FULLY FURNISHED
Fine Art 2016 Coventry University
‘Too much rigidity on the part of teachers should be followed by a brisk spirit of insubordination on the part of the taught’, wrote the American essayist Agnes Repplier. I admire the principle in this statement. It implies that teachers with all their experience and knowledge do not necessarily have all the answers, and that students with all their freshness and energy, will have an alternative and often equally valid point of view. Fine art education should always be about a journey of discovery and staff and students launch into this together. A deep discussion or a casual conversation, the resolving of a problem and the bringing to fruition of a good idea can become a two-way street that is of benefit to everyone. Now and again a year group develops with a particular dynamic - a group that is spirited, full of energy, enthusiasm and brimming with talent. This year is such a group. I was looking forward to working with them well before the year began and they have not disappointed. Not only have they collectively generated an impressive body of innovative work, they have also come together to stage a hugely impressive midyear exhibition, and have broken all the records for fund raising with their fine art auction, which grossed in excess of £3,500! Working in Coventry and living in London, I make the drive to work each week. There have been many occasions on my Friday evening journey home when I have been left buzzing from a series of inspiring tutorials with this year’s Level 3s. I can always gage how memorable they have been by the time I switch on the car radio. If this is not until I’ve passed Milton Keynes it’s been a great day! Jonathan Waller Level 3 Tutor
Jodie Samantha BENNETT What a journey. I am a portrait painter journeying on a road to achievement and success through the artwork I create. It’s so important for me to keep my artwork real, and what I mean by that is for myself and others to look at the work I produce and admire the detail and realistic appearance my paintings possess. I aim for the audience to be intrigued in what they see, yet unable to figure out the content of the painting let alone associate it with feeling and emotions. That is a key factor in the uniqueness of my work and practice. Each piece aims to tell a story, a story that is part of a much bigger picture.
Rob HAMP: constructor The outcry from his ditties are presented in a visual format. The mechanics of this identifier systematically allows for the purging of the narrative complexities of his practice chapter by chapter. It is the truth to material that outweighs whether any selected object is found, previously used or manufactured, allowing for a concise evaluation of what is real, unreal, true and untrue within the make up of each of the characters and their multi-functional plots. The audience is left to decide the outcome with minimal evidence, “on the face of it�.
Amelia HORTON I have been photographing derelict buildings for the last 6 years. In the past I’ve always focused on the interior of buildings and how nature has slowly begun to reclaim what was once its own. Last year I discovered Hornsey Rise Memorial home, an abandoned care home on the outskirts of Nuneaton. The building is situated on a busy main road, traffic always rushing past. Hornsey Rise now lies still and silent, no longer a part of everyday life. Everything had been left as if people would be returning from a day trip. I wanted to capture the emptiness in my photographs, to see a new aesthetic in what was soon to be disappearing. What I was interested in was the sense of place, its atmosphere and a sense of absence and a time gone by. I want my work to capture the sense of sadness and melancholy that is prevalent within the space.
Layla JAMA I am my memory I look into the idea of memory, what it is and how it affects everyday life. I am writing an auto-ethnography of my own personal experience in everyday life at University. I use memories related to countries that I have lived in and translate those memories into patterns to evoke emotion. I produce patterns using nature as a source of inspiration for my memories. I question my own memories and how much I remember including what words register to me more than others. I also try to remember memories of the countries that I used to live in and keep a note of it. I aim to build research related to William Morris, an artist who uses inspiration from nature and translates it into pattern. I will also research into Somalia even though I have never been there; it is the main language I speak to my parents. I remember bits and pieces and I will translate that into pattern.
Gillian DIXON Nature has provided many intellectual ways to structure the world around us, with its ever evolving cells adapting to all environments. Using natures influence, I explore organic forms taking on the role of natural cells which merge together to create cohesive forms. Defining both the fragility and strength of nature through the use of ceramics and drawing, I embody the most fundamental elements of nature. Adaptation and transformation. My practice reflects the simplicity in nature’s basic formations. The juxtaposition between sculptural, abstracted forms and the literal line of drawings of nature provides a balance between surface and form. Through the repetition of multiple elements I am manipulating the natural form in order to explore the possibilities in order to attain new forms.
Abigail DIXON Our identity surrounds, with not only our looks or our names being who we are but also our material objects we own. It all stands as a portrait of who we are, the lives we have lived. Portraits are no longer just a face, just a name. My work is a portrait, the life we live, the objects that create our space, what we choose, and where we live. Our spot in society. We simply become the numbers and lines that make up our existence, the ones we see but do not realise coexist with us. To submerge ourselves inside someone’s life, their portrait, see it from a different angle. How does it reflect us? How does it reflect you? Is it the uncanny of the everyday, the life we live but do not see? The structures that holds who we are.Â
Beth JONES We all share similar memories but they mean different things to each one of us. If you wake up tomorrow and couldn’t remember today, what would you miss out on? What would you want to be reminded of? My work focuses on capturing memories and sentimental moments in life. Words, dates, phrases, images and objects all feature within fragile and delicate sculptural concepts to encapsulate memories of moments as keepsakes. This project stems from the ideas of memory loss and jumbled memories. My work is often autobiographical and this project was inspired by my grandmother who was recently diagnosed with dementia. Research shows that memories are triggered by the 5 senses. This is something which I have decided to use within my work to emphasise how important our individual and personalised memories are, but also how similar they are and the triggers they share.
Eri WADA ‘History’, a word that carries considerable weight in its own right. It defines reason, process, background and is the origin of everything. However it doesn’t need to be rooted in myth or research. Local traditions, wise-words, even a drunkards mumbles can be a part of a grand history. The artwork I produce is based on social interests both in the broader and narrower sense. Born and raised in an international environment, I create artwork that reflects on the experience of my current and previous host societies. Influenced by capitalism, pluralism and the possibility of participatory art as acts of context diversification in mass; my practice often involves viewers’ engagement to complete the art. My latest series of works place the spotlight on the forgotten past of an ex-drag racer. As the tale is retraced through the few specific items, the 37 year-old memories are brought back to life.
Gabriella PETGRAVE The sea is something that my work has focused on for the majority of my Fine Art degree. I experiment with a number of materials that work alongside this theme. One material I work closely with is textiles. This is predominantly used to respond to the theme, which helps to portray my ideas in an abstract way. The main idea behind my work comes from researching the shipping forecast, which I then incorporate into my practice. With this information, I give each specific description a colour which will represent the sea state, visibility and weather on that specific day. I record this data and then create work that represents the descriptions.
Hannah PARKES Through the methods of drawing and printing I bring both liberation and commiseration to Birmingham’s deprived communities. With reference to our socio-political climate, my work sets out to engage the viewer in contemplating their relationship with these areas on a personal and political level.
Debbie-Lee WHITELAW
Cheuk Hin LI
Generally speaking, it is difficult to lie through our teeth that my paintings and sculptures are somehow beyond the curve. My portraits seem out of fashion, but cast a look forward as well as back – the portraits suggest a calm stability, composed from the long leaden heritage of painting. I paint political leaders to prod at a moral judgement and stance and to re-imagine a future led by a spiritual civilisation far from the neoliberal materialism of now. I admit that I am confident in surpassing the brilliance, and overturning the canon of old great Western masters, however I have to acknowledge that at this moment my mind sometimes goes blank and my lack of skill may take many years to reach this stage.
Ryan WILLIAMS The installation titled ‘Recess’ explores the notion of helicopter parenting and the influence of the home on ones nurturing. It is reflective of a time of youthful exuberance when playful exploration can be spoilt by parental overprotection and mollycoddling, therefore refusing a child its freedom. This notion is developed due to a parent’s presupposition that the child could reach harm. The Bitumen holds a smell, the familiar comforting scent of a father coming home from work, he is a labourer, the provider. Aesthetically, its blackness and its viscosity represent darker emotions, however ones of emptiness, mortality and abandonment. The childishness has been removed from the child by sabotaging their exploratory enthusiasm and dismissing them a right to play.
Emma PHILLIPS The idea that a room can be so familiar to us, yet our perception of that space can be transformed by only a few details, in-turn changing the interpretation of the atmosphere from person to person, completely fascinates me and is coincidentally where my work has currently taken root. I strongly believe artists have the power to transport you emotionally and psychologically into the space they are depicting. Therefore within my own practice I have repeatedly endeavoured to find out what it is we are perceiving through our emotional sensibilities, that gives us that feeling about a place. I find myself constantly asking, exactly how can all of this be recreated in the form of a painting?
Cheuk Man LI My work compounds comedy and tragedy. Its truth is its ridiculousness. It acts as a metaphor for the social and political conditions of the unjust and inhumane world, such as war, corruption, discrimination etc. History is forever on repeat, which is why I must wake you from amnesia! When the evil’s hand is trying to cover up the light of the good, what do we do? Accept the humiliation, or stand up and punch them back fucking hard? The latter is the only choice! Otherwise you are just a chicken, and will end up in the kitchen in KFC. Art is not merely a decoration, it is also a powerful weapon that can glare at and change unjust society. If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
Daniel SMART In my work I explore psychological and philosophical concerns, such as Alienation and Existentialism, as well as political issues, using a broad range of subject matter. The scenes I depict are often familiar, and are of ‘every-day’ working-class life. However, there is consistently an uncanny or fragmented factor. Contrasts play a key role in my practice - light and dark, impasto and thin paint, and the abstract and figurative. The symbolism of this is important to conceptualising the work. For example, organic and chaotic elements juxtaposed with geometric forms, represents the conflict between our instinctive desires against our attempts to control them. Symbolism is prevalent throughout. However, I wish to leave room for the viewer to make their own interpretations based on their subjective experiences. I draw upon a range of influences, the most significant being early 20th Century geometric abstraction – Constructivism, Suprematism, Cubism etc. - and historical and contemporary figurative painting.
Kelly OUTRAM Taking the concept that every experience falters into the restraints of a perfectly symmetrical cube representing our predetermined path and dwelling in life, I aim for my work to become the bridge between documentation and representation of an honest biography of my own experiences that I perceive as relatable to onlookers. Through a variation of emotions and situations, the work compels a purity that remains unaltered despite lacking the physicality of the human presence; it aims to capture turmoil alongside joy when faced with life changing altercations and present them with the naivety that is a visually pleasing arrangement.
Lucy BROOKS The main focus of my practice is the interaction between natural and urban elements. Firstly, I strive to record the ‘interventions’, no matter how seemingly insignificant, through a series of walks around urban environments looking for shifted earth and weeds pushing through cement. Second, the combination of natural and synthetic objects resulting in a strangely cohesive aesthetic, often presenting itself within domestic spaces. The combination of living material and objects from human culture perfectly illustrate a seemingly small everyday act, while representing the much larger issue of urban development vs natural conservation that is experienced on a global scale.
CHAPS “Masculinity is not something given to you, but something you gain. And you gain it by winning small battles with honour� Norman Mailer
Valentina Di DIA In my artwork, particularly when I’m painting, I tend to depict old people because I am fascinated by their wrinkles. Their wrinkles overlap and flow in different directions reflecting ones experiences in life, which vary from person to person depending on the lives they have lived. When I’m making sculptures, I use colorful elastics connected by nails on a base of polystrene which forms the human head or body. The elastics included in the sculpture represent the experiences of our lives. I choose to incorporate brightly coloured elastics because they are visually striking and make a strong impact. For one model, I have created a polystyrene head full of toothpicks, which are similar to the spines on a hedgehog that are used to protect them. All together they represent an armour for the individual person that protects them from all the negative experiences in their life, whilst other elastics will represent the positive moments in their life.
Rebecca STANSBIE I have a great love for old buildings due to the amount of character they hold. My main interest is buildings in demise. I manage to find some amazing buildings on walks around my area in Cradley as it is a very industrialised area with a lot of the businesses going bust leaving these buildings derelict from then on. On my doorstep is an array of empty buildings that once used to be a thriving high street. I love the history behind the buildings of what they used to be and the remnants of their previous life hanging on. I like to document these buildings through photography and finally painting them using watercolour and fine liner. I feel it is important for me to document these buildings in a state of demise as it brings them into the foreground. This causes a conversation about the state of our British high streets and the down fall of small businesses.
Rachael MARLEY I have always been fascinated in combining text and image within painting and print-making. I spent the past couple of years searching for and experimenting with different types of text. This has culminated in me using my late Nana Kate’s handwritten and typed poetry and combining it with large scale abstract painting. My practice allows me to freely experiment with materials and compositions by allowing each layer to be conditioned by what has gone before it. I am interested in revealing handwriting through the physicality of the actions needed to create the letters through the arms and body. Especially if elements of the handwriting are blown up, by way of a projector, to increase the scale. I compose the words so they overlap, write over themselves and cancel one another out, allowing the illegible to become just as important as the legible.
Renata JUROSZOVA The specific attention within my artistic practice is given to the relationship between femininity and domesticity. I am working primarily in the medium of painting, in which I am examining the woman’s body and its emotional response and integration to a physical space. My study is based on questioning how a woman sees a woman and how space can affect the body. While using autobiographical, personal experiences of the relationship between body, mind, and environment, I am exploring the issue of gender. Through questioning the femininity, I am investigating the stereotypical roles of a woman within the domesticity given by culture that became the significant subject criticised and commented by women artists. The final paintings uncomfortably address the spectator in the view that the privacy of the intimate moment is invaded. Â
Zoe HARWOOD I use the universal act of walking as a means to create work. I like and enjoy the simplicity of walking and to be able to wander around looking at things. I use a series of walks from different locations to create my work. The routes I take are the artwork itself and what is then displayed falls into documentation, normally taking the form of photographs, video footage and data collection. I choose to walk collaboratively and I refer to the collaborators as ‘You’or ‘Others’. I want the audience to question who the individuals or participants could be. My ambition is to portray slight messages or symbols that a dialogue or partnership is underlying in my practice.
Natalie SEYMOUR My work captures buildings in a state of dereliction and shows the confusing nature of exploring abandoned places where one decaying element often blurs into the next. I experiment digitally with a painterly aesthetic and collage elements from my photographic documentation to build each composition.
Liam PATTISON Anthropological themes are the prominent underpinnings that influence his work, resulting in almost exclusive representation of the human form. By using his own personal experiences as fuel for his creativity, the forms often depict the artist himself with exaggerated facial expressions that aim to emphasise the feel of the piece. A direct reflection on the negative aspects of life. In using his own image as a reference, it enables the work to possess a private dialogue that a wider audience can interpret and relate themselves to.
Kate ASHBY I grow bacteria from the human body. My process consists of science experiments, whereby I turn the ugly into beauty. Not all bacteria is bad for us, it is the invisible beauty that helps our bodies daily. I use agar as a canvas in a petri dish and apply specimens onto the base. This captures a living organism from the body at that present moment in time. What starts as invisible grows into a magnificent beauty of colour and shape. My aim is to persuade the viewer to see bacteria as an aid not a danger.
Fine Art 2016 Coventry University
Left: Liam Pattison Bottom: Studio, Cheuk Hin Li and Cheuk Man Li
Above: Kelly Outram Above Right: Basement Studios, Graham Sutherland Building Bottom: Rebecca Stansbie
Above: Amelia Horton Bottom: Cheuk Man Li
Above: Daniel Smart Bottom Left: Zoe Harwood Bottom Right: Bethany Jones
Above: Natalie Seymour Bottom Left: Studio, Kate Ashby Bottom Right: Renata Juroszova
Above Left: Studio, Chaps Above Right: Eri Wada Bottom: Studio, Amelia Horton
Acknowledgements Special recognitions go to all members of staff involved in the BA Fine Art Degree Show for their ongoing support and guidance. Course Director Rachelle Viader Knowles Senior Lecturers in Fine Art Jane Ball Graham Chorlton Mandy Havers Dr Imogen Racz Dr Robert Sutton Jonathan Waller Demonstrators Mark Buttree – Digital Media Helen Makin – Sculpture Ailsa McWilliam – Print Media Susan Watkins – Sculpture Facilities Technicians Paul Bryan Denise Flowers Keith Holmes Rob May Cameron Rouse Carl Williams Course & Department Administrator Samantha Trow Printed and designed by Rope Press., Birmingham, 2016.
Coventry University, School of Art and Design, Fine Art 2016