INTRODUCTION Leeds College of Art is proud of being one of the few remaining independent specialist art & design institutions in the UK. The college has a culture of engaging with ‘live’ external events
promoting a professional and outward looking ethos amongst its students. Students on the course explore drawing, painting,
sculpture, lens-based media, installation, performance, social and public art through a series of critically positioned modules.
This exhibition houses the final projects of this year’s 44 graduates studying BA (Hons) Fine Art at Leeds College of Art. From the outset
the degree programme recognises that the individual character of each student matters and it makes the personal development from passion to profession possible for them. On viewing the overall group show we are engaging with a consolidated body of tacit knowledge (which we regard as ‘know-how’) over their time on the course.
For an art student tacit knowledge also means unspoken trust, a
passing of knowledge between staff and students not described with words but implicit in the group studio situation. The exhibition
forefronts this unspoken knowledge and its evocation in the act of
making. By definition, making means material, and thus these artists have approached their work through a dialogue with their materials that is informed by this ‘thinking through making’.
We would like to introduce you to these new artists graduating in 2011 and warmly invite you to explore their work.
EXHIBITORS Stephanie Barratt
04/05
Melanie King
56/57
Geri Callan
08/09
Amy McKeating
60/61
Ruth Blower
Laura Carter Jimmy Cave
Ian Chapman
William Crabtree Alex Cunningham Lisa Darbyshire Katie Dent
Ahmed El Haddad Duncan Fraser Lucy Fudge
Marie Furter Beth Gadd
Josh Gibbs
Pollyanna Hodson Chikae Howland Sam Humble
Becky Johnson Liam Kelly
Jane Kenington
06/07 10/11 12/13 16/17 18/19 20/21 22/23 24/25 26/27 30/31 32/33 34/35 36/37 38/39 42/43 44/45 46/47 48/49 50/51 52/53
Robyn Lawrence Miranda Mohit Samuel Morgan Louie Mulhern Holly Mulveen
Alex Nightingale Alex Norcop
Michael Ormerod Simon Phillips Jonny Rawlin Leilani Read
Laura Rushton John Shaw
Jessie Simmonds Isabel Skinner Stuart Symonds Nicholas Tighe Emily Towler Naomi Wallis Bobby West
58/59 62/63 64/65 68/67 70/71 72/73 74/75 76/77 78/79 82/83 84/85 86/87 88/89 90/91 94/95 96/97 98/99
100/101 102/103 104/105
stefbarratt@hotmail.co.uk
Website
www.stephaniebarratt.co.uk
STEPHANIE BARRATT
05
Stains and imperfections are the
embellishment of history on an object or surface; they tell a story of
human presence through absence, where marks are a trace of interaction.
mcrknottingley@hotmail.co.uk
Website
www.joyarts.weebly.com
RUTH BLOWER
My practice deals with the subject of my identity. I focus on processes to
create my work starting with drawing, then mark making and painting. My work is mainly 2D based as I feel
this depicts the quality of the lines that I like to achieve.
07
jack_of_all@hotmail.co.uk
GERI CALLAN
I reflect on true identity that is
visually represented and influenced through my personal interests. My exploration is the struggle and
complexities between art and craft, both utilitarian and beautiful.
09
bitethebadger@hotmail.co.uk
LAURA CARTER
I use organic shapes and tactile materials to create sculpture. I
allow the materials to do what occurs naturally in order to capture a
moment. I want to build something
tall, which draws the eye upwards. My obsession with animals is apparent in the use of fur within my sculptures.
jcavefineart@gmail.com
Website
www.coughcoughcough.tumblr.com
JIMMY CAVE
I use the open flame of a blowtorch or heat from a soldering iron to leave tonal marks on a material such as wood or canvas. This allows me to
form images with fire as a metaphor of creation through destruction. There
can be no creation without first there being destruction.
13
ichapman89@aol.com
IAN CHAPMAN
17
I am currently interested in making sculpture. I’m attracted by bright, bold colours and the repetition of refined manufactured objects. I manipulate these to create forms, taking a
material out of its context to create something new. I want to make us think about that object in a different way.
red_ibanez1@hotmail.com
WILLIAM CRABTREE
The photographic medium is defined by its
particular limitations. As we undergo the
transition from analogue to digital, these
limitations are threatened by a new wealth of
possibility. Using the questions raised by the digital medium as a point of departure, I have been working to investigate the nature of what constitutes photographic integrity.
19
acunninghamfineart@gmail.com
Website
www.howmanysugars.tumblr.com
ALEX CUNNINGHAM
Currently, I’m interested in materiality and discovering the potential of the materials I
use in my work. Rather than using traditional
sculptural materials, I prefer to use uncommon ones, such as packaging tape. I believe the use of unique materials creates distinctive conceptuality in my work.
21
lisadarbyshire2203@hotmail.co.uk
LISA DARBYSHIRE Using the body as both subject and
material, my work explores issues of conformity and non-conformity. There is a large autobiographical element that is fundamental to my practice and shapes its direction.
23
kjdent@hotmail.co.uk
Website
katiedent.wordpress.com
KATIE DENT
Working predominantly with natural materials I focus on creating
sculptural forms that have a sense of presence within a space.
25
aeelhaddad1@yahoo.co.uk
AHMED EL HADDAD
27
In my work things don’t have to
relate however they can still exist side by side in some free concept. It can be, for example, figurative,
creative and free from commitment. I make work that resonates on a deeply emotive level acting as a vehicle to reconnect with a ‘place’ or memory deep in my subconscious.
duncan.fraser.art@gmail.com
DUNCAN FRASER
31
I find interest within people’s
relationships to, yet alienation from, the inert; the objects that belong to us, yet outlast us. I intend to
capture the fleeting memories of their interactions with these objects,
layering footage onto the object to create a record of interaction.
lucyfudge@hotmail.co.uk
Website
lucyfudge.blogspot.com
LUCY FUDGE
We have tirelessly used the body within the history of art in the pursuit of a greater or truer understanding of
the relationship between ourselves and our realities. Within my practice I
explore the multitude of associations, connotations and meanings the body can independently evoke in us all.
33
izzif@btinternet.com
MARIE FURTER
My work is engaged with the symbolic gestures that I relate to the heart
and the mind. Although the aspects of
mental phenomena are commonly described as non-physical, the impetus to my practice is the realisation of its
sentience, under-pinned by the notion of ‘Cartesian dualism’. Stitch forms
the skeletons to pieces, thus mimicking the ethereal nature of feeling.
bethsgadd@yahoo.co.uk
Website
www.bethgadd.weebly.com
BETH GADD
My work deals with The Self, and the effect that living in our current society has on us as individuals and social groups. I am
particularly interested in the physical aspect of this, and my work is a response to issues such as the size zero culture and what is typically considered to be ‘ugly’.
jgibbs596@gmail.com
JOSH GIBBS
The use of soap, water, ink and dye is recorded on video where the recording is the transient medium itself. The
key conceptual aspect of the work is the transcendent nature of space and
the array of relative existential and cerebral parallel planes.
pollyanna.hodson@live.co.uk
Website
pollyannahodson.blogspot.com
POLLYANNA HODSON
nathalie88@gmail.com
CHIKAE HOWLAND
My practice is about culture, the
things I love and that make me happy. In this project I have gone back to
my roots of drawing and painting. My
method is simplicity and realism done in a delicate manner.
45
sam_humble@msn.com
SAM HUMBLE
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s
concept of ‘becoming-animal’ rejects metaphor or symbolism; it perceives identity as being a multiplicitous process rather than a static
phenomenon. I deconstruct and reform the human and the animal figure
mutually in the act of drawing.
rebecca_johnson1988@hotmail.com
BECKY JOHNSON
I work with a wide range of materials often
changing between organic and man-made. The aim of my work is to arouse curiosity and invite touch through its tactile qualities. I am
influenced by symbolism, nature and the sublime, using anything that sparks my imagination and incorporating it into my art.
49
lpj@mail.com
LIAM KELLY
51
jane_e_k@hotmail.co.uk
Website
www.inmyotherlife.blogspot.com
JANE KENINGTON
My work is about space. The spaces around us, the spaces we occupy, the spaces we might not
notice and the space in our heads. Through the use of thread and wire I make forms to fill
these spaces injecting complexity into often overlooked spaces.
melaniek@melaniek.co.uk
MELANIE KING
My preoccupation with the infinite began as a
child. I suffered anxiety attacks when exposed to scientific and mathematical paradoxes at a young age. Repetitive tasks and playful experiments appeal to both my anxious nature and my inner
child, which in turn helps me to process complex thought through simple processes.
57
daisyadaire@hotmail.com
ROBYN LAWRENCE
I am a mixed media artist who works with the
notion that the universal can be personal and
the personal be universal, my work is driven by the fine line between chaos and organization.
amymckeating@googlemail.com
Website
www.doublethink-amk.blogspot.com
AMY MCKEATING
61
I am interested in the concept of the uncanny and how it is experienced as feelings of unease within our
surroundings, revealing the strange in what appears mundane. My work is concerned with invasions and
interaction with space, highlighting its deeply affecting power and relationship to the body.
miranda_skulls@hotmail.co.uk
Website
www.missmirandajane.blogspot.com
MIRANDA MOHIT I use a feminine approach as a formula for creating something fragile, sensory, fleshy
and tangible, expressing a complex intimate narrative and uncertainty. Materials and
concepts juxtapose a psychological vision.
Identity, childhood, journey and memory are themes often explored through my practice.
63
samueljohnmorgan@gmail.com
Website
www.samueljohnmorgan.tumblr.com
SAMUEL MORGAN My work deals with the alienation that the contemporary art world creates towards the
general public and what separates ‘high’ art from society and the community. By using a naïve painting style and clashing colours, I try to convey these ideas through the aesthetics of the painting.
louie_mulhern@hotmail.com
LOUIE MULHERN
I explore ideas of street art as a legitimate art form that can work in different
surroundings. I have experimented with
different materials making posters and now
plastics. I try to convey similar feelings in a gallery as I do in my work on the streets.
hmulveen@hotmail.com
Website
hollymulveen.wordpress.com
HOLLY MULVEEN
“An isolated datum of preception is inconceivable, at least if we do the mental experiment of attempting to perceive such a thing. But in the world there are either isolated objects or a physical void.�
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, 1962
nightingale88@live.co.uk
ALEX NIGHTINGALE
The concept behind my work is memory and the re-creation of objects. I produce 3D forms working with various materials and
using repetitive techniques. I aim to create
sculptural representations of form and space.
73
alexnorcop@googlemail.com
Website
alexnorcop.blogspot.com
ALEX NORCOP
75
My artistic practice is heavily driven by political and social
issues. It challenges the current
capitalist system while offering an alternative to it. Utilising art
as a revolutionary tool I hope to
encourage new ideas: always done with honesty and compassion.
michaelormerod@live.com
Website
www.michaelormerod.blogspot.com
MICHAEL ORMEROD
“There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.� T.S. Eliot, East Coker, 1940
simonphillips632@btinternet.com
SIMON PHILLIPS
Website
www.si4art.blogspot.com
I manipulate paint as a method of creating
layered painterly sculptures. Using Abstract Expressionism, but employing more control.
I use found objects and intuitive colour to develop the surfaces in the work.
79
jonny_rawlin@live.co.uk
JONNY RAWLIN My work is an attempt to reclaim aura from reproduced artworks, employing a ritualized drawing method that attempts to coax the reproductions back into their original three-dimensions. Through this process I liberate aura, creating new originals.
leilani.a@hotmail.com
LEILANI READ
I aim to create interpretative pieces, which seem insignificant and overwhelming to an
audience, allowing the irregularities within psychological behaviour to be visually
represented. My work involves my personal
struggles and knowledge with regards to the social and aesthetic areas of life.
85
laura.rushton@live.co.uk
Website
www.laurarushton.com
LAURA RUSHTON
My practice strips down industrial landscapes
into minimal components. Immediate and physical processes are my tools for investigating
materiality, evolution, function and structure in relation to the urban environment.
87
john.shaw@turning-point.co.uk
JOHN SHAW
I am interested in destructive practices, in an aesthetic defined by the material trans-mutated
through violence and chance. I use the throwing, smashing and shooting of things to explore
extended painting through video and installation.
jessiesimmonds@hotmail.com
JESSIE SIMMONDS
My work is primarily concerned with the history and stories that can be
conjured through portraiture. My recent work has considered the process of
ageing and decay in order to find a way to signify the passing of time using photography, traditional paint and drawing techniques.
isabelskinner@hotmail.co.uk
ISABEL SKINNER
To lose a home is to lose a museum of a person’s memory and identity. By altering the object I endeavour to uncover the haunted house within both my own psyche and that of my audiences.
95
stuart.symonds@tip-top.co.uk
STUART SYMONDS
97
My practice follows the romanticism of
evolutionary psychology and the argument within where the artistic mechanism is an adaptation, not by-product, of natural selection. Our innate response to ‘Landscapes,’ whose
intricate harmony speak to us of an order that lies deep in ourselves, is marked indelibly with the sign of human dominance.
tagtiger28@googlemail.com
NICHOLAS TIGHE
99
I question and address the struggles and restrictions an artist goes through when
exposed to limitation and obstruction. These concerns are investigated in a performative way, using the body to express feelings of anxiety, success, growth and development.
emily.towler@btinternet.com
Website
www.emilytowler.atspace.com
EMILY TOWLER
Absurdity is a silence, hiding in the subtle corners of our mind, quietly waiting to be seen and to turn our world inside out.
xxnoimoxx@hotmail.co.uk
NAOMI WALLIS
My paintings are about a process, the act of doing, but underneath that there is the imprint of emotion.
Blue to me can represent a range of emotions. The process remains the same but the stains represent my varying emotions.
bobby_west@hotmail.co.uk
BOBBY WEST
My work deals with the representation of death
and its relationship with beauty. Through ideas formulated around ambiguity and the abject, it is an exploration into how beauty and horror so often, despite such apparent controversy, coincide with one another.
Tacit Knowledge Leeds College of Art Saturday 18th June 10:00am — 4:00pm
Monday 20th to Wednesday 22nd June 9:00am — 8:00pm
Thursday 23rd June 9:00am — 5:00pm Blenheim Walk
Leeds, LS2 9AQ
www.leeds-art.ac.uk Touring to Free Range Graduate Art Show Thursday 14th July (Private View) 6:00pm — 10:00pm
Friday 15th to Sunday 17th July 10:00am — 7:00pm Monday 18th July
10:00am — 4:00pm Admission Free The Old Truman Brewery 91 Brick Lane
London, E1 6QL
www.free-range.org.uk E: richard.baker@leeds-art.ac.uk
T: +44 (0) 113 202 8285