors which are infused with abstract elements. The shifting between representation and abstraction generates an environment which doesn’t seem real, yet also creates a vivid sense of place, playing on the illusion of what is flat and what is threedimensional.
broganthomas.com
48
Apple Man Yiu Ng
Identity mdf
manyiung.wixsite.com/artportfolio
Rim el Zein
49
U.A.E photography
reemelzein.com
50
Sophia Banner
Yellow Reflections acrylic on aluminium
sophiabanner.wixsite.com/sophiabanner
Chen Zhang
51
BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL OF ART Digital print and Acrylic sheet
morningwal.wixsite.com/chen
52
Gemma Douglas
The mattress is a practical symbol of rest, an object that links us all through basic need. Using strips of colourful used clothes an attempt to restore the comfort and functionality of the mattress is made. The efforts to decorate it acknowledge the innate visual language of those trying to make a settlement a home. Mass produced textiles reflect on the global trade of goods as well as migrating people. The enfolded mattress signifies the need for protection. Using only the strength of the strands of fabric to secure it, the potential for failure reinforces the volatile nature of our own circumstance.
Enfold used mattress, used clothes
gemdouglasart.wixsite.com/gemdouglasart
George Caswell
My work aims to communicate the concept of material consciousness through found object assemblage. Creating combinations that enhance specific materials properties or ones that negate others, the objects are employed into different roles to become actors in controlled scenarios. Alongside the titling of the work, these objects roles become more apparent and begin to take on the characteristics from the purposely-suggestive titles.
‘This is exactly how i found it when i got here’
georgecaswell.wixsite.com/georgecaswellartist
53
54
Tony McClure
My series involves creating viewing situations with time based media, film and affective spatial arrangements, where I utilise Japanese philosophy, static cinema and ephemeral technologies & materials to inform my explorations in art & film. I am intrigued by the poetry of the transient beauty in fleeting moments and experiential event, questioning the encounter between affect and moving image technologies, installation and the internal processes of perception & thought. Applying spatial affect to reframe, to reconsider, to make relevant that which is often overlooked, I am interested in the absence of matter in the making of image, with a focus on reframing an existent thing as delicately as possible.
Mode of Revealing: Film Object Composition I//Finitness installation, film, projection
www.tonymcclureart.com
IN A STATION OF THE METRO The apparition of these faces the crowd : Petals on a wet, black bough
in
- Erza Pound
Red, Black & Blue and Silver Cars
I walked along Spaghetti Junction Its easy when you're wearing the right shoes - nice shoes, nice Thick shoes made of leather & haste I, walking, and running, and weaving through all of the red, black & blue and silver cars, Was trying to get hit, but wasn't getting hit. Sometimes i think that people are just too kind. So, with my life and possible future in tact and still living, i took myself To the side of the road and sat, just sat watching All the red, black & blue and silver and sometimes yellow cars roll by. I invested a thought into history, into the impending events of later-life. Such thinking can drive one insane, and it did, Insane and outsane and all the way Back to a time when life was fresh and almost ripe.
I walked back into the words of my teacher, our tutor, The Lady Who Had Passed. Before she gave up the ghost she announced to us all with a full, heavy heart: "The worst possible thing that you can do here, as unique and artistic individuals, Is to leave here exactly as you were when you arrived. I pray that none of you do." I can conclude now, Dear Lady of The Shade, That we have detached and removed our former faces, Have polished our weaker bones Our nails are sharp, our eyes are wide and The Brink has never never looked so good! We have remade our hearts, we shall run back Into a world whilst everyone else is weeping.
Finally, it hit me The car that is.
Vincent Louis Francis Stokes
66
Saskia Felstead
Untitled (Quilt) textiles
This piece represents medical intervention and disease on human skin. I focus on infection and contusions on the skin through the juxtaposition of materials including sensual fabrics, moulded latex and smooth latex. Confronting the idea of perfection and wholeness in society and how we perceive ourselves.
saskiafelstead.co.uk
Hollie Williamson
Bent Pyramid gold leaf on canvas
My work and the ideas that it communicates can be easily understood when likened to that of applying makeup; in the same way that makeup is used to enhance ones features, where materials such as gold, metallic spray paint and gold leaf are used to communicate the idea of elevating the ordinary and overlooked aspects of everyday life into the foreground and position of what is formally considered to be art by giving it an element of value and sense of preciousness. ​
holliewilliamson93.wixsite.com/mysite
67
68
Alex Bird
Temporality in portraiture and figurative art, exposing the impacts made by social media. Hyper-realism drawings that conjure multiple emotive responses and relatable experiences in social contexts.
Untitled drawing materials
alexbird.wixsite.com/alexbirdartworks
Hangu Zhang
69
My animation is about the subconscious, telling the story of an exploration into the inner world. The animated expression of surrealism tells a story about social reality and the status quo of mankind.
Seeking animation, video
zhanghangyu.weebly.com
70
Jessica Badley
Untitled mechanism, drawing
jessbadley.wixsite.com/website
My current work is about dreams and the subconscious mind. Influenced by the ink blot test, I used similar methods to create unique pattern’s and create new creatures from it, creatures created from my subconscious mind whereas everyone’s interpretation towards the painting is different.
Joanne Kwan
joannewailam.wixsite.com/artwork
71
Rabbit
painting
72
Katie Thompson
‘Today is the Tomorrow we worried about Yesterday’ video, sound, photography I use photography, video and sound to explore themes of narration and testimonials, playing with anonymity and the mundane in the current commonplace world we reside in. Projection is used to entice the viewer into sharing personal worries, memories and subjective experiences, using eyes as visual representations of their mental and emotional state.
kmthompson74.wixsite.com/katiethompsonart
Lucy Hanrahan
73
Scrolling, Scrolling film My work is a visual narrative of the relationship between humans and technology and how they are affected by each other. I focus on the use of social media and the Internet. I explore how different surfaces, screens, projectors and light relate to the mechanics and materiality of the devices that are integrated into everyday modern life, focussing primarily on smart phones. The film and text are representative of the human intervention and relationship with these objects. Modern human social behaviours and psychology are also things that I consider when creating.
lucyhanrahan.wixsite.com/lucyhanrahan
74
Georgina Harrison
The age of the young actor used in my work brings up questions of being a ‘pre-adolescent’ and the transgression from child to adulthood. The space is constructed to depict domestic, safe environments in which the character is seen to be undertaking painfully awkward transformations as he undergoes his journey both physically, emotionally or cognitively. Not only do I to explore this awkward journey but also embody suggestions of neutered childhood myths.
Pre-adolescence installation
georgiecharrison.weebly.com
Laura Bateman
My work is predominantly painting and sculpturally-based, investigating political issues and conflict. Communicating traumatic experience by recreating fearful representations of images through visual language.
Untitled wax
laurabateman95.wixsite.com/fineart
75
76
Thomas Dawes
Untitled
Paint, drawing materials
thomasdawes.wixsite.com/thomdawes
Yan Yin
Rabbit and Painting installation
yyan3238.wixsite.com/mysite-1
77
78
Suzie Hunt
Universe of Oddities video, prints photography
I am fascinated with how we as individuals interpret our environment; what our relationship is with it, and how we respond to it. I like the tension between the way it looks to the resident, the passer-by, and the way it looks to them. Through my practice I want to be able to show that to the viewer, giving insight into how others see and interpret their environment.
suzieeh.wixsite.com/suzieelizabethart
Flora Jones
79
My work crosses the line between painting and sculpture, often expanding out of the traditional field. Combining materials such as wax and gel mediums into my work, I create three-dimensional structures that are hung in the same way traditional paintings would be. My work centres around the ideas of materiality and surface, bringing elements of shine and texture into the pieces.
Untitled wax, spray paint, canvas
florajones95.wixsite.com/mysite
80
Amiee Shanks
Delightful photography, paint
amieeshanks.wixsite.com/amieeshanks
Beatrice Moreira-Watkins
81
This is an invitation into my narrative. An insight into the emotional instability I have faced since being diagnosed with Lupus (SLE) in the summer of 2014. A way of translating a diary of experiences and bringing these personal sentiments to the public through a range of styles and mediums. Not a single day is the same. When you discover how to push yourself physically and emotionally when you feel no longer capable, is when you unearth how to truly break your limits.
The way in which you experience my work is important. Contemplate. Converse. Entice yourself within the emotional drags of everyday life. It's not a certainty that I am a painter, sculpture or writer. But an artist in a contemporary moving world.
Always Tired mixed media
bemoart.co.uk
82
Kieran Tsang
An interactive piece of audio art. Viewers will have to put their head into the surround sound enclosure, which is attached to a height adjustable metal arm, in order to experience the audio piece.
Desk Arm audio piece
kierantsang7.wixsite.com/kieranart
Jessica
My work explores the concept of control within an artistic practice through the medium of installation and sculpture. The processes by which I create my works vary, however a dialogue between artistic intention and external chancedbased components are always prominent. My interest in the ideas surrounding control within art stems from my personal struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety which is continuously echoed in the underlying narratives in my kinetic works.
Fine. polythene sheet, industrial fan
jessicaparr94.wixsite.com/jessicaparr
Parr
83
Sydney Marston
installation
84
Composition 6
As an artist I alter the white cube environment by creating wall installations that raise awareness to the architecture and the imperfections of the space. Using mixed media to form various compositions that suggest a language of unresolved images which are in transition, process and constant reflection.
sydm94.wixsite.com/marstons
85
The New Symptomologists
What do James Parkinson, Hans Asperger and Bernard Crohn have in common? Born in different centuries, under different national flags, the three doctors all have the dubious honour of a medical condition bearing their name. These doctors were able to see what nobody else saw at the time: that symptoms previously considered unrelated were in fact connected through their mutual relationship to one another. For all concerned, abdominal pain, inflammation of the inner eye and weight loss were discrete physical discomforts before Crohn and his team grouped them together under one signifier. It could even be said that these physicians engaged in a form of parataxis: placing bodily malfunctions side by side, and allowing meaning to emerge through the mere fact of their connection. It’s a rare for artists to have styles or movements named after them in the same way. Even eminent figures in the history of art such as Eduard Manet, Barbara Hepworth and Wassily Kandinsky are subsumed under the names of the artistic movements they helped establish. Even so, it could be argued that a similar process is at stake in both medical science and artistic production – both group and regroup signs in new ways. The philosopher Giles Deleuze named this process ‘symptomology’, arguing that the symptomologies created by both medical and creative practitioners involve reading the world in new ways.
Gilles Deleuze, ‘Mysticism and Masochism’, in Desert Islands and Other Texts , ed. by David Lapoujade (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2004), pp. 131-134
The idea that artworks can act as symptoms of social forces is nothing new. In the same way that some medical symptoms appear utterly incomprehensible in the absence of knowledge of the bodily processes that cause them to occur, artworks are often impossible to fully understand without knowing the background social issues that led to their creation. Imagine Picasso’s Guernica without the Spanish civil war, or Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International without the Russian revolution. Robbed of their wider contextual significance these artworks become like acne without hormones, or gout without the pleasure of overindulgence. Treating artworks as symptoms of social change may imply that they are passive reflections on life: their inventions only ever giving us tools for interpreting history, rather than shaping it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Artworks sometimes crystallise relationships that were invisible to us prior to their existence, but this process of crystallisation prompts activity. A similar process is at stake in the field of psychoanalysis: as well as providing a new way of ‘reading’ pre-existing phenomena such as dreams, Freud’s invention also effectively shaped the subconscious at the very moment it plumbed its hidden recesses: planting ideas with one hand and finding them with the other. This is at least one explanation why, in 1909, when drawing into New York harbour on a boat, Freud apparently remarked to Carl Jung that ‘little do they know that we are bringing them the plague’. As the students on the BA Fine Art course walk out of the doors of Margaret St, we hope they do so as both diseases and diagnosticians, able to infect people with art and find new connections in a world that never ceases to throw up new symptoms.
Dr. Theo Reeves-Evison, 2017
90
Demi-Lee Ranford
Red velvet cushioned against robust steel, juxtaposed together to produce tangible sculptures that expose the unseen fragility of the material. My work lies in the realms of physical and visual fragility in response to the human body, by using my own body as a significant element of my practice.
‘and here it all unfolds’ sculpture, installation, video
dranford.wixsite.com/demiranford
Yitong Ye
91
I was born into a Chinese family, where personal preferences by my fathers fondness of traditional Chinese Culture has significantly influenced my thoughts. The cultural shock of coming to Britain made an impression on me, causing me to acclimatise with these contrasting ideas. To some extent, my experience of this culture shock is representing the fundamental conflicts between the modern ideas and traditional ideas, or that between the Western and Oriental culture. These crashes become a substantial part of my implicit internal conflicts that I express in my work.
Conflict mixed media installation
634611027.wixsite.com/mysite-1
92
Lindsey Woodfield
‘To die would be an awfully big adventure’ installation
I play with this idea of reality in multiple ways, making something that’s obviously not part of reality and making it look as if it could exist in ours. A child’s imagination is its own reality and I am referencing at the illusion that exists, inside a child’s imagination.
lindseywoodfield.co.uk
Raegan Shaw
Why can’t I be different like you? installation, mixed media, photogaphy, fiberglass, found objects
raeganshawart.wixsite.com/raeganshawart
93
94
Becky Sutton
It starts with a walk. By documenting small patterns found in canal waters I pass every day, I create an immersive video installation that reflects my connection with the living environment.
By creating pieces around this connection, I provoke the viewer to consider their own connection with the environment, and therefore have my work act as a catalyst for a wider conversation around climate change.
It’s not all about me video installation
beckysutton.wixsite.com/environmentalartist
Sharon Lewkowicz
I collect memories and moments from everyday life, a process both therapeutic and artistic. I create a visual bridge between past and present, reuniting the positive and negative experiences that result in the growth and progression of myself.
Doodle Diary illustration
sharonlewkowicz.wixsite.com/website
95
96
Meridith Allen
Showcasing
mediums,
the
the
reactions
results
viewer
is
in
able
and
the
to
the
material
creation
explore
and
of
process
of
a
planetary
lose
themselves
New
paint
with
like
within
various
flow,
which
the
work.
Worlds acrylic paint, ink, video
meredithallen22.wixsite.com/fineart
photographic print on stretched canvas
Untitled
A series of photographic prints designed to demonstrate the body liberation of voluptuous women, and the sensuality found within confidence. Using projection to cast delicate markings onto the body in order to represent mental growth and acceptance.
xxrebeccaxxbec.wixsite.com/liberate
97 Rebecca Kent
98
Craig Aldous
A short absurdist film primarily concentrating on the philosophy of Albert Camus, by using the notion of the absurd contextually. I also felt it imperative to consider the absurd aesthetically by blurring the intimate relationship between film and theatre, actor and audience during all three scenes. I achieved this by using similar theatrical and filmic techniques to that of playwright Samuel Beckett and contemporary filmmaker Nathaniel Mellors.
Waiting for Sisyphus film
aldousproductions.com
Darren Withey
99
The mind is in a constant state of flux and reconfiguration - much like a healthy art practice - responding and reacting to the physical environment, and to the cultural, social and political terrain in which we find ourselves. Operating across the disciplines of drawing, photography and printmaking, my work references the contested territory, a comparison is drawn between wnation state and state of mind
Contested I, 2016 etched mezzotint diptych
darrenwithey.com
100 Magdalena Jasiak Installation EXIT is my response and conclusion to the situation related with Brexit and Black Protest. Both of these events showed examples of aggression and hate with which I had difficulties in dealing with. All this reminded me about anxiety, the fear from my childhood which I had not felt for a long time.
EXIT visual installation, sound, video
magdalenajasiak.wixsite.com/artwork
Nigel Stone 101
Working as a three-dimensional multimedia artist I like to explore the possibility that the materialism of the object is not bound by conformity; thus questioning the way we observe objects, and distort our perception of the everyday. This challenges the universal belief of our environment’s material reality.
Halcyon Days installation
nstoneartist.weebly.com
Opus Locus installation
I am an artist living in my own whimsical world; a solitary wizard and inventor with the heart of a dandy. I ustilise a variety of prop-design based skills and materials to create the effects, illusions and installations which narrate the story with the aim to intrigue and entertain the viewer.
102 Daniel Yeomans
artistwizard.co.uk
Pat McHale 103
Referencing an ancient Irish legend with an historical date of AD 637, through paintings and prints, I depict the emotional and physical suffering of Sweeney, a pagan king, who, having mortally offended a pious Christian cleric named Ronan, is condemned to spending the remainder of his life as an insane half-man, half-bird.
The Curse of Ronan mixed media, print
patmchale.co.uk
104 Hannah Carder
I explore the relationship between myself and my partner, specifically the intimacy we share and the contrast of loneliness I feel when he leaves. The photographs consist of objects, surroundings and the body, many of which reference sex and the connection I share with my partner during sex. It is left for the viewer to attempt to understand why these photographs are important when placed together.
Hours photo collage
hannahmcarder.wixsite.com/mysite
Jack Miles 105
Someday My Prince Will Come
Long story Short I’m exhausting You message I respond like a dismissive bitch Somehow you convince me to meet you We meet a couple of times and have quasi-mediocre sex Whilst praising my oral skills You courtesy text afterwards Shortly followed by cutting me off because you’re bored Then i’m back to the vicious cycle I’m the one before the one We have a date or two Then boom! You’ll meet the one Being unintentional matchmaker isn’t fun So fuck off.
jackyhendrix.wixsite.com/jackmilesfineart
106 Laura Riordan
An interest in natural form and phenomena is what drives and inspires me to create spatial realms which audiences can experience within confined spaces. The exploration and manipulation of many different, often domestic and craft materials in the creation of sculptures which can immerse and confront audiences.
Constructions of Painting thead, wood, canvas, acrylic paint
laurariordan1995.wixsite.com/lriordanart
Claire Vorstman 107
“I can’t draw” childhood drawing
I work through ideas that explore the importance of scribbling. My inspiration comes from the books I read, many of which explore aspects of art therapy, the psychology of children’s drawings and their development throughout childhood, not to mention the emotional release it is providing for the individual. ‘Those scribbles are not aimless and uncoordinated movement but demonstrate awareness of pattern and increasing hand - eye coordination’ - Glyn Thomas
clairevorstman.wixsite.com/artist
World of Tomorrow Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly. You are alive and living now. NOW IS THE ENVY OF ALL OF THE DEAD.
- Don Hertzfeldt
112 Behind the scenes at the School of Art BCU
Behind the scenes at the School of Art BCU 113
114 Behind the scenes at the School of Art BCU
Behind the scenes at the School of Art BCU 115
Design Team 2017
Everything has been learned, Everything has been treated   We leave here now, both victorious  & defeated.
Acknowledgements We students would like to express our thanks and gratitude for all the support and guidance provided throughout the course by tutors, technicians and staff at Margaret Street School of Art. Head of School Professor Jonathan Harris Head of Undergraduate Studies Steve Bulcock Level 6 Coordinators Jenny Wright Yvonne Hindle Academic Staff Dr Rob Anderson Mona Casey David Cheeseman Heather Connelly Francoise Dupre Lee Hewett Yvonne Hindle Dr Theo Reeves-Evison Franziska Schenk Lois Wallace John Wigley Jenny Wright Dr Sue May Technicians Taryn Coxshall Alexander Barratt Charlie Bentley-Beard Gregg Dunn Luke Pickering Gay Place Ana Rutter Justin Saunders Student Support Grace Page
Catalogue Committee Sophia Banner Aurora Kozma Tony McClure Leanne O’Connor Amber Leigh Prescott Natasha Prince Nigel Stone Catalogue Photography Aurora Kozma Tony McClure Natasha Prince Catalogue Design and Layout Sophia Banner Aurora Kozma Tony McClure Amber Leigh Prescott Natasha Prince Fundraising Committee Elizabeth Aubury Sophia Banner Hannah Carder Tom Dawes Kelly Hunt Bianca Marsland Xavier Reeves Laura Riordan Claire Vorstman Lindsey Woodfield Rim El Zein Centre Spread Design Lee Santolamazza With further thanks to‌ Library Staff Security Services Administration Staff Building Services
Catalogue created Apr-May 2017 All artist links can be found at: parataxis2017.com Printed by Ex Why Zed www.exwhyzed.co.uk