Prepare to be blown away by the amazing creations at this year’s Gray’s School of Art final-year students’ Degree Show. Your Weekend finds out more
Despite its tranquil setting on the banks of the River Dee, there is a thrum of nervous excitement in the air as soon as you enter Gray’s School of Art.
With the final-year students’ Degree Show only days away, the school is being temporarily rebuilt from the inside, as happens every year, transforming it from working studio space to a gallery space that allows the displayed work to breathe properly.
Everywhere, there is activity as students put the finishing touches to their projects. It is the culmination of the fourth-year students’ university lives, a last hurrah to art school and a point of refocusing as they begin to look to what lies ahead for them.
For those who visit the Degree Show, it is an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the next wave of up and coming talent; to see artists on the verge of emerging into Scotland’s vibrant arts scene.
The head of school, Professor Chris O’Neil, joined Robert Gordon University (RGU) from Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD) last year, and he is excited to be part of his first Degree Show at Gray’s.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “I think degree shows are when art schools come alive and the huge effort and struggle of students becomes public. It is an opportunity to celebrate their insight, their learning and their talent.”
Having been at RGU for a full academic term, Chris is passionate about the role of Gray’s School of Art in the region and the support that it enjoys in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
He said: “The support that Gray’s has from the art community, the business community and the wider community is significant. People of the region know that culture is an important indicator of our richness and confidence as a society.
“This was true of John Gray when he founded the school 130 years ago and it continues to be the case. He founded the school to contribute to society and our cultural health, and that is what Gray’s does, what it has been doing for over a century and what we will continue to do.”
Spanning painting, contemporary art practice in printmaking, sculpture, and photography, communication design, fashion and textiles, and three-dimensional design, there is a huge wealth of work to see at the show, with more than 150 exhibiting students.
Chris added: “One of the unique things about Gray’s is that not only do we look at the digital concerns industrial engineers have in terms of design and design processes, we also consider craft dimensions and bespoke handmade solutions. Few art schools can boast this range of skill and commitment.
“I think Gray’s is a unique art school. It is of the right scale, it is full of passion, full of talent and it has a focus within a Scottish and international dimension that exists nowhere else.”
For those who don’t know what to expect at a degree show, Chris offers these words: “Every Degree Show is different, because no two artists are the same, so I’d encourage people just to come and be prepared to be surprised and delighted.
“The work that has been produced this year is great; I’ve already got my favourites and I bet they will be different to those of our visitors.”
Your Weekend talks to three final-year students about their work:
NAME: Gregor Wittrick
AGE: 21
WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
Aberdeen
WHAT DEGREE PROGRAMME ARE YOU STUDYING?
Three Dimensional Design (Ceramics and Glass)
NAME OF DEGREE SHOW EXHIBIT, AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MATERIALS/TECHNIQUES USED?
My Degree Show project is called RAW & COOKED, and the materials that I’ve used include a range of clays, stoneware, porcelain, bone china and food materials. I’ve used various forms of slipcasting to create my work, using different food materials as the mould. I’ve given my work a clean form and aesthetic so the textures obtained from the processes are emphasised. Due to the food materials I’m using – different doughs and breads – the textures are very raw, organic.
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO DO THIS COLLECTION OF WORK?
An interest in food and its importance as a material led me to research the physical and metaphorical links and similarities between food materials and craft materials.
WHAT DID YOU SET OUT TO ACHIEVE WITH IT?
Through a collection of functional and conceptual pieces, I hope to bring attention to importance of everyday materials.
WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO AFTER UNIVERSITY?
I’d like to continue my ceramic practice and research into the possibilities of combining clay with more unusual materials and processes.
NAME: Didi Jellema
AGE: 23
WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
I grew up in Humbie, East Lothian, but my family are from the Netherlands originally.
WHAT DEGREE PROGRAMME ARE YOU STUDYING?
I am studying the BA (Hons) Painting course.
NAME OF DEGREE SHOW EXHIBIT, AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MATERIALS/TECHNIQUES USED?
Between Two Homelands. I have used a whole host of materials, but the work is based in oil and ink on canvas, working and printing on to this, making textured surfaces with salt crystals and rust, and lastly stitching – a lot of stitching into the canvases.
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO DO THIS COLLECTION OF WORK?
I have always found that when I make work of a more personal nature that I become more engrossed. This body of work looks at growing up with a dual nationality, belonging to two homelands and speaking two languages. It looks at the notion of diaspora and the idea of not really belonging yet belonging to an in-between. Creating this body of work was a way for me to explore and better understand this sense of displacement that I have grown up with.
WHAT DID YOU SET OUT TO ACHIEVE WITH IT?
I wanted to create a body of work that would depict this notion of being “adrift” – to make a physical form of something that is a state of being. It is a place that many inhabit within themselves, yet is not a real space at all.
WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO AFTER UNIVERSITY?
After university, I hope to continue making art, apply for residencies in faraway places, to travel and to see more of the world. If all goes well, I would love to complete a masters course in art in the Netherlands.
NAME: Caitlyn Main
AGE: 21
WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
Aberdeen.
WHAT DEGREE PROGRAMME ARE YOU STUDYING?
Contemporary Art Practice (Printmaking).
NAME OF DEGREE SHOW EXHIBIT, AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MATERIALS/TECHNIQUES USED?
The name of my exhibit is Blushing Wax, and my show is a mixture of drawn, collage and printed work. I am particularly focused on drawing, as I believe the idiosyncratic nature of the medium can offer insight into the artist’s perspective.
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO DO THIS COLLECTION OF WORK?
My work represents a collection of experiences, and the struggle to render these experiences physical. Pieced together from bits of scrap, stolen and saved from studio and printmaking workshops, the process of making is evident in the outcome. Drawing is used as an instrument for non-verbal communication: a way of transcending speech, in order to convey something delicate and internal.
WHAT DID YOU SET OUT TO ACHIEVE WITH IT?
I wanted to convey the sense of the process I have gone through to reach those outcomes. I was really excited to get into my Degree Show space because I think the work and the space are one – I’m interested in how we cultivate and create environments for work.
WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO AFTER UNIVERSITY?
I plan to apply to the Graduate in Residence position at Gray’s School of Art, where I would continue to use the facilities to produce work.
The 2015 Gray’s School of Art Degree Show will open to the public at Robert Gordon University’s Garthdee campus on Saturday, June 20, and will run until Saturday, June 27. Entry is free and opening times are 10am to 5pm at the weekend, and 10am to 8pm, Monday to Friday. For more information, visit www.rgu.ac.uk/degreeshow