Degree Shows 2019: paranoia-inducing installation, non-binary paintings, and good things in small packages
University of Salford’s Degree Show 2019 was the focus of Jenny Steele’s a-n Instagram takeover, with the Manchester-based artist posting from the Fine Art and Photography shows which are both based in the university’s New Adelphi Building.
Selecting Rebekah Beasley’s “tufted work presented on the floor and walls” for her first post from the Fine Art show, Steele explained that the New Adelphi Building boasts “a strong fiber arts workshop, and this resource really shows in the strength of the students’ work in this area”.
Steele continued: “Rebekah describes her work as drawing heavily on conflicting themes – the feminine and masculine, art and craft, the ‘white cube’ space and domestic sphere of the home.”
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Steele described the work of Mollie Balshaw as “visually arresting”. Balshaw has just received a 12-month Professional Development Programme award, supported by the university, at the Salford-based creative arts hub Islington Mill.
Her installation, Steele explained, “alludes to her interests in the non-binary in painting, and how this parallels to her own identity as non-binary”.
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Amy Brown has also received a year-long Professional Development Programme award, this time with Manchester-based artist-run project and exhibition space PS Mirabel.
“I found Brown’s unusually-shaped paintings very intimate and a little unsettling,” said Steele. “Amy is interested in the negative effects of social media, and the murky blurring of private and social spheres.”
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Moving on to the Photography show, Steele highlighted Danny Sargent’s A Moment of Euphoria installation. “The work explores how sound can become an intrinsic part of a photograph,” explained Steele.
“Sargent has converted an image into sound, and then into a spectrogram, creating a single format which expresses the relationship between music and photography.”
University of Salford Degree Show 2019 continues until 7 June.
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As well as posting works by graduating artists from the Fine Art, Photography and Textiles Degree Shows at Nottingham Trent University Art and Design Degree Show, for her takeover Diana Ali also filmed a series of ‘talking heads’ with graduating students.
Harry Freestone and Paud Condron explained the theme of the Fine Art show, ‘Cataclysm’.
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Freestone said his own work is about “tackling issues of the ideal home in present-day society”.
Highlighting Freestone’s “great making skills,” Ali said the work “makes us think how contained we can be.”
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From the Textiles show, Sasha Hughes Stanton described her work as “incorporating natural forms and patterns, which contrast with the dark and harsh elements of the city’s architecture”.
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From the Photography show, Ali posted one of the images from Wesley Morgan’s work A Different Life, which explore the diversity of youth culture from within a Nottingham-based hip-hop collective.
Nottingham Trent University Art and Design Degree Show 2019 continues until 9 June.
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FK McLoone didn’t let a rainy day in Edinburgh spoil their enjoyment of the Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show/19.
McLoone’s first post included several images of Gabrielle Gillott’s Safe Haven. “Named for the soothing, saccharine shade of lilac paint used throughout, the winding corridors, bare lightbulbs and hollow stacks of tin cans inside the installation replace comfort with paranoia.”
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Paintings by Aidan Stephen, who is featured in the a-n Degree Shows Guide 2019, was amongst the work featured in McLoone’s posts.
“At first glance, the cinematic references in Stephen’s work are obvious,” said McLoone. “But the landscapes of Above & Beyond tell a much more personal story of escape and recovery. Though each individual piece is small, Stephen’s vision feels immersive and expansive.”
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For her installation, Emma-Kate Roberts has created what McLoone described as her “very own planet”.
“The A.S.P.I.E Space Project represents the creative output of a ‘burnt-out aspie artist’, both illustrating Roberts’ personal experiences and seeking to draw attention to autistic women, who are less often diagnosed and represented.
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In several posts, McLoone referenced the scale of the spaces at Edinburgh College of Art and “all the ways artists have filled them to their greatest potential”.
But for for their final post, McLoone explained that “the best things often come in small packages” with reference to Chell Young’s Fragile Realities, “a series of miniature rooms artfully designed to play tricks on the viewer’s imagination”.
Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show/19 continues until 9 June.
More takeovers in the week ahead: Trevor H Smith will be posting from the Bath Spa University Bath School of Art and Design Preview and the UWE Bristol Fresh Off The Block 2019 show. Follow #andegrees19 for all our Degree Shows posts.
Images:
1. Rebekah Beasley, installation as part of University of Salford’s Degree Show 2019. Photo: Jenny Steel
2. Mollie Balshaw, installation as part of University of Salford’s Degree Show 2019.
3. Amy Brown, University of Salford’s Degree Show 2019.
4. Danny Sargent, A Moment of Euphoria, University of Salford’s Degree Show 2019.
5. Harry Freestone and Paud Condron explaining the theme of the Fine Art show, Cataclysm.
6. Harry Freestone, Nottingham Trent University Art and Design Degree Show 2019.
7. Sasha Hughes Stanton discussing here work in te Textiles show, as part of Nottingham Trent University Art and Design Degree Show 2019.
8. Wesley Morgan, A Different Life, Nottingham Trent University Art and Design Degree Show 2019.
9. Gabrielle Gillott, Safe Haven, Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show/19.
10. Aidan Stephen, Above & Beyond, Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show/19.
11. Emma-Kate Roberts, A.S.P.I.E Space Project, Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show/19.
12. Chell Young, Fragile Realities, Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show/19.
