It’s that time of year again. The days lengthen, the weather finally improves a bit and a new cohort of artists is let loose on the world. In the high-point of the art school year, Scotland’s four colleges, in Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, throw open their doors and invite the public in. Visitors can see work across a range of art and design disciplines, from painting and sculpture to product design, animation and architecture.
While many of these graduates began their courses during lockdown – and some had no face-to-face teaching or access to art school equipment for the first 18 months – they clearly caught up fast. From shelters made from sheep’s wool to photographs developed using plant infusions, this is a cornucopia of creativity as students ensure that – whatever happens next – they have presented their most ambitious work so far.
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee (run ended). Online showcase here.
Dundee marked the official start of the Scottish degree show season in May with more than 400 graduating students. Painting is usually strong at Duncan of Jordanstone, and this year saw many reaching for their brushes and palettes.
‘whatever happens next – they have presented their most ambitious work so far.’
Calder Mackay’s superb figurative painting explores elements of masculinity, capturing nuanced interactions between men and women at different stages of life. Amy Odlum’s painting also stands out; her degree is a poignant series of hyperrealist studies of her father’s face during his last illness.
Thomas Houlihan’s paintings feel allegorical and timeless, but the expressiveness of his work grounds them in emotion. Liberty Thompson paints ordinary domestic spaces – kitchen, bedroom, bathroom – as a way of exploring the experience of her parents’ separation. Rosalie Thorley is making her way as a contemporary painter of religious icons, particularly championing female saints.
There are saints, too, in the strong printmaking practice of Aoife Cawley, whose series ‘The Land of Saints and Scholars’ is inspired by medieval illuminated manuscripts, building from that a clear, contemporary aesthetic. Fern Lovande’s printmaking cheerfully celebrates pattern on paper, wallpaper and textiles.
Ceramics are still ubiquitous, cropping up in a number of practices. Kristina Gondova’s superbly expressive pots are inspired by the Scottish landscape and chart her journeys through it, including a walk across the Cairngorms with a pot strapped to her body. Madeline Farquhar’s pots prove that small is also beautiful, coming together to make a sculptural ‘River of One Thousand Pots’.
Several artists look at Scottishness. Ewan Douglas confronts stereotypes head-on with his Albaland theme park and anthropomorphic highland cows, gathered in a group surrounded by empty Buckfast and Irn Bru bottles. Ava Wright’s photographs offer a slice of life in Paisley.
In a show with comparatively little film-making, Olivia Sinclair’s stop-motion film about teenage boredom and self-awareness is impressive, as is Naia Ammane’s ambitious work retelling the story of Icarus in film and choreographed performance.
Lewis Cavinue is a performance artist, which doesn’t always translate well to exhibiting, but he has found a way in a series of figures with their heads buried in books, as well as two films. Madeleine Marg’s impressive installation of a dinner table surrounded by scrolling screens, ‘Dinner’s Ready But Nobody Is Listening’, captures perfectly the sense of a feast which is ignored as the participants stare at their smart phones.
Glasgow School of Art Show runs until 9th June. Online showcase here.
Glasgow School of Art presents the largest degree show in Scotland with over 600 graduating students, and visitors can expect to wear down some shoe leather pounding the streets of Garnethill. The Stow Building alone presents the work of nearly 140 graduates in Fine Art subjects, and the postgraduates on the MFA course are showing at the same time in the Glue Factory in Maryhill.
‘There is a rich seam of work which comes from students exploring their family backgrounds.’
GSA is also the most strongly concept-driven of the schools with students often working across a range of media in service of an overall idea. There is comparatively little painting this year. Hannah Lockey is a strong figurative painter, having moved from working on graphic novels to painting dynamic studies of young people. Meghan Josephine is a committed painter too; her large-scale paintings of all-female groups aim to shift the balance on how women have traditionally been portrayed in art.
Felix Bode works quickly to capture views glimpsed from train and plane windows, the kind of non-places we stare at while our minds are elsewhere. Ashley Griffiths paints colourful expressive abstracts. Lucas Allan seems to be engaged in an exploration of painting itself with his intriguing self-abstract work, while Maya McMahon-Boon is doing something similar with printmaking, engaging creatively with the possibilities offered by different print processes.
Among the sculptors, there is a strong trend for working with elements of the natural world. Maud Ross’s hanging constructions of reeds, hessian and wool look like nests or cocoons. Olivia Priya Foster has made three impressive tents of sheep’s wool from her family farm, referencing her experience of living as a person of colour in rural Scotland.
Robyn Bamford has made a series of water flutes – ceramic vessels ‘played’ by the wind – and has filmed them making their strange music in outdoor locations. Sound is a feature of several shows this year, and there is more music from Sam Obaid, who came to Glasgow from Syria as a refugee, and has made a kind of expanded music box which spools out melody and images at the turn of a handle.
Tactility is an important part of a number of shows, with Sarah MacSporran’s impressive mobiles and ceramic sculptures crying out to be touched. Rebecca Niska has a strong formal sensibility, working mainly with wood, attentive to shape and colour, weight and balance. Amy Dixon has recycled and reused her own possessions, clothes and old art projects, making ball-shaped sculptures which visitors are encouraged to touch and roll about.
There is a rich seam of work which comes from students exploring their family backgrounds. Sancia Brims recreates a version of the hairdressing salon in which both her parents once worked. Manuela Davies-Vangoechea explores her Scottish-Colombian heritage in performance and costume. Photographer Ron Symington turns his dispassionate lens on Ayrshire, where he grew up, and Oran McLeod turns his on a sporting estate on the Isle of Lewis, both celebrating the landscape and commenting on its ownership.
Edinburgh College of Art Show runs until 9th June. Online showcase here.
‘A number of students are grappling with the overload of images to which we’re exposed in the 21st century.’
ECA is only just behind Glasgow in terms of student numbers, but always feels more manageable to visit. Less-than-clear labelling, and a widespread absence of artist’s statements, can make it a challenging show to navigate at times, but there is plenty of interesting work to see nonetheless.
A number of students are grappling with the overload of images to which we’re exposed in the 21st century. Agnes Roberts’ paintings pick out details and moments, images and objects, working together to create a detailed picture of ordinary life. Will Dutton’s large multi-layered paintings seem to present a number of different scenes at once but gradually reveal themselves with time. Astrid Wigand’s spacious abstract paintings feel like an antidote to busyness.
One way to deal with overload is to focus down on detail. Shiza Saqib’s beautiful drawings and embroidery are a kind of slow practice, forming repeating patterns or phrases in Urdu. Kitty Yarrow’s densely patterned drawings of leaves and grasses are also a delight. Jillian Lee Adamson works in embroidery, making superbly detailed patterns which look like cell structures.
Photographer Olivia Kendall urges us to slow down and notice her black and white photographs taken in green spaces and parks. Cathy Bullock takes a different approach by creating a space where visitors are encouraged to relax, put a record on the turntable, try on a hand-made mask and play.
Meanwhile, figurative painters are exploring themes of relationships, personal space and isolation. Clare Cooper’s paintings, often showing pairs of people sitting together, are also painterly experiments in impasto. Katherine Wai’s unframed canvases feel tentative, though they have no reason to, as they capture intimate moments thoughtfully and well.
Environmental concerns are present in a number of shows, but this can be difficult to do well. Photographer Clarissa Gurd does it by being specific, looking at the iron oxide deposits in the South Esk river which have been leached from disused coal mines. Fiona Goss has a beautifully light touch with her life-size palm tree mobile (‘There is possibility under the palm’) hung with finely crafted seed pods and a termite mound, cast in bronze. Izzy Osborn looks at the bigger picture, burning images from the Anthropocene on to discarded wood with a laser cutter.
ECA often has strong work in sculpture and this year is no exception. Justine Watt repurposes discarded wooden materials into strong forms, and knows exactly when to stop. Christian Sloan’s work imagining the detritus of the modern world in an apocalyptic future also focuses on strong forms and maximises the properties of materials, particularly rusted metal. Evie May Harding works in ceramics, creating some beautiful raku pieces by adding materials, including her own shredded diaries, and makes an impressive pillar from gypsum plaster.
Gray’s School of Art Aberdeen’s degree show will run 8th – 15 June, and will be included in next week’s Subject Matter.
Napier University Edinburgh Run ended. Online showcase here.
145 students of Design, Photography and Creative Advertising are showcasing their work at the Edinburgh Napier Degree Show, comprising a vast array of projects ranging in inspiration from crochet to climate change, birdwatching to beer festivals, each displaying the innovative talents of Scotland’s future creatives.
Students of Photography display bold and unapologetic series of work. Relou by Mathilde Vieilledent explores the issue of street harassment in France, particularly its burden on women. Incorporating vibrant graffiti, this striking exhibit portrays the inventive ways in which victims attempt to combat their street anxiety.
Returning closer to home, PA14 by fellow Photography student Heather Graham explores the relationship between political policy and the decline of industrial areas. ‘PA14’ is the postcode of Clune Park, an abandoned shipyard town in Port Glasgow. Delving into the themes of loss, memory and the human condition, Heather’s series depicts the bleak conditions of Clune Park today and its downfall from a lively community to one afflicted by antisocial behaviours.
From Photography to Graphic Design, students displayed diverse and inventive projects designed to help us navigate modern life. Isla Macdonald’s project Biggin Up Bairns aims to support parents in teaching their children Scots through various resources such as children’s books, learning cards and posters, all of which are designed, written and illustrated by herself. Isla’s Saltire-inspired colour palette is approachable and speaks to everyone – highlighting her aim of spreading awareness of Scots as a language and promoting curriculum advances. As an active Scots speaker, Isla describes the project as ‘very personal but also very relatable’. By directing her design to youngsters, she says she is ‘trying to tackle the youngest possible age group and early speakers’.
Another Graphic Design project which highlights the underrepresentation of aspects of Scottish culture is the Alternative Atlas by student Archie Vickerstaff. A new monthly publication that can be folded like an OS map showcases routes around some of Scotland’s most extraordinary yet overlooked locations. Archie’s project aims to boost the places that are often missed by tourists and change the perception of some of the forgotten towns of Scotland. Its fresh and alternative content is reflected in its aesthetic, which is reminiscent of punk and zine movements. Archie says, ‘I wanted to try and make something that was original and bold – and something that stood out… It’s sort of a punk alternative to the norm’.
Reflecting on the future of rehabilitation programmes for ex-prisoners in East Lothian, Interior and Spatial Design student Ethan Guthrie presents a contemporary and forward-thinking approach to rehabilitation through his project TimberTide. Based in the historic site of the Belhaven Brewery in Dunbar, Ethan’s project employs the power of the sea as a force for good – providing surf-therapy and the teaching of crafting skills in the creation of wooden surfboards. The design is meticulously crafted, incorporating wood as a key theme as well as concrete to create a salient contrast. Employing the concept of fluidity, TimberTide encourages visitors to take a mindful approach when moving through the building. The concept of surf therapy stems from his own love of surfing. Ethan says, ‘As a designer, I’ve always been focused on not just creating things that look nice. I want to create things with purpose so there’s a lot of meaning behind my design.’
It is not only the undergraduate projects that are grasping attention. The Masters exhibition, titled MOTHERTONGUE, incorporates two courses in Heritage and Exhibition Design as well as Design for Interactive Experience. Held in the Glassroom at the Merchiston Campus, MOTHERTONGUE sheds light on culture and identity on both a personal and collective level. Touching on several themes and featuring nine languages from ten different countries, the exhibition investigates heritage and collective memory as a means of creative expression. A striking and colourful celebration of rich cultural diversity, the exhibition acts as a platform for the emotional exploration through the lens of multiculturalism.
The show runs from the 24th-30th May, and provides a stunning display of talent across an array of courses.
With thanks to Freya Saxton for this review.
