A bunch of students and staff went to the Big Apple; saw some of what was there to be seen and all came home safely. Their photos don’t show much in the way of studying, we’ll just have to take their word for it. What they do show is just how cold it was and how much fun they were having.
Its not all collaborative projects, peeer group crits, study trips. Sometimes you’ve got to get on with the work. Chloe, here, doing just that.
Group tutorials looking like more fun than you’d necessarily expect.
and then trying to look intelligent
Regularly through the second term we have talks from visiting artists and curators. These can be people at all different stages of their careers some being established exhibiting professionals and others finding their feet as emerging artists in whatever field they work. Visitors usually give an hours lecture and some one to one tutorials with students whose practice most relates with their own.
Most recently it was the turn of Ellie Barrett who has not long since completed post grad studies at Glasgow and came to give a practical workshop as well as talk and tutorials. The session was using borax (sodium tetra borate) to create crystals onto and within objects thereby changing their nature.
An example Ellie brought.
An artist’s mannequin soaking overnight in borax solution. The colour is from powdered pigment added to see if it would colour the crystals.
Games controller in borax
All masked up and ready. Borax is an irritant in powder form.
Ellie, George and Fliss mixing the powder with boiling water
Ellie
Crystal mannequin. The most succesful of the objects worked with or at least the one with the biggest crystals.
This was the second year we had included a collaborative project into the 2nd year course. A more compact version this time, as it was felt the longer time span of the previous year took too much focus off students’ core studio practice and that a shorter delivery period would help the vitality of the ideas to survive the sometimes arduous process of realisition.
There were 5 groups. One looking at disrupting habitual movement through one of the main thoroughfares, one at sexual attitudes, one at notions of utopia and distopia, one playing with the relationship between books and trees and one converting the action of drawing to light and sound.
Photos here include some of those tasken at the events and some during the presentations that were given about the process a week or so after.
Sarah’s PhD submission - Drawing the Delicate is the result of four years research and comprised an exhibition of remarkable drawings and an academic thesis on aesthetics in drawing.
