Laura Holmes
Presented within this book you will find examples of the creative output from some of the second year students from BA(hons) Art and Design (Interdisciplinary) at Leeds College of Art. These particular students are unique, they study a program that encourages innovation both in making and in thinking. They have explored art and design practice through a diverse range of disciplines, media and technical approachs. They are highly flexible individuals, shifting between different patterns of work; they collaborate, they communicate, they interact and innovate. This remarkable interdisciplinary approach allows for an open mind to be kept about materials and methods, and a development of specialist skills and unique approaches to combining various media. This practice-based course and the students who work to make it their own reflect the contemporary working practice of the creative industries and explore new and exciting ways of working between the disciplines of art and design. Paula Chambers – 2nd year Tutor
Earthy elements
The work I have produced for the International Book Fair reflects the main aspects of my practice; the handmade and the physicality of organic matter. The materials I have used to create the cards and books are watercolour paper, canvas, thread and rust pigment. My childhood experiences of making, playing and interacting with the materials nature provides while growing up in the rural environment has profoundly affected the way I work today. My need to be in direct contact with the elements and natural matter is very strong and drives my desire to produce work that is aesthetically real and genuine. earthy-elements.blogspot.com
Carol Sowden
Nature poem and Book Markers For the IABF, I have produced squashbooks as I find the format to be really engaging - they trigger curiosity and a wish to ‘find out’ what is inside. The unfolding and discovery of what they hide lends to many possibilities - I have made blank squashbooks for people to record their own private thoughts, as well as patterned ones with music scores, and with a French poem I wrote some times ago about the discovery and curiosity of discovering, as a child, chestnuts still in their shells, just fallen from their trees. I have also produced bookmarks with abstract pictures I took. I am very interested in photography and in details from nature taken out of context, bringing myriads of shapes and colours.
Cecilia tuvo
Untitled (zi gong series)
Currently my work is looking at the importance and meaning of the uterus in a woman’s life. I am researching its biological aspects as well as social significance, symbolism and language. Through this research I have begun a series of experimental drawings inspired by Chinese calligraphy. For this bookfair I have produced a series of jewellery in porcelain stoneware with a transparent crackled glaze, as well as a series of hand-made postcards. This work attempts to symbolise the freedom and personal empowerment women can experience through this organ.
Elisa HeikkilÄ
Silver Suitcase
Lost Luggage. My interests lie in the documentation of objects. Recording and analyzing them in order to discover their story. By sifting through the items in the suitcase I was able to create a profile of the owner/owners, helping me to gain an understanding of how they live. From how many people in the family, to what car they drive. This idea of working from the objects in order to glean information is linked very closely to how forensic scientists work. An area that intrigues me and is definitely the main theme through my work. From the items in the suitcase I have created a series miniature postcards. This will allow you to see for yourself what information can be gathered from inanimate objects, I guarantee everyone will come up with different profiles.
Kat Grant
Postcards, Greetings cards and book marks.
For the international artists book fair, I have produced postcards, greetings cards and book marks related to the River Aire. For the collaborative project I am doing work about the River Aire, and how it isn’t used to its full potential. Therefore making the postcards etc. It should advertise the area more, for people to use in Leeds.
Lisa Haith.
Creative Healing
1 in 4 adults will be affected by a mental health problem at some point in their lives. Although medication remedies are available, medical research supports that journal keeping can improve peoples overall well being. I have produced a series of one off journals as mediums to allow people to document their everyday worries and stresses. It is intended to act as a therapeutic aid in promoting healing for the mind body and soul, in the hope that this will lead to a happy and healthy life. www.ginastockwell.com
Gina stockwell
Stationery/Gift items
My work is based around the ideas of home life and the relations and attachments we have to our household objects. I believe a house is not a home without personal items and it is those connections I am trying to explore. It has a lot to do with personal style and taste as well as memory and perception. I like the idea of emotionally durable design as well as personal functionality and distinctive style. I like mixing memories with style and putting personality and passions back into the homes in which we live. marianneslater01@aol.com
Marianne Slater
River Flags
A playful item inspired by the flags we all used to buy at the seaside. You don’t meed sandcastles for them to still be fun! Leeds boasts a fantastic riverside waterfront, edged with tempting bars and swanky apartments. Along with this there is a danger that the riverside area has become elitist and inaccessible for all Leeds citizens. There is a need for people to use the waterfront for leisure activity, for walking, cycling and getting fresh air. Looking towards how the great British seaside is approached, these souvenirs such as sandcastle flags and postcards are designed to remind people of seaside holidays and approach the river in a similar way.
Claire selman
Picture Language
This book allows you to create your own pictographic language around templates with a series of rules based on alphanumeric typefaces. The idea stems from the representation of image and phoenetics through symbols and the confusion caused in translation. Wouldn’t life be easier if every wrote in pictures?
Patrick Kirk-Smith
Varsha Chouhan
There is no ‘happily ever after’ The labour of love. That is what this project is all about. Creating books from the finest materials, most time consuming processes and getting it right. All the time. Do we not put our all into someone or something when we are in love? My books are crafted using the traditional process of typesetting, hand binding, hand illustration and screen printing, to create a textural and personal approach. The books are in an edition of seven with three special edition copies printed on tissue with completely unique illustrations throughout.
Zoe moyden
27 Club
James Hirst worked in collobaration with Graphic Designer Andrew Makin, to produce a series of 10 informative booklets based on the 27 Club. The booklets fold out to a A2 scale, creating a collage poster of the three chosen artists; Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, and the other a detailed timeline of the three leading up to there deaths at 27. These one off limited edition books are part of an on going project the two are working on which will serve as a taster for a 27 page magazine Andrew is hoping to produce by Spring 2011.
James Hirst
Elisa Heikkila
The Feminine and Keys My work for the bookfair is a mix of work from my last project, the research I am currently doing for my contextual studies and the group I am collaborating with for the latest brief. I am interested in making and crafting and hopefully this shows within my work. I have created some simple pieces of jewellery which relate to the femininity as they are womanly pieces. These reference the feminine curiosity and also the status that keys used to hold. The second piece is an illustrated book which again relates to the feminine curiosity. My last entry is a collaborated fanzine that focuses on the passions, work and interests. The group is very new and is just getting warmed up. This is our first piece of work.
Katie Broadley
a
Piece of mind
intangibly entwined demons of the mind intricately knotted confined the deflated fragments of this distorted mind fried to nothing all sewn apart demented are the insane abandoned, morals lost alive but not living the ghost of a human volatile, wild the caging of an animal a branded wearer of this oppressive shame
Natalie Fyfe
Made in CHINA
Today, here, we are willingly trapped inside this city, but rarely do we show any discerning or understanding praxis. The ever growing skyline just beyond these walls, is an inanimate speaker for our generation, prophesising upon our consumerist ideals, our relentless expansion and our greed fuelled industry. How long can we sustain perpetual materialism? The West: Made in China.
Lauren Robson
trinket boxes and flip books Since the late 19th century, matryoshka dolls (or nesting dolls) have been considered the perfect Russian gift. Its name originates from the Latin word ‘mater’, meaning ‘mother’. Nesting dolls are traditionally painted as a Russian woman in a native dress, to emphasise the symbol of motherhood and fertility. My work is concerned with the idea of memories and collectables, as well as kitsch motifs and nostalgia. The trinket boxes bring together the idea of gifts and keepsakes, and how one attaches value and memories to objects; whilst the flip books attempt to demonstrate playfulness associated with a mother and her children.
laura holmes
alphabet of animal skulls For the International Artist Book Fair I have created an alternative alphabet book, an alphabet of animal skulls. This idea has formed from a previous project ‘The Secret Lives of Objects’ in which I looked at illustration and craft around the slightly morbid object of a lambs skull to create a dark whimsical but strangely playful outcome of models. This led me to explore more skull forms and shapes, as my final out comes from the ‘Secret Lives’ project resulted in a childlike Burtonesque toy, and this made me think of a target audience of children in an slightly ironic way, this led to the idea of the skull alphabet.
charlotte halstead
Untitled Series
I am currently a student at Leeds college of Art and my work is based around femininity. I have looked at many aspects when it comes to women and beauty, as I have looked at what is culturally seen as being beautiful. However in my recent project I started to look at how society determines what beauty is and what women see as being beautiful. I looked into many issues and visually developed my ideas with sewing into images. I became intrigued into sewing into my own lips as to me sewing into lips reflected many areas that related to me and other women. The lips symbolises many things, as the lips reflect upon women’s sexuality and the sexualisation of women. The thread used to sew the lips brings up issues of plastic surgery and how women are portrayed I the media. It also looked upon female mutilation and repression of women. I have used these lips to produce a series of product for the international book fair and I am developing these ideas further as I am currently collaborating with a women’s group in Leeds.
Varsha Chouhan