Beni9n

Beni9n MA FINE ART SUNDERLAND 2017

Beni9n Art is what makes us civilised.

Art is the pinnacle of society.

To be an Artist is to reveal oneself to the core, to examine the workings of the psyche, and the existential, to have the courage to follow a path less well trod. It is as clear now as it always has been, that to be creative takes nerve, heart, guts - all nature of human things… and then some… to be civilised.

As Henri Matisse said; “Creativity takes courage”.

Be brave and good luck!

Find art here...

Jessica Ballantine - Preistman Gallery Kathleen Calder - Preistman Gallery Leticia Diogo - Room 007 Mike Glover - Stairwell, ShaunProjectSpace (Room112) AG Holder - Preistman Gallery Angela Kennedy - Priestman Gallery, canteen and room 105 Sophie Sanderson - Room 104

James Hutchinson Programme Leader, MA Fine Art www.sunderland.ac.uk/study/creative-arts/ postgraduate-fine-art/

Sarah Turgoose - Room 104 Michael Vågsten - Level 1 corridor

Jessica Ballantine Jessica Ballantine’s work is primarily concerned with colour and form. Her recent sculptures made from fabric are derived from forms made with an organic and viscous substance she created and nicknamed ‘slime’.

Her ‘Slime’ sculptures mimic the qualities of movement and gravity, but she found that a she sewed these forms together in a rather haphazard way, the work expressed her feelings of anxiety. This encouraged her to embrace these qualities in the work as it progressed.

In more recent pieces, for example, string has been used to tie up and contort forms to reinforce her feelings of anxious entrapment. jessballantine.wixsite.com/jballantineart jess.ballantine@outlook.com

‘Amorphous Orange’ Fabric, thread and metallic spikes

Kathleen Calder Kathleen Calder’s work makes reference to the context of the Post-Modern using hints of parody by investigating some of the pictorial codes typically found in painting. Integral to her painting practice is the desire to interact with materials, mostly the inherent qualities of cool wet paint whether it is fluid and thin or thick and buttery. The interaction between painter and paint becomes a collaboration of mind and matter, event, and emotion, courage, and fear.

Kath likes to work with the specificity of materials, such as the textured weave of the canvas or the running drips of the paint.

The controlled determined brush marks and the unpredictable drip or pour of running paint originates the process, and the reification of thought conveyed through the medium of paint. Kath strives to create a dialog with the painting to reflect who she is as an artist. facebook.com/Kathleencalderart kathleencalder@hotmail.co.uk

‘Untitled 1’ Acrylic, ink, canvas

Leticia Diogo Leticia Diogo was born in 1993 in Luanda Angola. Leticia Diogo works with photography text printmaking, sculpture and video to express her feminist principles.

Inspired by the Woman’s Marches in America earlier this year Leticia staged her own protests and photographed them. Another body of work involved videoing her peers and asking them about the role of women in society. For her Degree exhibition she has made a new video work interviewing young girls about their female idols and asking them about their views on the media’s representation of Women.

‘We are the future’ is from a photographic series exploring female emotions. Leticia aims to portray clearly the feelings of her photographic subjects.

Leticia hopes her art can help raise awareness of Feminism and highlight the importance of unity and equality. leticia254.wixsite.com/girlwithabigdream leticia25@hotmail.co.uk

‘We are the future’ Digital print

Mike Glover ‘You do not have the answers’!

In his current practice, Glover is researching and exploring conspiracy theories, a subject matter that offers more questions than answers, satiating his own appetite for pleasant lies, half-truths, and reassuring falsehoods.

He gained a 1st Class BA Hons degree in 2012 in Fine Art at The University of Sunderland. www.mikegloverart.com mikerobglover@hotmail.com

‘Post-Truth’ Digital Projection

AG Holder ‘MAM’ AG Holder uses sculptural assemblage to reflect upon the relationship between objects and narrative. Taking as a starting point the notion and history of the ready-made, the objects that Holder finds, arranges and manipulates are often abject, prosaic and utilitarian.

His work has a poetic and symbolic quality that balances its conceptual framework whilst seeking to bring material form to a language working across mediums including poetry, sculpture and performance. More recently he has investigated themes surrounding Humanist Philosophy and illness.

‘MAM’ is an intimate portrait of the artist’s mother, recently diagnosed with cancer. www.agholder.co.uk agholdercreative@gmail.com ’What we were we still are’ I.V. stand, handbag, synthetic wig

Angela Jane Kennedy Angela’s practice is interdisciplinary; her work embraces embodied improvised processes and the body. With a politically and socially engaged practice, she explores issues of equality, identity and oppression through a feminist discourse; such as violence against women, territory of space and autonomy.

This exhibition stems from walking in Sunderland. She discovered Charles Street in Hendon where her Mother was born, is now a car park. Her responses to this site have manifested into a series of interconnected pieces – Vein: an immersive audio installation, an eleven meter scroll of text, performance and video. The work is about place, narrative, memory and trauma. www.axisweb.org/p/angelakennedy/ serpentyne@talk21.com

‘Charles Street’ Video performance

Alex Sophie Sanderson Shades of blue engulf the walls of Sophie’s space. The energetic marks, revealing the process of Sophie’s painting. Flashes of yellow, green and grey highlight the walls, whilst the surface of the wall is disrupted with a variety of individual MDF painted boards, made using a combination of acrylic paint and spray paint, collectively creating one overall piece.

Sophie’s wall painting uses a colour palette dedicated to blue as her focal point. The colour blue has always been significant for Sophie as has the context of action painting.

The development of the journey Sanderson’s paintings have gone through is important for viewers to experience. The gestural marks in plain sight, the built-up layers and the transparency of the paint that enable the layers to peek through, all contribute to an understanding of the processes involved in painting as an act of discovery. www.instagram.com/alex_sophie_art/ sophie_sanderson07@hotmail.co.uk ‘Untitled’ Acrylic, MDF, installation

Sarah Turgoose Sarah Turgoose is a Multi-media artist who specializes in participatory and interactive art, with interests in Socialism, History and Narrative. Touch Me, is a recent work based on the concept of participatory art, which centres around the synonym of the word story.

Touch Me, is explored through a variety of media; painting, objects and video, all designed to stimulate the senses and encourage both a visual and haptic experience in the viewer. Sarah hopes that using participation in her artwork will encourage the development of more local art culture in small communities. www.instagram.com/sarah_turgoose_art/ slturgoose29@gmail.com

‘Touch Me’ Canvas, acrylic, sequins

Michael Vågsten Michael Vågsten is interested in a form of narrative painting where people exist in a story and are part of a timeless dramatic setting. His figures are often undertaking some unknown or mysterious activity.

They are located in the remains of a town or industrial area, or within in an anonymous desolate rural context.

Vagsten is interested in trying to synthesize the traditional values of painting with contemporary ideas and wants his painting to be a reflection of the contemporary anxiety about the environment particularly his own vision of a post-apocalyptic future. www.vagsten.se vagsten.m@gmail.com

‘In The Yard’ Canvas, oil paint

University of Sunderland 2017