Remarks about Newcastle University MFA Degree Show by Elizabeth Kane

I've just come across Elizabeth Kane's blog post following her visit to the Newcastle University MFA Degree Show a few weeks ago.

It reads:

"Last Friday I ventured to see 2015 MFA show at Newcastle University. You can find out more about the artists here and The Hatton here.

It was a very humid day. Not an ideal climate for viewing work. I was drawn to Alex Charrington’s prints. Perhaps because of my recent reading about visual literacy and viewer as author. They were beautiful, layered, graphic… reminiscent of so many things. Lots of ways to make my own meaning. The smell of seaweed from Helen Shaddock’s studio revitalized me, love those multi-sensory experiences.

I confess I had terrible urges to ruin the tentative balance of Nigel Morgan’s construction! I resisted but that sense of jeopardy and imminent collapse is quite powerful.Sarah Dunn’s exploration of sorting, collecting, presenting and owning was fascinating but definitely one I felt I skimmed.Finally, I have learnt Yein Son’s Nocturncanvases are made from indian ink but as an observer I pondered if they were made from light sensitive materials.

I need to go back and see more."


https://elizabethkane.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/fine-art-ma-newcastle-university-2015/

Skimmer

Brass Skimmer

Rice Paper

This is probably the most minimal artwork that I've ever made. I saw the skimmer in an Asian supermarket and felt an urge to buy one and admire its beauty. I had also picked up some rice paper, and so cut it into strips and soaked them in water prior to then laying them over the dome of the skimmer, ensuring that they neatly cover the surface. When it was dry I carefully removed the cast from the mould. I hung the skimmer on wall and then balanced the rice paper on the wire skimmer part. Over time the rice paper moulded itself around the skimmer, and as it dried out it began to crack.

Here it is in stages

Some thoughts on my first year of the MFA

Yesterday I took down my exhibition and continued to sort out my studio space. As I look at all of the things I have in my studio, I realise how much work I made over the past year, and the wealth of materials that I have collected. I'm trying my best to reduce the amount of things I keep in my studio so as not to clutter it, but it is challenging given that I work in such a varied way and make use of lots of materials, both found and made. I often have materials in my studio for a while before I decide what I am going to use them for. It is almost like I am getting to know them and try to understand their properties before I make use of them.

Going through my year's work also made me realise how much I have embraced the course and really challenged myself, and I feel as though my work has moved in a different direction, and into the a place of possibilities. I have grappled with the notion of play and playfulness. I started out thinking that in order for artwork to be playful, it had to be fun and look cheery. I now realise that this is not the kind of work I want to make as it often appears childish and is very literal. What interests me much more is how artists can be playful in their approach and process. These ideas are going to be explored further in my dissertation.

My work started out brightly coloured and made of art materials such as plaster. Over time I begun to move away from what had become a somewhat familiar way of working, into the unknown. I introduced found materials, and begun to use materials not usually associated with art such as jelly. This made the work less predictable. Who knows where my work will be in another year?!

Newcastle University MFA 2015 Summer Exhibition - Mirela Bistram

Mirela Bistran

is a Romanian artist living in the UK.

In her “

Unfolded Dowry

” she explores the cultural significance of objects

.

The imagined space of the installation is a layerin

g of references alluding to

Romanian cultural heritage and veiling Bistran’s ow

n memories.

In seeming together old and new fabrics - hand fini

shed and machine fabricated –

the past and the present, the real and the artifici

al combine.

The installation is a journey out of time, it is ab

out past traditions – though traditions

which have become increasingly alien – and it is th

rough memory: but it is a memory

re-imagined, remembered and manufactured.

Mirela Bistran is a Romanian artist living in the UK.

In her “Unfolded Dowry” she explores the cultural significance of objects.

The imagined space of the installation is a layering of references alluding to Romanian cultural heritage and veiling Bistran’s own memories.

In seeming together old and new fabrics - hand finished and machine fabricated – the past and the present, the real and the artificial combine.

Mirela Bistran

is a Romanian artist living in the UK.

In her “

Unfolded Dowry

” she explores the cultural significance of objects

.

The imagined space of the installation is a layerin

g of references alluding to

Romanian cultural heritage and veiling Bistran’s ow

n memories.

In seeming together old and new fabrics - hand fini

shed and machine fabricated –

the past and the present, the real and the artifici

al combine.

The installation is a journey out of time, it is ab

out past traditions – though traditions

which have become increasingly alien – and it is th

rough memory: but it is a memory

re-imagined, remembered and manufactured.

The installation is a journey out of time, it is about past traditions – though traditions which have become increasingly alien – and it is through memory: but it is a memory re-imagined, remembered and manufactured.

http://www.mirelabistran.blogspot.co.uk

Newcastle University MFA 2015 Summer Exhibition - Sofija Sutton

Sofija Sutton has created a large installation utilizing the room’s architecture to construct an oversized diagram linking multiple short stories. 

"Text, audio, space, and video unite through flash fiction to express various notions of ‘low mood’ and, in contrast, combatant methods. Ticks consuming bus passengers, dawn and dusk as lovers, a bear with a yellow tongue, a woman bleaching her hair, and other fantasies each use absurdities with the mundane as metaphors for mental health shortcomings. "

Sutton writes "I hope my work will compel the viewer to physically interact with the mind map, so that the story points may thread together a work that is both thought-provoking and entertaining."

http://www.srlsutton.com