In memory of Paul Barlow
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The annual Fine Art Degree Show is a time of anticipation, excitement and creativity; the build up to which fosters a strong sense of artistic community among third year students. The 2016 Degree Show encompasses the work of seventy-eight emerging artists and demonstrates a breadth of artistic practice, enquiry and skills. Ranging across performance, sound, painting, print, photography, installation, and video the range of work on display is immense, all contributing into exciting and dynamic exhibition making. This publication documents individual practice and collective endeavour, providing an insight into the creative thinking and process of each artist and the activities and experiences that have been shared across this last year. Working in the studios throughout the three years has been a creatively stimulating time and as ďŹ nal year students we will be sad to leave these vibrant environments behind, but ready to move on to exciting new things. The Fine Art course at Northumbria University provides students with opportunities not only to broaden their own artistic practices through the application of skills learnt academically and through use of the broad ranging facilities, but also to develop their professional networks and proďŹ les. With students curating their own external events and exhibitions, embarking on placement opportunities, running seminars for Colour Studio Northumbria and organising a Fine Art Auction, they have learnt and demonstrated an impressive range of skills through their experiences and time at Northumbria. The 2016 Undergraduate Degree Show celebrates these achievements and the development of students as contemporary art practitioners. On behalf of all the students, we would like to thank the academic, technical and support staff at the University, as well as our families and friends for all their support during our time on this course, and in the run up to our Degree Show, which after three weeks of preparation, we are proud to be opening to the public.
Camilla Irvine–Fortescue On behalf of The Editorial Team
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Introduction Artists’ pages
3 6 - 161
Events: CSN: Colour Studio Northumbria
164 - 171
Events: Attempt
172 - 177
Events: Interfuse
178 - 183
Contemporary Art Guest Lecture Programme
186 - 187
Fine Art Auction
188 - 191
Artists’ contacts
192 - 194
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Jack Thomas Davison Hi Meet? U bottom/top/vers? U looking? Hello. ;-) Where are you? It says you’re close! :-) I’m Masc4Masc btw I’m not No fat/camp/sissy/femme boys lol Not me then haha. JK OK. I can’t see u because of the lights… I’m only 10ft away apparently. Behind the projection? Near the video screens. Did u hear that? I can hear ur notifications! Can you hear the pulsing? C==3 OK. This is stupid. Where are you then?
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Matt Newsholme 10:10 ARCHITECTURAL RESPONDS, MOVEMENT ARE YOU BEING OR ARE YOU
SPACE THROUGHOUT LEAD? LEADING?
01 :39 AND YOU ARE DRAWN, MOTH TO A FLAME, DESIRE TO DISCOVER – TO TOUCH – TO SEE. NOTHING OR SOMETHING? 06:07 TONE TONE TONE GREY GREY GREY BUZZ HUZZ BUZZ OVER OVER OVER 23:23 THE SCENARIO IS A STRANGE ONE, ISN’T IT? IT TRIES AND IT TRIES. HOW CAN YOU THINK ABOUT IT? TAKE IT ALL IN? STAND - LOOK - DISCOVER?
00:17 MATERIAL & MATERIAL MATERIAL = MATERIAL MATERIAL > MATERIAL
01 :39 again. AND YOU ARE DRAWN, MOTH TO A FLAME, DESIRE TO DISCOVER - TO TOUCH TO SEE NOTHING OR SOMETHING?
14:27 HIDDEN MESSAGES WITH ONE WAY OF SEEING IT HAS TO BE ON OTHERWISE IT WON’T WORK FLICK THE SWITCH 00:00 FORMALITY IS INHUMAN, A FEELING MISSING, AN EMOTION MISSING, EVERYTHING SO RESERVED, NEUTRAL CLIMAX.
l’VE TRIED MYSELF, I THINK I AM THERE NOW, BUT WHO AM I TO KNOW?
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Jane Fitzpatrick
Walk along Sulley’s stretch, and all you’ll see is the lucid resonance of projects long gone. The waves of water will systematically remove anything intended to be permanent. Find what you will and keep it. The idea of the temporary places emphasis on the passing of time. It provokes an awareness of reality in a world becoming more focused on fantastical values and portrayals. ‘Live in the now’ is a favoured sentiment in pop culture, with new technologies becoming more integrated in our daily lives. However, we do still have the desire to preserve things of the past, with artefacts filling museums becoming physical links to a lost place. These artefacts provide us with a reality check; the very thing that makes these places unreachable is what pushes us to create. I’ve been exploring the idea of personal artefacts through video. Projection seems to be the most appropriate medium to capture this fluidity as it has its own ephemeral feel. It can be used to illuminate the boundaries of a space, without such a physical presence as a television set. The screen provides a separate space, a window to elsewhere; whereas a projection activates the space it is placed in, leaving a phantom footprint.
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Kieran Elliot Riley
When we think of the word ‘glitch’ we are instantly reminded of frustrating moments in our lives where technology has failed us a corrupted memory card, an unusable word document, or perhaps an oh so precious episode of Game of Thrones, mangled beyond recognition. Through these experiences we come to think of the glitch negatively and as an unwanted experience that only serves to stall our daily lives. In my case however, I have instead embraced this destructive glitch, harnessing it as a tool to create art. My work revolves around ideas of disrupting nature. I use footage from nature documentaries and introduce glitches to them. We are so used to witnessing epic scenes of the natural world in these carefully constructed documentaries that we never really take a step back to imagine them as anything other than perfect. My interference throws you off balance from the comfortable ‘easy-watching’ mentality that is usually associated with them. By rearranging the data that the footage is comprised of, I am able to convert a series of beautiful and breathtaking scenes of nature into a new familiar yet monstrous and incomprehensible version of their former selves.
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Lucy Maloney
An exploration into the curiosities of what lies beyond what is seen; investigating the relationship between space and expectation. I create environments with subtle representations of architectural characteristics. My aim is to activate the natural instinct to explore hidden places. I am interested in people’s curiosities in spaces, such as doors you are not allowed to enter, or hidden corridors that go unnoticed. I am attempting to break down the barriers in typical institutional environments and tempt people to explore spaces they would ordinarily not feel they were allowed to enter. Testing people’s willingness to participate. Testing their temptation.
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Catherine McLaughlin small signs allow me to read your mood one which leaves a lot to be desired I know you would rather not be disturbed. Disturbing. I’ll tiptoe around you and try to ďŹ nd safe ground likely we will both fail in our aims fail to get what we want. The disturber and the disturbed. thinking about blocks blocks that occur and debilitate to block your advances to block away to block out an emotion
Is it you or me? Them perhaps? trying to decipher the signs. signs you give out unconsciously They are the truth of the matter.
Yes They are the truth of the matter.
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Alice O’Hagan
An involuntary reaction to fear, experience and emotions that can only be understood through touch. The space between my ďŹ ngertips and my palm, the space within an embrace. Hold that form. A frozen gesture recording a memory, a feeling. Intimate, comforting, yet still unbalanced.
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Shana Lord
‘I see us as a society that can create better conditions of life for each succeeding generation.’ 222 million tonnes of food are wasted in a year, in alternative terms, greed. It is important that as a society we take responsibility. If we have awareness of an issue then we can see there is a problem. By ignoring the problem we contribute to, are we part of the problem? What if you are face to face with it, do you see it now? ‘We are what we throw away, we are what we consume, we are what we do to the environment.’ – Barry Rosenthal Found in Nature
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Tom Baglee
Just how much of our lives are under close examination will surprise many. Our increased usage of phones and computers not only leaves an ingrained breadcrumb trail of our lives; it also gives companies leverage to feed their advertising campaigns. Using the data we produce, simply by surďŹ ng the Internet or the seemingly private exchange of texts and emails, money is made from our information. We’re also watched; digital eyes observe our every move and collect information about our habits, never blinking and always watching. CCTV monitoring stations are populated and controlled by individuals, human eyes peering through digital ones. The majority of this information is fed into analytical processing machines that are stored en masse in private and government controlled data farms, which are dotted around the English countryside. I want to make this state of surveillance visible for people to see, to show the futility of our pursuit of personal privacy and how permanent and lingering our digital ďŹ ngerprints really are.
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Jessica Bennett
I can’t pinpoint what it is that drives me, but as long as I am creating work in my studio, I know I am in a good place. It’s a place where things are altered, shifted, tested, binned, destroyed and created. My work is an exploration of the complex relationship between perceptions of the body, and the influences these have on the roles we take as individuals. I look at us as human beings, the day to day objects we use, what drives us and our emotions. Evolving my work more and more; I am hoping each of my sculptures will take on a different aspect of my thoughts and processes with a playful twist.
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Rebecca Eelbeck
Brocken spectre Noun: A magnified shadow of an observer, typically surrounded by rainbow-like bands, thrown on to a bank of cloud in high mountain areas when the sun is low. Growing up amongst the rolling hills within the Lake District, I take influence from the sublime landscape and phenomena that occurs in this part of the world. Translucency, transparency and reflection are all points of interest in my practice, experimenting with light and the changes it may incur on a surface.
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Charlotte Lazenby FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, 4, 3, 3, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, 4, 3, 3, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, 4, 3, 3, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, 4, 3, 3, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, 4, 3, 3, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, 4, 3, 3, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, 4, 3, 3, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, 4, 3, 3, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, 4, 3, 3, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, 4, 3, 3, FOUR, THIRTY-THREE, 4, 3, 3, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, 4, 3, 3, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, 4, 3, 3, FOUR, THIRTY-THREE, 4, 3, 3, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, 4, 3, 3, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, 4, 3, 3, FOUR, THIRTY – THREE, 4, 3, 3, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS, 4, 3, 3, FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY – THREE SECONDS,FOUR, THIRTY – THREE,
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Amy Cockton
Simulacrum is often used to describe a copy of the real, a secondary image or the hyper real. The process of imitation formulates a likeness between what is real and what distorts a truth. Imitation creates a void of the unfamiliar and unknown and initiates a feeling of unsettlement. Reconstructing something from its original form can be a surreal experience, transporting all functions into a new representation of its own embodiment.
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Rachel Tong
My inspiration has come from the vibrant landscapes and neighbourhoods of Hong Kong. Having spent most of my life there, my cultural roots have always been integral to my work. I have used traditional Chinese techniques of paper folding to echo the geometric structures of the high-rise buildings in Hong Kong. I seek to reactivate this ancient method of working by bringing it into contemporary art. By experimenting with the different ways of presenting my photomontage, I aim to transform these paper sculptures by blurring the boundaries between the atness of a photographic image and the three-dimensionality of a sculpture. My work explores the disruption of our senses, by challenging my own cultural history in the context of a contemporary art world. With the growing availability of advanced photo-editing applications, I seek to emphasise a more intimate working relationship between the creator and the creation.
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Fikriyah Ibrahim
My practice looks at the pressures and loneliness that we experience and where we become socially marginalised through the disregard of personal opinions and principals. We are shaped by these views and are left vulnerable and isolated without them. Through this abandonment I have been studying through monochromatic photography the walls we put up and the faรงades we create to protect ourselves.
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Tyler Coop
SQUASH SQUISH CRUMPLE CRINKLE TWIST STOMP FLATTEN BEND RIP TEAR CUT ROLL RUSTLE POP PULL PUSH WRECK RUIN BREAK SNAP WEAKEN STRENGTHEN MOULD MANIPULATE DRAG DUMP LAYER FOLD WRAP PIERCE LIFT LOOSEN CRUNCH FIX BALANCE POUR PEEL SHRED NAIL BRUSH TREAT DETAIN CAST SPILL SAND SCRATCH FILL THREAD FEED MIX LIGHT DISGUISE TRANSFORM
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Jenny Wheatley
Within my work the historic linear narrative process of painting has been deconstructed into its core components. Through this my work has seen a shift in its core aesthetics and use of materials. I am painting on the objects of paintings, such as the wooden stretchers, glass containers, and brushes. The idea of process as a concept to infer rather than as an action to initiate is of huge interest to me. Painting on to the objects and appendages of the traditional tools of painting is a way of re-presenting process and showing the physical action of painting in a new holistic way.
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Kathryn Harker
For me, there is something more about a desire to capture an idea. Wanting to create an atmosphere completely shaped by light, in some form of recognisable yet seamless representation. The trick is, to realise that this need is not the satisfaction of making –that comes with making art. The work happens as artefacts of a process, so it is then my objective to re-imagine those artefacts to create a space; a space that has the same kind of effective quality as the original sight did. The importance of work is that desire for an idea to be realised; for something elusive of knowledge, or where the conception of an idea is actually the thing that is then conveyed. When observing reality, there is something about the elusiveness and the intangibility of conveying that, in a white-walled space, which I am drawn to. How do I accurately capture the act of looking, on a blank canvas? It is then about how I negotiate with the exhibition space to truly represent that vision for a viewer. The beauty of that is perhaps I am the centre of that elusive thing.
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Hannah McDonagh
The role of the artist as the subject is integral to my work and has always been constant across an array of contexts. This led me to create a projection of Elizabeth Taylor; reciting an invented language and adopting a personality whilst dubbing a memorised text, recreating the polite yet condescending facial expressions from the woman often seen in train stations. Being my own subject in the work has allowed me to fully immerse myself in the creative process. The work is by no means a self-portrait as I adopt personalities and personas that allow a detachment from my own personal insecurities.
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Rosie Cappleman
Consider paint: what comes to mind? You think about brushes, paper, canvas and easel. Perhaps you think of old masterpieces in ornate frames. You think of the traditional methods of paint and traditional ideas of what a painting is. Now, consider paint without all of these tools. Consider paint, not just as a medium but as a structure capable of existing without the support of external forces. Imagine paint interacting with the surface as only a means to an end; every collision met with an inevitable parting. Imagine the painting re-deďŹ ned. The unconventional pouring that I engage with grants the material freedom to interact with the tilt of the building, making shapes that are beyond conďŹ nes and constraints. Unsure of how to react to their physical independence, these shapes curl into themselves. They lose the elasticity that accompanied their initial ecstasy as they owed freely. This unlocks a newfound liberation, bringing forth a surge of possibilities. Imagine paint as a sculptural system. Imagine paint suspended. Imagine. I will paint, paint.
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Marina Collinson
While the drive of my work is the digital, it does far from reject the physical. Instead it anticipates new ways that the body and information may converge. Our first tentative steps as we traverse fictional realms and interact with synthetic beings will no doubt be clumsy. But as they become more sophisticated, would we ultimately feel inadequate in our deteriorating fleshy vessels if confronted with utopias or artificially intelligent gods?
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Lucy Kennard WARNING! CCTV IN OPERATION! YOU MAY OR MAY NOT BE UNDER 24 HOUR SURVEILLANCE Dear, whom it may concern, I am writing to request information held about myself, under the Data Protection Act, in the form of a copy of CCTV footage, which was recorded on the 26.11.15. The following information will help to identify myself in the footage: • • • • • •
Description of individual: Blonde, medium length hair Green khaki parka coat Dark jeans Black handbag Carrying approximately 2 plastic bags
Footage will have been filmed on 26.11.15, during the hours of approximately 12.45 – 1.30pm. I entered the premises through the entrance upon Northumberland Street, and proceeded to follow the direction of Customer Service. I left the premises through the exit to Eldon Square. Thank you for your cooperation Kind regards, Lucy Kennard.
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Jennifer Jamieson
Thousands of photographs are uploaded onto Facebook every day. We spend hours sharing and looking at these, but how much do we actually care about this bombardment? We allow it to integrate and take over a lot of our daily lives; we are obsessed, carefully constructing our online identities yet everyone always looks the same. Ultimately these online images are not a true reflection of anyone’s lives – carefully selected rose tinted perspectives. They are not ‘real’ and are mere blocks of pixels, meaningless data. This is something we should think about instead of being sucked into the realm of social media; I being a culprit of this myself. I aim to highlight the materiality of these images, working with the noise and pixels of snapshot photography. These platforms and obsessions blur boundaries between real and online life; distinctions are broken down, some people living their lives through the images they capture. This disintegration is a vital part of my work; the fuzzy realm between what is a meaningful image and what is abstract nothingness. Social media distorts our view on life yet also enhances it in many ways. We loath it and yet love it simultaneously. The bombardment and ephemerality of this technology can be horrific yet beautiful and it is this that I think about in my display. Using very simple ways to completely disrupt the content of an ordinary image is the fundamental basis of my practice.
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Dale Harmer
I am not too sure what I’m doing. I don’t know what I’m trying to express. I’ve not named it. If I had to describe it; words like apathy, existentialism and escapism would come close. It’s mostly intuitive, there’s not a lot of planning. I spend most of my time trying to figure out why I’m drawn to particular themes. I’ve wrapped my mind in knots trying to decipher why I make what I make, but to no avail. I’m aware this isn’t going to make much of a statement, but it’s the truth. I don’t wish to deceive anyone. I don’t have anything to offer the viewer. Whatever ideas or emotions may come to your mind when viewing these things I’ve made were not intentional. I have very little in the way of technical skills to impress anyone with, and even less when it comes to a message of any sorts.
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Victoria McDermott
Space; it can be interrupted and articulated by a given object. How one perceives a space is ostensible to our encounters and interactions with it. It can neither be distinguished as a ‘subject’ or an ‘object’ but rather a set of relations and forms. The perception of three-dimensional space is formed by the fundamental qualities of a room: its shapes, edges, length, corners, depth, height and shadows. By deriving, intermixing and intervening with these components, my work absorbs what is already present; the physical space and its non-exhibited features. It is an attempt to work with the negative spaces, the gaps, and the spaces in between. Forms evolve from the given or the constructed environment. In the moment of their temporary position, they are perceived to be conditioned by and bound to architectural surroundings. They append and depend to the spatial situation, yet they are also empirically and descriptively distinct. Mobilizing walls and floors; co-existing, co-producing. Mapping space. They move away from fixed or clear boundaries into states that are more permeable, creating spaces between fixed entities. They situate themselves as portals, essentially designating a void. In their attempt to navigate through borders and thresholds, they obtrude into a primary sense of available space. A modest intrusion.
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Rebecca Gavigan
Notes on ‘collapse’ Collapse as a strategy of enquiry. Collapse is a process of shifting space in the multi-versed: the spaces between architectures. The physical and metaphysical architectures of artistic institutions, the studio, practice and theory as site, as place and other. Architecture posed as articulation: of spatial exploration. Propositions arise from oscillating tensions between function and potential. Collapse is an unfolding. A practice in the architecture of a venn diagram, that is in constant stretch and expanding overlap. Bending the brackets between fixed entities so they can inhale and exhale each other and borrow languages to expand their potentials. A performative inquiry, a physical engagement between material and space – an ecology. Shifting the role of space and material, viewer as agent and artist as mediator (in the multi vice-versa) to exchange communication and interaction in their given environments. Collapse is somewhere between dissolve and transparency. Collapse is the action and process. The marginal becomes context.
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Hannah Knox
It is quiet. It is there. It is familiar. But is it seen? There is a tendency to negate awareness of aspects we believe are a common and constant presence in the everyday reality we reside in. We become overfamiliar with the familiar, to the point where it fades as the normal. Perhaps we do not even see it? To say it is taken for granted is to say it is given to the familiar, we simply forget that life is ďŹ lled with these moments; the inevitable constructs which appear as our reality. Too often we do not care to consider the way the light might catch on the front door we open each morning. We see it, yes, but ďŹ nd no reason to hold or consider it. It is there, a quiet familiarity, one you are accustomed to, so why see it as anything more? To look against this is fascinating and rewarding. Working with simple minimal installations I create a quiet contemplative environment. An atmosphere drawn out by objects that are tangibly there, but that demonstrate a sensibility that cannot be seen, unless it is shown. My work is quiet Mindfulness Mindfulness is very quiet.
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Matthew Simcox
I’d been having a bad time so I’d do anything to not make work. I’d do anything to not do anything. And then when I did something, I’d be disapproving of it because I’d been having a bad time. And then I’d start a new paragraph to make it seem to me like I was doing more. And then another one. And then I’d realise that a new paragraph didn’t mean this so I’d just ramble and talk and speak and ramble and not make anything and ramble and ramble and cry and be upset and speak and unfinished. And then I’d write this text and realise I did something.
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Chelsea Turner
noun: flesh the soft substance consisting of muscle and fat that is found between the skin and bones of a human or an animal. “she grabbed Anna’s arm, her fingers sinking into the flesh” muscle, tissue, muscle tissue, meat, brawn; synonyms: informalbeef “you’re as thin as a rake—you need a sight more flesh on your bones” By using a range of materials, from fabrics and chalks, and a range of techniques, from embroidery to painting, I plan to present the ways in which flesh, and all of its many qualities, can become alluring. By considering textures and colours, my pieces challenge us to question and consider the beauty of our own bodies’ construction.
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Sian Eilbeck
“Human indifference, without a doubt, is the oceans greatest threat.” – Oceans (2009) drip, drop, leak, seep, trickle, spill, pour, run, wash, splash, ripple, ebb, flow, rush, gush, course, crash, flood, drown. In her publication Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things, Jane Bennett explores the relationship between human and non-human entities and how this is important to understand when studying the devastating impact our species has on the environment. Bennett recognises the power of non-human ‘actants’: an energy or being with the capability to influence things. We are not in control of the natural world; we are simply part of it. With these theories in mind, I investigate how art can function as a ‘tool’ to address current environmental issues. I am interested in the collaboration between art and other practices such as science and how this has the potential to work innovatively towards solutions to the urgent environmental concerns we are facing today. I feel the cooperation between art and scientific fields has a way of making important information more accessible to a wider range of people, thus transforming art into a ‘tool’ to aid the understanding of non-art subjects.
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Anna Bennett
Manipulating found objects of a degraded nature allows me to re-animate forgotten, neglected remnants of the past into the present. By altering their location from the original site to the studio these objects are decontextualized. This provides an element of signiďŹ cance to the piece, both conceptually and physically. It repurposes the object by encouraging the viewers to spectate and appreciate the lifeless objects, which would ordinarily be dismissed. Predominantly using household objects and familiarised materials often prompts nostalgic emotions and presents an absence of life, whilst still conveying the human presence. Through photography, drawing and sculpture, I explore the relationship between objects and investigate how the meaning of these can be manipulated.
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Antrea Pitta
($&$%&,+') ruin ‘ru:n/ noun: ruin The physical destruction or disintegration of something or the state of disintegrating or being destroyed. Humans are causing the ruin of nature by trying to achieve something better, but is it really better? Is technology better? Is the ruin of nature better? And when will that ‘better’ be enough for us? Is there going to be an end for what we identify as ‘better’?
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Hannah Whyte
Kristeva - ‘A body becomes separated from another body in order to be.’ Enveloping yourself in someone else’s flesh; using their muscle, blood and fat to cocoon and suffocate. A breath, a motion, a ripple of movement, disturbing and changing the surface. A tunnel, a light, a window. A familiar face, a known freckle or scar, a new wrinkle or line. The changing face; an evolved sense of time and place. A room of walls, barriers to the inside and outside, looking in and out, stuck in the in-between, the dermis, the vein, the cells. A body, the object of desire re-masked as gore and repulsion. The fatty membranes and organic tubing that holds you together; a chalice of dust and atoms. Is this you? Is it them? Us? Is it you or me? Do we see a flickering pulse and strobes, the strings and mechanics of a body working towards a culmination? Or do we see a sanctuary, a cathedral, a monument? Do you wander in and examine me in all my (im)perfection. Am I laid bare before you, a piece, a work, an object, an image? Or it is you thrown before us, pinned and opened, the intimate casing of your flesh strewn across the walls and floor?
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Luce Dunn
My practice involves presenting found objects in a new and often unexpected context that consists of a mass of materials to create simple forms. Forms that emphasise the physical space, occupied by the artwork and leading the viewer to confront the arrangement and scale, become aware of the artworks’ material presence physically, as well as visually. Throughout my work I want to challenge divisions between object, viewer and surroundings. It is creating a temporary narrative which the viewer is invited to explore. I want to challenge how we place objects and arrange materials in a space, and how we express them to their full potential.
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Badreddine Bouisri
Exploring the potential movements within boxing is at the core of my practice. I began by looking at different mark-making elements and created speed drawings. In these drawings I used graphite to try and recreate movements I feel represent and symbolise boxing in action. As well as looking at the physical properties of boxing, I also explore the raw emotions that boxing evokes for me on a personal level. Such emotions include ďŹ ery anger and aggressive passion, whilst also feeling calm and at one with myself in my mind and body. I have also studied the commercial aspects of boxing and the way in which media manipulates the sport through videos. Taking inspiration from these, I create my own boxing videos which play with a variety of effects to keep the viewer engaged and to show the frantic nature of boxing ďŹ ghts.
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Laura Cowling
It sits suspended in a black open void. Slowly turning, spinning, tilting, revolving on its X, Y and Z axes. Pivotal points changing and aligning. The normal, tangible, real, space, time and structure are compressed and compacted into the virtual world. Changed and transformed into fictional and unusual forms. Spaces becoming non-spaces, architecture becoming non architecture. All of it subject to change and transformation with a single click. Each section, fragment and cube creates unusual spinning structures. Architecture is strong; on the physical plane people can pass through corridors, climb stairs, lean against walls. Footsteps can be heard echoing off the floor reverberating around the space. It’s solid, it’s real and it’s there. What is this thing turning in the darkness? Revolving slowly and always changing. Architecture never looked like this; moving up and down and around and around. Unable to physically interact with this strange new structure, the body can only disrupt the projection itself.
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Claire Burley
My work is a literal portrayal of the earth and my thoughts. Showing them in their irrespective forms, sizes, and relationships according to some convention of representation. In a way it is a translation of such thoughts, ideas and emotions that I serve to express. I made the choice to apply rhythmic repetition to my work as a way of testing and creating new methods. Through this I developed processes which allowed me to progress my work further and move on to make pieces that no longer possessed or retained rigid structure. Inserting personal attributes was, for me, a way to landmark certain events. To involve my experiences and add a personal touch, thus adding a sense of nostalgia and detail. By doing this I give the viewer an insight to the intimate relationship I have with my work.
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Dean Wilson
At my performance downtown in the evening everyone told me that they loved this dress and remarked on how fabulous I looked. I did not mention the stares, the slurs, the panic, the terror. I smiled. I said, ‘T
H A N K Y O U.’
‘Can we hold that on the days we are most authentic, that we are most ourselves, that we love ourselves the most - are the days that we are most afraid?’ – Dark Matter, 2015 I wear tiny squares of paint on the ends of my fingers. Danger. Dark dust on my eyes when they are closed. Danger. My shirt is far too long. Danger. WE ARE ALL JUST HUMANS they say Yet value changes. WE ALL BLEED RED except I feel it is always my blood on the floor
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Mark Flores repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat
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Lucinda Burdett Try to look with an open mind.
Where have I been? How long have I taken?
Don’t judge straight away.
Contemplate the configuration.
Take time to look at the position.
Is the artwork self-supportive?
Investigate what the artwork does in the space.
Does it rely on anything? Does it rely on you? Does it invite you? Does it intimidate you?
What does it do? Do you fall over it? Do you ignore it? Do you journey around it?
Think about how I have made the marks?
Approach the work. Take notice of the marks.
Think about why I have made the marks?
Look close. Touch it. Engage with it.
Please take note of even the tiniest of marks.
Smell it, if you need to.
Are they accidental?
Pay attention to the space it inhabits.
Are they intentional?
Then look back. Question it. Challenge it.
Do you recognise the material I am working on?
What information lies in the artwork?
Is it a historical material?
Are there any layers?
Have I been ambitious with the scale?
IMPORTANT: Don’t worry about relating it to a figurative shape like a tree or a landscape.
Have a wonder around the room with your eyes.
Is it a slow artwork? Or fast? Energetic?
If you find anything, please let me know.
What can you see?
Acknowledge the journey that I have taken.
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Amy Hayes
My practice looks to the truths behind the horror ďŹ lms we are fascinated by. The intention of my work is to create situations of imagination, fear and fabrication. I aim to put my audience in situations where questions are generated. My ideas are perceived though sculptures that create and resemble crime locations. Although they may not appear to be obvious crime scenes, my intention is for them to activate your imagination. Whether your imagination takes you to a truth or far beyond it may not matter, Generating a sense of fear, not through gore or extreme violence, but through ordinary means, is the main thing I try to evoke. For every sculpture there is fact; there is a location, there is a killer. Some are interpretations of what I imagine the scene to be; others are from photographs I have taken at an exact location.
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Sophie Halliday
I want it to sound like ‘vmm... vm-vm’ I want you to feel it, right there. Sound possesses an unnerving power. It has the ability to influence and change emotions. My practice involves experimentation with space, activating it through participation. I attempt to create experiences that emphasise the senses. Using sound is a fundamental aspect to my work. A person’s mood can be altered without permission, as sound is intrusive and inescapable. I am interested in the clubbing culture and people’s inherent reliance on the rhythm of bass. The familiar dependency people have in music is something I intend to manipulate using ambient sounds in constructed environments.
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Georgina Elsworth
How can I engage an entire space using the most minimal materials possible? This is a question I ask myself continuously throughout my practice. Is it possible to create a space within a space? I ask myself this question too. My practice focuses on the way in which we are able to interfere with the spaces around us. My aim is to encourage the viewer to question their spatial awareness and consider their own bodies within this space, in relation to the materials I use. Transformation and disruption are key aspects of my practice. Minimalist materials are vital to my practice. The exploration of how we discover and recognise their materiality is a process I intend the viewer to experience. This disambiguation is resolved through the stimulation of various senses; sight, touch, sound and smell. Their minimalism refers to the ways in which we might question their existence. This is explored in various forms; through concealed and hidden materials to exploring ideas of ephemerality, in which their physical form is temporary. Do these materials disrupt the space that is already there? How do we interpret the space that is already there? Do they create a new space?
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Maisie Hough
In the 21st Century, how far can we challenge the boundaries of photography? I begin with 35mm film; pushing and stretching until the original is beyond recognition. Does this process remove the core component of a photograph and make it a photograph no longer? My work combines both analogue and digital methods of image making to create new ones. This is done outside the ‘typical’ confines of photographic conventions, but who’s to say that the conventions and aesthetics haven’t changed in the digital era? Who’s to say they aren’t photographs?
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Elizabeth Mohammadzadeh
“There is no art which does not bare some burden of physicality. To deny it is to descend to irony.” – Mel Bochner, ‘Elements from Speculation (1967–70)’, 1970. Surveillance takes the shape of many forms in our modern society just like that of art; to be naïve to the importance of either would be naïve to the world that we live in. As a society we love to watch but the thought of being watched terrifies most of us. The extent of electronic control has placed eyes everywhere and most encourage the updates in their lives. As technology advances, so does the way we are constantly observed and so limits the amount that our lives can remain private. Are you always aware of when you are being watched? Are you being watched right now?
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Momentarily indulge in thinking about the potential of something elastic.
How far can that span of thinking go before it evolves its own trajectory and embarks on following its own logic?
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Nikki Lawson & Matthew Young This trajectory seemingly comes into effect when a mental situation is assembled around rational material that begins to drift from those finite qualities, entering a realm of the infinite and unconscious. This construction activates its own imaginative logic and ignores actuality. –
The exploration of potentials found in the imagination of a wandering mind can generate an agency to make further slipping into a meandering of meditations on the same thing a
little more... and then a little more crossing over something into a sphere of a half-finished pink furry ball, there lays a box of unused fur. This box could have been used to store lies. But it wasn’t. For the time being another box contains Hubba Bubba wrappers. These wrappers could tell you something about an aching jaw. Hang on...
So what about the banana hammock? The form of the material reacts against what we understand to be a
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Saman Ahmadzadeh
I work with sculpture and predominantly use colourful wool and wood; I am concerned with the formal elements of these materials. My process begins with play; I allow the materials to lead the work by considering the nature and potential of them. I follow aspects of design including shape, form and scale. I take inspiration from these elements and then build upon this in order to create a transformation. My work expands into the space and my pieces respond in various ways to the walls and the oor. I am constantly thinking about how my work can occupy and activate the space; this process of thinking is fundamental to my practice. Audience participation and physical interaction is also important. I use certain techniques which invite the viewer to negotiate the work and take a closer look. This brings in a sense of theatricality where the audience becomes involved with the sculpture as an event.
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Paul Barron
What inspires me about the post-apocalypse is how creative people can be in a situation where everything is gone and so have to make do with what they have got. I focus on an artist living in this type of situation, since everything is destroyed he would have to find supplies and paint and materials. In a post-apocalyptic world people would focus on survival but in my work I convey the expression of emotions, clinging onto memories, frustration, fear and anxieties using sculptures, sound and installation pieces. ‘What If You Can’ is a sculpture that ridicules the idea of a legendary device that could change the world and aims to evoke the feelings of hope and fear altogether. I question the sanity of an individual through the incident points and anger towards corporations, leaders and the misuse of technology. The frustration against mankind and the greed is expressed through attempted control of the surviving masses.
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Alan Barett & David Graham
In order for two parties to collaborate there needs to be a level of trust within their relationship. Together, we work as a team. Using our like-minded attitudes, inspirations and determination to explore certain social and cultural stereotypes associated with the Gypsy community and the British working-class in relation to our own identities and social status. Practical skills as a ‘roofer’ along with true Romany Gypsy heritage has led us to build our very own traditional Gypsy ‘bow top’ caravan. We have created a fully functional and unique installation that acts as a statement against the pejorative attitudes and prejudice towards the Gypsy and working-class communities, but also represents the convergence of two cultures. By demonstrating our partnership, ethics and artistic attitudes through the visual, we find ourselves in pursuit of a certain aesthetic value and social nostalgia, situating the traditional and labour in a contemporary fine art context.
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James Tulip
My practice starts with a journey. What I see en route informs the work I create. The urban environment provides me with the subject matter. I carry my camera everywhere I go in order to collect imagery for my work. Extracting shapes and colours from my surroundings, I am then able to manipulate, repeat, cut and paste the collected forms into a more ambiguous and compelling image. I take what I see every day; glamorise and romanticise these items. I take pleasure in obscuring the obvious and creating an ambiguity within these shapes. The lack of information does not help the spectator establish what they are viewing. However it’s natural to recognise particular shapes or colours from the structures and brands in our everyday surroundings. Formatting and reformatting the real world into a two dimensional likeness extracts the life from what I have originally seen. A machine-made aesthetic is something I aim to achieve in the pieces I create. The lack of human contact for me creates a successful finished aesthetic, which relates to the manufacturing process of most of the items I select as well as the rest of the surrounding world. Experimenting with the materiality of the paint is important, as this aspect is central to the final aesthetic. The shapes I photograph always have their own colour, form, texture and life but all of these factors are extracted when I paint them. The finish of the work standardised which further implies a machine aesthetic.
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Marcus Wheeler “Went to a strange land searching For a truth you felt was wrong That’s when the heartaches started Though you’re where you want to be You’re not where you belong When your love has moved away You must face yourself and you must say I remember better days Don’t you cry ‘cause she is gone She is only moving on Chasing mirrors through a haze” When time becomes a concept only measurable visually through associations and nostalgia, does it stop? Do we see the now, or do we see the past left to rot and simply survive where it lies? My photographs and videos aim to encapsulate a sense of warped time in a separate reality from our own.
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Joseph Crookall
Control – the power to influence/direct people’s behaviour or a course of events Installation – the configuration of objects in a space Sound – vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person’s ear Video – the recording, reproducing, or broadcasting of moving visual images Participation – the action of taking part in something Performance – an act of presenting Projection – the presentation of an image on a surface Space – the dimensions of height, depth, and width within which all things exist and move Lighting – the arrangement or effect of lights Photography – the art or practice of taking and processing photographs Suspend – hang (something) from somewhere Control – the power to influence/direct people’s behaviour or a course of events
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Jordan Boyle
The common Sense, A sense common to all the senses, forming a link, bridge and passage between them: an ordinary, interconnecting, collective, shared plain. At given places and sites it is rareďŹ ed to the point of transparency, opening and stretching to the point of vibration. Becoming a gaze, hearing, tasting and smelling...The sense organs cause strange variations in the skin which is itself a fundamental variable, a common sense. This plane is made of the sands that wash down from each mountain along the rivers, just as the face is made by the erosion caused by tears and laughter. Our wide, tall envelope hears much, sees little, and secretly breathes perfumes always shuddering, with subtle colours and smells. Michel Serres, The Five Senses, A Philosophy Of Mingled Bodies
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Marnie Weatherston a consideration of moment act object time doing not doing undoing redoing a practical exercise in which the object can be of use. the use cannot be deemed entirely useful and in turn it is not entirely practical in the sense that it has no immediate bearings on the function of a future situation or state. it has not become anything more or anything less but remained in itself an alteration of a form. slight. also a building of acts, creation of intensity but also of nothingness. nothing happens [?] of focusing and re-encountering to fix: ensure all moments qualify with unintentional intent. to do, in one sense or another, with the appearance of knowing but with the reality of an undefined course. purposeful insignificance of the act. creating is fixing even if the fixing unfixes fixing can interrupt/ is tampering to the point of almost almost destruction then UN/fixing NOTICE: the filling of the unrecognised moment. procrastinate. do, un/do. a repetition of sorts, of sorts because. a reviewing, an adjustment barely noticeable but noticed and once seen becomes something altogether more or less exactly what it was before only: noticed.
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Lorna Whitlock
We are currently inhabitants of a world dominated by digital devices. Most of these devices communicate with one another, not through a tangle of networked cables, but “telepathically” across empty space. This phenomenon is called the “Internet of Things.” We are witnessing advances in technology once envisioned in utopian futures designed by science fiction authors. I find myself continually astounded by the rate at which technologies that were once fictional and alien to us, are becoming integral parts of our everyday lives. My artistic practice is largely concerned with these technological advances through time. Looking back at past evolutions in technology, I am drawn to the media, tools and systems made obsolete by their upgraded formats. Left behind and forgotten about, these discarded formats are evidence of the transience of technology. From observing our present routines and rituals, I take inspiration from our current cultural trends of internet and digital media usage. Looking to the future, I enjoy employing a creative and inquisitive element of forward projection, as those science fiction authors did before me. I like to imagine what technological advances could happen in 10, 20, 50, 100 years into the future. My work is not confined by the bounds of traditionally focused fields such as painting or drawing. Instead, I create experimental juxtapositions between materials, mediums and forms, which are linked by a common concept or area of interest. I like to employ these different elements in a space to create an intriguing atmosphere.
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Alexandra Karyn a thought process you’ve been daydreaming about these thoughts and momentary feelings you can never really write enough
“memory is never fully visible” it’s not tangible giving these fragmented – fleeting moments a body even–if unravelling its knot twist finally unwrapping exposing
can we ever make it out? the wakes of nails and teeth my violent memories,
“
memories”
the void, a fleeting body of the past; unaware of itself it remains physically uncontainable – resistant from the pleasure of knowing the whiteness of knowledge the outline of emptiness this is a transient presence an empty house a silent destination a shiny sun
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Hayley Harvey . . … …. …... It is human nature to relate objects to things that we are familiar with. I play with this idea within my wo rk. Using shape, scale, material an d colour I create assumptions of the hu man body, without using the physical elemen ts themselves. We are aware of the physicality of sc ulpture; it embodies the presence of a person within the space and provokes the curiosity of the audience. The scale o f my work is often determined by the dimensions of the body, its phy sical behavior and presence. This is an important element of my practice; an overwhelming scale can create an overpowering and uncomfortable fee ling. I use proportion as a way of connecting the viewer to the work, allowing t hem to form a relationship between their own body, mind, sculpture and space. The use of matte paints in fleshy tones creates a corporeal feel to my sculptures. The muted, pastel tones evoke feelings of tactility, as though they could be easil y dusted away. This contrasts to my choice of material; I use materials that hav e a weighty feel to them such as concrete. The concrete is durable and resilie nt, yet over time will begin to age and disintegrate. The once smooth pai nt will crack and flake. The resemblance to the body will remain.
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Sheyda Porter Often, in the red light of a street lamp’s blaze When the wind whips its flame, rattling its cage, In the heart of this labyrinth of mud and cement Where humanity crawls amidst the scum and ferment, One sees a rag-picker amble by, reeling – A stumbling poet, hitting walls without feeling. He begins his diatribe, no longer wary of cops, Pouring out his heart to empty alleys and shops …………… Charles Baudelaire “The Wine of the Rag-Pickers”
Through the decades, from Baudelaire to Benjamin, from poetry to cultural theory, the ragpicker has been an analogous figure for the one who collects old fashioned and discarded items. As homage to this tradition, I began playing the part of the early modernist ragpicker, in the shape of an artist. My job is to collect the debris of the everyday life in order to re-cycle it through sculptural methodologies. Obsolescence and banality sit at the heart of my work as I transform what is demoded, devalued and dysfunctional through poetic interventions.
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Jasmine Harvey
It’s satisfying and fulfilling, a way of seeing the world differently, seeing yourself, provoking hidden feelings, stimulating your senses and your mind. I can be that person controlling a situation. My practice is fuelled by feminist statements about political issues where women do not have a voice; where women are always the ‘weaker sex’. I look at how men use women as advertising tools. I experiment using fetish based materials and create sexual environments in order to make the viewer feel vulnerable. This conflicts between a submissive and a dominated environment. I can be that person controlling a situation.
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Alice Fisher
“Landscape is a creation of the mind and is intrinsically a superior art”– Mi Fu. I am interested in the way people view nature and the way it is represented in interior spaces. I am influenced by the form and pattern within nature itself and the way these are replicated within the manufacturing world. Each piece of work that I create is site specific; the site determining perspective and scale of the installation. This allows the viewer to engage and interact with the work to form their own understanding of it. I aim to create an alternative landscape to transform the viewer’s experience of an indoor space. Through a combination of mediums and techniques, I take found objects and bring them to life in a new way.
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Daniel Mupungu
‘Test on fabric scraps for the best tension and stitch length. A mind which is affected by stress or tension cannot think as clearly. The basic tension between freedom and control.’ As an artist with a background from both Britain and the Democratic republic of Congo, my life so far has always been about making conclusive choices. People have always been quick to define who I am. I have always felt a pressure to make a choice between one thing and another; these tensions were something I used to be afraid of. I have learned to handle these tensions by having confidence in my own choices and believing in what is right for me. I use textiles, fabrics and objects that signify my own multicultural identity. These objects are significant to me because they relate to my childhood and sense of individuality. I experiment with them materially and formally to construct and challenge personal representations and confront the stereotypes surrounding my identity.
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Amber Jones
When the sun shines on the ground it shows what you have done and it shows where your mind has gone. Because when the sun sets, it upsets what’s left of my invested interest and putting my fingers to my head. Surrounding all my surroundings and sounding down the mountain range of my left-side brain it twists the kaleidoscope behind both of my eyes. There’s an infestation in my mind’s imagination I just want to stay in the sun where I find I know it’s hard sometimes pieces of peace in the sun’s peace of mind I know it’s hard sometimes. When the sun shines on the ground it shows what you have done and it shows where your mind has gone.
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Vicky Donnelly I see myself in a real place where I am not. It exerts a counteraction of sorts on the position where I occupy to reconstitute myself there where I am. to direct my eyes towards myself I begin again I come back towards myself that is on the other side of the glass directed towards me I am over there where I am not. It has to pass through this virtual point, which is over there. And at once absolutely unreal connected with all the space that surrounds it. at once absolutely real, making this place that I occupy at the moment when I look at myself in the glass ,since I see myself over there, I discover my absence from the place where I am simultaneously represented and inverted. A real site that can be found, almost a mixed joint experience. in an unreal, virtual space that opens up behind the surface, I can see myself there where I am not. Foucault, M. (1984). Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias. 3 – 4.
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Jake Sutcliffe
Surface: The physical relationship of the work is built from the start by using the same materials in both the recording of the sound and the making of paintings. The mediums used are canvas, paper, ink and water. These traditional methods of painting and drawing start the relationship from analogue to digital. The surface of the materials I use are the focus of my work in its raw state, then the surface sounds and photographs are the foundations of the work which transform into a digital video and sound installation. Digital: Throughout my process the work moves from an analogue and organic form to a digital state. This transformation underpins the abstraction through editing. The original qualities of the materials are slowly lost through digital manipulation, transforming the work from its original state to something beyond. By manipulating the video and sound it starts to echo the effect of glitching; where the digital forms start to malfunction and break down. The presentation of the work lies within the projection of video and the sound, with the use of digital media taking the work away away from its origins as canvas, paper, ink and water.
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Mary Bonner
How do I write about something that each person will see differently? My work is derived from… Inspired by…. This work is…. I’ll tell you briefly. I’ve always held an intense relationship with my camera. It’s become a bridge of expression, a way to explain the things that I can’t. Whilst I’ll try to capture my experience, you may see the photographs differently. I make art to explore things that make me feel anxious; to explore the things I don’t like. Maybe you won’t like them either… Or not, maybe you’ll see something that I didn’t.
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Pam Richards
My initial moment of inspiration came during the 2014 Daniel Buren Exhibition ‘Catch as Catch Can’ at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art; the overwhelming immersion of colour was incredible. This moment filled my senses and fuelled my deeper interest into the use of different materials, to create colour-based surfaces. Initially unsure of where my interests lay, I began to explore the physicality of the fabric, the specific colour choice or the use of a particular material. All I was sure of was that I needed to use lots of vibrant colour. Colour for me evokes memory and instigates emotions. My practice is now fully based upon these foundations, combined with extensive experimentation using a mix of craft and DIY materials; all very domestic and personal. It looks to transform these base materials by introducing more colours, light, heat, pigments and paint, to achieve outcomes that show the transformative qualities. The work is visually playful and aims to show an ambiance that will change the overall visual experience.
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Sophie Bainbridge
The body is something that I have found myself physically and emotionally engaged with throughout my practice. I juxtapose both image and sound to create an emotion. An emotion: is a complex, subjective experience accompanied by biological and behavioural changes. involves feeling, thinking, and activation of the nervous system, physiological changes, and behavioural changes such as facial expressions. Different theories exist regarding how and why people experience emotion.
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Hannah Barker
Imagine this space to be a room. In it I recorded the audio of an old couple having a conversation. During a visit to their home, I had positioned the microphone in front of their chairs and pressed record. Together we had tea and biscuits and they told me stories about life at home and what it was like when they were young. The conversation served as a catalyst for sculpture. I work in a way that is provisional and temporary. I play with my materials, drawings and domestic objects, arranging and re-arranging them to create loose assemblages and compositions. I take an approach where everything can be moved and there are no ďŹ xed arrangements.
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Kat Bevan
I am interested in Karl Marx’s economic theory; a Mode of Production and Michel Foucault’s theories of discipline and power. The Mode of Production is the productive forces and the relations of production. By making new bricks out of old bricks I am using it as a tool so I am able to explore, understand and analyse economic theory. By creating structurally unstable bricks, I am significantly increasing the production time which, consequentially and significantly decreases the surplus-value; the profit. The absurdity and pointlessness of this process of breaking up bricks to make new ones highlights the ridiculous obsession with profit and the disregard for the workers by capitalists, employers and the current Conservative government. By focusing solely on the profit, there is a greater demand on the workers. By working with participants to make brick reproductions, I am able to explore the dynamics of the relations and roles that occur during this process. The relations that occur are artist/participant, artist/spectator, and participant/spectator. The roles that occur are artist/employer/ discipliner, participant/workers/disciplined, spectator/consumer.
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Sophie Byron-Forster
Experimenting with process and materiality of spaces through a multi-medium practice which includes screen-printing, etching, papermaking and sculpture, has enabled me to reassemble and create a structure for diverse practices to operate within an installation style setting. Incorporating a sense of physical involvement in the making process, I examine and reconstruct a conation of ideas, creating precarious assemblages by connecting materials together through forensic analysis. Indicating a sense of playfulness through fabrication creates a cross-over between a deliberate action and element of chance. Testing methods of temporality and fragmentation has resulted in breaking down the development in relation to surface, material and objects. Instinctively intrigued by the ruined attraction of demolition, construction and development, I have explored processes of industrialisation and manufacturing in relation to the urban environment. Through investigating destruction, decay, and dereliction of such sites, I have integrated a sense of practical routine, incorporating the theme of the everyday, whilst considering their contemporary value. In observing the jumbled chaos of rundown spaces exposed to devastation and decline has inuenced my approach in the displacement of objects. Focusing on the modern renewal of architecture, I have captured the continuous reconstruction of the landscape demonstrated through digital traces of movement. Immersed in the laborious process that entails a sense of motion and trace in relation to form embodied in systematic structures, I intend to fuse together visual perceptions of properties inherent to raw and processed materials.
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Daisy Cockle
Seeing is believing. Hearing is understanding. But can we actually see what we hear? We make assumptions as to what something should or shouldn’t sound like, so when we are given a scenario where these relationships are disconnected and distorted, an unfamiliar experience is created. The work transposes a sound into visual form, which the viewer uses as a tool to make sense of a sound when it becomes unrecognisable. The visual elements act as a challenge to the viewer and their associations of what something is or should be, demonstrating the investigational journey of the artist. A sculptural element is the outcome which remains a visual metaphor for the sound, whether or not that sound can be heard... Foley sound.
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Emma Goodson PART ONE: MATERIALITY Notes: Squeezing, scrapping, clinging, sticking, building, motion, flux? The rhythmic tactile manipulation of paint interacts physically with its encounter where it can be seen as forming connections between differing ambience and index of its painted form. Contemporary experience has become meditated by digital technology and its’ immateriality. The tactility of paint juxtaposes this; the means to give agency to physical material. The sensation of a painted surface, where experience of the artist has been translated through the substance of paint and bodily movements, provides a haptic involvement which cannot be reached through immateriality. Realms beyond the physical; materiality identifies how art’s materials are sensed, interpreted and experienced. We can become part of the tactile materiality of paintings. It belongs not only to the artists and their works but to an audience, where one can engage in a consciousness of a common physicality.
PART TWO: OBJECTIVENESS Different temporal, spatial, and material dimension
Learning, communication
Relationship between the eye and hand
An entity that represents some other entity
Altered physical interaction
Beyond the tangible
Communicate a having been there
Region of flexibility
Mark making arises
Productive sphere to another productive sphere
Encounter with objects
Transformative
Nesting, clusters
Point of reflection
Phenomenological traces
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Alice Helmer
Have a look around. Now look again, and again, but this time really look. Notice something you did not see before. What did you notice? Was it the section of wall that sticks out slightly further than the rest? Was it the glow of the green from the fire exit? Was it the pipe that runs across the entirety of that wall or maybe it was the way that pillar intersects with the floor and ceiling? Was it the number of plug sockets in the room or how the trunking is mounted onto the wall? Was it the metal pipes of the ventilation system or was it that it is installed in plain view? Was it that there is a kink in the electrical trunking for no apparent reason? Was it the corner over there, where it looks like they forgot to finish plastering? Was it the black wiring that wraps around that wall? Was it the stroke of pink across that completely white wall? Was it the repetition of the electrical trunking? Was it the way those cables were tied? Was it the red fire alarm whose wire runs along the wall to the electrical box next to the ventilation grill? These are all the things I noticed.
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Camilla Irvine-Fortescue A trace is a mark of the past, a moment captured and preserved in time. It is the remainder of a movement, the empty echo of an action that is itself now lost and gone. A trace is a record, yet even the trace itself is fragile. The inner self is buried deep, and secrets settle comfortably, But some things linger longer still, and these things make me weep. I lie in bed and think things through, my heart pounding as I think of you, The blood that boils in my veins threatens to take over; but I lie still and close my eyes. I restore myself and breathe in deep and let my body slowly drift Through consciousness and mingled sleep, To lie down where I now lie, Before I start again. What I hold beneath I will now release; and I will become unburdened. My world will open up and I will cease to be the self that once I was. My thoughts cascade in waterfalls, My tears fall down my cheeks. My breathe comes in short fast gasps, as my mind battles with this newfound peace. My body reaches equilibrium and I now pause, in my release.
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Jacob Sheader
In contemporary society it is suggested that, as men begin to lose control they pursue a variety of different sub-conscious approaches in order to regain dominance. Taken out of context these intuitive coping mechanisms such as commodity fetishism and masturbation appear unnecessary and comical. The pleasures of these pursuits provoke involuntary movements in a similar way to humour. Both emotions are consistently followed by a sense of jadedness; it is possible that this period of detachment is where the consciousness of a masculinity crisis resides. My work strives to capture this through a variety of materials and techniques. I also ask the audience to adopt, explore and immerse themselves in a voyeuristic stance towards the inner workings of masculinity and furthermore to consider the suggestions of a masculinity crisis within society.
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Theo Scott
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COLOUR STUDIO NORTHUMBRIA
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Image from REMIX, a workshop by Joe Woodhouse and Helen Baker at CSN, 2016
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(DO YOU HAVE A PICTURE OF REBECCA GAVIGAN WE CAN USE?)
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Rebecca Gavigan has been a key part of CSN: Colour Studio Northumbria for almost two years. She is the student lead for the weekly Colour Conversation series, is developer and administrator for both the website and CSN’s social media via Twitter and was the curator of CSN’s Pop-Up PINK exhibition held in February 2016. She is interviewed by Camilla Irvine-Fortescue.
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Camilla Irvine–Fortescue: Hi Rebecca, can you tell us a bit about CSN itself? Rebecca Gavigan: Colour Studio Northumbria is a research facility run by tutors, students and fellows within the Department of Arts. CSN is dedicated to the multifaceted concerns of contemporary painting through teaching, practice and critical discussion. The Colour Studio is an extension of the academic and technical setting that feeds from and invites innovations from artistic practice and theory, through dialogue, exhibition making, workshops and symposia. This year CSN has gone through major changes, a re–location to the ifth floor, neighbouring GSN: Graduate Studios Northumbria, the launch of a website and a party to celebrate this and the opening of new physical and virtual spaces, and two pop–up exhibitions. CIF: What have you learnt through your experience of working for CSN? RG: When I first approached CSNs lead members, Sue Spark and Charles Danby, about becoming more involved I was not expecting to be welcomed with such a lead role. CSN is a team of artists with a vision for a space that sits between making and thinking and facilitates artistic practice beyond academic curriculum. My most active role this year has been in facilitating the weekly Colour Conversation series. On both a personal and professional level, I have learnt to speak with conviction. In my first year at Northumbria, I would sit in on the Colour Conversations just to listen. Now in my final year, I’m organising and leading them. This kind of confidence builds up over time, as anyone that has led a conversation will know, the first, and even the second are nerve raking. Over all, this year it has been a learn–as–you–go kind of experience. My role was multifaceted, between the Colour Conversations, creating the website, curating... things that I previously have had little experience of before. Alongside these experiences I have learnt how to network with people, and have learnt more about artist run spaces in the North East.
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CIF: Do you have any particular ambitions for CSN in the future? RG: As well as maintaining the weekly Colour Conversation series and Pop–up exhibitions there is a lot in the pipeline that will be exciting to pursue. More collaborating is a must, after the success of the ‘REMIX’ workshop with Helen Baker and Joe Woodhouse in April, and new opportunities for Undergraduates to peruse placements at CSN, working on the website, installing exhibitions, and even leading workshops. There is even talk about making publications, there is so much potential for CSN and for eager for people to get involved. Watch this space! CIF: Thank you Rebecca, it’s been great talking with you. RG: Thank you, it’s been a pleasure!
CSN: Colour Studio Northumbria website is available at: colourstudionorthumbria.weebly.com/ Image from REMIX, a workshop by Joe Woodhouse and Helen Baker at CSN, 2016
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Installation views of the pop–Up exhibition Pink, Northumbria Studios, 2016
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Image from REMIX, a workshop by Joe Woodhouse and Helen Baker at CSN, 2016
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Replicating a series of performance events initiated by lecturer Ginny Reed, Daisy Cockle and Joe Crookall held a day-long live event at the Stand Comedy Club in Newcastle, extending an invitation to nine fellow students from Northumbria to perform. The event was called Attempt, and Daisy recalls her experiences of the day‌
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‘So I carried a 5x6 foot canvas from the top of Northumberland Street all the way down the hill to the Stand on High Bridge. The canvas was a lot heavier than I anticipated, probably due to the layers of plaster–coated leaves that were tumbling around inside as I continuously rotated it trying to find a comfortable way to carry it. Nikki was holding two phones, one to record the FaceTime stream that was being broadcast to a big screen inside The Stand, and the other to link to Periscope, to transmit to the world should they be tuned in. Joe was running alongside taking amazing photographs, as he did throughout the day. Although very stressful, I had such a fantastic time organising, planning and participating in Attempt. Working with other performance artists and expanding my knowledge of what live art actually has the potential to be was fascinating. I got a real buzz from the whole atmosphere on the day!’
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Poster for Attempt, 2016
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Performance views of Attempt at the Stand, Newcastle, 2015
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(DO YOU HAVE ANOTHER IMAGE OF INTERFUSE # WE CAN USE FOR THIS PAGE?)
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INTERFUSE is an on-going series of collaborative exhibitions involving Fine Art students from Northumbria and Newcastle Universities. Initiated by Sophie Halliday, Northumbria University, and Martha Butress, Newcastle University, it has provided a platform for collaboration, networking and developing professional skills. Sophie introduces the project‌
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‘The project set out to increase students’ networking opportunities, help develop professional skills and prompt insightful discussions about a wide range of artistic practice. Both academically and professionally it is extremely helpful to receive feedback and constructive criticism from various sources. This project became a platform in which this could happen. As a grass roots student–led exhibition series, we were interested in how it could become accessible to people with different areas of knowledge, potentially even changing elitist preconceptions of the art world. There have been two INTERFUSE exhibitions so far in the series. INTERFUSE #1 took place in November 2015 and over a hundred people attended the event held Northumbria’s Gallery North Project Space. We showed work from twelve artists, six from each university, generating a lot of interest and a review from The Courier newspaper. www.thecourieronline.co.uk/exhibition–review–interfuse Following from this we hosted INTERFUSE #2 at an external venue, Hoults Yard, Newcastle, in March 2016, having obtained funding from the Alumni Association Student Initiative Fund and The Bartlett Fund. This was well attended and for it we recruited volunteers from both Universities who have an interest in taking on and developing the series in the future. They have already been discussing their ideas and plans for new exhibitions, using INTERFUSE and expanding it using funds raised through the exhibitions so far. It is great to think of our project continuing into the future.’ Artists: Northumbria University: Jordan Boyle, Daisy Cockle, Jack Davison, Emma Goodson, Sophie Halliday, Kathryn Harker, Nikki Lawson, Matthew Newsholme, Alice O’Hagan and Matthew Young Newcastle University: Sophie Bates, Martha Buttress, George Greenhill, Lydia London, Emily Morris, Annabel Niekirk, Louie Pegna, Josh Raz and Alice Rout For further information please contact: interfuseseries@outlook.com Instagram: @INTERFUSESERIES Tumblr: www.interfuseseries.tumblr.com
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Tamsin Rees, Review in The Courier Online, 7 December 2015 An independent student led collaborative fine art exhibition between Newcastle and Northumbria, was enough to trigger my curiosity for me to plod around Northumbria campus to try and find the Squires Annexe. I was impressed, actually, from when I walked in. The atmosphere was brilliant, fuelled on red wine and excitement, the gallery space was heaving with people, everyone anxious to see how it had been put together. Interfuse is the brainchild of housemates Martha Buttress and Sophie Halliday, both final year Fine Art students – Martha at Newcastle and Sophie at Northumbria. They decided that it was about time a collaboration took place, a meeting of the two art schools. Its embarrassing that this was the first kind of collaboration – there needs to be more support and communication between the two universities, and it is fantastic that it has been initiated by these two students. TALKING WITH BOTH STUDENTS AND ARTISTS EXHIBITING, THERE WAS NOTHING BUT PRAISE As the first of a series, they’re hoping to put an exhibition on around every three months, from which they can start curating it with a more refined thesis – this one encompassed a variety of applications, and all were final year students; they’re hoping to open it up to the other years. An ambitious, articulate and fluid exhibition despite the range of media and conflicting artistic styles – if anything the range and variety fuelled the energy of the exhibition. Above all it demonstrated maturity and ambition. Talking with both students and artists exhibiting, there was nothing but praise – everyone found it a great experience – a necessary collaboration; a fantastic opportunity to showcase work in light of their degree shows in July, building professional competency and style. An interesting narrative formed within the spaces, showcasing some beautiful paintings, sculptures, film work, installation pieces and ended with a highly popular performance piece by Sophie Bates, the room was crammed with people trying to get a look. One installation piece by Sophie Halliday herself, I think caused a lot of curiosity – a den made out of layers of fabric entwined with fairy lights and a mattress beneath it, with the artist inviting people to take off their shoes and go and sit, and be part of it. Printed with kind permission and thanks to The Courier Online
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Exhibition view of INTERFUSE#2 at Hoults Yard, Newcastle, 2016
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CONTEMPORARY ART GUEST LECTURE PROGRAMME Across the last year the Contemporary Art Guest Lecture Programme has brought 20 leading artists, writers, curators and Gallery Directors to Northumbria. With weekly public talks to all students, question and answer sessions, and personal tutorials with guests in the studios, this programme, put together and run by Reader Joanne Tatham with support from lecturer Luke McCreadie, forms a backbone to academic study and professional development. We are grateful to all the guests that have given their time to the programme…. Laurence Kavanagh The current Warwick Stafford Fellow Laurence Kavanagh has had residencies at the V&A, British School at Rome and IMMA, Dublin. His exhibition at Gallery North, Newcastle opens on 21 October. Louise Wilson Louise joined Northumbria Fine Art this year. Working with her sister Jane, and Turner prize nominated she has exhibited widely and internationally and will show new work at MIMA, Middlesbrough in Sept 2016. Kate V Robertson Graduating from the MFA at Glasgow School of Art in 2009, Kate works as an artist and curator. Her most recent solo
exhibition was presented at David Dale Gallery, Glasgow and she co–curated Reclaimed: the Second Life of Sculpture, as part of Glasgow International 2014. Ross Frew To coincide with this talk, Ross will be showing work in Gallery North Project Space, Newcastle from his 2014/15 Fellowship residency with Paper Studio Northumbria. His work was recently selected for Platform: 2015, an initiative by Edinburgh Art Festival to profile emerging artists. Stephen Sutcliffe Stephen creates works from his archive of broadcast material and spoken word recordings. He won the 2012 Margaret Tait film commission and was shortlisted for the 2014 Jarman Award.
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Jörn Ebner Jörn’s talk coincides with his solo exhibition at Newcastle’s Vane Gallery. He studied in the UK and Germany and is currently showing work at Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin.
Michael Mulvihill Michael recently exhibited at The Gymnasium Gallery, Berwick upon Tweed. He is represented by Vane Gallery and is artist in residence at Paper Studio Northumbria.
Jess Weisner Jess attended de Ateliers post–graduate studio programme in Amsterdam. She has exhibited collaborative projects and solo work in venues including Wysing Arts Centre; Auto Italia, London; Ohio, Glasgow and Kunsthall Oslo.
Rachel Adams Rachel is currently undertaking a residency at the British School at Rome.
Alice Browne Alice is currently studying at the RCA. Her recent solo exhibition at OUTPOST, Norwich looked at how to exploit awkwardness’s in painting through exhibition. Sue Tompkins Sue is best known for her spoken performed works. In 2014 she had solo exhibitions at Inverleith House, Edinburgh; White Columns, New York and Galerie Micky Schubert, Berlin. Jesse Jones Jesse Jones works with film, video and public events to consider historical moments of resistance and dissent. Her exhibitions include the Istanbul Biennale and commissions for Spike Island, Bristol and Collective, Edinburgh. Bedwyr Williams Bedwyr works with performance, video, sculpture and text. He is currently exhibiting in British Art Show 8. Elinor Morgan Elinor is Senior Curator at MIMA in Middlesborough and previously worked at Eastside Projects, Birmingham and Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge.
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Mark Peter Wright Mark uses sound, video, text and performance to explore the relationship between humans, animals and environments. Zoe Walker & Neil Bromwich Zoe and Neil have presented work at Tate Britain, the Whitechapel Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney. Clunie Reid Clunie is represented by MOT International in London. She has exhibited at Studio Voltaire, London, Palais de Tokyo, London and Tate Britain. Katrina Palmer Katrina’s has published a number of books including The Dark Object (2010) and End Matter (2015), part of a site–specific audio walk commissioned by Artangel and BBC Radio 4. Matthew Jarrett Matthew works at Cheeseburn Sculpture Park, a new outdoor space for artists’ projects in Northumberland. Sarah Munro Sarah is the new Director of Baltic. She has previously worked at Tramway in Glasgow and Collective in Edinburgh.
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With funds needing to be raised the Fine Art Auction team set upon the job of joining the contemporary art world, Camilla Irvine-Fortescue explains…
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Northumbria Fine Art Action at Tyneside Cinema Film School, December 2105
‘Tyneside Cinema’s ‘Pop–Up’ Film School provided the perfect venue for this year’s Fine Art Auction. Located in the centre of Newcastle, and with Vane Gallery, The NewBridge Project and B&D Studios just around the corner, it could not have been hosted in a more artistic hotspot. Having previously been held in March the event took place in December giving the Auction Team a tight schedule to work to. Yet they rose to the challenge making the most of the festive season and hosting an exciting evening filled with lots of bidding, artworks and activity! Auction night was the chance for the Fine Art programme to showcase its artistic and creative strengths and provide the perfect introduction for the upcoming 2016 Degree Show. The Auction contained 125 lots donated from students and leading artists with connections to Northumbria, Glasgow based artist Kate V. Robertson and Turner Prize nominee Christine Borland to name just a couple. As a result of these artistic contributions, and the Auction Team’s hard work, we were able to raise an impressive total of just under £5,000 These funds have been put towards this publication and will also be used for future artistic projects.’ With thanks to the Auction team for all the hard work and to all the artists who kindly donated works.
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Acknowledgements The 2013–16 artists would like to thank the following for their help and support over the last three years, specifically for fundraising, the preparation of the Degree Show and the production of the NUFA16 catalogue and website. Editors: Daisy Cockle Camilla Irvine–Fortescue Alexandra Karyn Sanusi Elizabeth Mohammadzadeh Alice O’Hagan Executive Editor: Charles Danby Image credits: All images are copyright and supplied courtesy of the artists listed (pp6–pp161), all other images are as captioned. Published by the Fine Art Department, Northumbria University, 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publishers. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. We apologise for any inadvertent infringement and will rectify any omissions at the earliest opportunity. We would like to thank Academic Lecturers and Technicians: Jane Arnfield, Paul Barlow, Mike Booth, Sian Bowen, Paul Brown, Kevin Burdon, Alfons Bytautas, Christine Borland, David Campbell, Chun–Chao Chiu, Fiona Crisp, Charles Danby, Chris Dorsett, Keith Ellison, Simon Gregory, Alex Harbord, Paul Helliwell, Ysanne Holt, Allan Hughes, Angela Hughes, Mark Jackson, Luke McCreadie, Keith McIntyre, Tom O’Sullivan, Ginny Reed, Jason Revell, Sunghoon Son, Sue Spark, Brian Stokoe, Joanne Tatham, Judy Thomas, Louise Wilson, Mick Wootton.
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All of the Northumbria staff in support and administration with special thanks to Lilian Armour, Laura Crammond and Margaret Reay. We would also like to extend our gratitude to the host of companies, galleries, artists and venues that have supported us over the last three years. The advice and the opportunities you have given us have been integral to our development as emerging artists and we look forward to working with you in the future. With a particular thanks to: Ampersand Inventions Baltic and Baltic39 B&D Studios Gallery North and Gallery North Project Space Hoults Yard Newbridge Project Space and Bookshop Northern Charter The Tyneside Cinema Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums Vane Workplace Gallery
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