VISUAL ARTS SCOTLAND | GRADUATE SHOWCASE 2020

Roisin Gallagher - Finalist

Roisin Gallagher 

Contemporary Art Practice MFA

Edinburgh College of Art

The University of Edinburgh

"It is ma aim ae git fowk mair comfortable an acquainted wi Scots an through ma airt practice ah address the toat self-hatred weh huv taewards the wiy thit weh talk. Ma work explores n supports the recognition eh Scots is a leid an hopes tae address damage done beh scuile systums thit broat up the generations afore ma ain.

Ma work is an airtist seeks tae chiynge the wiy thit weh hink aboot Scots n gee it deserverd recognition is a leid n suhin much mare thin a dialect or slang."

https://roisingallagher.wordpress.com/

Daphne Jiyeon Jang - Finalist

Daphne Jiyeon Jang

Contemporary Art Practice MFA

Edinburgh College of Art

The University of Edinburgh

In her large-scale video installations, new media artist Daphne Jiyeon Jang uses 3D animation, video projection and spatial mapping, to bring new meaning to classical sculptures. Using self-generated 3D models Jang hopes to ‘unfreeze’ the fixed identity and meaning of historical works, by reanimating these classical artefacts in the present. Constructing a virtual space within which classical sculptures are able to move and gesture, Jang’s ‘moving sculptures’, are designed to unravel the frozen time of antiquity and hint at hidden narrative meanings in the past, that still reverberates in the present.  Jang’s hope is that the works will possess an emotional power that will engage the viewer, inviting them to reconsider the nature of the past and the relevance and importance of classical, mythic stories and tales in contemporary culture.

https://daphnejiyeonjang.com/

Molly Kent - Finalist

Molly Kent 

MA Fine Art

Edinburgh College of Art

The University of Edinburgh

My practice engages fibre and installation art. Through ‘rug tufting’, my work represents doubt in the digital age. Utilising glitch art’s visual aesthetic, I portray contemporary existence regarding social-media and internet living. Pieces intend to overwhelm the senses, mirroring the feeling of doubt, through the juxtaposition of colour, phrases and form. Taking the domestic form of the rug and shifting it in presentation, the objects I make climb walls, morphing before us resembling viral/bacterial forms. This plays on the idea that doubt can be perceived as a disease that, over time, shifts and morphs to continue its hold over us.

https://mollyhkent.co.uk/work

Ellen Martin - Finalist

Ellen Martin

Textiles

Glasgow School of Art

Ellen Martin is a designer specialising in printed and dyed textiles. With a focus on hand-drawn design and repeat pattern, her work has been greatly influenced by a term spent living and studying in Kyoto, Japan. During her stay, she gathered research for her graduate collection at The Glasgow School of Art, while learning traditional Japanese resist-dyeing methods. Ellen’s collection includes digitally printed silk and bamboo with subtle pleat and fold illusions, and screen-printed cotton, manipulated for a three-dimensional effect. These are complimented with samples of Katazome, a Japanese resist-dyeing technique, which has been used to create simplified patterns.

https://www.ellenmartintextiles.com/

Kinga Elliott- Shortlisted Graduate

Kinga Elliott

Drawing and Paining

Gray's School of Art

Robert Gordon University

The paintings of RSA John Kinross scholar Kinga Elliott explore manifestations of light, colour, dynamism, balance and interconnectedness. The focal point of her art practice is LIGHT, be it optics, theoretical physics, or from a theological aspect. Elliott found a very apt process in the making of cyanotypes, where light plays an active part in the creation of the image.

She makes large scale cyanotypes which then become starting points for painterly developments using oil and acrylic paint, ink and dry mediums and more recently resin.

The titles of her work bear reference to coding systems of online platforms.

https://www.kingaelliott.com/

Catherine Eckersall - Shortlisted Graduate

Catherine Eckersall

Drawing and Painting

Gray's School of Art

Robert Gordon University

Through the lens of Celtic folklore, I seek to depict the unseen landscape: human interpretations of natural surroundings comprised of folklore, superstition, and history.

Folktales and literature are combined with my personal experiences of rural environments in Scotland and Ireland, reflecting immersion in nature, whilst representing the wider cultural experience of landscape.

My practice follows a process of distillation, selecting significant natural symbols from a body of imagery and stories. In isolation, these aspects of the landscape become reminiscent of half-forgotten memories. Soundwaves, generated from audio recordings of natural environments, trace time and movement within these constructed settings.

https://www.catherineeckersall.com/

Lauren Patchett - Shortlisted Graduate

Lauren Patchett

Textile Design, specialising in knit

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD)

University of Dundee

“Whatever you say, say nothing" (Seamus Heaney).

Men’s mental health is a growing issue in today’s society. Being from Northern Ireland, I have seen this problem manifest prominently there. This is particularly notable within the male population and is discussed by Karen Nickel. She says that women were concerned about their “menfolk” who were, “hiding their emotions behind an angry silence”.  As a textile designer I wanted to communicate some of the emotion and energy that surrounds things that have gone unsaid.  Fashion can be used as a mirror for society; a reflection of what has been happening in Northern Ireland and a commentary on it. 

https://lptextiles.wordpress.com/

Holly Evelyn Smith - Shortlisted Graduate

Holly Evelyn Smith

Sculpture/ Environmental Art

Glasgow School of Art

"Holly Evelyn Smith is an environmental artist creating work for outside spaces. The projects she makes confront the public with information, rather than labelling it as art. Her work employs imagery, symbolism and conventional materials to disguise the unsanctioned work she installs.

These works remain active, hidden in plain sight, occupying public and civic space. Consequently, we can only understand them here through the medium of photography, documenting her unsanctioned interventions, installations and political actions. The themes contained in her work develop organically from an individual response to society’s problems, developing a practise reflecting an irascible confrontation with contemporary life in Britain."

https://hollyevelynsmith.cargo.site/

Benjamin Hall - Shortlisted Graduate

Benjamin Hall

Painting and Printmaking

Glasgow School of Art

I am a Glasgow-based artist, filmmaker, animator, creative computer and write. I frame my practice as contra-content creation, falling on a spectrum between passive complicity and subversive resistance. I work with the language of commercial computational images, making immersive time-based experiences, usually buttressed by full-CG or AR digital film. These films incorporate 3D and 2D animation, motion capture, physics simulation and compositing to create and modulate layered works. I disperse these works among multiple and diverse surfaces of information; combining CGI with live footage, OLED monitors with ePaper. Multiple channels and sculptural interceptions combine with lighting, projection and holography techniques.  

http://benvillagehall.com/

Sarah Murdoch - Shortlisted Graduate

Sarah Murdoch

Silversmithing and Jewellery Design

Glasgow School of Art

Objectification can be defined as seeing and/or treating a person, usually a woman, as an object. Exploration of the female form was the starting point of this research, studying the evolution of beauty standards throughout the ages. Initially, the life drawing tradition marked the beginning of this investigation, that allowed for an exploration of the shapes and movement of the body; extracting form, colour, and pattern directly from drawings and incorporating them into these designs. Each pose has its own fleeting image that has to be captured there and then, and can be interpreted in different ways by the viewer.

https://www.instagram.com/smurdo.ch/