Abi Ross
006
Carys Fieldson
030
Emma King
054
Abigail Harris
008
Catherine Lucy Mahon
032
Francesca Young
056
AimĂŠe Michelle Luesby
010
Chandvi Shah
034
Georgina Lowbridge
058
Aisling McGarvey
012
ChloĂŠ Allen
036
Hannah Bollard
060
Alexander T Roberts
014
Christina Catton
038
Hannah Bradshaw
062
Alexander Wallis
016
Dawn Woods
040
Hannah Wooddisse
064
Amanda Bywater
018
Declan Corcoran
042
Helen Cox
066
April Pass
020
Eleanor Ashton
044
Helena Rosa Dodwell
068
Becci Deakin
022
Ella Hempsted
046
Holly Bottomley
070
Bethan Jones
024
Ellis Wills-Wilson
048
James Poyser
072
Bethany Mellor
026
Emma Andrews
050
Jelle Zwemstra
074
Carolyn Brown
028
Emma Bourne
052
Kate Frith
076
CONTENTS Katherine Loudoun
078
Mike Jones
102
Sarah Mulryan
126
Laura Atkinson
080
Miriam Leach
104
Sarah Wilson
128
Laura Biggadike
082
Natalie Crofts
106
SoMin Kim
130
Leah Downing
084
Natasha Masztalerz
108
Sophie Lyons
132
Lesley Wallace
086
Oli Manning
110
Sophie Spreadbury
134
Lucy Whitehouse
088
Oliver Quinn
112
Vanessa Lewis Jones
136
MarĂa AndrĂŠs
090
Rachel Dales
114
Victoria Rachel Margeson
138
Mark Cleary
092
Raslyn Benn
116
Matthew James Anthony
094
Rebecca McMillan
118
Matthew Rainsden
096
Roisin McGowan-Green
120
Megan Davis
098
Samantha Rigler
122
Michelle Onwurah
100
Sarah Hodgkiss
124
Class of 2014
Abi Ross
There is little reason in every day life to stop and consider carefully the range of sensations we are exposed to by our surroundings. A work of art gives us a reason to focus with unaccustomed intensity on our surroundings and their communicative powers. Abi Ross wishes to approach art not as an object but as an experience. With a starting point of emotional wellbeing and happiness, she uses art as an agent for creating a positive experience. Her practice has culminated in the creation of an environment in which individuals can rest and rejuvenate in peace, as an antidote to the stress of our increasingly hectic and depressive society. Informed by an interest in the architecture of spaces and the way in which we encounter our surroundings, she hopes to create a place for quite contemplation—a sanctuary in which it is possible for anyone to feel a mindful sense of peace with the present.
abiross14@gmail.com linkedin.com/pub/abi-ross/29/444/226 abiross.tumblr.com 6
‘Mindfulness’ (2014) Text
Abigail Harris
Abigail Harris’ work explores the digital transformation of abstract imagery. Utilising intricate, fluidic forms, this work investigates the hidden qualities of water.
abbi_harris@hotmail.com abigailharris.wix.com/fineart
8
‘Morphology’ (2014) Digital Photograph
Aimée Michelle Luesby
Aimée Michelle Luesby’s location-inspired digital collage layers fragmented imagery to reflect a visual interpretation of place. Influenced by her own knowledge and personal experience in the areas of Great Yarmouth and Norwich, she reconstructs a panoramic landscape that addresses the nature of the two different locations found in Norfolk. She works with found imagery as well as many of her own photographs, and combines analogue methods of collage with digital manipulation.
aimee.michelle@hotmail.co.uk
10
‘Places in Norfolk’ (2014) Work-in-progress, Digital Collage
Aisling McGarvey
The subject of Aisling’s practice is the representation of the Bog landscape in the North West of Ireland. Through the process of painting the relationship between representational and abstraction becomes an important element to the work. Painting enables the artist to personally interpret the landscape, with the ability to control abstract language.
mcgarveyaisling@gmail.com
12
1. ‘Untitled’ (2014) Oil on Canvas - 2. ‘Untitled’ (2014) Oil on Canvas
Alexander T Roberts
Emmanuel Kant first posited the notion of the Aesthetic Sublime In his ‘Critique of Judgement’ (1790) Entailing the Sublime as being naturally beautiful and complex in it’s aesthetic, yet devoid of artistic intent; there is no author of production. Using Suminagashi: An ancient Japanese paper marbling Art, it’s complex patterns formed by free flowing water and ink, influence strong marbled features in handmade clay sculptures. Alex Roberts uses these intricate and elaborate features to capture the natural sublime. Using Sacred Geometry; a belief system that attempts to explain the central premises of many religions through geometric principles, to devise perfect natural forms.
Manifesting an aura of the Sublime within a perfect natural form Roberts’ work implores the subject to consider natures beauty; it’s complexity beyond full comprehension underlines the importance of natural resource and their finite quantities. Veneering his sculptures, Roberts uses the reflectivity given to their surfaces, to attribute a realistic appearance of polished marble, imploring viewers to consider it with an aura of commodified resource. Aimed to further provoke thoughts of mankind’s current socioeconomic structures that value and commodify resources based on perceived monetary value over useful application or depleting quantity; questioning sustainable existence as a species.
robertstalexander@gmail.com flickr.com/photos/aaa_roberts aaaroberts.tumblr.com 14
‘Block of Marble’ (2014) Handmade Clay Sculpture
Alexander Wallis
I see the work. I want to touch the work. The environment wont permit this. The environment submits to my desires. My actions generate experiences. My experiences form memories. The Proposer Building a space within a space, perceived through the body and senses before rationalised by the mind, controls the viewer through circulation. Circulation and navigation form dialogues throughout the viewers and generates communication and community. Hence turning sculptural phenomena into social space for which communication and contact between the public originates. Latex - Sand - Stitch Enhancing intimacy between the materials and the viewer. Materials unlock memories within the viewer, giving rise to experience. Corresponding with each other and the work, through interaction, as a whole, they become closer. Encounter - Move Through - Feel It - Inhabit It
awwallis@hotmail.co.uk www.awwallis.co.uk facebook.com/minusfiftysixcollective 16
‘Untitled’ (2013) Latex, Sand, Stitch, Palette
Amanda Bywater
Amanda Bywater constructs semi-fictitious scenes primarily through the medium of paint that create an atmosphere lacking human presence; one that evokes a sense of otherworldliness. The large scale work almost engulfs the viewer and allows them to be transported to these fabricated, yet seemingly authentic places. The magnitude and dark tonal qualities of the work are utilised cohesively in order to generate an aura of eeriness and solitude in an almost inhuman environment. These inhuman environments induce emotions of an awe-inspiring nature in face of obscure and immense vistas. In this sense, her work can be seen to encapsulate an atmosphere that is resonant of Romantic Landscape Painting and that which employs notions of The Sublime.
amanda.j.bywater@gmail.com
18
‘Moonlit Mountains’ (2014) Oil on Canvas
April Pass
Look beyond what you see. Encouraging people to question the way they envisage the contemporary world highlights the consequential idea of how or if this is possible. April Pass aims to create sculptures that are seen less as an object and more as an experience for the self. The sculptures consider materiality in terms of the surface’s reflectivity forming a relationship spatially. Her practice is a post-modernist reflection of Minimalist, geometric formalities and its integral reliance on audience participation visually and physically. This generates, through social experimentation, a new thought process and relationship with a given space by playing with an individual’s perceptual understanding. Through manipulation of society’s present knowledge of geometry and dimensionality, she uses changes in perceptions to enhance reality. The intention is to encourage the role of the viewer as a participant to potentially formulate a utopian effect through a form that deceives visual expectation.
aprilpass@hotmail.co.uk aprilpass.wix.com/artist ajpass.tumblr.com 20
‘Tri-Lens’ (2014) Perspex
Becci Deakin
Exploring the issues and ambiguities that form the lived experiences of the ‘fat’ female body in Western society, Becci Deakin’s work creates visual and physical representations of the body’s identity within this matter. Utilising media such as video, photography and sculpture, Deakin engages concerns of body consciousness and the perpetual battle to attain the ‘feminine ideal’. Body image is a prevalent issue in nearly all members of society. Through her work, Deakin tries to make this connection by creating a physical representation of these issues for each visitor can relate to. Each piece is relevant to the emotional and physical transitions that the body experiences, using materials such as sugar and lard, which are central to weight issues. The objective is to evoke visceral responses within the audience and to challenge the way that they regard body issues.
beccideakin@gmail.com
22
‘Unbearable Weight’ (2014) Sugar
Bethan Jones
Bethan Jones’s paintings celebrate the vibrancy, energy and mirage of colour within the setting of a contemporary carnival. The paintings suggest a sense of movement between the figure and the ground, battling between abstraction and representation. They also reference the imaginative style of popular imagery throughout western art history.
bethan91@sky.com bethanjones91.tumblr.com
24
‘Carnival’ (2014) Oil on Canvas
Bethany Mellor
Displacement is defined as ‘the action of moving something from it’s place or position.’ Liminality is the state of feeling as though you are in between and not fully integrated within the world. These terms are key themes within Bethany Mellor’s work. Bethany’s films are an emotional and intensive response to the displacement and liminality she has experienced throughout her childhood. Bethany and her family moved out to Nigeria at the mere age of 7 and returned to England three years later. She therefore experienced displacement first-hand and the idea of home became a foreign concept. Bethany has since been diagnosed with depression and anxiety. This mental illness cripples her capacity to integrate fully in society. This illness therefore further accentuates her displacement as she continuously questions her place within society and the culture that surrounds her. Her films are autobiographical and aim at depicting a representation of the self allowing the viewer to grasp a glimpse of what life is like for her on a day to day basis. She hopes to create an experience of unease and discomfort within the viewer, stirring up an emotional response to her reflection of memory and identity.
bethanymellor@hotmail.co.uk beerachelmellor.wordpress.com
26
‘Displaced’ (2014) Film Still
Carolyn Brown
Carolyn creates the subjects of her still life photography through the arrangement of juxtaposing objects. The objects metaphorically represent sex and love as victims of capitalism; the contradictions inherent in her images challenge the audience to question how these are used as tools in visual advertising. Elements of kitsch and editorial aesthetics reflect the visually seductive methods used to push consumerism.
There is a contrasting brutality and fragility within the work which highlights the two sides of love: romance and heartbreak. The fragility represents the more romantic side, as often portrayed in popular novels, art and music. In contrast, the brutality represents a coarser reality in place of the stylised ideal; heartbreak, and the difficulties of relationships.
carolynbrownart@hotmail.com carolynbrownart.wix.com/glitterbox glitterboxcb.tumblr.com 28
‘Can’t You See, You’re My Daylight’ (2014) Photograph
Carys Fieldson
Through her interdisciplinary practice, Carys Fieldson attempts to straddle and traverse the gulf between her agricultural heritage and position as a female artist. Through physical engagement with simple and found materials relating to land and site, the artist attempts to explore her conflicted associations to rurality, farm and environment, challenging personal relationships with agricultural practices that, as a woman, she feels estranged from.
carys_fieldson@hotmail.co.uk www.carysfieldson.co.uk piypoy.tumblr.com 30
‘Untitled (clay body)’ (2014) Photograph
Catherine Lucy Mahon
The fundamental role of this work is to highlight the cultural significance of the selfie as a means of self-exploration and mode of self-representation, but also to emphasize some of the genres flaws in disrupting preconceived social, philosophical and ideological structures pertaining to beauty and femininity. In contemporary visual culture, we are inundated with images of celebrities, supermodels and pin-ups that clearly influence and distort the ways in which we view ourselves through copycat selfies. The focus here is to appropriate and re-contextualise the over-sexualised and excessively feminized style of selfie commonly taken by young women in exploring the identity, highlighting the brash, gaudy and almost carnavalesque aspects of performing the self.
catherinelucymahon@gmail.com catherinelucymahon.tumblr.com
32
‘Mirror Mirror’ (2014) Smartphone Digital Image
Chandvi Shah
Many parallels can be drawn between an individual’s own memory and reflections within a painting. Memories can be chaotic just like the restless oceans, but they can also be full of clarity and resonate a perfect peace like a body of still water. Water will never cease to reflect the beauty of the blue skies directly above; what we know nothing of are the battles that rage below the water’s supposedly calm surface. Reflections can be deceiving just as one’s own memory.
chandvishah@gmail.com www.chandvishah.com
34
‘Untitled’ (2013) Acrylic on Canvas
Chloé Allen
Chloé Allen’s series, Just South of Heaven, attempts to extract the beauty and ephemeral qualities of the sublime through a series of mixed media pieces focused on volcanic activity. Combining aesthetic qualities of traditional religious artwork from across the world, she works with a modern range of materials to carefully create abstractions of volcanic eruptions. Laced with gold leaf details and geometric patterns from Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu art, her choice of colours link the power and richness of the sublime to such religious connotations.
chloe.allen@hotmail.com www.chloeallen.co.uk
36
‘Untitled’ (2014) Ink and Graphite
Christina Catton
Christina’s work is strongly influenced by the phrase ‘waste not want not’, which has been presented through the ideals of recycling. Through her practice she informs the audience and narrates to them through visual imagery the main factors that go into recycling. She highlights what we can and can’t recycle and through the use of newspaper articles and government statements adds to the discourse surrounding recycling presenting juxtaposing responses to one topic. Christina’s work explores whether or not we as the general public are being lied to by the world in which we live.
c.cat-art@hotmail.co.uk christinacatton.wix.com/ccat
38
‘Untitled’ (2014) Illustration
Dawn Woods
Mrs Fox: We are all different. But especially him [indicating Mr Fox]. But there’s something fantastic about that, isn’t there?’ - Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox
dawnewoods@hotmail.com dawnewoods.tumblr.com
40
‘Alex’ (2014) Digital Photograph
Declan Corcoran
Declan Corcoran is a landscape painter interested in the ephemerality of the storm. His work investigates cloud cover and the effect that its conflicting translucent and opaque properties has on light and colour. He creates intrigue by capturing the domineering, powerful presence of storm clouds in combination with their perceived weightlessness and fragility. The works attempt to decipher this juxtaposition, creating a transient moment in which light and air combine to create an ethereal landscape of dramatic colour.
declan_2701@hotmail.com declan2701.wix.com/DcArt
42
‘The Burn’ (2014) Oil Paint on Canvas
Eleanor Ashton
‘For the listener, who listens in the snow, And, nothing himself, beholds Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.’ - Wallace Stevens
Through her work Eleanor Ashton looks to capture traces of ephemeral phenomena that would otherwise escape documentation. At once thoughtful and playful, her practice seeks to resolve and heighten an awareness of everyday transience. Manipulating impermanence, she choreographs ephemeral moments in the hope that she can encapsulate and preserve traces of their existence.
eleanor_ashton@live.co.uk www.eleanorashton.co.uk
44
‘Untitled’ (2014) Video
Ella Hempsted
The sea rolls against the sandy beach; the waves subtly corrugate the sand. The painted wall cracks; the surface becomes a web of fine lines. The car moves in the snow; the tires leave deep tracks. Rope falls; it lies in smooth curves on the ground. The form of an object is a ‘diagram of forces,’ in the sense, at least, that from it we can judge [of] or deduce the forces that are acting or have acted upon it. Làszló Moholy-Nagy, 1947.
ellahempsted10@hotmail.co.uk ellahempsted-fineart.tumblr.com
46
‘Faktura’ (2014) Plaster, String and Resin
Ellis Wills-Wilson
An old, disused object sits and rests after decades of work. Hidden away, it keeps the secrets of its owner. Unearthed and unable to speak, the personal history remains locked inside. We search, explore, dig for clues of the past lives and the identities of our ancestors. The object as representation. The object as tool. We are all descendants of the object.
ellis_ww@hotmail.co.uk ellisww.tumblr.com
48
‘Displacement’ (2014) Plaster
Emma Andrews
Society is often unknowingly immersed into a world engulfed by advertising; the consumer is persuaded by qualities beyond the commodity. These are devices such as language, surface and environment which construct a presumed status consequential to the consumer purchase. Emma Andrews is concerned with exposing the core reasoning for consumption which she believes manipulates the perception of self-identity. She uses this as a platform to accentuate the opportunity for personal change; her objects resonate with this notion of immateriality. By playing with the concept of tangibility her practice contrasts the physicality of the literal object with transient emotions. Through chosen materials, the surface characteristics of high quality consumer objects and retail environments are presented. These mediums also create an almost unperceivable aesthetic, which emulates the concepts of subliminal language. She uses typography and other media to capture the presence of absence in the consumer experience. The work connects language that constructs desire to the symbolic object through the visual.
emma1.andrews@btinternet.com ecartsketchbook.tumblr.com 50
‘This will -- you #1’ (2014) Resin and Acetate ‘This will -- you #2’ (2014) Resin and Acetate
Emma Bourne
Photography through its operative nature freezes bodies in time, producing an object to be held; this along with the ‘male gaze’ inflicted upon women’s bodies in daily life serves to make photography ‘doubly ‘objectifying’’ for women (Wells 2009: 178). Through using her body as a moving subject, Bourne defies these processes of objectification. In a digital age, analogue photography, like the bodies of women has been situated in the category of ‘other’. Working in the darkroom Bourne’s use of specific exposure times, allows her to create intimate, detailed and delicate prints. The ambiguous presentation of Bourne’s body creates a shift away from what her body is doing to its corporeal agency; what the body has done and the traces it has left behind. Throughout her practice Bourne subtly emphasises the traces her body has made within the space; the intimacy of the works captivates the viewer’s attention.
emma.bourne@hotmail.co.uk emmabourne.wix.com/emmabourne
52
From the Series ‘Tracing Corporeality’ (2014) Silver Gelatin Print
Emma King
Emma King’s main inspiration is childhood memories. The autobiographical nature of her work explores themes of personal experience, profound emotions, and contentment. Her work revisits past events in her life dealing with personal and public consequences of exposure and uses her personal memory to generate artworks; many of which investigate family drama and the obstacles children can face growing up. The exhibition displays a series of drawings created using different drawings medium from pencil to charcoal. King shares her narratives with the viewer to enable the viewer to reconnect with their own childhood memories and wants to indicate that our childhood memories although individual will be similar in some way and the importance to acceptance is to share such narratives.
essexbird03@hotmail.com
54
‘Self-Portrait’ (2014) Pencil on Paper
Francesca Young
‘Part of the business of art, as Santayana says of music, is to remind us. If a picture doesn’t remind me of something in my life that I’ve forgotten, I am not involved.’ (McCord 1970: 17) An enigmatic narrative provoking a sense of nostalgia through paint is something I strive to create. Using the British Seaside Resort as my subject I am fascinated by its endurance of time; it embodies history and modernity, speaking of memories of a bygone era that now hold a wistful isolation. With a focus on colour I aim to create atmospheric and melancholic paintings which capture a surreal sense of tranquillity; a seemingly inconsequential moment that becomes highly charged.
fran_young@live.co.uk francescayoungpainting.wordpress.com
56
‘Wonderland’ (2013) Oil on Canvas
Georgina Lowbridge
Georgina Lowbridge is a figurative painter who uses a traditional medium to depict modern life. Reminiscent of Édouard Vuillard’s painting, her work often captures life within domestic interiors which the viewer can associate with. Her paintings derive from photographs and film stills to capture split second moments that observational studies could not capture. Taking inspiration from Edward Manet, recent works explore social interaction between groups participating in leisure activities. Painting the life of her family and friends, her work can also be associated with the 1990’s trend discussed by Hals Foster of ‘artist as ethnographer’. Focusing upon social interaction, recent work has explored the contemporary gaming culture, whereas her current work explores young adults playing board games. This progression derived from a rise in the board game market and is a response to the news media’s negative portrayal of young adults’ social lives revolving around drinking and video games. Georgina Lowbridge’s large scale paintings have an individual style, using an imaginative and muddy colour palette to reflect the mundaneness of modern life.
georgina.lowbridge@googlemail.com www.georginalowbridge.com
58
‘It All Starts at the Arcade’ (2013) Oil on Canvas
Hannah Bollard
The manipulation of everyday and unnoticed materials is the main focus in this body of work. An alternative viewing experience is created as the unique properties of often mundane materials are questioned and challenged, enabling new lives to be produced whilst discovering unique sculptural forms. This allows a new focus on these usually unconsidered aspects and instead draws our attention to the overlooked, the everyday and the unspectacular, blurring the boundaries between art and daily life.
hannah_jb@msn.com hannahjb.wix.com/hannah-b
60
‘Untitled’ (2014) Black Hot Glue
Hannah Bradshaw
Hannah Bradshaw is an animator and filmmaker whose work focuses on the concepts of hybridity, otherness and identity. Bradshaw uses her own mixed-race heritage as a starting point for creating videos that highlight the similarities between different cultures instead of the differences. The artist uses animation as a fine-art medium, choosing to use stop motion to create videos that visually compliment the themes of her work. The style of the work is flowing and uses smooth transitions with narration and music to compliment the storytelling.
hannah.bradshaw42@yahoo.com hannahsartblog.tumblr.com
62
‘Little England’ (2014) Film Still
Hannah Wooddisse
Physical Culture – The Modern Day Strongman Hannah Wooddisse investigates forms of masculinity and physical culture, focused through contemporary Strongmen. Through lone exploration, she immerses herself into highly masculine spaces. Using photography and film, she interprets the experience of shadowing the lives of bodybuilders, sportsmen and crossfitters into her own imagery. The mechanisation of contemporary industry has resulted in the Strongman’s body being rendered obsolete, no longer the driving force of manual labour. The muscular structure developed through extreme training methods, places the body under tension, forcing a balance between functional and aesthetic; the male body is transformed into a spectacle. Modern day Strongmen operate through ritualistic processes – self-flagellation, ceremony and sacrifice, which reveals a spiritual connection between the body and the physical labour it is placed under. The spaces and equipment used, often promotes fetishistic connotations, which are enhanced in the presence of the male athletes brute strength and self-discipline. The visual mediums produced reinforces the Strongman’s embodiment of a complex figuration of masculinity, for he both affirms the phallic image of totality and works against it.
hannah.wooddisse@hotmail.com hannahwooddisse.wix.com/wooddisse
64
‘Ascension’ (2014) Digital Photograph
Helen Cox
“Light… as it overpowers the sense, is a very great idea” (Edmund Burke, 1909). The work presented investigates light’s interaction and manipulation of space via the creation of immersive environments. Influenced by shape, form and architectural design, the artwork combines these aspects with the varying and powerful qualities of light to create sculptural installations that explore our relationship with light and space.
helencox92@googlemail.com www.helencox-art.co.uk
66
‘Untitled’ (2013) Black Mount Board and LED Light
Helena Rosa Dodwell
Fairy tales not only have this magical, glittery sparkle, but also a dark, horrific side that stages our deepest anxieties and fears. - Maria Tartar, 2007 Helena’s work is concerned with the manipulation and development of traditional folklore into the classic fairy tale. She explores the relationships portrayed by the characters of these renowned stories and highlights the underlying cynicism and darkness. By extracting the latent content from popular children’s literature she constructs visual representations of the rooted evil themes in her photomontages, collages, drawings and prints. Influenced by Goya’s depictions of ‘The Disasters of War’ and fascinated by the intersection of beauty and horror within the fairy tales of The Brother’s Grimm, she creates etchings; revealing the masked sexual content of the stories, combined with their theatrical violence.
helenarosa@live.co.uk helenarosa.daportfolio.com
68
‘Mother’s Grimm’ (2014) Etching
Holly Bottomley
Holly Bottomley creates work that is inspired, and also created by water. Having grown up on the coast, the sea is a huge source of inspiration to her work, which ranges from sculpture and installation, to painting and photography. She is interested in the idea of using the effect of Trompe l’oeil within her paintings and sculpture, to try and create the illusion of water through use of other materials. For her final exhibition she has studied the links between multisensory perception and memory, in order to create a multisensory installation that successfully evokes memories within the viewer and in turn, causes an emotional reaction to the work.
hollybottomley37@gmail.com facebook.com/HollyBottomleyArt
70
‘Rolling Waves’ (2014) Wax and Oil Paint
James Poyser
Time to reinvent the wheel again; I’ve never understood progress. Running out of cool stuff to wear…. (
) Wasn’t looking.
When I turn, I expect a turn back. I find solace in wanting too much. To those now ore waste drips; slide down and begin again to mend.
The record skips. J.P/14
freshprinceoflesta@live.co.uk poyser.tumblr.com - vimeo.com/poyser facebook.com/minusfiftysixcollective 72
Redheads HD
Jelle Zwemstra
A sculptural investigation inspired by the historical use and representation of monoliths, megaliths and menhirs. The use of elemental materials both commands attention and detaches the sculptural bodies from their gallery surroundings, suggesting both a sense of permanence and sublimity.
jzwemstra@gmail.com www.jellezwemstra.co.uk jellezwemstra.wordpress.com 74
‘Column 1’ (2014) Straw, Clay, Mud, Sand and Wood
Kate Frith
“To be formed around a central core and have a secret place which can be entered and which is also a passageway from which life emerges? What kind of imagery does this state of feeling engender?” (Chicago and Schapiro. 2002. p40) Kate Frith’s practice focuses on making vaginas less of a taboo subject whilst celebrating the beauty of female genitalia and women. The beauty of vaginas is especially reflected when combined with one of nature’s other beautiful creations; flowers. By making the rose background less detailed and simplistic, with gestures to represent folds she is able to amplify the connection of flowers being a sexual organ. She strives to create a taste of luxury in her work to create a connection between vaginas and royalty. Printing and sewing is like the vagina: it takes time to develop and requires craftsmanship. The process of printmaking was essential to the process; like vaginas each print is unique. Frith uses materials that reflect both flexibility and vulnerability to create and represent women’s genitalia.
etakfrith@outlook.com exploringyourvagina.tumblr.com facebook.com/exploreyourbody 76
‘My Royal Cunt’ (2013-14) Print
Katherine Loudoun
Landscape painting places nature centre stage and is both aesthetically pleasing and allows the individual time for contemplation. Historically, idealised landscapes provided a release for human emotion and feelings of perfection allowing viewers to have a portal into another world, which may have been beyond their class, geographical location or imagination. The technological changes after the industrial revolution, in transport, photography and video made everything more accessible and enabled lenses to capture the ‘exact copy’ of a landscape. The photographer and artist capture it in different representations. This series of work develops new landscapes with a tangible reality using appropriated imagery and locations to create landscapes built from memories and experience. The viewer is encouraged to be curious about the images, some of which may seem incomplete and are composed of fragments. Aided by the use of mixed media the work allows for a questionable sense of composition, layering, orientation and in some cases dimensions with a key interest into the process behind the works.
k.loudoun@btopenworld.com kloudart.wix.com/art-and-photography
78
‘Seascape’ (2014) Oil, Resin and Mixed Media on Canvas
Laura Atkinson
“Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That signifies nothing. For those of us who believe in physics, the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.’ Albert Einstein, Letter of 21 March 1955
Notions of time, both scientific and subjective, persist throughout Laura’s practice. Comprising of different trajectories, each in turn attempts to visualise our understanding and relationship to time.
atkinson.laura@live.co.uk atkinsonlaura.wix.com/fineartist
80
‘Avalanche Fault’ (2013) Oil and Resin on Plaster Board
Laura Biggadike
‘We see as we are told’ (Schaffner, 2006; 161)
laurab.123@hotmail.co.uk
82
‘Untitled’ (2014) Text
Leah Downing
Our perception of the reality of space and the cosmos is false. The widely publicized contemporary astronomical image, inaugurated by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), balances science, technology, and aesthetics, relying heavily upon intervention and bias. From space to image, the process involves stylistic choices, relying on ‘mechanical objectivity’, false colour application to highlight the invisible, cropping, rotating, and selective focussing to enhance the aesthetics (Kessler, 2012: 128). The foundation of Leah Downing’s work is the alliance of science and art; the exploration of aesthetic properties found within science, particularly focusing upon the sky and chemical reactions. She amalgamates them to produce false landscapes through photography; inspired by the Hubble image, aerial landscape and science fiction, as displayed through film. Heightened by imaging techniques used by Hubble and narrowed down by their aesthetic appeal, they allowed a false representation of journeys into strange environments; as the HST provides a frontier into the unknown. Kemp (2000:139), dubbing Hubble images ‘beautiful [...] galactic landscape paintings’ allowed the transfer to painting, and digital painting based subject matter. The process involved documenting the photographs onto a larger scale, whilst romanticising the subject matter, embodying the wispiness of clouds, acting as colourful cosmic cloudscapes.
downing.leah@yahoo.co.uk www.leahdowningart.com
84
‘Nebulous Thought’ (2014) Digital Painting
Lesley Wallace
Lesley Wallace’s practice looks at the presence of humankind within the landscape of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The work reflects 19th century ideas of how the nation was characterised by, ‘place, work and volk,’ and symbolically bonded to its rural landscape. The personal paintings represent the strong emotional connection that Wallace has with the landscape where she grew up, and that ‘through living in it, the landscape becomes part of us, as we are part of it.’ ‘The landscape is never inert; people engage with it and contest it. In this way identities are created and disputed’. Wallace’s work relates to the conflict in Northern Ireland, depicting the cottages that were commonly used by paramilitary groups to hide weapons. These buildings recede into the background allowing the viewer to explore the murky depths and truths of the landscape. The blood soaked land is represented through the raw sienna ground which helps to unveil the desperation and danger of the nation. The symbolism lends to the viewer a more in depth understanding of the landscapes, their locality and conflict. Wallace references the struggle in the land and despite the beauty and progress how traces of the past are still present.
lesley_wallace91@hotmail.com lesleywallace.tumblr.com
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‘Cottage on Slieve Kirk Mountain’ (2013) Oil Paint on Canvas
Lucy Whitehouse
Lucy Whitehouse’s art practice involves her capturing and exploring particular areas of various floras. However she is not interested in capturing an exact likeness of a particular flower, but more focusing on its essence. Rich colour and energy is what inspires her the most. Rather than re creating a flower, as it exists, she focuses on her paintings in an attempt to create colourful and textual pieces of work. The subject of her paintings has been reduced to its simplest shape and form, which are constructed of various brush and palette knife marks. Lucy’s paintings aim to create a vague, undefined quality of her subject matter, allowing scope for interpretation. Therefore the meaning behind each piece of work is left to emerge from the visual rather than the literary qualities.
lucywhitehouse05@hotmail.com
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‘Untitled’ (2014) Oil on Canvas
María Andrés
M. T. Andrés: Three artists with the same aim: to explore liminality; also called the state in-between, neither having completely left one state, nor arrived in the next, a time of transformation or the time between dream and wakefulness. Liminality is characterised by a state of confusion, ambiguity and disorientation where old rules are no longer valid but emerging new rules have not yet become binding. This also implies that the liminal state is one of freedom, inspiration and possibilities. O poeta é um fingidor. Finge tão completamente Que chega a fingir que é dor A dor que deveras sente.
The poet is a faker. Who’s so good at his act He even fakes the pain Of pain he feels in fact.
E os que lêem o que escreve, Na dor lida sentem bem, Não as duas que ele teve, Mas só a que eles não têm.
And those who read his words, Will feel in his writing, Neither of the pains he has, But just the one they’re missing.
E assim nas calhas da roda Gira, a entreter a razão, Esse comboio de corda Que se chama coração.
And so around its track This thing called the heart winds, A little clockwork train To entertain our minds.
Fernando Pessoa (1930), Autopsychography (translation: Richard Zenith)
mayte_an@yahoo.es mt-andres.wix.com/mt-andres
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1. Ewan Thoth ‘Untitled’, Digital Photography 2. Andre af Maria. Liminal Train, Video Still
3. Alberta Pessao, Detail of ‘Bichos’, Oil, Turpentine and Oil Paint
Mark Cleary
Mark Cleary’s artistic practice is an experimental exploration of the hidden essences of the digital language and computational processes that sit at the core of modern forms of mass media communication and social interaction. He is heavily influenced by the image-saturated and information-rich digital culture that has come to define the very nature of human interaction in the 21st century. By manipulating digital material he is attempting to elucidate the nature of these seemingly imperceptible digital processes by exposing them on a ‘readable’, visual surface level. The binary code that is transmitted, received and interpreted by computers can be altered, interrupted and corrupted in many ways; the computer software still attempts to interpret it and the result of this exploitative intervention is the compression artefact; a visual marker of the corrupted code. There is a conceptual parallel with how we, as humans, perceive and interpret the images and words we are exposed to and there are hidden thought processes that are tied up in the anthropological; how we read an image based on our own cultural identity. News reportage, in particular, is an area where there is the scope for diverse opinion and much variation in interpretation. Mark’s work attempts to explore these notions through a process of digital destruction, attempting to expose something of these hidden mechanisms of miscommunication.
markclearyart@gmail.com www.art-mark.me
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‘Untitled #6’ (2014) Digital Video Still
Matthew James Anthony
Looking at tradition in relation to the community space, Matthew’s work investigates the way the past continues to inform the present. This connection is channelled through the incorporation of the architectural interior of the church. In using new and old materials together the work attempts to alter and elevate the status of contemporary disposable materials such as chipboard and in doing so reveals a way it can be appreciated on an aesthetic level. Drawing a parallel between it and marble - Matthew reassesses the value of non-traditional materials by using forms of treatment reserved for high value objects.
matthewjamesanthony@gmail.com anthonymatthewjames.tumblr.com
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‘Untitled’ (2014) Sterling Board and Gold Leaf
Matthew Rainsden
Through soaking the fabrics prior to the application of pigments, the fibres of the materials are not just ‘painted’ upon or its surface coated, but rather physically engrained within its structure. To ensure he remain true to my roots within nature, water and the landscape. Matthew’s palette abandons the acidic psychedelic theme traditional associated with tie-dye imagery, in favour of more earthed hues that are reminiscent of the land and the very starting points of the works. The process of creating almost parcel-like forms wrapped and tied up, creates a body of work that has a methodic, planned approach, yet still results in a chaotic style. Considerably similar to elements of the natural world!
matthewdcr@gmail.com
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‘Untitled’ (2014) Fabric dye, Glitter, Oil and Acrylic Paint on Canvas.
Megan Davis
Megan Davis is a mixed media artist combining her interest in everyday objects and materials with craft techniques such as embroidery and ceramics. Drawing from her experience of growing up in a large family, Megan developed an interest in family communication and family dynamics. The text in her work represents conversations, misunderstandings and arguments with light-hearted undertones reflecting family life. In these pieces, she utilises ‘dinner time’ as the main context for her work. Using a range of resources for the text that is heavily featured in her work, Megan creates art that stems from the personal, yet resonates with the universal appeal of the familiar.
megandavis1512@gmail.com megandavis1215.wordpress.com
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‘Dinner Time’ (2013) Handmade Plates and Embroidery Thread
Michelle Onwurah
Many people have the same or similar dream many times, over either a short period of time or their lifetime. Recurring nightmares usually mean there is something in your life you’ve not acknowledged that is causing stress of some sort. The nightmare repeats because you have not corrected the problem. Another theory is that people who experience recurring hallucinations have some sort of trauma in their past they are trying to deal with. In some cases, the hallucinations tend to lessen with time. Michelle Onwurah makes drawings and installations that tap the non-verbal psychological landscape of the human mind and space, which is possessed by her own recurring nightmares. Personal issues are central to Onwurah’s work. From observation, her work is a tedious and labour-intensive process. She uses black thread to occupy white space, creating a tension that can almost be felt by how the threads are stretched to create clusters of black mass. Onwurah’s main concept is the feeling of waking up from a nightmare into an absolute state of consciousness, and realizing you are still within that nightmare as if you haven’t woken. A Nightmare Within A Nightmare.
michelleirah@yahoo.com elleartbymichelle@yahoo.co.uk www.elleartbymichelle.com 100
1. ‘Playing with the mind’ (2014) Thread Drawing on Canvas - 2. ‘State of MY mind’ (2014) Cotton Thread and Nails
Mike Jones
Parody as vehicle; absurdity as commentary. Criteria confine and require, dictate and provide. Universal standards generate artistic bachelors (Hons).
mikejonesfineart@gmail.com www.mikejonesfineartist.co.uk
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1. ‘The deployment of materials, media, techniques, processes and technologies, with skill and imagination, whilst observing good working practices.’ (2014) Mixed Media 2. ’The integration and realisation of thinking and doing’ (2014) Found Object
Miriam Leach
My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.
mirileach@hotmail.co.uk www.miriamleach.co.uk
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‘I wither away like grass’ (2014) Whiteboard Drawing
Natalie Crofts
These sculptures explore the boundary between containing a material and allowing it to take on its own form through the manipulation and binding of solidifying substances such as plaster and concrete. Interests lie in the limits between the two, creating a balance that presents the sculptural form in neither one of these states.
natalie.crofts@hotmail.co.uk nataliecrofts.wix.com/artist nataliecrofts.tumblr.com 106
‘Untitled’ (2014) Plaster, Twine
Natasha Masztalerz
Natasha uses organically formed ceramic objects to construct installations which comment upon the fragility, understated beauty and cyclicality of nature and its processes.
tashmasztalerz@hotmail.co.uk
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‘Paperclay Stack’ (2014) Stoneware Paperclay
Oli Manning
Saturated in violence, popular media has altered the course of societal logic. Societal norms are consistently abused within virtual environments. Bloody murder is entertainment. Immoral and grotesque images, frequently visited, permeate conscious thought. Absurd and sinister, warped to suit, may these psychological entities stay hidden, and never realised.
olimanning@outlook.com olimanning.wix.com/artist
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‘Untitled’ (2014) Collage
Oliver Quinn
If space allows movement then place is a pause.
oliverquinn22@gmail.com www.oliverjquinn.com facebook.com/minusfiftysixcollective 112
‘To-And-Fro’ (2014) Virtual Environment
Rachel Dales
Rachel’s work brings attention to the processes and details found within natural materials which are often overlooked. The work lies between the mediums of painting and sculpture.
rachel.louise.dales@gmail.com racheldales.tumblr.com
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‘Untitled’ (2014) Clay, Cracked
Raslyn Benn
In modern culture, the use of pills has become a common solution for many health problems and issues from anaemia to rapid weight loss and even sleeping disorders such as snoring. Illegal or legal, the distinctive shape of pills is a form that is recognisable and designed for the most efficient way to fulfil their designated function. Raslyn Benn explores the formation of pills to create a series of organic structures constructed from different oversized pills. This piece is accompanied with miniature sculptures, designed on Autodesk Maya (a 3D modelling software) and brought to life using a 3D printer. This was done to explore the relationship between digital sculpting and traditional sculpting techniques such as carving. The infestation of pills in different shapes and sizes produces an artificial landscape, in order to explore the interaction between people and art, with relations to science and technology.
“A sculpture is just a painting cut out and stood up somewhere.” Frank Stella, an American abstract artist (n.d.).
razzle.b.2647@gmail.com razzleposts.tumblr.com
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‘Project P (Too Many Pills)’ (2014) Mixed Media (Polystyrene, Wooden Dowels and PVA Glue)
Rebecca McMillan
Rebecca McMillan’s practice questions society’s perception of identical twins, they are often seen as one package, one identity. Encouraged from a young age to be a distinct individual by her mother, Rebecca uses her own story to highlight a problem that many identical twins face. The work explores sameness whist highlighting elements of individuality. Through the use of photography and sound Rebecca explores how finding and securing a separate identity is a huge struggle for twins. She challenges the attitude towards twins leaving the viewers to question their judgement of twins and reflect upon their own sibling relationships.
beccawee@hotmail.co.uk rebeccamcmillan.moonfruit.com
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‘We are not one identity’ (2013) Digital Photograph
Roisin McGowan-Green
Roisin McGowan-Green’s work stems from experiences of the condition sleep paralysis : a temporary paralysis of the whole body accompanied by hallucinations upon wakening. It has led her to explore such ideas of constriction, concealment and struggle through creating meticulous and repetitive works. By using delicate methods of stitch and paper cutting, she creates often fragile and intricate pieces that encompass the laborious endeavor of trying to free the body from its paralysed state during a confused and disturbing experience. Almost cathartic in its production, the repetitive nature of her work means she looses a grasp on time as she makes it, hours fly by as if minutes, a complete juxtaposition of the warped sense of time she endures in a conscious yet clouded state of stillness. A withdrawal from recognisable form in her pieces allows for the viewer to reflect on their own musings of the time consuming nature of the processes and, with no necessity of understanding the root of her work, can be touched by the dark intensity it holds within it.
roisinmcgowangreen@hotmail.com
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‘Untitled’ (2014) Pastel and Thread on Paper
Samantha Rigler
Samantha Rigler’s work explores colour, the application of paint and geometric shape. By contrasting gestural mark making techniques with geometric forms, she aims to generate a colourful and lively answer to an investigation of freedom vs. the controlled. Throughout her practice, Samantha creates playful painterly responses to digitally manipulated images. The use of varied textures, vibrant colour palettes and crossing between the 2 dimensional and the 3 dimensional, allows Samantha to create visually and aesthetically engaging artworks.
sammy.r@live.com
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‘Untitled’ (2014) Acrylic Paint and Varnish on Foam Board
Sarah Hodgkiss
Sarah’s work is an exploration of the uneasy relationship between street art and the gallery settings. She has been using materials commonly used by street artists , and experimenting with scale in my attempt to capture the essence and energy of street art within the degree show setting.
hodge_sarah@hotmail.co.uk facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Hodgkiss/169166063145005
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‘Untitled’ (2014) Acrylic Paint and Varnish on Foam Board
Sarah Mulryan
Sarah Mulryan’s work is an investigation into how technology in the 21st Century has altered the way in which people engage with the natural environment. Her films and installations glorify the natural world and demonstrate its superiority to mediated ‘representations’ of it. The work encourages the viewer to engage with their bodies, rediscover a sense of adventure and seek physical, sensory experiences of the world.
sarah@sarahmulryan.co.uk
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‘Sensing Nature’ (2014) Film Still
Sarah Wilson
An accumulation of decisions and questions: an enquiry into the physicality and material possibilities of painting.
5wilsonfineart@gmail.com www.5wilsonfineart.com 5wilson-a-view.tumblr.com 128
1. ‘Untitled’ (2014) Acrylic, Oil and Gloss, Sanded Away - 2. ‘Untitled’ (2014) Acrylic, Oil and Gloss, Sanded Away
SoMin Kim
SoMin Kim creates 3D sculptures and installations using masses of small everyday objects through repetitive crafting, manipulating the materials to take new forms. The obsessive nature of her practice questions the differentiation between the activity of work and labour within fine art production, whilst challenging the artist’s physical and psychological stamina.
kimsomin@hotmail.com
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1. ‘Labour’ (2013) Cable Ties - 2. ‘Work’ (2013) Cable Ties
Sophie Lyons
By process of manipulation, Sophie digitally layers and transfers images to evoke a new perception that explores the fragmented and unclear vision of a memory. Time and space become merged, removed and rebuilt, in a mixed media process that itself exerts the changing work of a memory. Remaining visible, is architecture, transformed from its usual rigidity, mediated in such a way that rationalises both collective and individual experience.
sophielyons1@hotmail.com
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‘Untitled’ (2014) Digital Print Transfer on Canvas
Sophie Spreadbury
This body of work shows a study of organic form under transformation, journeying through a process of complete abstraction to generate landscapes of sensation. It seeks to explore pictorial aesthetics through a combination of drawing and painting practices, with a focus on materiality and surface. Through their monochrome translucency the drawings highlight an aesthetic sensitivity; together with painting, the work collectively reflects a physical experience of, and fascination with, the natural landscape.
sophiespreadbury@hotmail.co.uk sophiespreadbury.tumblr.com
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‘Untitled’ (2013) Oil, Spray Paint and Marker on Linen Canvas
Vanessa Lewis Jones
As a photographer, Vanessa Lewis Jones aims to draw attention to the everyday details that go unobserved. Inspired by urban landscapes, she finds ready-made structures that reveal symmetry, pattern and line by converting the images through simple collage. She deals with the chaos of the urbanised space and finds order though careful composition of the subject within a photographic frame. As a result, everyday structures adopt a new perspective as they take on an aesthetic transformation; encouraging the viewer to make their own discoveries.
vanessa.nidia.lewisjones@gmail.com vanessalewisjones.wix.com/vanessa-lewisjones
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‘Structure 1’ (2014) Photograph
Miss Victoria Rachel Margeson
I am a child of God, I am thirty-seven, I am single, I am an artist, I am a painter, I am ‘she’. She who is me, who see’s him but cannot touch, who desires but has learnt just to adore, who longs for love, but trusts in Him, for I am, a child of God.
victoriamargeson@icloud.com victoriamargeson.wordpress.com
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‘Nick (study)’ (2014) Oil on Canvas
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We would like to express our greatest thanks to those people without whom it would have been impossible to graduate with smiles on our faces and passion in our hearts.
John Atkin for stepping in in our hour of need and leading us across the finish line Lorraine Young for being a boss and having excellent hair Mo White for your dry sense of humour and that lecture ‘Sex, Cigarettes and Shopping’ Johanna Hällsten for guiding and supporting us throughout the three years Alan Duncan for being a photography wizard Chris Ludlow for being superman Pete Beacham for always being grumpy but always saying yes Pete Dobson for being everybody’s hero Jane Cook for your constant support and loveliness Christin Bolewski for pushing us hard, but not over the edge Michelle McKeown For your tough love and reality checks Marsha Meskimmon for being an eternal fountain of knowledge To all of our Dissertation Tutors – for making the unbearable, bearable.
Thank You We held four fundraising events including a 1920s themed night, complete with the university’s own Swing Band, for which we would like to thank everyone involved in making them such a success. In particular, we would like to give recognition to Sarah Mulryan for her notable contribution. Her organisation and communication skills were much appreciated in our hour of need. And a special thanks to ChloÊ Allen for her role in arranging the London degree show. To all those who have supported us through the three years, tutors, family and friends, we thank you and we hope we have done you proud.
The Kelso - thekelso.co.uk for their ongoing support with fundraising and events.
Faizan Qureshi and Lee Barguss - humblehipster.com for branding PULP and designing this catalogue and our website, and to all those who helped in its creation.
Loughborough University School of the Arts
BA (Hons) Fine Art Graduates 2014 lborofineart.co.uk