The Skinny: Degree Show 2022 by The Glasgow School of Art

THE SKINNY

June 2022

FREE

Graduate Showcase 2022 June 2022

— 1 —

THE SKINNY

Contents

Welcome W

elcome to The Skinny’s preview of The Glasgow School of Art Degree Show 2022. This year sees the in-person return of one of the most exciting events in the Scottish arts calendar for the first time since 2019 – a proposition that graduating students have responded to with typically bold, provocative work. In this supplement, you’ll find an in-depth look at each area of the Degree Show, spanning the GSA’s five specialist schools of Architecture, Fine Art, Innovation, Design and Simulation and Visualisation. These previews are written by third year students from GSA, who share their peers’ inquisitive nature, fascination with materials and process, and deep concern with sustainability, climate justice and social issues. Creative practice is always a reflection of the times, but this year Degree Show feels even more urgent than before, with students from across the School engaging in the problem solving and sustainable processes that all creative practitioners must bring to the multifaceted challenges facing our world today. As this year’s cohort have been working towards their final presentations, the graduates of 2020 and 2021 have been making their way into the wider creative world. In this issue, we take a look at events and exhibitions initiated by graduates and supported by the GSA that have taken place from Glasgow to Seoul in the past year. We also speak to the students whose collaborative work makes up this year’s Degree Show poster – currently gracing the streets of Glasgow – and in the Heads Up section, we highlight some upcoming events at the GSA and beyond. The Degree Show begins with the Fine Art, Innovation, Design and Simulation and Visualisation exhibitions from 1-12 June, and continues with the Architecture show from 11-19 June – all at the GSA’s campus in Garnethill. Also running until 12 June is the annual Master of Fine Art Degree Show at Florence Street, where you can see work by second year MFA students. If

you miss these dates, or can’t travel to Glasgow, you can still access the work online via our Degree Show digital showcase, where you can also keep up to date with opening times, locations and special events. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many of us to turn to digital technologies to maintain social, professional and cultural ties. For creative practitioners and artists, this moment also prompted a major adaptation of traditional approaches to meaningfully incorporate digital elements into their work. This was a daunting and challenging process but one that has, in moments, opened up new and exciting ways in which to collaborate, organise and deliver projects across the creative disciplines. The Degree Show opening digital event, hosted by writer Huw Lemmey, explores the new ways of working in the creative disciplines that have emerged from the first two years of the pandemic, and how these can help us to imagine and design better social and physical environments. Our global panel comprises Professor Penny Macbeth (Director, GSA and artist), Rae-Yen Song (visual artist), Orsod Malik (digital archivist, curator), Raheela Khan-Fitzgerald (architect, whole life carbon & sustainability designer) Robyn Steward (autism trainer, writer) and Tara Fatehi Irani (performance artist) – join us at 5pm, 1 June. We hope you enjoy this exclusive look at the GSA’s class of 2022, and that you’ll join us to discover more of this year’s work IRL or online.

4 Graduates from the Mackintosh School of Architecture take the city of Glasgow as their starting point for a series of sustainable, adaptable projects.

6 From queer community spaces to textiles made from recycled waste, School of Design graduates respond to pertinent contemporary issues. 6

Graduate Showcase 2022

Features

8 The School of Fine Art presents a cacophony of materials, processes and ideas, from eco-sculpture to biographical painting. 10 New technologies becometools for communication, education and disconcertion in the School of Simulation and Visualisation. 11 This year’s Innovation School cohort tackle issues as diverse as food origin, sexual education and performance running.

10 gsashowcase.net @glasgowschoolart #GSADegreeShow22

12 Catch up with the classes of ’20 and ’21, as we look at Graduate-Initiated Projects from the last two years.

Degree Show 2022 is sponsored by citizenM with previews by Innis + Gunn

14 Meet the four GSA students whose work graces this year’s Degree Show Poster.

June 2022

Abbey Campbell, Textile Design Image Credits: (Top to bottom, left to right) Carl Jonsson, Kristina Merchant; Josie Swift; Gabby Morris; Max Wardle; Graduate Drive Thru; Sophie Ammann; Alan McAteer

— 2 —

— 3 —

Cover image: Untitiled Diptych 1 Fleur Connor, Painting and Printmaking Fonts by: Leonie Hiller and Billy Paterson

June 2022

15 Want a Heads Up on the summer ahead? We highlight some of the best exhibitions, courses, and cultural events at the GSA and beyond.

THE SKINNY

Contents

Welcome W

4 Graduates from the Mackintosh School of Architecture take the city of Glasgow as their starting point for a series of sustainable, adaptable projects.

6 From queer community spaces to textiles made from recycled waste, School of Design graduates respond to pertinent contemporary issues. 6

Graduate Showcase 2022

Features

10 gsashowcase.net @glasgowschoolart #GSADegreeShow22

12 Catch up with the classes of ’20 and ’21, as we look at Graduate-Initiated Projects from the last two years.

Degree Show 2022 is sponsored by citizenM with previews by Innis + Gunn

14 Meet the four GSA students whose work graces this year’s Degree Show Poster.

June 2022

Abbey Campbell, Textile Design Image Credits: (Top to bottom, left to right) Carl Jonsson, Kristina Merchant; Josie Swift; Gabby Morris; Max Wardle; Graduate Drive Thru; Sophie Ammann; Alan McAteer

— 2 —

— 3 —

Cover image: Untitiled Diptych 1 Fleur Connor, Painting and Printmaking Fonts by: Leonie Hiller and Billy Paterson

June 2022

15 Want a Heads Up on the summer ahead? We highlight some of the best exhibitions, courses, and cultural events at the GSA and beyond.

THE SKINNY

Words: Nathan Gunnn

Shona Beattie, Stage 4, Architecture

021-22 saw a full return to studio working for students at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, and with that the panoramic views and open plan spaces of the Bourdon – the dry-docked brutalist spaceship of a building, situated on the west flank of the GSA campus. All stages of graduating students this year have Glasgow, in all its shades, as the perennially inspiring testing ground for their work. The common thread is an awareness of the biggest design challenge of our time – the twin climate and biodiversity crises and the future of the city. Stage 3 students look beyond the strict boundaries of ‘site’ to rethink the sometimes myopic process of urban development, grabbing — 4 —

Carl Jonsson, Stage 5, Architecture

with both hands what survives of our city’s industrial infrastructure and re-programming it as both the scaffold and conduit for an ultra-low energy, urban food revolution. This loosely takes shape in the Urban Food Exchange or Urfex – a polymorphic building typology defined more by its function than any one form. Hamid Habibi takes a deep-dive into the canalside communities around his north Glasgow site to produce an integrated and comprehensive development. By resolving a challenging slope into useful circulation, he prioritises accessibility through placemaking. The result is a terrace of gently winding pathways doubling as a stepped seating area, made from masonry reclaimed

directly from local demolition. This anchors the project within the landscape, is sensitive to our climate future, and ties the programme together on multiple axes. Ryan Woods evokes the collective memory of place, by interposing his site’s industrial vernacular and cultural identity with the material and practices of industrial agriculture. The result is a scheme which provides a place to exchange knowledge, expertise, skills and experiences, framed by the activities and environments of food cultivation, production and distribution. His conception of the Urban Food Exchange is ultimately expressed in the material choices and construction of the project; assembled from a

— 5 —

The Mackintosh School of Architecture Degree Show runs 1119 Jun at Fleming House, 134 Renfrew Street, and the Grace and Clark Fyfe Gallery, Bourdon Building, Glasgow. It is also available to view online at gsashowcase.net

June 2022

Re-use, adaptability and community-focused placemaking emerge as uniting themes through the work of Mackintosh School of Architecture students

Marc Stewart looks to the artist Agnes Denes’ 1982 provocation on world hunger – a guerrillaplanted wheatfield on a high-value, vacant, Manhattan plot – as the inspiration for Sustainable Living Centre for Calton, addressing the neighbourhood’s striking dichotomy of deprivation and development. Referencing local repositories such as The Scottish Storytelling Centre and Glasgow Women’s Library, Rachel Crooks’ Barras Storytelling Archive scrapes back centuries of well-trodden Calton routes to reveal and re-establish cultural knowledge obscured by time. This process extends her vision through the layers of culture laid down in Glasgow’s historical phases of growth, particularly The Highland Clearances, to redress what she identifies as a Scottish culture of forgetfulness. The final year students of Stage 5 build their own theses around the theme The Ethical City. The quality of work represented in the cohort is breathtaking, and impossible to summarise here, but a slice in any direction reveals a wealth of visual material recasting Glasgow in myriad ways. Chester Chesney presents an alternate reality to the tenement city by flipping the relationship of street and back court, reclaiming the common back buildings and bringing them into the experience of the street. His vision to ‘reclaim the common’ is informed by his own experience of life in Govanhill, and his work is a powerfully graphical exploration of that densest of neighbourhoods. Philip Elverson cites Cedric Price’s Fun Palace – a seminal though never realised thought experiment in polyvalent space – in his possible repurposing of the cathedralesque undercroft of the Kingston Bridge. He reimagines the vaulting space as a framework for gradual occupation, using resource-friendly, modular interventions, directly benefiting local communities displaced by the construction of the motorway. The project shares DNA with the Hielanman’s Umbrella – once also a temporary gathering place for persons displaced. Elverson acknowledges that our current vehicular infrastructure can become a palimpsest for the post-car planning of a not-distant future, by reusing what is, largely, already there. Carl Jonsson envisions what the safeguarding of an environmental legacy means in an age of climate disruption and biodiversity death. The site he selects is the Govan Graving Docks, a Taggartscape of post-industrial decline. His proposal yields to the natural re-integration into the wild, already underway in the surrounding ecology. His project is framed within the post-COP26 narrative that argues that protecting the natural world is not only a matter of collective legacy, but also fundamental to human nature. The different parts of the programme – a seed bank, interior garden and exterior garden – overlay the docks at varying scales and impact, reflecting a desire to respect not only the site’s current state, but its transformative history and uncertain future. For anyone interested in the city of Glasgow, model-making, drawing, illustration, or simply the creative process itself, experiencing the work of these students first-hand in a gallery setting is unmissable.

Graduate Showcase 2022

Architecture

modular kit intended to facilitate adaptive growth and ensure longevity. Emelie Fraser sees her project as a means to connect the disparate and diverse communities on the fringes of her site, at a centrally located herb garden within her scheme. Shared experience through the common language of the senses are the basis for the exchange of cultural knowledge through food. The provision of a well-equipped kitchen, and communal indoor and outdoor gathering spaces, provide the setting for further interaction and extend the possibilities for allweather usefulness. Arin Chance Beaver bridges the gap between the urban realm and nature at his site at the Maryhill Locks, drawing agriculture right into the heart of Glasgow’s urban fabric. Two low-rise buildings are placed in direct conversation with a 20-storey tower block, expressing a shared DNA with Alvar Aalto’s experimental Muuratsalo House and Sigurd Lewerentz’s Blomsterkiosk. Natural and reusable materials, in standardised material dimensions, make the building easy to break down and re-use at the end of its life. Projects from Stage 4 close in on the streets and buildings in the oxter of London Road and Gallowgate in Calton, known to most as The Barras, for their investigations on themes of domesticity and labour. Adam Cowan’s Barras Materials Bank is an armature for the practical application of the circular economy – a synthesis of the Barras market itself. Surplus or waste materials generated in the ongoing demolition/ re-construction of the area are collected and re-distributed for projects within the community. By offering sustainability as a practical pursuit, the project entrenches community resilience by increasing opportunities for meaningRyan Woods, Stage 3,Architecture ful participation with lasting outcomes. With the return to the studio, model-making as a design and presentation tool is strongly represented. Shona Beattie tests the form, mass, and material character of her Materials Skills Centre proposal via assemblages of clear and opaque casting, acrylic and timber. They work equally well as standalone pieces and as an experiential journey through her project. Andreea Stanuta’s physical models are tangible articulations of her architectural language. Her proposal for Barras Play Centre recognises the need for accessible family-friendly places in the neighbourhood, which ranks among the most deprived in the city according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

THE SKINNY

Words: Nathan Gunnn

Shona Beattie, Stage 4, Architecture

Carl Jonsson, Stage 5, Architecture

— 5 —

June 2022

Re-use, adaptability and community-focused placemaking emerge as uniting themes through the work of Mackintosh School of Architecture students

Graduate Showcase 2022

Architecture

THE SKINNY

Lorna Feggans, Interaction Design

Lois Jones, Product Design Engeneering

Andrea Xinjing, Fashion Design

Agnes Xantippa Boman, Communication Design

June 2022

Design This year’s design graduates focus on tactility, sustainability, and relationships with the ecosystem Words: Vytauta Bikauskas and Alissa Monova — 6 —

speaker is an out-of-the-box design that allows for customisation to individual genres of music by adjusting materials. The process of learning through play is explored in a toy designed by Morgan Rodgers, which aims to aid understanding in children undergoing radiotherapy. The toy captures the real-life movements, lights and sounds of a linac machine, and allows children to treat a teddy with support from a play therapist. The relationship between humans, nature and technology is central to this year’s Interaction Design cohort. Dayna Lamb’s work explores the intersection of these three worlds in a multi-layered installation. Firstly, a trained algorithm predicts audience members’ personalities from a quiz, then media is chosen for them as they are led through a narrative of nature and synthesis. Lamb’s work spans a variety of outputs, from thermochromic prints to projections and a book. Lene de Montaigu’s piece addresses our relationships with the tangible world, focusing on memories objects hold. Her work is a response to the assumed cleanliness of interactive art, presenting a discarded-andfound piano – crumbling away, repaired using 3D printed parts, which the viewer can play. The suggested interaction is imperfect, human, and carries a living history. It wants to remember the forgotten, repair instead of replacing and thoroughly engage with the complexities of the everyday. Communication Design graduates tell complex stories in engaging and imaginative ways. Some focused on how our emotional lives are shaped by our experience online. Agnes Boman’s frame-by-frame animation Cookies illustrates the transition from real to virtual spaces and anxieties that follow. Her animation loops, leading the viewer to look through the work twice, mimicking our distracted time online. Digital experiences are like empty calories – we have been entertained, but do not feel fulfilled. The exhausting overload of information we experience online is also explored by Emma Ruth in her work on the daily news. Using code, she scrapes repeating keywords in articles from news sites, arranging them alphabetically and seeking patterns. Emma’s work focuses on the design of a process, rather than an outcome, having her work change constantly and reflect on the multiplicity of representations. Representation alters the lives and fates of communities. Katherine Wallace addresses its importance in her reimagining of Miracle in the Gorbals, a seminal ballet from 1944. Historically the Gorbals community has experienced neglect and negative portrayal, which the ballet itself echoed with distanced pity. Katherine’s version rethinks this paradigm, reshaping an archival work — 7 —

Kristina Merchant, Silversmithing and Jewellery

Sophie Allardyce, Textile Design

Hanya Kamel, Interior Design

of art as a symbol of a new, self-made chapter for the area. Further exploring the human condition, Shannon Best focuses on cycles of life and death. Grass above the dead takes inspiration from the life and poetry of Elisabeth Siddal – the model for Ophelia in Millai’s famous painting. Best’s photographs depict a body drowning in nature, reclaimed, and absorbed. The message is nevertheless hopeful – death is the basis of new life, and seeds sprout from the remains. Design graduates this year have addressed our relationship to space, nature, and heritage through a series of challenging, but forward-looking works. They closely examine the cycles of daily practices, social structures and suggest imaginative ways to reshape them.

The School of Design Degree Show runs 1-12 Jun in the Reid Building, 164 Renfrew Street, Glasgow. It is also available to view online at gsashowcase.net

June 2022

ptimistic and future-oriented, occasionally with a wry sense of humour, students from the GSA’s various design programmes present a critical appraisal of the value of materials and ideas. Many have made incredible use of the reopened studios and workshops, with work spanning a vast range of materials and processes. Interior Design considers both relationships to, and the value of, spaces. Mollie Forsyth’s dreamy urban oasis Wonderlust proposes to convert abandoned Govan docks covered in layers of graffiti into an open space for the community to explore and shape. The docks are remnants of Glasgow’s industrial past, which Wonderlust would turn into public gardens, dance halls, community spaces and meditative installations. Forsyth imagines the space growing and transforming beyond its initial state, shaped by each visitor. Safe space and freedom of expression are particularly important for Aidan Rabbitt, whose Inside Out City is a forum to celebrate and unify the LGBTQIA+ Community in Glasgow and beyond.

Based on lived experience of a lack of community spaces that aren’t nightclubs, Inside Out City is open to various age groups and needs. Housing libraries for children and adults, a queer archive, a space for making, café and exhibition spaces, it would become a haven on Buchanan Street. The urban Glasgow environment is also a visually rich source for Textile Design graduates, with Arouge Salim’s embroidery taking night-time lighting as its inspiration by depicting the gradient and colour of lights and lasers in textiles. Circular frames create a spotlight while the threads form beams and bars of light, capturing the effects of lighting in nightclubs and retro arcades. Abbey Campbell’s Illusions of Colour are striking woven textiles exploring the interaction of colour, and how contrasting and complementary hues alter the tone of the original. Patterns in the work take inspiration from elements found in street scenes, including graffiti and crates. The idea of incorporating discarded items is taken to the next level in Sophie Allardyce’s work. Her textiles are entirely made from found textile waste, including leather off-cuts salvaged from an interior seating manufacturer, discarded laser-cut MDF pieces, and beads and threads found in the GSA studios. These materials are bound and manipulated to create new forms, with sustainability at the core of the work. From reusing textile waste, to reconnecting with nature, Rosie Ridley’s work encourages the wearer to embrace the outdoors with coats filled with reclaimed yarn. Her collection is inspired by the Japanese concept of shinrin yoku, or forest bathing – a mindful approach to taking in, and being in, the atmosphere of green spaces. Her designs capture the delicacy of nature, allowing one to envision oneself within the natural world as opposed to shielding oneself from it. Silversmithing and Jewellery graduates explore links between nature and recycling waste. Amy Findlay’s collection takes inspiration from slugs, overlooked creatures that play a vital role in the nutrient cycle, recreated in silver and bronze with inset stones. Her collection is a set of precious and tactile slugs that crawl up and wrap themselves around the body, their various forms reflecting stages in the life cycle. Further exploring the dichotomy of filthy and precious, Kristina Merchant’s collection is inspired by discarded items found littering the streets. Chewing gum carved from bone is incorporated in several pieces, while amber is used to create cigarette filters, alluding to traditional amber smoking pipes. Silver is thinly rolled, oxidised and manipulated to emulate burnt or crinkled paper, with ground waste amber used as tobacco filling. Taking an unorthodox approach to silversmithing, Caitlin Murphy’s XYZ is inspired by geometric patterns and mathematical precision, using oxidised copper and bronze to weave optical illusions at a large scale. She is able to capture the malleability of metal through the influence of origami in various pieces in her collection. A variety of prototypes exploring healthcare, play and sound can be seen from Product Design Engineering graduates this year. Optimisation in healthcare is the focus of Lois Jones’ Pill In, which stores, organises, distributes, and dispenses large quantities of pharmaceuticals in an easy and efficient manner. Charlie Cumming’s tubular

Graduate Showcase 2022

THE SKINNY

Lorna Feggans, Interaction Design

Lois Jones, Product Design Engeneering

Andrea Xinjing, Fashion Design

Agnes Xantippa Boman, Communication Design

June 2022

Design This year’s design graduates focus on tactility, sustainability, and relationships with the ecosystem Words: Vytauta Bikauskas and Alissa Monova — 6 —

Kristina Merchant, Silversmithing and Jewellery

Sophie Allardyce, Textile Design

Hanya Kamel, Interior Design

The School of Design Degree Show runs 1-12 Jun in the Reid Building, 164 Renfrew Street, Glasgow. It is also available to view online at gsashowcase.net

June 2022

Graduate Showcase 2022

THE SKINNY

Graduate Showcase 2022

Fine Art This year’s School of Fine Art cohort interrogate materials and ideas with equal fervour and ambition Words: Isgard Hague and Corrie Jennison

The Head Massager, Katie Curry, Sculpture and Environenmental Art

— 8 —

HARLING, Josie Smith, Painting and Printmaking

— 9 —

The School of Fine Art Degree Show runs 1-12 Jun in the Stow Building, 64 Shamrock Street, Glasgow. It is also available to view online at gsashowcase.net

June 2022

forced upon him by small town mentalities when he was growing up between small towns in the north of Scotland. In his paintings this cathartic process of unravelling plays out, and emerging narratives spiral across the canvases. In Fine Art Photography, Nora Mackenzie’s work also conveys themes of memory, as well as the fragility of time, change and the marks we leave behind. In a world where everything is constantly changing, Nora captures scenes that are remnants of the past. While there is a physical absence of people in her photographs, their traces are made known through chalk scratchings made by kids on a winter’s day, or an old football shirt tied to a fence to remember a loved one. Loud Hand by Kaya Erdinc attempts to document an intimate collaboration with philosopher Bibi Straatman, with whom Kaya closely read several texts from the Christian mystical tradition. Her work includes a silent portrait moving image shot on Super 8 film, accompanied by a long prose poem. Within his exhibition space, Louis SyedAnderson has constructed and curated his own floor-based landscape, as well as spatially engaging with the physical architecture of the exhibition space. Influenced by the architectural structures and materials of the urban landscape, his designs emulate the experience of navigating through those spaces, echoing both the contours and structural forms of the urban environment. Megan Auld’s work Burning Dust centres on the history of women in the industrial age in Scotland. Her work references the volatile landscape through a range of materials and objects, revealing the labour-intensive and fatal past of factory workers. Also utilising a myriad of materials is Spencer Dent, whose work explores the concept of genderlessness. A series of self portraits use costume and make-up to distort the body and figure, screen prints and sculpture depict a genderless figure, and weaving reflects make-up design processes.

Graduate Showcase 2022

questioning of how functional objects are appreciated, by playing on the contradictions of functional objects in a gallery setting. Failing to Serve explores ideas of imperfection, the process of making, and whether meaning is static or always changing. Painting and Printmaking student Sasha Ballon’s experience working as a tree surgeon is important in her practice. Recycled wood from job sites is combined with chainsaw woodcarving, welding and weaving in her exploration of craft as a site of resistSpencer Dent, Fine Art Photography ance. The work is inherently queer in its potential to upend categorical ways he School of Fine Art final year students of making, and critique of gendered stereotypes in have been busy. Their dedication and hard trades and craft. Expect a collage of moving image, work is clear to see in this year’s highly sculpture and textiles, with live performances on anticipated Degree Show, the first in the Stow preview night and the evening of 1 June. Building for three years. Across the disciplines Josie Swift’s installation HARLING is an there are interrogations of ways of making, proexploration of modern Scottish mythology, via a cess and material, as well as a questioning appebbledash sofa and video in which Swift and proach to the world, resulting in work that is open, women from her hometown recite her poem to the innovative and exciting. ‘gods’ of harling (Scots for pebbledash). Drawing In Sculpture and Environmental Art, Zane on the physical make-up of homes and common Drees takes life in the post-digital age as his generational memories of spending hours on subject-matter, using methods and materials such YouTube, it’s dedicated to “the women of the as hand-carving, weaving and quilting to demoncommunity I grew up in, an ode to the women that strate a rejection of modern technologies. Yet, birthed our generation.” used as a tool to ground and reflect on his own Nancy Pilkington works with painting and life, the work evokes contradictory feelings. While objects, which she uses to imagine an ‘exit from critical, he is – like the rest of us – dependent on linear time and logic’ within the setting of the modern technology. The viewer experiences child’s den – a shape-shifting place where creative feelings of intimacy and fear, humour and discomrepair is possible. You are invited to take shelter in fort: the ambiguities of modern life, a domestic this refuge from conflict and aggression. James surrealism. Cydney Lovett-Downey’s Super 8 Johnson expands print and image making into collage film And Once He Used To Love Me is sound and sculptural installations, where the idea constructed from found home movies and is an of print emitting sound has led him to create eerie, dreamy, compassionate meditation on the hybrid stretcher sound systems. The work comes passing of time and the human experience. There from a combination of physical material experiis a double sense of loss: we grieve for the figures mentation and digital image sampling. Johnson is who exist only on spools of film, but also the loss interested in spaces and feelings that are in limbo, of an art form – a ‘video rendered requiem’. between states – a notion which emerges in his Angus Rushin’s work centres on the narrative subject matter and material. encapsulated in the grain of trees. Symbols of Loss Through the process of documentation, is an invocation to celebrate and memorialise restoration and reproduction of family photoGlasgow’s ash tree population, which currently graphs of her mother and grandmother, Chloe faces extinction. Where the saw is used as a ‘biogra- Beddow finds a physical material connection to pher of the material’, the archiving of the grain of the her grandmother, whom she never met, articulatwood serves to materialise the memory and life of ing the passing of time. The imagery in Finn the tree. Joseph Weisberg’s ongoing project Mounds Robinson’s paintings comes together in a collage consists of the documentation and installation of of personal experience, online culture and art urban, suburban, and rural piles of used, to-be used, history, where his identity is appropriated and and unwanted piles of miscellaneous material. imitated. Intensely personal, his work represents Weisberg shows an appreciation of their sculptural an attempt to finally make sense of his identity, qualities and the ‘covert creatives’ – the people and after the ‘facade of fear and second-guessing’ machinery who make them – in an act of recognition for the overlooked in our surroundings. An in-person exhibition also allows for interactive installations, such as Katie Curry’s The Head Massager, where personal responsibility in the age of the internet is explored through the concept of action and unknown consequence. This is brought into the physical realm, as the person in control of the head massager (the action) cannot see the results of their actions (the consequence). The objects in Rosa Gally’s installation embody her

Prunus Avium (Figure II), Sasha Ballon, Painting and Printmaking

THE SKINNY

Graduate Showcase 2022

Fine Art This year’s School of Fine Art cohort interrogate materials and ideas with equal fervour and ambition Words: Isgard Hague and Corrie Jennison

The Head Massager, Katie Curry, Sculpture and Environenmental Art

— 8 —

HARLING, Josie Smith, Painting and Printmaking

— 9 —

The School of Fine Art Degree Show runs 1-12 Jun in the Stow Building, 64 Shamrock Street, Glasgow. It is also available to view online at gsashowcase.net

June 2022

Graduate Showcase 2022

Prunus Avium (Figure II), Sasha Ballon, Painting and Printmaking

Graduate Showcase 2022

THE SKINNY

Simulation and Visualisation

Innovation

Creativity at The School of Simulation and Visualisation moves in tandem with the development of new technology and digital software, making each year unique from the last

Product Design graduates investigate connections, celebrate differences and reinvent narratives through their future-focused designs Words: Holly McPaul

Words: Michiel Turner and Zoe Young

Inside the Metallurgist's Workshop, Max Wardle, Immersive Systems Design

his year’s School of Simulation and Visualisation cohort have developed a dynamic spectrum of work, exploring themes spanning spatiality to immersive investigation to ecology. Many of the students utilise contemporary techniques and digital software to realise their concepts. Max Wardle from the BSc Immersive Systems Design programme has created a virtual experience entitled Inside the Metallurgist’s Workshop, in collaboration with the Casa del Alabado Museum of PreColumbian Art in Quito, Ecuador. As the name suggests, Wardle’s work allows participants to interface with museum objects related to Ecuadorian indigenous heritage using a computer. The simulation features a rich colour palette with softened pixels, evoking a welcoming atmosphere for users to investigate. The Sound for the Moving Image programme has been significant in its fusion of digital artforms, inspiring students to merge their sonic practices with visual content. Much of the work showcased is driven by user experience, which is notable in Craig Hamilton’s Tributary, a game that invites audiences to trigger musical loops with a Nintendo games controller hooked up to both Ableton Live (a digital audio workstation software) and Max MSP (a music programming application). In the first version of Hamilton’s exhibit, players can arrange a lo-fi style piece of music featuring a rotation of jazz harmony and staggering beats. The second version includes a lush myriad of piano, synth, bass and percussion that can be assembled to create a dreamscape of sound. The aim is to make the music-making process a more accessible experience for those lacking knowledge of music theory or the resources to learn. Influenced by Mulholland Drive director David Lynch, Margarita Lioli’s Hypnagogia uses highly creative and detailed

sound design to immerse the listener into a transient hypnotic state, offering a truly unique and evocative experience. A glimpse into the world of altered consciousness and dream sequences is established using hauntingly designed sonic elements through experimental recording. Through experimentation with different microphone techniques, including hydrophones (microphones that can record underwater) a highly unusual and unique soundscape has been crafted. A series of different frequencies were captured in order to reveal this otherworldly dimension, along with expert audio processing to transform the sounds. The arrangement begins with an eerie pulse, reminiscent of mechanical horror sounds, which induce uncomfortable sensations and prepare us for a journey into another realm. Composed using wavetable synthesis, a peacefully synthetic and atmospheric passage encapsulates us further into this authentic representation of a different reality. The sweeping, carefully panned industrial sounds gradually induce an unusual, yet somewhat pleasant state. It ends on a pitch-affected, saturated and cleverly edited version of Minnie Ripperton’s Lovin’ You, turning this once simple love song into a hauntingly captivating sound interpretation, fitting rather uncannily into the soundscape. If you are interested in exploring different states of human consciousness, this soundscape offers a lucid alternative which successfully leaves you feeling as though you’ve just been on a weird and wonderful journey. A must hear! The School of Simulation and Visualisation Degree Show runs 1-12 Jun in the Haldane Building, 24 Hill Street, Glasgow. It is also available to view online at gsashowcase.net

— 10 —

his year, Product Design students at the Innovation School were finally back in the studio, once again surrounded by the remarkable atmosphere, culture, and community of The Glasgow School of Art. Not even a global pandemic could stop them from producing refreshing and innovative designs. This year’s graduates focus on a wide variety of topics including shaping experiences for the future, designing through evolutionary and speculative lenses and more, all on display at the Degree Show. Do you enjoy eating? Are you curious about where your food comes from? Would you like to experience something new? Gabby Morris’s project Dish the Dirt is a multi-sensory dining experience that aims to help visualise the impact soil has on the food we eat. Morris has created hand-crafted ceramic plates, each unique to the eating experience, and is also running a multi-sensory tasting during the Degree Show. Lesley McCluskey has designed an innovative brand consultancy titled All-In. This project supports small businesses to collaborate and produce one-off experiences that help create community cohesion and build upon the local economy. Speculating on the future of Glasgow, Hannah Roche explores evolution and extinction in 2080. This work revolves around a speculative ‘multispecies integration act 2030,’ where

Dish The Dirt, Gabby Morris, Product Design

Scotland has granted nature constitutional rights and becomes a refuge for all species in light of climate change and the ongoing sixth mass extinction. Roche re-evaluates our relationship with nature through policy, senseware, and mapping, using various memorabilia to imagine the changes that the city of Glasgow goes through after the introduction of the act. Many of us find the topic of sexual health uncomfortable and daunting to talk about. Rachel Corrie’s project Join In is an experiential pop-up safe space with a twist. Join In dives into how we can have informed, but informal, discussions in environments where we feel the most comfortable. Imagine the relaxed setting of a pub layered with informative data on sexual health. With this combination, Join In hopes to encourage open communication and conversations while also offering the opportunity to gain more information on sexual health, and provide support within local communities. Victoria Jamieson’s project In the Noe is a communication toolkit designed to engage people in discussions about menopause. In the Noe aims to overcome stigma by addressing perception and reality through the means of education and emotional awareness. It invites those who may not be experiencing menopause to engage and begin to understand the effects it can have on a daily basis – enabling us to all be in the know. Amandine Fong’s project Clota aims to address how we can use All-In, Lesley McCluskey, Product Design — 11 —

Join In, Rachel Corrie, Product Design

design to think about new ways to connect to an environment, and its involvement in the creation of more-than-human narratives. Using the River Clyde and Glasgow as an environment for exploration, the project looks at the Clyde’s role within the city, and asks how we can rethink our relationship with it and collectively imagine its future. Looking into the future of performance running, Lucas Cheskin investigates the question: will the product come before the athlete? Cheskin delves into topics of fairness, equality, and the essence of future sport through speculative design practice. The resulting project The Melius Games aims to create a conversation surrounding technological evolution and its impact on performance running athletes in 2052. Do you have possessions around your home that are worn and tired, that you rarely interact with but just can’t bear to throw away? Molly Nicoll’s brand Re-bonding redefines how we look at and treat our tired belongings. In contrast to mass consumption, Re-bonding offers the user a chance to reconnect with their tired possessions and discover new value. At this year’s Degree Show, there is much more to unpack and discover. Product Design graduates have worked incredibly hard to produce passionate, engaging and unique projects. It is clear to see that innovation has well and truly materialised within the GSA.

The Innovation School Degree Show runs 1-12 Jun in the Haldane Building, 24 Hill Street, Glasgow. It is also available to view online at gsashowcase.net

June 2022

Graduate Showcase 2022

THE SKINNY

Graduate Showcase 2022

THE SKINNY

Simulation and Visualisation

Innovation

Creativity at The School of Simulation and Visualisation moves in tandem with the development of new technology and digital software, making each year unique from the last

Product Design graduates investigate connections, celebrate differences and reinvent narratives through their future-focused designs Words: Holly McPaul

Words: Michiel Turner and Zoe Young

Inside the Metallurgist's Workshop, Max Wardle, Immersive Systems Design

— 10 —

Dish The Dirt, Gabby Morris, Product Design

Join In, Rachel Corrie, Product Design

The Innovation School Degree Show runs 1-12 Jun in the Haldane Building, 24 Hill Street, Glasgow. It is also available to view online at gsashowcase.net

June 2022

Graduate Showcase 2022

THE SKINNY

Image by: Alan McAteer

Graduate Drive Thru, Image by Alan McAteer

— 12 —

Josie Ko, Alternative Degree Show Festival

— 13 —

Yena Park, A Remix of Damage

for two years in the newly reopened Reid Gallery, the GSA’s main exhibition space on campus. Held in February and March 2022, A Remix of Damage was a group show by the Strata Collective, eight artists who graduated from the MLitt Fine Art Practice Sculpture pathway the previous year. During lockdown, the graduates continued to support each other to find innovative and imaginative ways to continue their practice, resulting in work encompassing casting, sound, textiles, ready-mades and more. In the gallery, Alex Anderson’s primary coloured paintings and Abbey Corbin’s wax shell sculptures sat beside Yena Park’s Soil Processing Table, a transplant from a sci-fi laboratory handling artificial urban debris. The way we experience art and culture has changed, but the inherent inventiveness and adaptability of art school graduates has risen to meet these challenges – it feels natural to experience this work in such a variety of contexts. The GSA is continuing to support graduate projects both within and outside gallery walls – perhaps by the time you read this, something new will have taken over a building, garden, or car park in your neighbourhood. thealternativedegreeshowfestival.com Interludefilms.co.uk wunderkammer-exhibition.com graduatedrivethru.com gsa.ac.uk/remix 2020 GSA graduates who have not yet participated in a physical exhibition/event can contact marketing@gsa.ac.uk to discuss the range of support available.

June 2022

Graduates from the last two years make an international impact with an inventive series of exhibitions and events

thought-provoking discussion on the experience and mutual benefits of mature students in classes of younger peers. As part of the Alternative Degree Show Festival, graduates programmed two evenings of film screenings at Transmission and SWG3. Post-festival, this grew into Interlude Films – a showcase of contemporary moving image works by 28 graduates, hosted by Glasgowbased firm ISO Design over three evenings in October. True to the tradition of moving image in Scotland, this was an expansive programme, spanning animation, narrative film and experimental techniques – with films ranging from a documentary on the River Kelvin, to algorithmically-generated VR. Perhaps the most ambitious graduate-led project to date, Project Wunderkammer was an international programme of six exhibitions across four months, led by 2020 graduate Aeji Seo. Featuring the work of 44 graduates across venues in Stockholm, Glasgow, London, Phuket and Seoul, the project drew upon the spirit of Fluxus – a group unified not by style, but by the youthful energy of artists. Each individual exhibition was proposed as a ‘wunderkammer’ – another name for curiosity rooms presented in Renaissance homes – presented via the esoteric interests of its curator. Through their curation, Seo, Antonio Parker-Reese, Robert McCormack and Demi Zatumatmetee explored organic materials, action, empathy and communication, drawn from gatherings of work by their fellow 2020 graduates. In sharp contrast to the gallery presentation of Wunderkammer was the Graduate Drive Thru, held in September 2021 as part of Glasgow Open House Festival. Glasgow artists are known for taking advantage of unusual venues, and this was no exception: an open-air exhibition held on the rooftop of an NCP car park, juxtaposing sculpture and installation with breath-taking views across the city. The wit and energy of the 23 artists’ work was a perfect match for the idiosyncratic venue, from Council Baby’s blown-up graffitied train tickets (“YUPTAE” “NOWT”) to Sam Welch’s installation in the back of a parked van. The latest graduate-initiated project was also the first exhibition

Graduate Showcase 2022

In the Wild

hile final year GSA students were busy in their studios, graduates from the last two cohorts were out in the world, sharing their work at physical events for the first time. When ongoing lockdowns and restrictions prevented in-person Degree Shows in 2020, the GSA committed to support future IRL graduate-led activity, which has been coming to fruition with exhibitions, screenings and events over the past year – in locations from Glasgow to Seoul. Something of a prelude to this activity came in late 2020, when – due to local allowances – a group of GSA graduates were able to exhibit at a major FutureLab showcase in Shanghai. In the absence of Degree Shows around the world, the international art and design education platform presented an exhibition of work by Chinese graduates – including 52 from postgraduate programmes at the GSA. From May to July 2021, as some venues began to tentatively open to visitors, a group of 2021 Fine Art graduates spearheaded the Alternative Degree Show Festival – a three month-long takeover of the city’s galleries, public spaces and civic buildings. Venues ranged from the airy main hall of the Briggait, to the open spaces of Woodlands Community Garden, with over 100 graduates from Painting and Printmaking, Fine Art Photography and Sculpture and Environmental Art showing work. After over a year without in-person exhibitions, visitors had the opportunity to come face-to-face with Josie Ko’s life-size sculptures, experience the sinister shadows of Ella Campbell’s Human Cave, and watch a durational performance by HUSS. As well as showcasing their work, the graduates took the opportunity to reflect on a number of pertinent issues facing artists and art students today, in a series of online talks. The programme included a panel on sustainability that took in not just climate issues, but the need for financial and creative support, and a

Image by: Alan McAteer

Graduate Showcase 2022

Image by: Alan McAteer

Project Wunderkammer

THE SKINNY

Image by: Alan McAteer

Graduate Drive Thru, Image by Alan McAteer

— 12 —

Josie Ko, Alternative Degree Show Festival

— 13 —

Yena Park, A Remix of Damage

June 2022

Graduates from the last two years make an international impact with an inventive series of exhibitions and events

Graduate Showcase 2022

In the Wild

Image by: Alan McAteer

Graduate Showcase 2022

Image by: Alan McAteer

Project Wunderkammer

THE SKINNY

This group show brings together painting, printmaking, drawing, textiles and performance from 12 artists, exhibiting together for the first time since graduating from the GSA’s MLitt Fine Art Practice programme in 2020.

Room Image by: Kialy Tihngang

Open Studio Summer School

Race, Rights and Sovereignty

Graduate Degree Show 2022 Glasgow and online, August

Race, Rights and Sovereignty Glasgow and online, throughout the year The Students’ Association and GSA Exhibitions curate this public series, exploring the relationship between race, place, and creative practice. The current programme strand, Caring Between Practices, invites practitioners working at the intersections of art and somatic practices to deliver workshops, walks and talks, to help us consider how somatic and healing practices can be used as ways to care for ourselves and each other within our own practices.

Image by: Alan McAteer

Graduate Degree Show 2022

Image by: Belle Breslin

Hot on the heels of the undergraduate Degree Show comes the annual showcase of postgraduate work, which also makes a return to the physical realm this year. From fashion collections to innovative service design, heritage visualisation to painting, this is your chance to explore the work of GSA’s master’s students both on campus and online.

Room Reid Gallery, Glasgow, 30 Jul-13 Aug

GSA OPEN Glasgow and online, throughout the year

Portfolio Preparation Course

Whether you’re just starting to consider coming to art school, or you’re almost ready to hit ‘send’ on your application, GSA OPEN has an event to help you. Our year-long programme encompasses virtual open days, student-led campus tours, portfolio advice sessions and more, for whatever stage of the application process you’re at.

Open House: RGI Graduate Award Winners GSASA Degree Show After Party

GSASA Degree Show After Party SWG3, Glasgow, 31 May

Street Level Open 2022

Open House: RGI Graduate Award Winners Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Glasgow, 8-30 Jul

— 15 —

Dressing Above Your Station Online and around Glasgow, until 26 Jun Image by: Steven Campbell

Image by: Yeon Ju

Street Level Open 2022 Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, until 7 Aug Image by: Indre Bylaite

— 14 —

Image by: GSASA

Leonie Hiller Errand's “I am a multidisciplinary designer and photographer, graduating this year in Communication Design. I am interested in themes of culture and society, which go further into nostalgia and heritage/ identity. This has influenced the typeface, created as part of a collaborative project that deals with the marketing language of domestication. As well as being used on the Degree Show poster, the typeface was originally created as a display font for the Errand's shop – created by myself and Abigail Allen – based on old supermarkets from the 1950s, and will also be presented as part of the Communication Design work at Degree Show 2022.”

Billy Paterson Capsule “ I am a Glasgow-based Graphic Designer and year 3 Communication Design student exploring concepts of hauntology, temporality and technology primarily through typography and print media. Capsule is a modular typeface inspired by Kisho Kurokawa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo – a key building from the Metabolist architectural movement. This movement fused ideas of architectural megastructures with those of organic biological growth in post-war Japan. Since designing the typeface, the building began its disassembly in March 2022, which has prompted the release of the typeface for free via billypatersonstudio.co.uk.”

GSA OPEN

June 2022

Portfolio Preparation Course Glasgow, from September Are you working on your application to art school? The GSA’s Portfolio Preparation Course gives you the time and space to develop your portfolio in a collaborative, dynamic studio environment. The course is structured to help you choose a specialist area of art and design to study, and has a track record of getting students places at top art schools across the UK.

Graduate Showcase 2022

After two years online, Open Studio returns to the studios of the GSA for a month-long programme of short courses. Whether you’re looking for an intro to illustration, or want to try your hand at screenprinting or life drawing, there are courses for all levels covering art, design and craft – and a discount for full-time students.

Image by: Bori Gheorghita

Sophie Ammann Ghost Signs “My main interests lie in analogue processes such as print, bookbinding and sign painting, with a focus on typography and lettering. Humour is an integral part of my work. Some of my recent work has been finding and digitally preserving letterings from ghost signs around Glasgow and re-introducing them into a new context. If I could be any letter of the alphabet, I would be an S.”

Fleur Connor Untitled Diptych 1 “ This diptych was produced by adapting during lockdown to what little space I had and the few physical resources I had to create. That’s why it follows a grid pattern, because the painting is made from lots of little tiny paintings. It’s really exciting for me to have the diptych now become a symbol of something positive. It’s really wonderful to be featured alongside the work of my fellow students and for that work to be celebrated.”

Open Studio Summer School Glasgow, 20 Jun-22 Jul

Image by: Catherine Johnston

Graduate Showcase 2022

We hear from the GSA students whose work came together to create this year’s beautiful Degree Show poster and digital campaign

Heads Up Image by: Louise Stewart

Group work

THE SKINNY

Dressing Above Your Station

THE SKINNY

Room Image by: Kialy Tihngang

Open Studio Summer School

Race, Rights and Sovereignty

Graduate Degree Show 2022 Glasgow and online, August

Image by: Alan McAteer

Graduate Degree Show 2022

Image by: Belle Breslin

Room Reid Gallery, Glasgow, 30 Jul-13 Aug

GSA OPEN Glasgow and online, throughout the year

Portfolio Preparation Course

Open House: RGI Graduate Award Winners GSASA Degree Show After Party

GSASA Degree Show After Party SWG3, Glasgow, 31 May

Street Level Open 2022

Open House: RGI Graduate Award Winners Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Glasgow, 8-30 Jul

— 15 —

Dressing Above Your Station Online and around Glasgow, until 26 Jun Image by: Steven Campbell

Image by: Yeon Ju

Street Level Open 2022 Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, until 7 Aug Image by: Indre Bylaite

— 14 —

Image by: GSASA

GSA OPEN

June 2022

Graduate Showcase 2022

Image by: Bori Gheorghita

Open Studio Summer School Glasgow, 20 Jun-22 Jul

Image by: Catherine Johnston

Graduate Showcase 2022

We hear from the GSA students whose work came together to create this year’s beautiful Degree Show poster and digital campaign

Heads Up Image by: Louise Stewart

Group work

THE SKINNY

Dressing Above Your Station

June 2022

Graduate Showcase 2022

THE SKINNY

— 16 —

The Skinny: Degree Show 2022

Articles inside

The School of Fine Art

Graduates from the

Want a Heads Up on the summer ahead? We highlight some of the best exhibitions, courses, and cultural events at the GSA and beyond.

Meet the four GSA students whose work graces this year’s

This year’s Innovation School

New technologies become tools for communication, education and disconcertion