Excerpts from the 2023/24 Friday Event series, a programme of lectures and discussions hosted by the School of Fine Art at The Glasgow School of Art, have been included in this catalogue. The transcripts feature questions posed by students to visiting artists and practitioners and give a flavour of our conversations through the year.
It is my great pleasure to congratulate the 2024 Master of Letters, School of Fine Art graduating cohort. The tangible energy, rigour, and enquiry in this year’s show reflect the dynamism of the students from the School. The diverse practices not only highlight a range of interests and positions, but they also signal the prevailing concerns and approaches that will shape the future of art practice.
Recently, I have been reflecting on resilience and adaptability. Climate breakdown, wars and the subsequent mass displacement of peoples, the spread of misinformation, and the rise of extreme politics are wicked problems to which artists, curators, and writers must respond. In the UK and elsewhere, the rising cost of living has put society under great strain. But within this challenging context, the resilience and adaptability exemplified by the work of this group of 2024 graduates give us great cause for optimism. This year’s degree show is an important marker in the full recovery from the global pandemic, which in my lifetime has represented the most significant challenge to the way the art school operates. Yet the work is evidence of an incredible ability to innovate, affirm, adapt, invent, and challenge all characteristics that make an art school’s contribution to culture so vital.
Beyond the collection of individual works, it is the community represented by this year’s show that I find most profound. Over the past year, this dynamic, international group of artists, writers, and curators from the MLitt programmes have come together in Glasgow to learn, think, and create together. They have built friendships and support networks that will sustain them into their professional lives. Whether our graduates stay in Glasgow, continuing to enliven the cultural identity of the city, or move elsewhere, it is the creative and critical networks they have formed that will enable them to remain resilient and adaptable. These networks will empower this group of graduates to make profoundly positive social and cultural contributions.
Martin Newth Head of the School of Fine Art
Workshop with Florence Peake
As with most years on the MLitt Fine Art Practice Programme, we are incredibly fortunate to attract a wide range of applicants from various different countries, cultures and life experiences, and this year is no different. We pride ourselves on looking at the standard of our applicants work within their portfolio and making decisions about how each individual can contribute to the ethos of the Programme in their own way.
For some students, they may see postgraduate study as the next stepping stone as they advance their blossoming career, moving from undergraduate studies to masters level, many considering the future beyond this to undertake PhD study; for others, a different experience may be taking place. Perhaps returning to studies after a break, some longer than others, or fulfilling the much-harboured desire to one day scratch the itch, to immerse themselves amongst a community of like-minded people wishing to express themselves and their ideas through visual art.
Jiayao Zhu
That describes this years’ cohort perfectly. Some of our students have been following a steady path in their studies thus far whilst others have decided to break from their previous careers and become engaged in a different way of seeing the world, through the eyes and actions of being an artist. Sacrifices are made financial, job security, juggling caring responsibilities with studio activity and allowing oneself to be amenable to change and growth. Having the time, freedom and support from the most highly skilled technical, academic, and visiting staff to be encouraged to explore their ideas and desires cannot be underestimated. It is quite incredible to witness the growth of our students across the year, to see those with less confidence make the strides towards unlocking their true potential and to see the journey unfold, often with what may appear like little connection to the starting point in the first weeks of the Programme.
If we know what the outcome will be before doing it, is there any point in continuing? The value is in having the opportunity to go on that journey, to research new ideas, to try new things as well as old and to react to the critical framework of the community.
As the Programme nears the end of its thirteenth year, it still holds the same values from its inception; to attract a diverse range of artists with a desire to embrace specialist study within a multidisciplinary arena. We encourage our graduates to stay in contact, from all of the geographic locations they may return to or new destinations to unfold. The community grows each year and we are privileged to be able to be part of it.
Mick McGraw Programme Leader, MLitt Fine Art Practice
Angela Brown
Apollo denied Photography 29x42cm
My practice is deeply rooted in feminism, the idea of the memory of place and my background in Ancient Greek History. My work is created in response to my enaction of events and rituals or access to places which were historically forbidden to women. In this way I seek to explore both the possibilities of restitution through art enaction and the significance of place and memory.
My participation in the revival of the Ancient Games of Nemea provides the backdrop to my new works. Using painting, photography, holographic film and 3D metal foil work, a sense of the moment of the Games is conveyed to the viewer. Participation in the Games was forbidden for women, foreigners and slaves: I am two of those three, and my art is intended, not to erase past discrimination but to highlight it and then to overwrite the wrong with “new history”.
I focus on participating in the name of one specific woman, Neaera of Athens, who was a sex worker who found respectability in Athens, only to be prosecuted and publicly humiliated because of a political dispute between her husband and another man. She is one of very few women of Ancient Athens whose story we have some detail on, and all that survives is the prosecution case (Demosthenes, “Against Neaera”).
The media I have chosen, including photography and holographic film provides a means to convey the fragility of our access to the past, to memory and place, and the layers of imagery used to create the final image allow us to reach almost a clear picture of what folk memory and collective consciousness has not quite preserved.
Aoqi Zheng
Man
Fabric Sculpture 90x40x35cm
Man Wood Sculpture 170x60x35cm
Hotworks Series (2024)
Acrylic painting on canvas 180x120x5cm
Baoyi Jiao
Experiment No. 27982
Video 06:00
Test house
Cloth, cardboard, stone plastic clay, iron plate, magnet, plastic 42x30x30cm
Boby Joseph
Tat Tvam Asi
Lithograpy and frame 94x124cm
bobbyjoseph8@gmail.com
@Bobbyjoseph8@
The ancient Hindu Temple architecture and the great Indian Philosophy are dedicated to the world, and Hinduism, through the poetic carved black stone art wonders, is still sparkling like a morning star in the boundary of the horizon after millennia. The title of my project is “Tat Tvam Asi”, the third of the four Mahavakyas, and it translates to Thou Art. In simple English, it means You are it. You are the Paramatma or the Ultimate Reality. You are what you are seeking. Art is, at the same time, a secret confession and the immortal movement of its time. I aim to transform the ideas and essence of Hinduism into a narrative story, creating a unique piece of art that embodies the values of the Great Hindu philosophy, the spiritual qualities and the elements from the ancient temple architecture. These tremendous ancient architectural creations have profoundly impacted me, stimulating my memories and propagating many ideas to create in my imaginary realm.
Advaita Vedanta is a Sanskrit name for the Philosophy of non-duality. According to this view, reality is a perfect whole or absolute oneness, so the Philosophers of Advaita Vedanta prefer the term “not two”. I focused on the meaning and concept of the Hindu temple art and architecture. A Hindu temple is a structure designed to bring Hindus and Gods together through worship, sacrifice, and devotion, and it is thought of as the house of the God to whom it is dedicated. My drawing process has become more fluid, adding elements at various stages. A key focus was a single drawing, which I completed within three months and then used for lithography. This involved a dynamic process of adding and removing elements to enhance the aesthetic quality and align it with the temple’s architectural elements, using my skills novelly and using to make a frame with hand-carved hardwood, and I am considering the frame as a temple. In brief, the temple is a house for the deity, where the main idol is housed. I give the same value to my frame, and the print represents Hinduism’s combined symbolic elements.
The Faster We Go This Way Screen printed Balsa Wood 27x29x10cm
David W Hicks
Do you miss your mind?
Reclaimed Apple TV unit, sheeps fleeces, ring light 150x130x30cm
Trophies
Reclaimed dog crate on reclaimed industrial trolley, PIR operated light, cable 900x450x450cm
Short, short, shortcomings
Cast glycerine, red LED 40x35x5cm
Edie Baker
Tits
Photo transfer on canvas 80x100cm
Van Lady Oil on canvas 80x100cm
06.10.23
Florence Peake
Friday Event
FLORENCE PEAKE I worked with this notion of something called keening from Celtic and Irish traditions. It’s probably quite a rural activity in Ireland. This was a kind of homage to that and a lot around my matrilineal line. And its where people come and support the people grieving through, kind of, poetic lamentation and sounding. And it’s a kind of grieving process. So, it sort of sounds quite like this.
[sound performed]
Through these sounding processes, then these poetic lamentations would happen, with people, for the loss. Keeners are people that were hired to support other people. There’s a fantastic image, a film on YouTube of the Greenham Common Women in the 1980s coming to London and keening outside Parliament, if you can look at that as well, that’s an amazing image. So, you know, 30 or 40 women doing all of that outside Parliament. So, me and group of dancers send out a call out for losses from public life. This is 2015. And, of course, there’s a hell of a lot more to be grieving about, about cultural, societal losses, now, it’s a very painful time that we’re living in in relationship
Venue
Ishbel Angus
Edie Baker
to that, but back then in 2015, Brexit hadn’t happened yet, and things, a lot of the call out, the losses that were sent in, we got 52 losses from the public. And they were things like gentrification, things to do with the commodification of gay marriage. Lots of things to do with how capitalism was starting to get its long arm and draw and instrumentalize, and certain ideas, that image in yoga or somebody like that, used to be a kind of spiritual thing, and now it’s a kind of symbol of a neoliberal symbol of health and wealth and things like that. There was a lot of these kinds of losses. And then we keened these losses, we read out every single one, and we spent four hours in London Fields in London, which is an ancient burial ground, keening those losses. And moving, I started to move up in my scale of clay. And over the course of that time, this kind of sculpture was built as we transferred this grief into these lumps of clay. I think I almost think of clay as this quite psychic material that can hold or, what can happen between the clay and somebody that you’re performing the clay with. How it records, how it holds, and how it embraces, in a sense, and emotional qualities and things. Clay is so bodily and muscular.
Eesha Dusad
Bodies #1
50.8x60.96cm
Oil on canvas, clay
Bodies (series) Oil on canvas 50.8x60.96cm
Bodies #2 Oil on canvas, clay 50.8x60.96cm
Ella Mitchell
Red Web
Clay on wire 100x20x100cm
Battle Bug
Metal and felt 50x50x50cm
Emily Chung
You can shove it up my bum Monoprint on paper 30x50cm
Painter's hand Oil on canvas 80x90cm
Eva Ferguson
Brother and Sister Oil on canvas 90x90cm
Year of The Rabbit Oil on canvas 90x90cm
Eva M.V. Hewitt
Inferno Oil, acrylic, gold leaf and crackle paste on canvas 750x136cm
evamhewitt.wixsite.com/footprints-of-faith
evamhewitt@hotmail.com
@_footprintsoffaith
Eve Chen
DIAPHRAGM
Dual-screen, moving image 16:9 HD, 33:46
I HEAR IT
Self-published zine, color digital print 21x14.8cm, 21Pages
Frankie Brown
Micro
Digital photographic textile print on cotton panama 150x100x5cm
Dirty
Digital photographic textile print on cotton panama 150x100x5cm
Garrett Ure
Infill
Ash, pigmented Jesmonite 150x20x20cm
Spiers of Care
Stainless steel, Naval brass 25x7.5x15cm
Dovetail Heart Charcoal on paper 117x150cm
Haixing Nie
Metal, Crayon on the ground, led light, mirror, audio 350x585cm
These are "descended", artificial yet not serving humanity, akin to artificial clearings that suddenly appear in deserts and oceans. There is a similar feeling in the clearings within airports, at the edges of borders, at any of the fringes of any civilization. Whether it is humans or cold objects, I sense the loneliness and romance of existence itself from them, and I attempt to capture and reconstruct this space and atmosphere.
Hanne Hellawell
Rot 2 Oil on canvas 70x70 cm
Guttation Oil on board 20x25 cm
Helen Chandler
Wendover Will Oil on canvas
121.9x60.9x2.54cm
State Fair Oil on canvas
Life Path
Jiayao Zhu
Wood, marbles, fixer 150x70x50cm
Identity Clay, resin, watercolor 10x100x5cm
Research Group
IN-BETWEEN the'Real' World and Fantasy
Led by Dr Sin Park
Colin (Romain Duris) and Chloe (Audrey Tautou). MOOD INDIGO by Michel Gondry 2013. Drafthouse Films/ Courtesy Everett Collection
CF ....It’s almost like Fantasia. What inspires you to make the world look like that?
MG When you wake up and hear your alarm clock, you want to destroy it. And when something is obnoxious, you want to break it. When you watch Tom & Jerry, they destroy each other in each scene. But in the next scene, they’re put back together. ...So, you imagine it has a conscience. You just express that, knowing it’s not how it really works. It’s your connection to the world.
This session features a screening of the film Mood Indigo (2013, 2:11 mins) by Michel Gondry. Mood Indigo is an adaptation of Froth on the Daydream (1947), a surrealist novel by Boris Vian. The film is known for its creative use of homemade special effects and stop-motion, a domain where director Michel Gondry truly excels. Gondry masterfully translates the characters' emotions into sounds, visuals, and colours, creating a unique and immersive cinematic experience. At the end of the film screening, we discuss how we utilise colours and images to express our emotions in our art practice.
From an interview of Michel Gondry by Carl Franzen
June Barton
Where the Olive Tree Weeps
Screenprint on aluminium Approx 270x320cm, 12 panels
of Grief
Screenprint on black paper 76x22cm
Echoes
Karla Healy
No Idea
Oil on canvas 130x150cm
For My Lies And How Truth Gets In The Way Oil and digital collage on canvas 150x130cm
Katie Hillard
Glitchy glass 1
Oil on MDF 38.5x69.5cm
Victor Vasarely broken glass Oil on canvas 50x50cm
Pencil, charcoal and clay 59.4x84.1cm
Hermaphroditus
Clay and printmaking 25x25x2cm
Kefei Dong
Babel Project
Photo lithography on newspaper 25x15.5cm
Driving my car Ink on rice paper 69x110cm
Lin Zi-Wei
A letter to...
Digital photographic textile print on chiffon, desk, chair, paper, steel, wood, mesh, moving image 300x333x244cm
linziwei.cargo.site
ziweibetween@gmail.com
@_whydontuluvme_
I followed the crowd to the grey building where someone cool always stood outside talking with the smoke pouring out from their mouths. I went through the smoke, pulled the gate and looked for my name, then took a snap photoshoot on my phone of a space with a desk, a chair, and a piece of paper with a curved cut shape written my name after the others left the photography studio and sent it to my family group chap as proof that I did not waste my past five years to prepare going back my academic career.
Time is running out, but never running out. Except for my life, my life is running out, and my student life will run out as I get through the grey building where someone cool always stood outside talking with the smoke pouring out from their mouths again. I am going to go through the smoke again, push the gate out, and look for my name, maybe take a snap photoshoot on my phone if I find my space with a desk, a chair, and a piece of paper written my name, but this time, the name someone will put it on somewhere in the world.
In this project, I use prose-style moving images and narration to explore my complex feelings towards water. Being close to nature and water, I notice unique changes in my thoughts and reactions. This long-term project began in 2019 with the Pingjiang River in Suzhou, and in 2020, continued with the Changzhou Guan River near my home in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. I also photographed several other water bodies including the Suzhou Moat, the Huangpu River in Shanghai, and Lake Taihu. Human development is inseparably linked to water; the four great ancient civilizations around the world all emerged along rivers, such as China's Yellow River, India's Ganges, Egypt's Nile, and Babylon's Euphrates. Thus, this connection to water may be rooted in my genes, a link derived from my ancestors, which has sparked my attraction to these natural elements.
The audio part of the video is also one of my favorite aspects. I use repetitive audio to calm and even hypnotize the audience, making them more receptive to the video, while my own voice is also included because it represents my inner voice, and I must use my own voice. I chose to narrate in Chinese because it is my mother tongue, which feels more natural and closer to my thoughts. I also produced subtitles to help the audience better understand the content. In the second part of the video, I explored creating new sounds, but I found that I could not surpass the background music of the first part in a short time, so I decided to continue using parts of it. In the first chapter, I also used the original sound of "Changzhou Chanting" recited by Zhao Yuanren, the father of Chinese linguistics, who recited the poem "Night Mooring at Maple Bridge," which cleverly connects Changzhou and Suzhou. Additionally, Changzhou Chanting is a nationallevel intangible cultural heritage of China, making this audio segment particularly meaningful. At the beginning, I also added "The Song of the Yangtze River," which appeared in my elementary school textbook. At that time, I did not understand it and simply memorized it by rote, until years later when I had the opportunity to stand by the Yangtze River, I could truly comprehend it.
Home, sweet home Photography
Liuyun Yao
Pending sale
Photography 59.4x84.1cm
Depersonalization
Plastic Rubik's cube 5.6x5.6x5.6cm
Lu Chen
Life in the kitchen
Sound work with installation 07:20
"When drawing sketches, you should prefer angularity to roundness, prefer dirtiness to cleanliness, prefer clumsiness to skillfulness."
—— Xu Beihong, Chinese painter
This also applies to being a person.
Being a person
Black ink printed on paper 60x80cm
Luke Shand
Copy of Gay Scotland Sci-fi edition
Print 21x29cm
Friday Event 08.12.23
France-Lise McGurn
PANEL
Your big paintings in your studio practice: how do you get from beginning to end? I like painting big as well: do you do the floor or do you do the walls? What's your journey with colour as well? Is it completely intuitive or are you working from any kind of source material for it?
FRANCE-LISE MCGURN
It is intuitive, but I suspect there probably is- I think you walk past something in the morning like that 20-year-old kids play set that's been in that newsagents window for a decade and it’s sun-bleached these are things I pick up on.
When I get into the studio, it's pretty much like a fullenergy workout. There are different sides: like when I'm at home I draw at night. And that's more… I don't want to use the word but it's just much calmer. It's a different motion. It's a different part physically. It's a different part of my body. When I'm in the studio, it's quite physical. That's partly to do with like time limitations. I have a small daughter; I don't get loads of time in the studio. So, when I go in there it's go for it. But, I think it's hard with the thing about palette because I can spend half an hour mixing a colour and getting upset that it's not the exact grey-pink that I want. But I similarly use a lot, I paint a lot straight from the tube, which is supposedly such a terrible thing. I add a lot of black into paint. I almost always add a bit of black into paint, which I remember getting told at art school “you do not add black to paint.” It's the only way to make things look like real life to me, a little bit less like painting and more like real life. When I start a canvas (I work on a lot of different canvases at the same time) I generally start with marker pen. It's like adding dirt. I think when you're working (or when I was working in a more traditional way) with painting at art school and you would sort of ground your work with a burnt umber or something just to give yourself something to work into. That's my way of giving myself a little bit of dirt, a little bit of something to retaliate against, so that you're not working with something clean; because really it's about working on top of it and letting it seep through and then figuring out when it's yielding or not. And the bigger works can take maybe a week now, but I would say mostly I try to keep things generally resolved within a day. There was
Venue
Reid Lecture Theatre Host Hanneline Visnes Panel
Thomas
Dixon
Louise McGunnigle
Luke Shand
my piece called Bachelorette that took me longer and that was, like, leaving it in the corner of the studio, ignoring it for a week and then going at it again. And the layering thing is good for me because it's got this kind of compression of time and memory in it so that it can be three or four different memories, three or four different thoughts, emotions, whatever it is, I can layer it up on top of itself.
My patience is maybe getting better. At the moment I'm making these paintings and I absolutely hate all the colours, but I keep doing them. I've made about 20 paintings with this sorbet palette that I don't like. For me, everything happens on the canvas. I really don't have like a very cool setup in my studio. And you know, I need to have all my colours. It's kind of just running at it. And where it's all happening is on the canvas.
PANEL And do you keep working at things until it works? Or do you throw out quite a lot of paintings that don't work out?
FRANCE-LISE MCGURN It's a mix. I don't show everything. I don't throw out a lot. It's just that I would, kind of, maybe, put it out of my vision. So, I make loads and I don't show it all. I would only take certain stuff into an exhibition. But I think that everything, even the bad one’s are something, like, that is still a painting. It's just not refined enough to bring out of the studio it's kind of constant. But I can revisit something within a month; but beyond that, it's old news. It’s something I really don't, I can't even remember. I actually sometimes do see paintings and I'm like, I don't know if I did that. Yeah, I think that's me. Because my mum painted over some paintings I had made for my degree show. But she'd left bits sort of coming through. And I remember looking at them and being like, that is really familiar. And she was like, “Yeah, well, it was yours. I made it better.” But I could see my lime green palette that she would never have used coming through. So, I sort of revisit things, but I think there's just a point where I can never have an exhibition of work I made a year ago. Whatever it is, I will be making it right up until the point. And it will be wet when it goes. Because it needs to feel fresh. And I think that's almost more important than it being good. Is that it feels immediate to me.
Mary Harker
Chair (Occupied)
Watercolour and ink on cotton 90x131cm
Watercolour and ink on cotton 134x201cm
Chair (Empty)
Magic Little Kitchen
Video
Video and wall painting installation
Socks
Nikola Nixa Martyna Legierska
Subject 333
Acrylic on canvas 30.4x40.6cm
Pretty Prick
Acrylic on canvas
25.4x31.5cm
Paisley Jane Bingham
A new home in the promise land Oil paint, oil stick on board 100x90cm
Rondal Oil paint, oil stick on board 120x120cm
Peixin Li
Giclée print mounted on aluminium 100x113cm
Ripple Realm I
Giclée print mounted on steel 100x200cm
Ripple Realm II
SLOW Research Group
Led by Michelle Hannah
Photomontage M.Hannah 2024
LH The closer you get to what you think something is, the more evident it becomes that it’s also an illusion.
MS Yes. Absolutely. It’s a question of what truly constitutes evidence about who you are, about who I am.
LH It’s always apparent in the flaws. You know, it’s in the crack in the wall, not the replication of it. I mean, that’s where the truth is. It hides, waiting to be discovered.
MS Yeah. It’s in the gaps, in the stuff that gets overlooked.
Presence occupies a fluid space, straddling time, location, and space. It often reveals itself through disruptions, voids, or moments of failure. To intentionally decelerate, we stretch time, allowing presence to become more pronounced and affective. Slowness acts as a lens to introduces a pace that magnifies these intricacies to enable new insights and perception. What are the effects of presence, particularly in relation to the material, somatic, sonic, and spectral body? Is presence only illuminated by staging its opposite absence? Can slowness be a method to experience presence in its full intensity, revealing the intricate interplay between being and non-being? We delve into various artists, philosophies and engage in abstract listening to unravel work. By embracing slowness, we allow these influences to unfold at their own momentum, to allow a depth and complexity that could transcend the surface. Our perception, bodily awareness, and expression shaped by technology, the physical world, and this dusty planet constitute a quantum scope. Slowness invites us to dwell in presence, to savour the moment, and to uncover the entanglements that might otherwise remain hidden in the rush of time.
Archaeologies of Presence by Lynn Hershman Leeson and Michael Shanks, p. 228
Qingzi Lin
Subworld I
Oil painting on canvas, mirror sheets, silver foil 80x70x1.7cm
Subworld II Oil on canvas, mirror sheet 80x70x1.7cm
Ronghui Zhu
A Tale of Two Cities: Inner Mongolia Shadow Glasgow Charm 150x110cm
A Tale of Two Cities: Inner Mongolia Shadow Glasgow Charm 120x60cm
Sally Scott
Ness
Photographic collage 42x59.4cm
Phylliss
Photographic collage 59.4x84.1cm
Graduation Oil on canvas 190x97x4cm
Shilei Chen
Shitong Xiao
Brave new world (series)
Clay and branches Dimension variable
Sophie Lindsay
Bobby Holding Robert Alongside Amanda and Jaqueline Oil on canvas 200x150cm
Robert and Sophie Coming off the Merry-Go-Round Oil on Canvas 200x150cm
Sunny Townsend
Sea creature rubble Lithograph 56x56cm
Maerl's revenge in the Clyde Sea Video 22:00
Tiange Mao
She's inside me
Digital Print
Human and nature
Oil and collage on paper 25x18cm
Xiaoyi Zhao
Dream Oil on canvas 25x11cm
FICTION Research Group
Led by Dr Jane Topping
Blood and Guts in High School, Kathy Acker, 1984
‘Art practice …can produce new images and sequences new myths, new dream worlds. An important aspect of fictioning, in this sense, is participation in the fiction.’
Simon O’Sullivan, Art Practice as Fictioning, 2015
‘At a certain point I realized that the "I" doesn't exist. So I said to myself: If the "I" doesn't exist, I have to construct one, or maybe even more than one.’
There is a renewed interest in fiction and fictioning in contemporary art practice and our wider culture. Reality has become a relative term, foregrounding and problematising perception in everyday life. There is, therefore, a political and ethical urgency for artists to engage fictioning as a practice, so that art might map out new territory, promote new perspectives and suggest alternatives to the political climate in which it is made.
Taking a broad view, our group discussed fiction at work in our practices, in the work of other artists and writers while considering on the potential of auto-fiction and sciencefictioning as exciting and pertinent frameworks of practice.
Kathy Acker, Interview with Sylvere Lothringer, 1991
Xinyi Liu
Chronicle of Polari Digital photograph, giclée print
The Alchemy 35mm film negative, lightbox 12x18cm Photograph, 38x44x10cm Lightbox
Xiuyuan Ma (XIU)
Abandon
The letters of the dice roll, scanners, digital printing 21x29.7cm x7
Yang Liu
Someone
Video 03:00, dimensions variable
Where Does True Authenticity Lie?
Reality and perception are inherently subjective, raising the question: where does true authenticity lie? Observing the absurdity of "reality" in everyday life reveals how our thoughts and perceptions are often mistaken, rendering the reality we perceive largely fictional. Awareness of this concept allows individuals to adopt a transcendent perspective on various issues, detaching from rigid ideologies and physical perceptions. This detachment facilitates an escape from the confines of the "self," dissolving the binary opposition of subject and object thinking, and ultimately achieving true freedom. My work focuses on dissolving and disrupting reality and perception at the level of fundamental constructs such as time, space, and self.
As beings within reality, we may never fully grasp it. However, humans possess an inherent drive to transcend themselves, striving to glimpse the unknown, even if the ultimate destination remains unreachable. This pursuit of the unattainable is a defining aspect of our humanity. Another dimension of my work is the attempt to find truth amid chaos, beneath the surface, in the gaps, and behind the fog, seeking a glimpse of authenticity.
Once perception is disrupted and reality demystified, the challenge becomes reconstructing our understanding of the internal and external worlds. I hope each viewer, after experiencing my work, embarks on an independent journey of seeking and constructing new understandings. This journey is difficult and arduous. When everything becomes unfamiliar, we experience profound discomfort; when we cannot trust ourselves, we question the very essence of "me." The answer to this dilemma is "love" and "connection." All of humanity shares this predicament. Realizing that we are not alone in facing this challenge fosters a sense of solidarity. While we may not have definitive answers, we have each other. My work aims to establish a refuge in this existential wilderness, a space that can accommodate and connect all of humanity.
Silent Dialogue
Film photography inkjet print, mirror, vinyl records 35x35cm
David Lynch mentioned in Catching The Big Fish “It takes you to an ocean of pure consciousness, pure knowingness. But it's familiar; it's you.”
My art practice uses meditation as a methodology, attempting to connect experiences from the natural environment with the journey of self-awareness and discovery. This series of works invites the viewer to stop, watch, think, and participate; they are mirrors of the soul, interfaces with nature, and canvases for contemplation, inviting the viewer to engage in an in-depth dialogue with nature, the city, and their own inner self.
Untitled (Dawn of Man) Clay, Resin, Pinewood 30x20x30cm
Yiran Zhou
Wonderland
Acrylic and oil on panel 120x140cm
Amulet Oil and acrylic on panel 40x100cm
YY Wang
Unidentified Organism
Jesmonite, iron, wool Dimension variable
Eternal Space
Video with clay 05:00
Yunyun
Polyp
chencaiyun.cargo.site
Zhong Liti
Network of contacts
Photography 29.7x42cm
About DNA Photography 29.7x42cm
Zhou Yi
7 Seconds Before My Mind Wandered
Clear acrylic, crystal ball 90x120x120cm
An array of critical, experimental and ethical projects and practices has developed this year. We are delighted to see a wide ranging exploration of curatorial modalities such as workshops, exhibitions, publications, screenings, dinners, performances and public digital take overs taking place across Glasgow and beyond.
Over the year, students have engaged with themes rooted in urgent political and social concerns. These include access to affordable housing by Sally Wills; an interrogation of the promise of Feminist Artificial Intelligence by Abie Bermuda/ Abie Soroño; an exploration of the potentalities of transqueering as a curatorial methodology by Brooke Hailley Hoffert; faith as a conduit for solidarity and activism by Samah Ayesha and working with deep listening and deep viewing as a method to intimately engage with the climate crisis, by Martel Ollerenshaw. Lili Wang has curated a project with the Wing Hong Chinese Elderly centre in Garnethill and every student has brought a specific perspective to their research and practice — developed and initiated during this 12-month programme.
What has characterised this cohort has been the diligent and sustained engagement with peers beyond the course and in the city. They have fostered various platforms for discussion such as Kan Chen's 'Coffee Crits', and many of the current class have constituted re:PRESENT, a series of panel discussions highlighting diverse practices taking place at GSA. This series serves as a legacy for future CPCA students, continuing to allow for cross-Programme dialogue in the future. This year we also had two dissertation submissions exploring female revenge by Zini Li and Ambiguity as a methodology by Shan Gao.
As always, we have been supported by our extended CPCA community through the provision of work placements. These provide key opportunities for hands-on learning and networking in the city and beyond. We would like to thank this year's hosts: Alasdair Gray Archive, Counterflows, David Dale Gallery and Studios, Glasgow International, Glasgow Women's Library, GSA Exhibitions, GSA Student's Association, Hanna Tuulikki, Hospitalfield, Offline, Rumpus Room, Tramway, WAVEparticle, and University of Glasgow Cultural Programmes.
There have been other highlights and accolades acquired by our students such as The Skinny Writing awarded to Ella Williamson, who also worked with the Glasgow International team, as did Aliya Prichard-Casey and Abie Bermuda/ Abie Soroño. We have been expertly supported by this year's tutorial team including Lydia Honeybone and Max Slaven.
This year has been filled with support, laughter and the setting in place of roots of practices and collaborations to support the broader curatorial ecology and each other. Congratulations to you all!
Dr Karen Di Franco (GSA) and Dr Alexandra Ross (UoG) Programme Leaders, MLitt Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art)
Abie
abiesorono@gmail.com
As an artist and cultural practitioner, my work is deeply rooted in my multifaceted identity and experiences. My practice is informed by my identity as a woman, part of Soron the LGBTQIAP+ community, a person of colour from the global south, and a native of a formerly colonised country. This perspective drives my focus on issues of technology and its impact on the creative industries.
My current research and practice centre on the application of Feminist AI in the creative industries. I explore this technology's history, rooted in women's work in early computing, and its potential to emancipate underrepresented groups. This collaborative project '(A)I will never be human' challenges existing narratives within AI systems, employing feminist AI art and guerrilla marketing strategies to amplify marginalised voices and critique colonial narratives. Through my work, I strive to reshape AI technologies as tools for liberation, ensuring they represent and serve a broader spectrum of humanity. My practice aims to create collaborative models that empower marginalised groups and shape an equitable future for artificial intelligence in the creative industries.
Friday Event 08.03.24
Larne Abse Gogarty
PANEL Your critique highlights how the info-optimism of artists like Trevor Paglen is rooted in Enlightenment ideals of Western rationality triumphing over the "senses". How do you see this playing out in contemporary identity politics and calls for increased representation and visibility?
LARNE ABSE GOGARTY Okay. That's a great question. I suppose to answer that I would refer to something I wrote last year, which was about the exponential boom for a market and viewership around figurative painting over the last decade or so, which has dovetailed in important ways. I think with successive waves of political struggles around race, and more recently, political struggles around gender identity, and thinking of the more recent practices of painters that are representing a kind of trans body or trans experience in figurative painting. So, in the thing that I wrote on that, I was trying to think about what this meant within a history of returns to the figure within painting after the turn to abstraction. After 1950, thinking in a kind of Western context. And after 1950 or about the midcentury point, until this last wave of figurative painting boom, every return of the figure has been very fraught in terms of critical reception. The most obvious one would be Neo-Expressionism in the 80s and these famous criticisms by Benjamin Buchloh, art critics, art historians or Douglas Crimp, which said, the return of the figure is nothing other than conservative.
It's a regression. So, I was very interested in how the most recent return to the figure has not been marked by any equivalent kind of debate. And this was something that really struck me when I started working at the Slade. The first time I was there in 2018, at least 65–70 percent of the paintings I saw were paintings of people. They seemed to be making a claim that representing the person, very often the self, offers a kind of representational currency that has a political valence that should be applauded.
Reid Lecture Theatre Host Dr Karen Di Franco
Panel Abie
Olivia Thompson
And while I can see, there's painters that I absolutely love that we could associate with this turn, someone like Kerry James Marshall, or maybe Nicole Eisenman. I don't think that any of this move towards greater legibility has delivered anything significant politically. So, I think if anything, it's become a sort of smoke screen for institutions saying, look, we're putting on this many shows that you're being represented while institutions are really doing nothing to transform the way in which they work. But it's really interesting that you pose this question in relation to the second chapter, which is about these info optimistic practices, which try to get rid of the body. There's no sense of embodiment.
It's like, to put it crudely, like thinking art or something. It's like, read all these documents and look at my diagrams. It's not at all fleshy or bodily. But you could perhaps think about these two things in parallel: one being about an attempt to represent or convey something, without really unsettling any of the frameworks that require representation in order to enter into some sort of political visibility. You have to be visible. You have to be represented. And that's where Inma's work and I think she's really thinking about these questions of not wanting to make a body or a self or a person or group of people present without representation because there's ease by which representation is consumable.
Venue
Aliya Prichard-Casey
moments
Lilian Evans (@liliandevans) Series of archived works Dimension variable
Enter the walled garden Exhibition Poster by Nat Walpole New Glasgow Society
Brooke Hailey Hoffert (they/them) is a curator, writer, and researcher based in Glasgow. Their current research examines speculation, temporality, fluidity, futurity, queer and trans embodiment, and inclusive curatorial practices through a queer and feminist approach. They started their curatorial platform FEMME in 2022 to explore contemporary art through a queer, trans, and critical lens. Their curatorial practice embodies a fluid and dialogical approach to collaboration where connection and curiosity can thrive. Regarding their methods and approach, they are interested in creating dialogues that contribute to inclusive narratives. They are interested in inclusive, expansive, camp, neurodivergent, and feminist modalities. A modality that questions and expands on what it means to be a curator and what it means to enact the curatorial. A modality that includes, confronts, and expands on the past, present, and future. Some large aspects of their practice are collective research, queering, knowledge exchange, and spontaneous encounters.
Critical practice ~ fluid approaches
Charlie Ambery
Charlie Ambery (b.1999) is a Glasgow based artist producer whose practice spans sound sculpture incorporating noise art and poetry as well as other forms of writing that offer anecdote as composition. Since 2018 her practice has explored functionality within found objects, sounds and text with a recent focus on ‘coping’ as a functional outcome. Her curatorial research is rooted in an exploration of the ways digital intervention can disrupt the temporal dimensions of liveness, experimenting with radio and choose-your-own-adventure exhibition formats.
charlieambery.cargo.site
clambery@gmail.com
@charlieambery
Amongst Friends is an International DIY collaboration presenting fiction by women who grew up with technology. The overlap of domestic and exhibition space maps a hero’s journey responding to relationships past, present and fantasy in audio and written mediums. From encountering male anatomy for the first time together on Omegle when we were 12 to reflecting on the false expectations of romance in our twenties, we are responding to how technology mimics and mitigates anecdotal storytelling. What’s a bit of oversharing amongst friends? I am centring myself in this project by collaborating with my sister Beatrix Ambery, a writer/publishing editor, my childhood best friend Edel, a Finnish pop star and my most recently made friends at GSA, musician Ellie Ford and painter Helen Chandler. Through the audience's interactive impetus, their experiences too will be added to the fabric of the project and Amongst Friends riffs off friend-making platforms like Facebook and Myspace, crafting a self-important space offering company for main characters.
The artificially intelligent generative pieces will iterate differently each time the space is entered, demonstrating reenactment, subjectivity and alternative histories that mimic storytelling in anecdotal form where we play unreliable narrators. This is in reference to the fact that neuroscientists have found that recalling a memory mirrors the process of creating it and each recall involves actively recreating the memory. Amongst Friends proves the digital dimensional realm as another room in our house and exhibition, one that capacitates a sense of present performing body. The same neurological process occurs when we forget why we open an app on our phone as when we walk into a room only to forget our reason for being there such that our phones have become another room in our living space. This project looks at technology as conduit and prosthetic and discusses what it means to host as a curator accommodating bodies in my home.
Daria Momot
Skarbnytsya
Exhibition and sale The Outlier studios 15th – 22nd June
'Skarbnytsya' is an exhibition and print sale which celebrates and raises awareness of Ukrainian artists.
Daria has collaborated with two other curators (Maria Lydon and Ewelinka Dochan) As a team of Glasgow-based curators with personal ties to Ukraine, we are driven by a shared commitment to amplifying the voices of those affected by war. Our collective effort is dedicated to forging meaningful connections between communities.
'Skarbnytsya' is a tapestry of resilience and creativity: through it we affirm the importance of solidarity in times of crisis.
Daria Momot is an Ukrainian curator based in Glasgow. She has a background in cultural studies and an art history. In Glasgow she started feeling the need to represent her homeland contemporary art and identity, that’s why her final project is related to it.
Ella Williamson
Boy Art
Publication 14.8x21cm
ella@ellawilliamson.co.uk
In my exploration of feminist and decolonial theory within contemporary art, I've noticed a pronounced emphasis on dissecting marginalised practice over those traditionally holding cultural dominance. I have become frustrated with identitybased categorisations that often limit artistic expression. As a non-white, non-male artist, I've felt constrained by the expectations imposed by such descriptors. 'Boy Art' has emerged as an experimental response to this dilemma, aiming to invert language and hierarchy by focusing on the exploration of default identities.
Through collaborative efforts with artists Fin Blue and Alby D’Rozario-Gray, 'Boy Art' seeks to challenge entrenched norms in the art world. Living with the aforementioned artists sparked a critical examination of their practices. What if marginalized voices dictated the canon? How would they navigate identity and labels? How would white men react to becoming identified in terms of race, gender, sexuality, or class? These questions form the backbone of the publication, comprising conversational interviews, language experiments, and imagery from the artists.
Conversations with the artists aim to stimulate their perception of decolonial thought, prompting reflection on the impact of identity on artistic output. By engaging earlycareer artists, 'Boy Art' aims to disrupt existing paradigms and inspire future generations to reevaluate the role of identity in art. 'Boy Art' isn't just about challenging norms; it's about reshaping the future landscape of the art world.
Elouise Blackburn
Just Between Us
Poster
'Just Between Us' is an experimental archive, recording the creative output of a group of artists who don’t often see themselves in the art gallery. This particular group Adele Clifford (@selvaticacrochet), Alex Ellerton (@a.wwwwwwwwee) , Ellie Home (@pois0n_pustule), Shawn Nayar (@shawnnayar) and Tamara Okudu, are friends as well as collaborators. The two roles are completely interwoven to one another, and entirely enmeshed to the artistic practices of those involved. This project seeks to create a space for the objects, people and community that don’t always find one in the white cube.
Subsisting of an online archive, and accompanying e-text musing on artist-made art spaces and self-held archives, 'Just Between Us' utilizes the digital space as a gallery in its own right. For many of us, the online world is where we find like-minded artists and artworks that we can truly interact with. For the group of artists in this project, this has been especially true. The online world provides an accessible space for us to experiment and create in ways that hold true to our communities and practices, and not those of the institution. It is still a flawed and complicated space, with the importance of physical sites for art engagement for all a prevailing issue both in the institution and outside of it. 'Just Between Us' delves into the ways this particular group of artist works as reflective of many of us —creating art both with each other, and for each other.
This project expands upon the community-concerned practices of curator Elouise Blackburn (@_elouiseb). With the growing number of collectives and artist-led spaces, community is a vital part of working for any art practitioner. Connection, support and representation are primary needs. Meeting these needs for everyone is something we still need to work on.
Exhibition documentation of Take Their Eyes
Haipeng Zhu
Photo by Haipeng Zhu
In this exhibition, I am dedicated to creating a narrative space. By weaving the artworks together through storytelling, I believe that art is not merely a single sensory experience but a journey of contemplation. Through a meticulously designed exhibition space, I aim to offer visitors an immersive experience, allowing them to perceive the stories and cultural contexts behind each piece.
By juxtaposing artworks from different forms and cultural backgrounds, I construct a narrative-rich space through this interdisciplinary approach. Here, every piece is not only an individual artwork but also a part of the overall exhibition narrative. As visitors wander through the gallery, they can engage with the artists' conveyed emotions on multiple sensory levels visually, auditorily, and tactually.
Moreover, I have always believed that the audience's experience is crucial to the success of an exhibition. Therefore, in this exhibition, I particularly focus on the interactivity and engagement of the audience, designing several interactive elements. These allow visitors to actively participate while appreciating the artworks, becoming an integral part of the exhibition's story.
Haipeng Zhu is an interdisciplinary curator and theatre producer currently studying at The Glasgow School of Art. In the academic field, Haipeng is committed to ethnographic art studies and interdisciplinary identity studies. In his practice, he seeks to understand and explore the connections between different art forms and cultural contexts, experimenting with the narrative logic of theatre and exhibition curation. From an ethnographic perspective, Haipeng digs into the cultural roots and social connotations behind the artworks, allowing the audience to appreciate the art and at the same time gain a deeper understanding of the culture and emotions conveyed by the works.
Jessica Johnstone
How We See Ourselves
Exhibition Stow Building 29th–31st July
'How We See Ourselves?' is an exhibition which explores female subjectivity and creativity through the lens of the female self. Exploring this by positioning of myself, the curator, as a mirror, I will explore how the female self is multi-facetted and diverse across multiple mediums. Looking at themes of gender, sexuality, and the body as a political space, the exhibition will deconstruct and reconstruct ideas of the self, creating a reflective space to open up conversations surrounding these themes.
The mirror acts as an intermediary between the tangible self and the intangible self, the curator acts as the intermediary between the artist and their art, and the audience. Situating myself as the mirror will allow me to explore my relationships towards the art and the artists with a greater sense of personal depth, exploring the feminist ideology of the ‘personal as political’. This positioning will allow me to delve further in the multi-dimensional nature of the role of the curator, seeking clarity in how the curator can become intertwined within their curation. Researching how reflection can act as a curatorial approach which places an emphasis on mindfulness and conviviality at the forefront. Negotiating with this during the curatorial process in order to practice reflection on the art and artists being worked with, finding a more ethical and personable approach to curation.
Kan Chen
An Archive of (Un)translation
Series of translation creative writing workshop As An Alternative Paradise Project
As An Alternative Paradise is a sustainable project that explores (un)translation and the act of translation in contemporary curatorial practice through various formats. It includes an interview 'On the Untranslated Ground' with Jiaoyang Li, a public artists' talk 'From Letter to Letter' with Jane Skeer and Sherry Xiaoyu Xiong, a series of translation creative writing workshops 'An Archive of (Un)translation', and a small retrospective exhibition '(Un)Translation As An Alternative Paradise' presenting a year-long collaboration between Kan Chen and the artists of her Glasgow-based collective Coffee Crit. The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual publication, 'An Archive of (Un)translation'. (Un)translation offers us the opportunity to explore the act of translation and reflect on the act of reading. It serves as an alternative paradise to cure the invisible nostalgia, not only for people facing bilingual issues, but also for those unspoken emotions.
As An Alternative Paradise project
A Conversation with Jane Skeer and Sherry Xiaoyu Xiong
Kathiuska Bonaga
(DIS)COMFORT | "Paradoxes of the Heart" Exhibition, Panel, Screenings
Can we find solace in fear?
'(DIS)COMFORT: "paradoxes of the heart"' is an exhibition that delves into the unsettling yet captivating nature of arthorror. Inspired by Noel Carroll’s 'Philosophy of Horror', this multidimensional experience examines the intricate dance between fear and attraction, comfort and discomfort.
Featuring artists Katherine Chapman, Laurie Gribben, Alex Pelouch, and Luke Shand, the exhibition presents a diverse array of works and practices. Each piece challenges the viewer to confront their own thresholds of discomfort and the unexpected solace found within it.
Central to the exhibition is the concept of 'fearing fictions', where audiences experience genuine emotions in response to fictional horrors. This paradox is visually and emotionally explored through our curated selection of artworks and the screening of seminal horror films. Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977) and Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession (1981) are juxtaposed with contemporary artworks to create a dialogue between cinema and visual art, prompting viewers to reflect on their own emotional responses.
The aim of this project is to explore the ways this relationship manifest, through the visual and dialogical frameworks of 'art-horror'. This exhibition offers an opportunity to understand fear as a remedy born from the affective nature of horror. What some might see as grotesque or eerie, is much more than what it appears.
It is meant to transport the audience to a space where they can experience this paradoxical affair themselves by glimpsing into the minds & worlds of those who do.
Lili Wang
Exhibition & Lunch club
Oriental taste
'Oriental Taste' is an exhibition that delves into the lives of Asian immigrant families in Glasgow through art and a supper club. It begins with Maia Leung's Mental Lunch Club installation, bringing the kitchen's hustle to life through sound and capturing the essence of immigrant family kitchens. This auditory experience connects visitors to the familial and cultural narratives tied to food preparation.
Cheyenne Tan’s interactive installation, Fusion, Confusion, immerses participants in the dynamic and often disorienting world of third culture kids. This playful piece provides insight into the unique experiences of growing up in a multicultural environment.
The exhibition concludes with a supper club hosted by the Wing Hong Elderly Centre. This event merges dining with cultural exploration, offering guests an authentic taste of Chinese traditions and fostering a deeper understanding of the immigrant experience.
Through 'Oriental Taste', I aim to engage and educate visitors on the complexities of cultural identity and belonging, providing a platform for immigrant voices in Glasgow's diverse community. This project invites participants to explore the rich yet often overlooked narratives of Asian immigrants through the universal language of food.
Lori Baird
Archives as the Starting Point
A publication discussing archival spaces as sites of creative production
My curatorial focus has been on excavating the dynamic interplay between those who house archival spaces and those who harness them. Additionally I have been investigating my own approaches and perceptions of these spaces. This publication aims to illuminate these interstices, extracting insights and facilitating conversations that deepen our understanding of the vital role archives play in our society. By fostering these dialogues, I seek to enhance both my own learning and the broader appreciation for the living nature of archival spaces. Archives as the Starting Point is also a showcase of the contributors' related practices and bodies of work, aiming to represent a small intersection of archival spaces and the various roles at play.
Martel Ollerenshaw
Raise the Alarm Graphic Design by Mar Mar Co. Studio
Exploring the work of artists who create sound, moving image and interdisciplinary art with an environmental focus, 'Raise the Alarm' is based on deep listening a premise coined by US musician Pauline Oliveros. Deep Listening outlines how consciousness may be affected by profound attention to the sonic environment and applies it, not only to sound, but to other forms of stimuli, as a way of leading audiences to engage with the natural world, and to provoke engagement with the climate emergency.
Time-based works made by interdisciplinary artists are at the core of this project. Their individual responses to the natural world invite us to open our ears, eyes, and minds, to actively understand what our world is communicating to us. Artists and works include: Mella Shaw (Sounding Line), Hanna Tuulikki (Seals’kin), DarkQuiet collective Madeleine Flynn, Jenny Hector & Tim Humphrey (DarkQuiet), Ross Little (Mìle Dorcha | The Dark Mile), David Harradine (It’s the Skin You’re Living In_), Diana Chester, Damien Ricketson & Fausto Brusamolino (Listening to Earth), Susan Stenger (Sound Strata of Coastal Northumberland), Alaya Ang, Hussein Mitha & Cindy Islam (Plotting (Against) The Garden), Claudia Molitor & Jessica J Lee (A Thousand Words for Weather) and Genevieve Lacey (Breathing Space).
'Raise the Alarm' invites audiences to listen, watch and think deeply about ice sheets, oceans and rivers, marine life, echolocation, light pollution, the crepuscular and the nocturnal, gardens, rewilding, wayfinding, weather, bird calls, language and music, sound and silence, embodied knowledge, migration, anti-colonial uprising, ecological grief, dreaming and The Dreamtime, and to meditate on loss, longing, transformation, and kinship.
'Raise the Alarm' is devised as a space for awakening, reflection, conversation and provocation, and ultimately as a call to action, around one of the greatest concerns of our time.
Peiqing
Tangled sight: WE ARE NATURE
Exhibition The Salt Space 2nd–4th August
Tangled sight: WE ARE NATURE
An exhibition that explores the connection between nature and self-identity
City, nature. No one knows when it started, but they seem to have become a pair of opposing words. The physical separation occurred first, and then gradually spread to the mentality. We describe nature in the third person, and the most common verbs become "protect" or "return". The moment humanity forgot that we are one, we also lost our first shelter when we first arrived here.
'Tangled sight: WE ARE NATURE' is an exhibition project independently curated by Peiqing Yan as the curator. The concept of the exhibition takes natural healing as the starting point, and tries to encourage the audience to understand nature and themselves from the perspective of de-centralization through a series of artistic works exploring the relationship between nature and human beings. The exhibition, which features installation, video, sculpture and other forms of art from four artists was held at The Salt Space in Glasgow from August 2 to 4, 2024.
Peiqing Yan (She/Her) is a curator and designer with an interdisciplinary background in design and art, she has always been keen to explore the boundaries and connections between different fields, and continues to unlock new perceptions of her own identity by switching between multiple identities. As a designer in 2022, she began to combine fashion design with psychological healing. As she grows up as a curator in Glasgow in 2023-2024, she has chosen to continue her passion for combining multiple art forms with healing. In 2024, she will further focus on the curatorial theme of natural healing, and launch an exploration of nature and personal identity.
'42' is a publishing project curated by Roxy(Dimeihui) Zhang. Titled '42', the project draws inspiration from Douglas Adams' novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where 42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. Numbers serve as a universal language, bridging gaps in understanding across cultures.
In this project, I aim to discuss the importance of personal narratives and the significance of everyday life. Postcards serve as a kind of monument, acting as a medium to help people record the places they've been, what they’ve done and their feelings at the time. Although we often consider these moments fleeting and trivial, these snippets of daily life are, in fact, essential components of our personal experiences and the history of human society.
In the publication there is a set of postcards, with a total of 42 cards excluding the cover and the end page. They capture 42 stories narrated by individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds and life experiences. The items depicted in the images represent special memories of these storytellers, now collected in this drawer-like slide box, waiting to be opened, sent out, and exchanged for these stories by the next person. The initial inspiration for this project came from flea markets a place where old objects are given new life, sold, and imbued with new value, and where stories are passed on to create new ones. After the publication is completed, the curator will randomly send these postcards from Glasgow to the participants, thereby completing some correspondence.
Sally Wills
Nothing to Write Home About
Series of creative writing workshops, publication and launch
'Nothing to Write Home About' is a week-by-week series of creative writing workshops, delving into themes of 'Home' and memory rooted in Glasgow’s locality. Hosted in the apt setting of The Tenement House Museum, these intimate workshops offer a unique opportunity to interact with the museum’s collection and archive, retelling history through personal narratives and creative methods.
History and the present have shown us that 'home' can be precarious, threatened by conflict, natural disasters and displacement. As we navigate through these challenging times, where systems designed to support us are under immense strain and often fail to function adequately. 'Nothing to Write Home About' offers a space to explore, express, and cope with these realities through the power of writing.
This project is supported by University of Glasgow School of Culture and Creative Art’s Thinking Culture and The National Trust for Scotland
Sally Wills is a community-focused curator from Liverpool. With a BA in Fine Art, her creative background influences her current curatorial methodology, characterised by personal narrative, humour, and locality. Her current research for her MLitt Curatorial Practice project reflects on what it means to belong amidst a housing crisis. When 'home' is precarious and uncertain, Sally emphasises the importance of community engagement and use of local amenities in redefining what 'home' means beyond its physicality.
Samah Ayesha
My Name, Not Yours
mnny24.squarespace.com
samah.ayesha@gmail.com @samah.ayesha
'My Name, Not Yours' (MNNY) is a one-of-a-kind art publication featuring a diverse set of works of 14 Muslim artists, writers, and a scholar from the UK, India, and Kashmir. At the heart of MNNY is the exploration of themes including identity, belonging, and cross-border solidarity. As Muhammad Ali, the activist and boxer once declared: “I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.” This powerful statement resonates deeply with our contributing artists, who assert their identities in the face of misrepresentation and marginalization.
MNNY stands in solidarity with people around the world who are suffering from injustice, genocide, and exploitation. As you explore the following pages, we hope you'll be moved, challenged, and ultimately inspired to join the ongoing struggle for a more just and equitable world.
Samah Ayesha (b.1999) is a socially engaged curator dedicated to amplifying marginalized voices and advocating for social justice through the arts. With a background in Fine Art and Social Work, she brings with her experience in curatorial practice, community engagement, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Samah is also a member of Religions for Peace Youth Committee India and through her advocacy work has spoken as a representative at various international events.
Ambiguity as An Methodology
Dissertation
I designed one exciting activity for the peer presentation before. I showed my classmates the picture of my past artwork and asked what the title was. It is an easy artwork. I made it in my first sculpture lecture. My professor gave me some objects and asked me to create an artwork in ten minutes. My classmates gave me answers such as 'Ten Minutes' and 'Connection'. The title of my artwork is Untitled. This experience was a turning point for me, as it made me realize the power of interpretation in art. I wanted to prove that people had different ideas. Also, I wanted to prove that people thought in various ways. I studied art practice in the past. As an artist and curator, I am interested in various ideas behind artworks. Curatorial practices provide me with many opportunities to think critically about what art is. It is one complex question. People usually have different answers. The role of curators is changing rapidly. Now, more and more curators share their authority with audiences. Collaborations between curators and audiences are critical to many curatorial practices. Curators and art institutions pay more attention to social participation and cultural democracy.
The key idea in my curatorial practice is to explore what people already know and do not know. Now, ambiguity is critical in my curatorial practice. I enjoy researching various ambiguous artworks. They are exciting and provide me with many opportunities to explore what the ideas behind them are or why the artists created them. Because of my interest in ambiguous artworks, I want to explore how curators curate ambiguity in curatorial practices.
'See You Again', is an exhibition and a one-hour creative workshop. The exhibition promises a valuable artistic experience, showcasing original paintings by artist Wuxin Wang titled Waiting. We also screened artist Kate Wu's documentary Do Not Go Gently Across That River and artist Eve Chen's short film Froggie. Additionally, artist Lu Chen presented a live performance art piece called Color Protects You. The workshop combined art and archives, inviting the audience to reinterpret and reconstruct personal and collective memories through hands-on creation. This unique experience not only revealed how archives preserve history but also uncovered the intricate and profound relationships between memory and emotion, culture and identity. Each participant created a unique piece of art. Together, we breathed new life into archives and built a bridge between art and memory. Exquisite merchandise featuring the artist’s works was also available.
Vica Gábor
Visceral Matter
Exhibition & Dinner David Dale Gallery and Studios 7th August
vicagabor.com
vica.gabor@gmail.com @visual_manifest
'Visceral Matter' is a solo contemporary jewellery exhibition showcasing the work of Alejandro Ruiz, accompanied by a dinner event at David Dale Gallery's warehouse. This experimental exhibition aims to engage the audience using non-typical curatorial tools in the cultural space, transforming visitors from passive viewers to active participants. In this exhibition, visitors can wear the pieces and gain knowledge of the process and the narrative behind them using interaction cards. These cards aim to provide a different perspective on the artwork, motivating the audience to ask questions, reflect on what they see, and interact with one another.
In the evening, sharing food and sitting around a table with people, whether known or new, creates an open and safe environment for connection and conversation. The research work behind this exhibition focuses on tools that can surprise the audience, reduce the distance between the artwork and the viewer, and create a new experience. It explores how to provide information about the work and its concept in a more playful, experimental way.
Alejandro Ruiz's inspiration comes from searching for the unseen within us, challenging conventional views by exploring places others might overlook. These themes are consistent throughout Alejandro's earlier and current work. Alejandro invites the audience to touch and wear the exhibited objects, engage in conversations about the work, and experience contemporary jewellery from a different perspective. The artist's approach to the exhibition and the curator's experimental methods align on common points, making this collaboration achievable.
Collaborators:
Alejandro Ruiz, artist; Vica Gábor, curator; Hazel Glass, art writer; Lydia Honeybone, chef; Adam Tompa, actor; Persofoni Gerangelou, actor
MLitt Art Writing
Miri made us pigeonholes. It took nearly a year to mount the structure in the studio. Seventeen celestial black holes invite attention and conversation about new works in progress. It’s called feeding. Francis is curious about the small vortexes and tentatively offers a finger to test new gravity. It’s called hunger. Three feet into the wooden box and it caves, it keeps sinking. It’s become something else. When something is sucked into a black hole, it compresses horizontally and elongates vertically. It’s called spaghettification. Past the event horizon, nothing returns light, matter, poetry, knowledge. Now, warping the o o o oblivion, Francis retrieves his finger. It’s called whilst. Whilst people are making plans, making promises, making change, making essays and poems. Whilst in the “experimental burrow”, something is always there.
Yesterday, Liv warmly referred to the interiority of the Art Writing programme. It was after I told them of a recent sect-like experience at a Soul Cycle session I attended whilst visiting friends in Los Angeles. The interiority of the cave, the burrow: singular and communal, choreographed and improvised movements of bearing witness, of coexisting, of “placement and angle”, as described by Olivia Wiles in 'Fancy Free' for this year’s edition of The Yellow Paper. Or, the hole as making space, as making time, as proposed by Hilary White in her essay, “I dig an experimental burrow […]. I creep into my hole”. The immersion of deep thinking, of deeply invested writing and making, of working towards a potential horizon is keenly felt in the work produced by this year’s graduating Art Writing cohort. It’s called percussion, it’s called resonance (Rosie O’Grady), it’s called feeling-with, it’s called mitgefühl (Carlotta Riechmann). Whilst the world is keening, we might hope for significant somethings, for new grammar, to emerge from an experimental burrow.
“Tradition tells us silence is a fence,” writes Kiah Endelman Music. “Without language, she makes metaphors with sound,” O’Grady speaks of the practice of late painter and tutor Carol Rhodes. “In place of silence,” O’Grady notes, “she substitutes one object for another […] she finds percussion […] she learns it has more to do with resonance.” Under the title of A Small Pool, this year the Art Writing cohort present new work at the Postgraduate Degree Show in the Stow Building alongside an evening of readings and performance at David Dale Gallery and the publication of new writing in the fifth edition of the Programme’s anthology, The Yellow Paper: Journal for Art Writing. And as part of this year’s Degree Show, Art Writing will also air its first live broadcast. This multiplatform showcase is example of how a “team make sense and sentiment together,” as María Garay Arriba writes in 'Sun Ra on the Pitch', this year’s recipient of The Yellow Paper Prize for New Writing. None of this would be possible without hubris and friendship, without collaboration, without keeping faith and without keen experimentation. We thank our Graduate Teaching Assistants, Timothea Armour, Kiah Endelman Music and Maria Howard for their vital input into the Programme this year. Further to Timothea and Joey Ryken for their leadership of the Soft Shell Radio broadcast. To our guests and visiting lecturers throughout the year and to our supporters, both organisational and individual. It’s been another wonderful year for Art Writing, and the greatest of thanks and congratulations to all the students part of the burrow this year!
Dr Laura Haynes Programme Leader, MLitt Art Writing
Amanda-Jane 'A-J' Reynolds
listening to memories
Digital graphic 29.7x42cm
amandadashjane.wixsite.com/ajrey
amandadashjane@hotmail.com
@iamajreynolds
Ruminations (part 2) ‘listening to memories’ Expanded
The transition from Room one to Room two was that of leaving one childhood memory and moving onto another.
Room two shifted from the vibrancy of playful nights to that of the silent and still lulled by sound and motion. The black and white squared projections were momentary in their fleeting movements that either crossed the wall or simply vanished for the next wave of monochromatic-geometric displays. It was dark, the fog reminiscent of colour-washed quilt covers bleached by the moon’s light osmosing through the thin bedroom curtains. Eyelids heavy, glinting through eyelashes to watch the passing car lights stream across the walls, delineating the corners and cuts of furniture. I hear the sound of the car, a doppler-like effect gliding across the tar placing me in the back seat next to the window.
We’re on the way home after seeing the relatives, it’s deep into the night where the roads are quiet. What could be seen were the lamp posts flickering by 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, and white box trucks whose back red lights became someone else’s. Seeing the old Queensferry Crossing indicated we were halfway home, eyes becoming heavy, I only wished to speed up the going home process through a somnambulist means of teleportation. Red and orange lights turning into astigmatic wisps through a combination of bleary eyes and the hitchhiking raindrops that streaked the window. Spotting the Forth Rail Bridge’s train scouring along its steel armature, its lights reflected on to the waters below as they swish and crash reminding the bridge to whom it owes its existence to. It slowly begins to flicker between eyelash pillars connecting to the lower eye rim inviting the burning sensation of tiredness, eyes lightly water in response to the warm sting.
Carlotta Riechmann
Cassiopeia Codex
Paper, inkjet print, gold emboss 41.7x83.2cm
Soft Shell performance Photograph
Hayley Jane Dawson
Pan Loafie Glazed Stoneware
The newspaper presses spring into action, this time to herald news of your passing (peacefully at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, they have to write the full title in the advert the undertaker tells us) whilst we were all sleeping, after days of waiting and watching. The palliative care nurse said people often die the way they lived, which explains why you hung on for almost a week. You were always stubborn and independent, even when it was time to let go. We tried a few different tactics; including stopping talking to you altogether because we thought maybe you were enjoying the trip down memory lane too much to go to the next place.
A month later, J the medium, tells me that when you get there, there’s a lot to do and it’s common for people not to come through when they’ve recently passed.
We drank whisky from your hip flask in the funeral car on the way to the crematorium, passing it around back and forth between us. Dad asked me to be a coffin bearer once we began to make arrangements for the inevitable. I wasn’t sure at first: it didn’t seem like the done thing. In traditional Scottish custom, women washed the deceased’s body while men took coffins to be buried, windows were opened and mirrors were covered to prevent a departing soul being trapped. While I’m researching these customs, I learn that clocks would also be stopped as to not confuse the spirit trying to leave.
We bought you a clock for your hospital room so you felt at home. You were always a stickler for time.
Mind your time you used to say.
Leah Sinforiani
Big Red Cat Map: How to Relax at the End of the World
Interactive Poetry Map Video 10x7.5cm
How to Look After the Bugs in Your Bed
Soft Shell Performance Piece
leahsinforiani21@gmail.com
@leahsinforiani @bigredcatzine
Leah is an art writer from Glasgow who writes a lot about Glasgow in Glasgow and, occasionally, does some other things. Other things include: being the editor and creator of Big Red Cat Zine and having a special interest in the intergalactic motorways that connect class, gender, bugs and posh clothing brands.
'How to Look After the Bugs in Your Bed' is a performance piece presented at the Soft Shell Event. The poems were selected for the Scottish Next Generation Young Makar Prize and can be read in The Yellow Paper. The work features a chronic pessimism about the cost of living crisis and the inability to get rid of the bugs as pests, yet also feeling like a bug, as social and economic pressures squash Everything Else.
'Big Red Cat Map' is an interactive poetry map created as a spin-off of a publication made with friends called BIG RED CAT ZINE, a no budget, non-hierarchical literary zine in Glasgow. We started a campaign called 'FOLLOW THE BIG RED CAT' where we stuck stickers of the logo cat, gave him a 'weird tone of voice' (examples here:@BIGREDCATZINE) and put it in different places in an attempt to reach more people to submit. This creative publication acts as a way of following the places the cat goes to relax or 'WHAT THE BIG RED CAT DOES ON HIS DAY OFF', as a disheartened ANTI-CATAPLIST persona, burnt out by the current state of the world. The map can be opened and barcodes scanned, taking you to an online map of the places you can REST AS RESISTANCE.
Leah is currently working on a 'A Failed Space Odyssey', a Failed Space Odyssey in which a science-fiction slowly encroaches on an unnamed author's grim reality. It is not a sci-fi text. Promise.
Olivia Wiles
The People Writing
I’m lining the table with Tomato Ketchup, laying it on thickno one interrupting my creative process. A dash of mayo. I’ve dreamt this before, the touch of grace.
Chicken fingers greased my tips and now I’m writing on serviettes my phone number. Someone called.
We were both taken aback by each other’s voices when we said ‘Hi’. So, we stayed with each other in silence, across the ether, for a good half an hour, and then hung up.
The chicken-winged silence greasing up my telephone, my ear ending the call.
The waiter left the chicken plate next to me and I say thank you keeping eye contact with the canvas.
I pinch a finger with my fingers, and I put it where it needs to go, then again, then again, then some sauce, then some sauce, A whirl.
What do we have?
A sea of condiments.
I scratch my eyebrow with the chicken finger now an extension of my fingers and look for possibilities.
Extract: Chicken Fingers
When things become too precious, too personal, it’s the beginning of the end. Smearing chicken fat over it will do it. I took my draft and my deal into the café to that effect. I dipped my tie in a cup of quoffi. This plume is a pain in my ass. If I press any harder I might break the space-time continuum. My fist now on the adjacent business behind the bookshelf, like Matthew McConaughey, I’m interstellar.
On another, spectral fourth dimensional note, I’ve been trying to catch my shadow lately. First, I do a lap around the park slowly and then a faster one to catch it.
So far, it hasn’t worked but I was, |______| this close.
My shadow is a metaaaphor.
Rosie O'Grady
For some it is sewing, or drumming, or planting seeds. You are at peace when your attention is cast out to boughs and in the thicket of beech. In the park with Giacinta, I find a nest skewered on the wrought iron finial of the railing. Inside the basket weave, there is green paste bound between twigs.
Lizzie is teaching me to plaster with lime. I throw plaster from hawk to trowel until the fat rises to the surface, and it sticks to the metal underside. Pressed into the cavity, we make do with an offcut of wood for a float. We fill a cartoon hole.
Ink (extracts)
Publication
rosieogrady.co.uk
rosiebeaogrady@gmail.com
I borrow a thermal camera. In my flat, it maps greatest temperature difference between kettle and hob, window and wall. Johannes tells me that he sat for so long in one place that when he looked at the room through the camera twenty minutes later, he could still trace a ghost image of his body heat.
It is dusk and I am walking in the park. I have been walking for two hours without headphones. It is the season for edits. Last night we cut back the dogwood. In this copse, the trees have been thinned. I see three high vis jackets: one cyclist, one footballer and one small dog. I take them as a good sign.
Yuxin Wu
When I leave Printmaking, text A5
The School of Fine Art (SoFA) offers a suite of one-year Master of Letters (MLitt) programmes: Fine Art Practice (with three disciplinary pathways), Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art), and Art Writing. Each programme presents final stage Masters Project work in August, showcasing in SoFA's Stow Building, across numerous satellite venues, and online as part of The Glasgow School of Art's Digital Showcase.
The Postgraduate Degree Show 2024, showing 23–29 August 2024 is presented across four floors of Stow: Fine Art Practice showing on Level G-2, and Curatorial Practice & Art Writing exhibiting on Level 3.
Postgraduate Degree Show 2024 23–29 August, Stow Building, G4 9LL Preview: 6–8pm 22 August
Fine
This programme consists of three combined studio-based disciplinary pathways: Painting, Drawing & Print Media, Photography & the Moving Image, and Sculpture & Performance. Each pathway offers students the opportunity to immerse themselves within research and studio practice while engaging in cross and interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological dialogue.
@gsafineartpractice
Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art)
Established in 2014, the Curatorial Practice programme is jointly run by The Glasgow School of Art and the University of Glasgow and offers students the opportunity to study curatorial practice in Glasgow, a city with a vibrant and distinctive international art scene. Throughout the year students are supported to identify and undertake individually motivated curatorial projects and research as the basis for the development of a self-sustaining practice, making this programme distinctive in its delivery.
@glacuratorial
Art Writing
This interdisciplinary, studio-based, writing programme offers students the opportunity to develop expansive and innovative modes of writing about, with and as art. With an emphasis on reflexive and critical practice- led enquiry, the programme reflects the development of alternative forms of critical and theoretical writing and expanded relationships between writing and artistic practice. The programme offers full and part-time pathways and publishes The Yellow Paper: Journal for Art Writing annually in print and online at theyellowpaper.org.uk
@artwritingGSofA @_theyellowpaper
Thanks
MLitt Fine Art Practice
Staff
Mick McGraw
Dr Jane Topping
Dr Marita Fraser
Michelle Hannah
Dr Sin Park
Administrator
Louise Kerr
Visiting Lecturers
Claire Barclay
Erica Eyres
Florence Peake
James Pfaff
Jem Shearer
Joey Ryken
Michael Fullerton
Dr Sharon Young
Stuart Mackenzie
Susan Breckenridge
Professional Practice guests
Dr Anthony Schrag
Dr Felicity Allen
Helen De Main
Jamie Crewe
Kate Holford
Katie Bruce
Dr Laura Guy
Lesley Black
Dr Libby Anson
Dr Tawnya Selene Renelle
Xiaoyi Nie
MLitt Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art)
Staff
Dr Karen Di Franco
Dr Alexandra Ross
Administrator
Ingrida Danieliute (GSA)
Tony McKay (UoG)
Visiting Specialists
Richard Birkett
Jude Browning
Graham Eatough
Sophia Hao
Jessica Higgins
Lydia Honeybone
Eliel Jones
Peter McCaughey
Henri Meadows
Pelumi Odubango
Dominic Paterson
Dr Tawnya Selene Renelle
Max Slaven
MLitt Art Writing
Staff
Dr Laura Haynes
Graduate Teaching Assistants
Timothea Armour
Kiah Endelman Music
Maria Howard
Administrator
Ingrida Danieliute
Tutors, Visiting Lecturers, Guests and Hosts
Dr Sophie Collins
Esther Draycott
Laurence Figgis
Dr Jane Goldman
Dr Laura Guy
Dr Colin Herd
Eliel Jones
Ailsa Lochhead
Francis McKee
Lisette May Monroe
Naomi Pearce
Dr Tawnya Selene Renelle
Joey Ryken
Stephen Sutcliffe
Prof. Susannah Thompson
Dr Hilary White
Judith Williams
Technical Staff
Aaron Smyth
Alan Roachead
Alan Williams
Allison Mackenzie
Alys Owen
Amy Grogan
Andy Burke
Annie Graham
Aoife McGarrigle
Brian Mcintyre
Bronagh Murray
Chantal Balmer
Chris Barrowman
Dan Miller
Danny Main
Dylan Esposito
Esther Gamsu
Frances Scott
Fraser Brownlee
Garrett Ure
Gayle McGhee
Georgia Thornton
Giulia Lazzaro
Hannah McInally
Harald Turek
Heather Shields
Helen Kalmijn
Hugh Watt
Jack Bishop
Jack Cheetham
Jamie Green
Joe O'Brien
John Ayers
Karena Hansen
Kate Theodore
Katy Scott
Kevin Pollock
lan MacFadyen
Libby Odai
Linsey McAulay
Lynsey MacKenzie
Michael Skeen
Nick Carlin
Owain McGilvary
Paul Boyle
Russell Lamb
Sarah L. Smith
Scott Crawford
Sean Black
Stephen Jackson
Thank You
Martin Newth
Dr Roddy Hunter
Dr Marianne Greated
Professor Sarah Bennett
Dr Neil Clements
Janice Hamilton
Julia Malle
Mary McGuire
Kirsty Ogg
Conor McGrady
Nick Thurston
All MLitt students
All the cleaners in the Barnes Building
Degree Show Catalogue 2024
MLitt Fine Art Practice
MLitt Curatorial Practice
(Contemporary Art)
MLitt Art Writing
Published to coincide with The Glasgow School of Art Degree Show 23–29 August
Published and distributed by Glasgow School of Art
167 Renfrew Street, Glasgow G3 6RQ
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, transmitted unless written permission is obtained from the publishers or in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Designed by Benjamin Fallon/Romulus Studio with Neil McGuire/After the News
Coordinated and edited by Sin Park
Printed by Thomsons jtcp.co.uk
Special thanks to:
All teaching, technical, support and visiting staff, as well as the student representative council (SRC)
