Fa test, no backs

FINE ART YEARBOOK 2014

The seventeenth century French mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote ‘our achievements of today are but the sum total of our thoughts of yesterday. You are today where the thoughts of yesterday have brought you and you will be tomorrow where the thoughts of today take you’. To the visual artist, the achievements of today, and of tomorrow, are made material and accessible to others through individual works, which are in turn marked by the intentions of those who made them.

Central to this making is the culture of the studio, which within Fine Art extends across all disciplinary approaches and functions as something close to Martin Heidegger’s ‘clearing’ or space, in which practice is allowed to show up as practice. Whatever the material inclination of the maker the practice is rooted in, and never less than, the conditions of its making. Yet in moving beyond material limitations, the whole is often greater than the sum of its parts.

As a spectator it can be daunting to attempt to navigate a route through the maze-like complexity of contemporary Fine Art. As a maker the problem is magnified. In 1979, American art critic Rosalind Krauss mapped out an expanded theoretical field for sculpture in order to account for developments within recent practice. In so doing she drew from the history of modernism, from the logic of evolving forms, and from the traditional function of sculpture in the West.

Today, the speed of expansion within all areas of Fine Art has outstripped the capacity of the artist, critic, or even the art historian to comfortably fence off, sub-divide or sum up the conditions and objects of practice. Meaning has become more localised, more dependent on personal and cultural narratives and on drivers outside of practice itself, to the extent that practice is now, in spirit if not in form, perhaps closer to what it once was.

Within this climate, the contemporary Fine Artist is confronted by difficulties that can become burdens— history, technology, the sheer plurality of ideas and objects. Yet in spite of this burdened condition the Fine Artist is still able, through patience, application, imagination and intelligence, to find freedom and a personal space to think beyond and behind what has been, to test material and theoretical boundaries and to draw and re-draw lines of limitation in the sand. In sum: to understand that meaning functions ‘in relation to’ what is and what has been.

In the course of three years of study these young artists have met their challenges with vigour, sensitivity and humour, and in that time have striven to develop individual voices made audible along material channels of their choosing. The Fine Art programme requires students to acquire knowledge of a wide range of methods and practices, through workshops, studio development and critiques. History and theory are woven into this fabric in order to embed the notion of practice more firmly in the personal, cultural and material constituents of the discipline. Students are equipped with the tools to excavate their own field to reveal the interconnectedness of its layers.

The works of the students on show here bear testament to the accumulation of thoughts and the search for creative freedom. The paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, photographs and films are evidence of separate journeys across choppy waters.

Happily, all have reached the other side—to embark once again. This exhibition is, therefore, an aggregate of parts and a point of location for future engagements.

A sum is both a conclusion and an acknowledgment of identity, insofar as its particulars must remain visible, knowable and discrete from other things.

You will be tomorrow where the thoughts of today take you. :Tom Palin (Lecturer in Fine Art and Critical Contextual Studies)

Amy Milwain

Anna Pranelle

Brendan Stokes

Brett Walsh

Callum Kirkbride

Charlotte Aston

Charlotte van Holthe

Christina Hayes

David Cleary

Edward Grant

Geoff Wharton

George Buckfield

Georgia Deacon

Hannah Qureshi

Hannah Wenham

Harriet Pocock

Jack Fisher

Jack Sorsky

Jade Long

Joanna Simpson

Jonathan Videgrain

Joseph Legg

Joseph Roberts

Laura Day

Luke Steele

Lydia Brockless

Maja Leszczynska

Maxwell Harper

Michael Barry

Nancy Fagan

Nancy Taylor

Niall Williams-Gordon

Nicholas Kidd

Nick Yarroll

Olga Delgado

Rachel Halliwell

Rachel Page

Richard Green

Samuel Brickman

Sarah Hawkins

Sofia Suleiman

Tomas Rowell

Vincent Todd

FINE ART YEARBOOK 2014

Alex Gilmour

Alex Gilmour alexandergilmour.com

My practice dances on the line between the physical and the digital, through work combining drawing and new media, painting and printmaking I invoke personal experiences and toy with spatialism.

Whilst using humour and irony, I strive to find a method of authentic, articulate communication.

Amy Milwain

amymilwain.wordpress.com As an artist immersed in popular culture and media I appropriate iconic cartoon characters, subtly altering and reproducing images. I look to embrace and also critique sexuality as perceived by modern society. By using traditional drawing methods within my practice I communicate my obsession to distort the familiar, incorporating a comedic aspect.

My practice emerges from ideas surrounding environmentalism, sustainability and human detachment from nature. Organic materials are present in my work to create living, changing sculptures. I explore process and time by using ephemeral subject matter, as well as challenging current ecological issues.

annaprenelle.co.uk

Anna Prenelle

Brendan Stokes brendanstokes.brushd.com

I’m a sculptor who engages with a juxtaposition of contemporary materials and traditional subject matters through exploring, representing and distorting the human body. Within my practice the body is a site for theoretical and practical experimentation through which I grow abject creations which reference rather than depict their original selves.

15

Forty words, thirty eight now, now thirty four, this simply can’t go on.

Twenty seven - it’s just unreasonable, unfair even. Twenty words, this is meagre and I must not be verbose. Nine remaining. Wait, seven is plenty to say - dam.

brettwalsh.wix.com/bwsb

Brett Walsh

The work examines representation, using the nude human form as a comparative framework to explore the methods through which meaning is encoded within the image. These images are pieces of research in an ongoing study of the allegorical processes and versions present in past and contemporary art practice.

callumjohnkirkbride.co.uk

Callum Kirkbride

Charlotte Aston

caston3.wix.com/charlotteastonart Artists such as Rothko and Turner have inspired and driven me to create landscapes which express something more than beauty, and I have been questioning the idea of the sublime within landscape painting. I have experimented with photography and paint in my deconstruction and enhancement of landscapes, to create a different aesthetic experience for audiences.

Charlotte van Holthe charlottevanholthe.wordpress.com

My work evolves from the act of painting itself, focusing primarily on colour and composition. More recently have I began to cross into the boundaries of painting vs. sculpture, as well as experimenting with the presentation of completed works, and its importance.Â

Christina Hayes

christinahayesfineart.wordpress.com The artist uses coding, sign and unconstructable text to lead the viewer to consider; is the communication of the language significantly necessary? Or is it to challenge the viewer’s preconceptions to the use and understanding of text presented in other artworks.

David Cleary davidcleary.co.uk

Through the use of photo-collage to create artificial compositions, the work connotes to abject themes which heavily lean towards themes of the perverse and the erotic. By shifting the image into the framework of figurative painting, the audience is confronted with pornographic content which is validated because of its clear recognition within an artistic context.

Edward Grant

eddyism588.wordpress.com My interests lie in our innate ability to understand and want to understand everything in our own way, through experimentation I can begin to see links between ourselves the material and the spiritual world.

Geoff Wharton geoffwharton.weebly.com

Studying at Leeds College of Art has been a great experience for me as a Fine Artist. It has taught me valuable skills and techniques I can apply in my practice alongside giving me the chance to meet new friends and prepare for the future.

George Buckfield

cargocollective.com/georgebuckfield The artist vies for the merging of experience and technological processes. Using an eclectic range of processes and tools to present ideas of time manipulation. The artist has come to allow for the partaking of the viewer, where the process is set up by the artist, but the content and direction of the work is completely up to the viewer.

The parallel between film, sound and design have all become an important feature of the artist’s practice, allowing for an eclectic body of work.

Rescuing the dying skill of craft is an important aspect of Georgia’s work. She questions whether words, ideas and philosophising are partly responsible for the erosion of craft. She is inspired by women’s progressive ability in the face of challenges, reflecting in crafted objects which engage with notions of materiality.

georgiadeacon91.wordpress.com

Georgia Deacon

Hannah Qureshi I don’t expect anyone who views my work to understand it fully, but the work I do create I like to think it is more of an eye opener, one to get people thinking. I don’t even expect people to agree or like it, but knowing I could have possible changed one person’s perception on my issues I have raised is adequate.

Hannah Wenham

hannahwenham.wordpress.com My practice is a multi-media investigation into the experience of light and space within an environment. I am also concerned with how the body autonomously perceives and reacts to the artwork and the role it consequently plays in the experience of the work.

Harriet Pocock

cargocollective.com/hattypocock My practice stems from personal memories, both past and present.

Printmaking is the primary medium, with strong focus on colour and layering, using a light-hearted and humorous approach to create a visual story.

Jack Fisher jack-fisher.eu ∞+1=∞ ∞+∞=∞ ∞-1=∞ (Resources / Population) ≠ ∞

If {Object ≠ Image}; Efficiency ≥ Effectiveness Temporary experiences transform the current economic materialism.

If everything is disposable then the artist’s studio becomes portable.

(Creator ≥ Machine) outputs a stream of fresh content. [I = O] 1x0=0 0+1=1 1/0=∞ Data = ∞

Jack Sorsky

Jade Long

jademichellelong.wix.com/fineart My practice focuses primarily on emotional attachments to object.

Through casting artefacts which are associated as memory-objects, I transform the originals into uncanny replicas which suggest the mutability of memory. My work is underpinned by personal experiences of childhood and subjective relationships to place.

Joanna Simpson joannadont.tumblr.com

I want my practice to entertain anyone who is willing to peer through the keyhole, it doesn’t matter if they only have 10p to their name or a million quid, as it’s all about the humour that can be found in the day to day.

Jonathan Videgrain

jvidegrain.wix.com/jonathanvidegrain I am concerned with interrogating the rigidity of gender signs and the borders between art forms within contemporary culture. My practice is inclusive of – but not restricted to – the use of dress, as defined as: ‘an assemblage of modifications of the body and/or supplements to the body.’

(1992, Eicher, J.B. and Roach-Higgins, M.E.).

Fabulous, Darling.

Joseph Legg josephlegg.com

Previously studying Biology, the artist views the world from a variety of perspectives, forming a curious hybrid of Art, Science, Design and Technology. Envisioned in exhibition spaces and beyond, his work is a juxtaposition of form/function, fact/fiction, virtual/real, physical/ metaphysical. Testing the relationship between an external world and our internal experiences of it.

Art presents a forum for debate and a space for the reification of ideas.

Through sculpture I seek to open discourses on the contemporary British quotidian experience, addressing concerns of labour, marginalisation, alienation and the socio-cultural effects of politics.

joseph-roberts.co.uk

Joseph Roberts

Laura Day

lauradayfineart.wordpress.com My practice as an Artist refers to women and the difficulties they face within todays society. By focusing on the human form I am challenging myself as an artist to look at what is acceptable and what is not. My work is highly conceptual and I use personal experiences to not only define my work but to give it life and substance.

Luke Steele A lawn is an interaction between the natural environment and the constructed. A lawn is often referred to as a place of worship. The phosphor creates energy once charged—absorbing light to emulate its hidden visual qualities. I strive for the ideal, a painting visually virgin of hand, removed from any sign of physical human interaction. Without method comes confusion. Once a method is grasped, refining takes place, and from that comes order.

Lydia Brockless

lydiabrocklessartist.wordpress.com Physicality and mutability of the body, fertility, femininity and sexuality.

Relationships between materials, history of materials, interplay between hard and soft, round and flat, textural conversations and tactile surfaces. Time as non-linear, endless cycles of making and meaning.

Maja Leszczynska maja1991.wordpress.com

My art works constitute a world in themselves, their own artistic reality, which is nevertheless always based on the real world. They occupy mental spaces consisting of different moods and psychological states of mind which I achieve through the usage of colour, light and space as well as the richness of textures.Â

Maxwell Harper

cargocollective.com/maxwellharper Image making allows me to develop ways in which to interrelate my emotions and values as well as influences the outside world has upon me. Photography, print & painting perform as tools for political exploration and expression; giving me a platform to question and dissect contemporary issues surrounding class & society.

Michael Barry michaelbarry.eu

My practice aims to make the viewer contemplate their relationship with consumption through the use of identifiable commodities and the experimentation of display conventions that have been established by the practice of visual merchandising.

Nancy Fagan

nancyfagan.wordpress.com Within my work I explore a variety of themes and respond to my research through the use of different materials and techniques.

Through colour, shape, material and scale, I express my ideas and bring them together in the form of abstract paintings.

Nancy Taylor nancylouisetaylor.com

Driven behind an exploration of self and third wave feminism, the artist explores the psychoanalysis of human interaction to explore the reasons behind current social political issues. By revealing an exaggerated opinion of the world, the work informs a feminist dystopian perception of domesticated objects by editing and distorting household items.

Niall Williams-Gordon cargocollective.com/Niallycat

My work strives to find an equilibrium between craft and concept, infusing personal experiences with hand making craft methods.

Nicholas Kidd

cargocollective.com/nicholaskidd Through my experimentation with colour and form, I aim to take the viewer beyond the confinements of an art space. My work tends to draw upon themes from my childhood and use them to challenge participation and social spaces.

Nick Yarroll

cargocollective.com/nickyarroll My work takes a direct route from Modernism, influenced from the legacies of Russian Constructivism and the Bauhaus. My work considers themes such as: position, structure and shape, it is also greatly influenced by materiality using industrial materials and giving them new artistic expression.

Olga Delgado

olgadelgadoart.wordpress.com My practice shows a concern with the formal and aesthetic qualities of materials, specifically latex. By combining aspects of different fine art practices I look to produce sculptural drawings in a space, juxtaposing the use of organic and man-made materials. My work demonstrates an integral desire to exploit the natural characteristics of materials.

Rachel Halliwell

rachelhalliwell341.wordpress.com The focus within my practice is the application and layers of paint. I remove tiny elements to allow the underlying painting to surface. The manor in which I paint is fast and aggressive allowing mistakes to be visible, which makes the painting become more real to its viewers.Â

Rachel Page

rachelpage.brushd.com Relationships between soft and hard, heavy and lightweight and that of fragile and tactile surfaces are formed and bought together through continuous material investigations. Often using familiar, recognisable, disposable objects and materials but placing them in an unfamiliar environment.

Richard Green

richardfranklingreen.co.uk Repetition, rhythm, flow, tension, weight, volume, Space, time, beginning-less, end-less, minimal, Materiality, transience, performative, sculpture, industrial, movement, order, cycles, replacement, constant, sensual, pensive, attraction, mundane, absurd, tragic, Keaton-esque, amusing, frivolous, aimless, eccentric, systematic experiment, production, subversion, intensifying, aggressive, Erratic, repulsion, ephemeral, threatening, self-destruction, inevitability, thrashing, failure, static, decay.Â

Samuel Brickman brettwalsh.wix.com/bwsb

I’ll miss staying up all night.

Sarah Hawkins

sarahlouisehawkins.brushd.com My work examines and comments on contemporary British society, focusing predominantly on working-class people and their lives.

The work is underpinned and informed by my own family history, heritage and personal experiences. My concerns are explored through sculptural forms and installations which consist of the restaging, reimagining and reworking of everyday objects and imagery.

Sofia Suleiman

sofiasuleiman.wordpress.com The artist’s practice began about looking at ones own identity in different environments, which then progressed onto delving into identity as a whole in general. Questioning the meaning behind her own mixed heritage and how that makes up her identity. Through the use of expressive paint application, colour and paint spacing, she cites this concept.

Tomas Rowell tomasrowell.co.uk

Within my practice, there is a conscious effort to confront the physical qualities of painting over any external embodiment through experimentation in colour, scale, form and structural principle. I begin to challenge the viewer’s perception of such notions within abstract painting, with the process of painting acting as a self-reflection.

Vincent Todd

vincenttodd244.wix.com/fineart Vincent Todd’s practice stems from reading of theorists such as Barthes (Camera Lucida), Benjamin (A Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction) and Sontag(On Photography) practice looks at the photograph as material and as an object. The artists practice works digital imagery through analogue process with a synthesis utilizing sculptural material.