Glasgow School of Art. Degree Show 2020
Published: 27.05.2020
gsa.ac.uk
Graduate Showcase launches as a digital platform where our students, their families and friends, staff and the GSA’s global creative network of 22,000 alumni, partners, employers and industry as well as the wider public can come together online to begin to look, listen, watch, read, review, engage, follow and connect with our graduating students’ individual Showcases of work, some still in process, some completed, along with critical and community reviews and live events, performances and happenings.
Artist list
Paige Baitey, Celeste Chambers-Hill, Isla Cruickshank, Mischa Currie, Jade Fernon, Alice Fry, Shiqi Fu, Taja Guirey, Ahsun Hwang, Laura Knowles, Alaitz Martinez-Maranon Gavilan, Finley Mcnamara, Melissa Mcneil, Christine Milroy, Eilidh Munro, Sarah Murdoch, Megan Murray, Tracy Scott, Jack Taylor, Chang Wu, Xiaoyin Wu, Jiayang Xie, Yitong Zhang
We invite you to join us for the launch of The Glasgow School of Art's Graduate Showcase 2020 on 29.05.2020. Please click this link to join the online Graduate Showcase and further update.
We then invite you to follow our graduates' progress into the future as each digital Showcase will be kept updated through 2020 and 2021 - allowing our graduates of 2020 to keep sharing new work with you as they are able to produce it.
GSA has also given a commitment to support physical exhibitions and presentations of work as part of Graduate Showcase over 2020 and 21 once social distancing restrictions allow.
About the course and exhibition:
The Silversmithing and Jewellery programme at Glasgow School of Art aims to provide a broad, balanced approach to the specialism, from the development of original design concepts through to finely crafted finished work. A strong emphasis is placed on the individual, allowing students the freedom to pursue and realise their own ideas, encouraging the exploration of materials and concepts in order to create their own voice. The journey through the design process is important and informs the final work. This is demonstrated through an incredible range of source material and creative interventions. Through this exploration, graduates have a rich source of inspiration from which to develop ideas. This creative toolbox has generated graduates, past and present that have technical skills but equally, skills to think creatively in all aspects of design and applied arts.
Names of the guiding teachers:
Head of Department: Anna Gordon.
Tutors: Andrew Lamb, Marianne Anderson, Michael Pell and Silvia Weidenbach.
We then invite you to follow our graduates' progress into the future as each digital Showcase will be kept updated through 2020 and 2021 - allowing our graduates of 2020 to keep sharing new work with you as they are able to produce it.
GSA has also given a commitment to support physical exhibitions and presentations of work as part of Graduate Showcase over 2020 and 21 once social distancing restrictions allow.
About the course and exhibition:
The Silversmithing and Jewellery programme at Glasgow School of Art aims to provide a broad, balanced approach to the specialism, from the development of original design concepts through to finely crafted finished work. A strong emphasis is placed on the individual, allowing students the freedom to pursue and realise their own ideas, encouraging the exploration of materials and concepts in order to create their own voice. The journey through the design process is important and informs the final work. This is demonstrated through an incredible range of source material and creative interventions. Through this exploration, graduates have a rich source of inspiration from which to develop ideas. This creative toolbox has generated graduates, past and present that have technical skills but equally, skills to think creatively in all aspects of design and applied arts.
Names of the guiding teachers:
Head of Department: Anna Gordon.
Tutors: Andrew Lamb, Marianne Anderson, Michael Pell and Silvia Weidenbach.
Object: Objects of Human-object No.2 No.3, 2020
Precious white metal (could be hallmarked).
Double-straw candlestick: 7.7 x 4 x 26.3 cm; Single-straw candlestick: 7.2 x 3.9 x 26 cm
Statement: According to Greenhalgh, things we use and make are not neutral objects but embodiments of ourselves and cultural values. Yitong Zhang’s collection of works investigates people’s relationships with everyday objects, exploring the complexity and contradictoriness in people’s desire and character reflected by objects they live with. The processes of thinking and making are stimulated by people’s subconscious way of using objects, and questions that are provoked when objects are incorporated within functional behaviours. How objects “talk” is a question, responding to semiology and theories surrounding how objects might be ‘read’ as text. For this collection, the work of Roland Barthes and Jean Baudrillard is acknowledged by reference to symbolic meanings reflected in the values placed on materials, skill, and effort of objects; with Baudrillard stating that: ‘We live by object time’ (1970). These works ask the viewers and users to connect with their time and space, in a dialogue that invites discussion of agency in human-object relations.
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Object: Eggshell Inlay spoon set, 2020
Precious white metal, Araucana, quail, duck eggshells, Jesmonite.
Teaspoon: 12.5 x 3 x 1 cm; Salt spoon: 8.5 x 1.6 x 0.8 cm
From series: Féasta
Statement: Isla Cruickshank’s practise encompasses a range of ideas and skills derived from her experiences as a cook, host and maker. The processes leading to the designs for this collection involve an immediate correspondence between the kitchen and studio; an acknowledgement of the transferable craft skills required in making meaning from natural and sustainable produce. The collection, Féasta, challenges specific values inherent in the possibilities of food as material, as well as sustenance. Féasta recognises deeply embedded cultural significance in food sourced from remote, Scottish estates, farms and kitchen gardens, reflecting social habits surrounding the cultivation and preservation of the production of food over many generations. The collection, in the form of functional and sculptural pieces, captures an eternal life-cycle, from produce, plate, object and experience. Each piece is designed to enhance the intimate and sensory experience of enjoying a fine meal; craft precision brought into alignment with distinctive culinary knowledge.
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Brooch: Iron Moon I, 2020
Silver, iron, glass, resin.
7.5 x 7.5 x 4 cm
Brooch / pendant with Vessel.
Statement: Ever captivated by the unseen forces that govern and shape our world, this collection is determined by exploration and celebration of the interconnected realms of science and art, focusing in particular on the laws of physics and their intrinsic influence on our physical experience and reality. Methodical studio experimentation and inquisitive scientific observation of ferromagnetic materials are combined with creative enquiry and scientific properties to reveal mesmerising visual examples of physical laws, within these jewellery pieces. Applying a knowledge-sharing philosophy, encouraging cross-boundary collaboration to experience a fuller understanding of existence, this collection represents curious, wearable objects that exist in response to seemingly unrelated yet intrinsically interwoven cross-disciplinary conversations.
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Brooch: Beryl Brooch, 2020
Silver, niobium, steel.
5.4 x 3 x 0.9 cm
Statement: Alice is a multi-award-winning jeweller and silversmith who celebrates the chaotic beauty of crystal and mineral formations through the medium of metal. As a graduate from the world-renowned Glasgow School of Art, Alice trained in both traditional and contemporary fields of metalwork and design. Alice’s work re-imagines rare mineral specimens as functional jewellery and objects, without depleting precious resources. To create these rock-like textures and forms, Alice uses ancient techniques of chasing and repoussé. Alongside developing this technique, she has spent much time studying the effects of incredible metals, titanium and niobium, that provide bursts of colour to her jewellery designs, using a modern form of anodising. Now acknowledged as her specialism, she is one of only a handful of metalworkers in the UK working with niobium. From 2020-2021, Alice will be studying at Bishopsland Educational Trust, a prestigious residential course specialising in the ancient crafts of jewellery and silversmithing.
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Bangle: Brahma, 2020
3D printed Nylon, sterling silver.
Inside 22 cm Ø; H: 1.6 cm
Statement: Technology is a subject of fascination and exploration and this collection represents a developing conversation around Artificial Intelligence and the everyday. Applying Artificial Intelligence to jewellery, often considered an everyday object, reveals a number of anxieties and apprehensions in how we might utilise technology in future designs. In particular, our fear of ‘deepfakes’ combined with future generations of ‘trans-humans’ led to an investigation of human faces as a subject matter for this collection. Research for the collection asked whether this technology might be used solely as a tool or source of inspiration; or might it be truly creative in a human sense? By mimicking AI’s function of sculpting, and extruding AI generated faces, the collection consists of wearable artefacts that reflect a conversation between the machine and me.
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Brooch: Work In progress, 2020
Sketchbook pages.
Photo by: Christine Milroy
Statement: Creating the effects of cobbled streets, miniature harbours, sheltered by cliffs, and historic fishing villages in the form of jewellery pieces, may seem ambitious. However, the processes involved in the practice of jewellery designing and making compress such impressions, allowing for the representation of natural aesthetics, of subtle shapes and colour palettes in small details. This collection evolved from my travels through some of Scotland’s historic coastal villages; unique places that combine traditional domestic architecture with a timeless, almost ‘Wabi Sabi’, attitude to seafront imagery, where lobster creels, fishing nets and tiny boats, lie alongside startlingly white-washed walls, below crow-stepped gables. Photographs, sketches and digital drawings were made from these appearances, in an intuitive response to each environment, to form the basis of a series of jewellery objects evocative of time and place, with the structures, colours and shapes of a distinctive Scottish landscape, captured on an intimate scale.
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Vessel: Untitled, 2020
Copper, vitreous enamel.
9 x 9 x 6 cm; 9 x 9 x 6 cm; 10 x 9 x 6 cm
From series: Triptych
Statement: Objectification can be defined as seeing and/or treating a person, usually a woman, as an object. Exploration of the female form was the starting point of this research, studying the evolution of beauty standards throughout the ages. Initially, the life drawing tradition marked the beginning of this investigation, that allowed for an exploration of the shapes and movement of the body; extracting form, colour, and pattern directly from drawings and incorporating them into these designs. Each pose has its own fleeting image that has to be captured there and then, and can be interpreted in different ways by the viewer. The collection presented here, focuses on Western ideals of beauty and the extremity of the objectification of women in our culture. In today’s society women are under constant pressure to ‘correct’ their bodies to an ideal image, to the detriment of their mental health. Therefore these pieces form a collection of vessels focussing on the mental health crises in young women reflected in the myriad pressures society places upon them. This collection of smooth, organically-shaped and brightly patterned objects are representative of the character and collective nature of specific relationships.
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Ring: Growing, the spirit of line, 2020
Precious white metal (could be hallmarked).
90 x 65 x 55 cm
From series: Natural, Line and Surface
Statement: Jiayang Xie works as a jewellery designer and maker and is concerned with the intercultural meanings of traditional Chinese and Japanese art. For her final year project she investigated in those subjects, which share a vibrant, natural, floating line and a form of beauty in established patterns; and importantly a unique understanding of space. Transforming these ideas into the designs, her jewellery are statements that can shed light on these conventional approaches to aesthetics in decorative objects. Each piece is intended as a translation of these methods, of the intimate connections between the human body as both vessel and wearer. The language of traditional techniques (especially filigree) are used in these designs in order to develop and explore the interaction of space and decoration in a different approach to contemporary studio art and design.
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Set: Parametric Set, 2020
Silver, silver wire and perspex.
25 x 8 x 8 cm each
Vessels / Sculptures.
Statement: My interests in the traditional crafts skills of silversmithing has influenced my decision to seek the transformation of vessels, predominantly domestic items. I considered various utilitarian objects in my initial research exploring shadows and was intrigued to find that I could use this method to alter and reimagine forms to create aesthetically appealing works. I take great satisfaction in working with metal, researching ways of combining such traditional silversmithing techniques with modern technology. My intention is to create pieces that are inspired and enhanced by technology, and that appear to create a juxtaposition with traditionally crafted forms, but which show, in fact, how these modern techniques and materials contribute to an evolution of form, shape and structure of vessels. In researching changing forms and technology I used parametric design, which has greatly influenced my design decisions. Small alterations to the parameters of vessels shown in this collection produce differing forms with similar styles. This process allows me to make visible communication between two elements of my designs; the traditional and technologically enhanced.
Statement: My interests in the traditional crafts skills of silversmithing has influenced my decision to seek the transformation of vessels, predominantly domestic items. I considered various utilitarian objects in my initial research exploring shadows and was intrigued to find that I could use this method to alter and reimagine forms to create aesthetically appealing works. I take great satisfaction in working with metal, researching ways of combining such traditional silversmithing techniques with modern technology. My intention is to create pieces that are inspired and enhanced by technology, and that appear to create a juxtaposition with traditionally crafted forms, but which show, in fact, how these modern techniques and materials contribute to an evolution of form, shape and structure of vessels. In researching changing forms and technology I used parametric design, which has greatly influenced my design decisions. Small alterations to the parameters of vessels shown in this collection produce differing forms with similar styles. This process allows me to make visible communication between two elements of my designs; the traditional and technologically enhanced.
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Piece: Hearts on Fire, 2020
Enamel, steel, silver, brass.
aprox. 5.5 x 7 x 1cm each
Photo by: Alaitz MM. Gavilan
Samples of future brooches.
Statement: Alaitz MM. Gavilan is a visual artist originally from Barcelona now based in Glasgow. Inclined towards jewellery making as mode of expression. Alaitz also engages with other self-taught artistic practices, like illustration and collage, to present her work. The series of objects designed for this collection derives its meanings from social movements and reflects on how the fundamental rights that we take for granted today have always been achieved by public protests and demonstrations on the streets, and very often with violence involved. To create an aesthetic of resistance, of a type of distressed materiality, the jewellery pieces have been abused or damaged; putting the enamel under the pressure of a press form, for example, and creating a crackled texture, as metaphor of a broken individualistic society, characteristic of neoliberal economics and politics. The objects here call for empathy and solidarity, a demand for a more community-minded society, symbolised in these small-scale works. Importantly, this collection is part of a broader personal project to expand silversmithing & jewellery designs and bring these closer to a wider spectrum of people, from different social classes, a goal of many previous generations of craft-activists.
Statement: Alaitz MM. Gavilan is a visual artist originally from Barcelona now based in Glasgow. Inclined towards jewellery making as mode of expression. Alaitz also engages with other self-taught artistic practices, like illustration and collage, to present her work. The series of objects designed for this collection derives its meanings from social movements and reflects on how the fundamental rights that we take for granted today have always been achieved by public protests and demonstrations on the streets, and very often with violence involved. To create an aesthetic of resistance, of a type of distressed materiality, the jewellery pieces have been abused or damaged; putting the enamel under the pressure of a press form, for example, and creating a crackled texture, as metaphor of a broken individualistic society, characteristic of neoliberal economics and politics. The objects here call for empathy and solidarity, a demand for a more community-minded society, symbolised in these small-scale works. Importantly, this collection is part of a broader personal project to expand silversmithing & jewellery designs and bring these closer to a wider spectrum of people, from different social classes, a goal of many previous generations of craft-activists.
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Earrings: MM,001, 2020
Imagined in white precious metal.
Approx. 10 x 5 cm
Statement: Fossils are the remnants of previous lives lived, the ossified remains of a once vital life force, now petrified and suspended within a many-layered crust or hardened stone. Rather than encounter the fossil as a ‘dead’ entity, however, in my practice, fossils represent the spark of life, memories of life as it once was. The particular tactility of these objects and their display as palaeontology, entomology, and archaeology, provide an especially appealing aesthetic quality, easily transferable and reproducible as objects of jewellery, in precious metals. In a sense, my design process is an attempt to create a ‘micro-museum’ of personal, often nostalgic memories, with meanings that are both individual and universal.
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Brooch: Untitled, 2020
Laser rubber, recycled cork, steel pins.
8 x 3 cm
From series: Work in progress
Brooch, digital development.
Statement: Positivity of materiality in objects of design is the focus of this collection of wearables. How emotional support, through tactility, functionality, wearability and manipulation, might be offered to users, is explored in these artefacts. Specifically, materials such as cork, balsa wood, paper, card and other palpable features are incorporated within the base of the designs to achieve the desired illusionary experience. The final results are realised by means of digital manipulation, with each pattern worked up in adobe illustrator, creating a networked, pre-prepared plan that translates into finished pieces with maximum movement and connectivity with each component, including acrylic, leather and laser rubber. Ultimately, the collection presents the user/wearer with a multidimensional experience, pieces of jewellery that can be deconstructed, to act as autonomous objects that exist alone comfortably, while remaining supportive, physical and substantial when worn or handled.
Statement: Positivity of materiality in objects of design is the focus of this collection of wearables. How emotional support, through tactility, functionality, wearability and manipulation, might be offered to users, is explored in these artefacts. Specifically, materials such as cork, balsa wood, paper, card and other palpable features are incorporated within the base of the designs to achieve the desired illusionary experience. The final results are realised by means of digital manipulation, with each pattern worked up in adobe illustrator, creating a networked, pre-prepared plan that translates into finished pieces with maximum movement and connectivity with each component, including acrylic, leather and laser rubber. Ultimately, the collection presents the user/wearer with a multidimensional experience, pieces of jewellery that can be deconstructed, to act as autonomous objects that exist alone comfortably, while remaining supportive, physical and substantial when worn or handled.
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
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