HERE &
NOW
etallics (foil and ink)
M A F I N E A R T , M A F I L M & P H OTO G R A P H Y University of Derby | Artcore Derby Virtual Exhibition 2021 | Here & Now
INTRODUCTION All nine students here have been creating and developing their practice at a unique and challenging moment in history – during a global pandemic. This has inevitably impacted on the way they have been able to make work. What this show demonstrates is that even in extreme adversity creative minds will flourish. Some have used printing techniques that they could manage at home; others have made temporary sculptural interventions in a domestic context. For some the situation impacted on the type of subject matter they could tackle in a suddenly shrunken world. They have looked inwards and reflected more on their own lives and relationships. Others took on nature at a microscopic scale rendered large in the final prints. Some consider the industrial processes of the past filtered through a contemporary conceptual reframing. What this collection of work demonstrates is the creative resilience of artists to adapt and respond to the world around them. The MA teaching staff at The University of Derby are hugely proud of all that the students have managed to achieve in such a challenging context. It confirms for us that they all have a promising artistic future ahead.
Camilla Brown Curator, Writer and Academic.
WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO: Rodger Brown, Vered Lahav & Camilla Brown, Robert Burstow & The University of Derby Logo colour ways
White
Black
Pantone 655C
Metallics (foil and ink)
Our logo can be used in a limited number of colour ways. Our primary logo colour ways are Pantone 655C and Black. Our logo may also be in a white out version and can be reversed out of any of our brand colours. When appropriate it may also be used in any of the colours from our metallic palette.
David Gilbert, Alice O’Rourke & all the staff at Artcore Derby
Our brand identity
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ARTHUR WRIGHT
PHUSIS
ARTHUR WRIGHT MA FINE ART PHUSIS
01
My creative process is often triggered by a word, such as Phusis coming from the Greek for Nature / the nature of / force of nature. I try to unpack the word through images and forms; I then iterate and edit these, following clues, in the hope of unconcealing some kind of truth which lies beneath image, word, form. This current work stems from an interest in Speculative Futurist narratives and prescient themes in culture such as posthumanism, transhumanism and cyberspace as an atemporal realm where past, present and future merge. I am fascinated by future mythologies and frequently surprised by the imagery thrown up in the visual ideation stages, at the start of my process – right now, not so surprisingly, it’s images of plague and social turmoil. Another theme which runs through the work is humanity’s relationship with technology, which is poised at a delicate balance between what is liberating, and what has the potential to damage and enslave.
www.artwright.myportfolio.com @art.wright.artist
AVALON OAKES MA FINE ART MICRO-SCAPES Stemming from a long-term fascination with the microscopic world, my current body of work explores the idea of an alternate utopian universe where the unseen element of the landscape has begun to take over the seen element of the landscape. The microscopic world is a place that contains never-ending phenomena and is only able to be explored using scientific technology. Inspired by the notion of the uncanny, in my new work I have created images that represent mother nature or the unseen forces of nature, over taking and reclaiming back the urban landscape that has been altered and destroyed by humanity.
www.instagram.com/avalonEArt @avaloneart
@art.wright.artist
AVALON OAKES
MICRO-SCAPES
DEBORAH ROGERS
STILL BECOMING
DEBORAH ROGERS MA FINE ART STILL BECOMING I am an artist that uses a range of different materials and characters. I have worked under my performance name of MsDMeanar, and in this character, I play around with performative acts, looking for ways to transform myself. I use materials that themselves transform and whose states are altered in a form of alchemy. Debbie Doodar is the name I use when fabricating items and ideas for MsDMeanar to play with. I focus on gender and identity in my work, I’m interested from a feminist perspective around how women are seen in society as they age and change.
msdmeanar.artist@gmail.com msdmeanar.wordpress.com @MsDMeanar
ELLIOT ARROWSMITH MA FILM & PHOTOGRAPHY ANCORA Anchor, something that holds someone or something steady. Still, Again, Yet, More. Ancora is an exploration of living with multiple physical and mental health conditions, from the mundane to the surreal. The fluctuations, deterioration and remission of bipolar and chronic pain are shown here through use or absence of colour, the gaze of the artist and those around and medical artefacts. Photography as a visual medium is a gateway into a complex reality, with the authority of the artist dictating what is to be seen, what is to be assumed and what is to be obscured.
info@elliotarrowsmith.com www.elliotarrowsmith.com
@art.wright.artist
@e.arrowphoto
ELLIOT ARROWSMITH
ANCORA
HAZEL HUTCHISON
ROUTE
HAZEL HUTCHISON
MA FILM & PHOTOGRAPHY ROUTE I have been exploring a personal examination of bodily and mental fragility. My own experience of emergency surgery in 2019, bears similarities with our collective experience of lockdown in 2020. Route illustrates another step towards a personal recovery. I wanted to demonstrate a motivation to be out more in nature while inside during lockdown, and to reflect the connection between myself and the adaptations found there. Conceptually, I decided to explore how external factors affect appearance and draw comparisons with my own body post-surgery; observing the idea that humans and nature both go through challenges.
hazelelizabethcreative@gmail.com www.hazelhutchison.com @imagesbyhaze_
JAGODA WLEŹLAK
MA FILM & PHOTOGRAPHY MARRIAGE LIFE On August 10, 2019, after my previous project ‘Bride Story’, I started my next photography project, which we can simply call “Marriage Life”. Presented in the pictures from the perspective of women, who enters the next stage of life, which is being a wife, and for everyone, it means something completely different. I created a book, included photographs taken from 10.08.19 to 10.08.20 using a disposable camera. I photographed my life. My husband, my fears, my happy and bad moments of everyday life. Many of those pictures have symbolic meaning and can be interpreted in many ways, exactly the same as all marriages are different and everyone looks into it in an individual way.
www.jagodawlezlak.wixsite.com/pandart
@art.wright.artist
@jpandart
JAGODA WLEŹLAK
MARRIAGE LIFE
MEGAN DOYLE
ERRATIC INSTANCES
MEGAN DOYLE MA FINE ART
ERRATIC INSTANCES I am a visual artist who uses sculpture, installation and drawing. My work is primarily concerned with the fragility of materials and how they can be manipulated. The ideas behind Erratic Instances steam from an interest in interstitial space, that is the space between structures & objects. I became particularly interested in the invisible spaces of everyday objects such as the insides of cardboard boxes, tubes and empty cartons. I used liquid materials such as plaster, wax and resin. These materials exist in two different states, both liquid and solid. Once set they represent a concreate cast of a once overlooked invisible space.The objects that compromise the installation investigate surface texture, sculptural form and their opaque and translucent qualities. The making of the work is an important element within my practice as it allows me to keep the work interesting and moving forward.
www.meganldoyle93.wixsite.com/megandoyleart @megan_doyle_art @MeganDoyleArt2
MARY WOJCICKI (WOJI) MA FINE ART METAL BONES Mary Wojcicki and Jon Pask are sound artists who have been collaborating on various aural works under the name Woji & Noisulate. My practice draws from the surrounding environment harvesting raw data and sound from nature. Listening closely in different environments, I retrieve found sounds. I use various recordings, video footage and software, playfully accentuating aspects of the original whilst facilitating a transformation. I amplify sounds that would otherwise be overlooked in order to destabilize the hierarchy of sound itself. I am interested in sounds which shape our social auditory landscape and inform our wider shared consciousness. I am currently working with recorded tracks and video, both generated and found, to explore the acousmatic nature of sound and how it alters according to context, architecture, and when interacted with by people. I use hybrid technologies to develop and create new aural combinations. There is an emphasis on empathy in my work that seeks to explore people, historical events and natural phenomena.
www.avboom.com
@art.wright.artist
@avboomwoji
MARY WOJCICKI
METAL BONES
JON PASK
DIGITAL PAINTING
JON PASK (NOISULATE) MA FINE ART DIGITAL PAINTING Mary Wojcicki and Jon Pask are sound artists who have been collaborating on various aural works under the name Woji & Noisulate. As a sound artist I am interested in the intricacies and nuances of sound as a medium. My practice involves creating aural experiences which draw an audience’s attention to sounds and sonic events which usually go unnoticed. Working with a range of electronic equipment I am able to create a variety of what I call physical and non physical sound sculptures. The physical sculptures use materials in a traditional sense, whilst generating sound, where as the non-physical sculptures act as sound compositions and have no material substance. These sculptures interact acoustically with the space they are situated in, and draw emphasis to the acoustic and historic aspects of their locations.
www.avboom.com @noisulate
01
ARTHUR WRIGHT
02
PHUSIS
05
HAZEL HUTCHISON
03
MICRO-SCAPES
AVALON OAKES
DEBORAH ROGERS
04
STILL BECOMING
07
MARRIAGE LIFE
ANCORA
08
ELLIOT ARROWSMITH
MARY WOJCICKI (WOJI)
MEGAN DOYLE
METAL BONES
09 ROUTE
06
JAGODA WLEŹLAK
JON PASK (NOISULATE)
ERRATIC INSTANCES
DIGITAL PAINTING