Millie Stewart

 "I am also selling the eyes, teeth, fingers and tongues"  Millie Stewart 

A fantastic rich, grotesque and funny degree show by Millie Stewart who has graduated in Fine Art.

'My work explores the juxtaposition of safety and violence, childhood and adulthood. I find the complexities of human experience and our relationship with the world around us fascinating. By blending materials such as wood, ceramic, fabric and metal I am able to bring these opposing forces into physical form, which creates a unique and intense emotional experience for the viewer. The tactile nature of my work invites people to physically interact with it. It allows for a more visceral connection to the concepts I'm exploring - returning the viewer to that childlike state of curiosity and exploration. The idea of bridging the gap between innocence and violence is interesting to me as it opens up dialogue about how we perceive danger and safety as we move through different stages of life.

The viewer is invited into a strange world, one that raises both comfort and concern. I create a juxtaposition by placing pastel colours and childlike forms next to metal objects which incite violence. I find that there is something beautiful about acknowledging the darkness in the world, not as something to fear or reject, but as something to understand and process, and ultimately integrate into our lives.' Millie Stewart 

Art Colleges in Crisis

You could not attend the degree show this year at Duncan of Jordanstone without seeing the brave work of Fine Art student Finn Millar doing his best to "keep the university alive". Finn Millar said: “The degree show is an opportunity for our year to make a real lasting impact on this university and play a role in saving not only the jobs and livelihoods of staff who got us to where we are today, but also ensure future students get the best quality of education they can and keep this university alive.” It is understood around 200 students taking part in the show have agreed to display the posters alongside their work, and as a visitor they were a highly visible demonstration of an issue which many of us attending would have been unaware.

In the many years that I have been documenting the degree shows in Scotland, I have witnessed the degradation of courses with subjects being compacted together or cancelled a massive loss to the students coming through, but also a huge loss to the arts of Scotland and Britain. It was like dominoes, Ceramics across Edinburgh, Dundee, Glasgow and Aberdeen went first, followed by tapestry in ECA and then Furniture Design, Stained Glass.  Illustration and Graphics across the colleges are becoming more homogenised and indistinguishable, in what I believe a prelude to pushing them together.                            To revive courses disbanded is complex and expensive, the loss of vital machinery and materials as well as the rare expertise. 

Thankfully the Red List of Endangered Crafts is highlighting the critical plight and loss of different artisan skills across Britain, but arts in general are endangered by successive governments funding and education policy decisions and now they threaten the countries creative community with AI. 

Our Art Schools over the years have suffered, by being absorbed into institutions that do not understand or accommodate the space and material rich requirements of many art subjects. Now as the squeeze of resources happens that art schools are suffering. Across education it seems we have the same 'Billionaire' ideology of our sick society, with University Principles on ludicrous salaries and bonuses whilst the people actually involved in the teaching and running of courses and their students are starved of support and finances. 

‘There is a disconnect between the disinvestment, possibly by accident, in art education, and all the evidence for its importance,’ argues Anita Taylor. How has such a disconnect happened and how can it be countered? ‘The trouble is that the outcomes of art education are complicated and policy doesn’t manage the complexity,’ says Vicky Gunn from Glasgow School of Art. She is particularly concerned by the fact that the results of the Teaching Excellence Framework, which measures the quality of every university course, can cross-reference graduate earnings from each course. Her recent work focuses on describing with more clarity the processes and impacts of studying art, so that the sector can argue for alternative forms of value.

Grace Pitman Ross

 

This sculptural installation is Grace Pitman Ross's degree show at Dundee called "After all, we’re only human...".  It is a project created in response to the global attitude towards our planet’s climate crisis.

"Relying on the recyclable and biodegradable materials of cardboard, paper, teabags and wood, the artwork sculpts a frozen moment where an unassuming living room meets the present Polar crisis of the planets melting ice caps. A television projects a silent looping faux broadcast, of anchors presenting the news, before the former anchor gives into desperation and addresses the public in a plea to act in the interest of preventing global warming, before returning to the regularly scheduled news segment. The broadsheet newspaper is a fictional global publication giving updates to current events, the edition in print on display, discusses global warming and the consequences we face already. The audio playing offers a contrasting tranquillity, layering non-human sounds of Earth in a repeating constellation of sound.

The room is lit with five small lanterns and one lampshade, made like traditional paper lanterns but with the paper being exclusively used teabags from the last few months. The remaining elements rely on glue and cardboard, the cardboard was collected from local businesses as well as collected delivery packaging from myself and other DJCAD students. The work calls attention to humanities entanglement with the very nature I feel we try to separate ourselves from. No matter how boxed-in and distracting our existences may become, we inevitably have an impact on our environments. Life if interconnected and in the words of Pascal Chabot, “To exist is to be connected.” Grace Pitman Ross 

Giorgos Asvestas I

Giorgos Asvestas's beautiful studies of sleeping cats from his graduation show at Dundee's Duncan of Jordanstone art college.  Giorgos has a very varied and wonderful portfolio to explore. 

 

Calum Rennie

 

What I like about degree shows is that there is always something you will like, something that will surprise and that though the college tries to put people in creative boxes of fine art, illustration, textile design there are always one or two people who become something else  something quite different . . . like a fine art student who is really a writer. 

Here are some of Calum J Rennie's works litlte zines, printed pages and wood cuts; inspired by long hours working in a supermarket.  'The Work Never Ends', Day and night, a printer (like that on a supermarket checkout) churns out a constant stream of thoughts and observations. 

Tilda Watson

 

Tilda Watson's degree show at Dundee was a little like walking into Hans Christian Anderson's storytelling space as the silhouette of large scissors loomed with many other laser cut ply elements. 

"My practice explores the symbiotic space where dream recollection and lived memory meet: a state of confusion and of grief for our lost experiences. As we attempt to preserve what is both beyond and within us, we are caught in a never-ending cycle of forgetting and remembering. Recollection documentation has become the basis of my practice, and this is realised through text, drawing, fragmented dialogue, print, and installation. The work consists of an accumulation of visual material and autobiographical notation, reduced to subdued natural hues and monochromatic forms.      The fragments of this installation become a map of visual, written, and auditory association where two versions of the “self” collide, and dreams reverberate into the awake experience. The artwork seeks to mediate between the dream self and the awake self, recognising the duality within us all. In so doing, the work helps us understand this dynamic and brings us closer to a realisation of our true selves." Tilda Watson

Morvern Graham I

 

So after two years of just peeping online at graduates from the Scottish Art Colleges, at last I am getting to see the new talent for myself. Today I travelled north to Duncan of Jordanstone Art College, and was not disappointed.  and My first feature from this show is illustrator Morvern Graham . I like Morvern's work as it is full of texture, simple limited colour pallet, sparse composition, great drawing, traditional story telling and lots of wooly jumpers.  

The illustrations here are from two tales; Holm and The Huldufólk. 

Maria Tolia

Lovely book explorations by Greek artist Maria Tolia who has just graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee.

Joanna Migut

The degree show of Joanna Migut, unapologetically appley from the pip to the core. The peel to the name of your true love!

'I was looking for an object to paint that is quite simple everyday almost trivial but also symbolic and chose apple because it carries a lot of meaning. Everyone knows the story about Eve and Eden, the apple became a symbol of curiosity knowledge. There’s also Plato’s myth of Aristophanes which explains the origins of humans - once there were eight limbed creatures who grew so powerful they became a threat to the gods and Zeus decided to split them in half. Since then they live on Earth constantly seeking the wholeness they had lost. This is why the fruit in my works is split in half. What is more in Polish language we have a saying ‘they’re like two halves of one apple’ meaning soulmates. I like linking the curiosity of Eve, the search for wholeness from the Greek myth with the essence of artistic practice itself.'  Joanna Migut 

Katherine Fay Allan I

Wonderfully sensitive and poignant work by Katherine Allan for her degree in Art and Philosophy on show at the Duncan of Jordanston Degree Exhibition this week. 

‘The rest of us, we just go gardening’

Born from witnessing my mother undergo intensive treatment for a life-threatening illness, this work aims to capture the process of medical procedures and the physical suspension between wellness and sickness. 

In the book ‘Adventures of Human Being’ I came across an account by a surgeon that compared brain surgery to the act of gardening. This comparison illustrates the true physicality between the medical professional and the patient’s body during this process; as parts are removed and mended by another. While also making us consider the boundaries made between the sterile and the unclean in regards to the environment of the modern hospital. This artwork takes the form of a patient bay reimagined to embody this surreal suspension by drawing attention to the boundaries made by the state of the body itself.

Treatment is to be suspended in the space between
inside outside
sterile unclean
in-organic organic
machine human
alive deceased
wellness sickness
care giver cared for Katherine Fay Allan