www.viccialicia.art

I produced romanticism styled series portraying the people I’ve connected with through my life. Showing them in the way I remember and bonded with them the most.

This portrait is of my flatmate Fran who was very comfortable in her own body to the point I felt like I saw her boobs more than I saw my own. We shared similar dark past which created us to have a personal dark humour. I showed her in a calming comfortable state, to the point you look upon this portrait and feel like you want to get naked and tell her all your problems.

www.ben-allan.com

My practice as a sculptor is both materially and conceptually driven. I underpin a continual exploration of diverse materials and processes with an engagement of the notions of indeterminacy and permeability, emphasising mutual contamination through encounter above self-contained individuals. Alongside this, investigations around agency and vitality form core focal points of my practice.

This is manifest in works that feature serendipitous chemical or physical changes, such the absorption of moisture by calcium chloride crystals in Kontrol Cube (2020). Similarly, the process of repeatedly 3D scanning and printing, seen in my recent project Transmutation (2020) accumulates errors that morph the original object into a new hybrid artefact. In both instances, the forces impacting on the form of the work are shared between varied materials and technology, decentring my own authorship.

Additionally, my work remixes and translates objects as a way of investigating both their provenance and ‘afterlife’, as well as the systems surrounding them. In Embedded (2020) the line between cultural artefact and biological specimen is undermined, allowing things to oscillate between the two.

@366.co

Beginning as an expulsion of my own emotions and exercising myself of unwanted tension, the work explores my own psyche, taking reference from lived experience to reflect upon the issues my generation faces. My practise explores how past and present youth cultures have expressed their dissatisfaction through creating a new collective conscious among themselves to rebel against societies norms, pushing for individuality in their members.

With this my practise revolves around the notion of ‘wearable art’, customisable garments allow the wearer / audience to create their own narrative based upon their own lived experiences. Acting as a showcase of the human condition, the garments are a curational space for ideas surrounding image, text and colour. With repeated iconography seamlessly connecting the pieces into a coherent collection, I use different modes of adornment to communicate my visual language, such as embroidery, paint and dye techniques to continue my drawing-based practise into new platforms.

la267596.wixsite.com / @lauraassinderwalkerart / @assinderwalkerdigital

I am an artist working in multimedia with a great love of abstract expressionism. I create a range of works from large scale paintings, 35mm photographs, short pieces of poetry/prose, zines which encompass my paintings, photographs and texts, to small more intimate pieces. I also create works that have a more commercial aspect, such as album covers, posters and items of clothing, as I believe that art has evolved past the point of existing only in galleries and can and should be found in everyday life. My final project at LAU consisted of combining atmospheric images with leading questions or statements, hoping to cause my viewers to question themselves and their everyday life, emotions and experiences when encountering them. This is something my favourite artists have done for me since I can remember. The ability to cause a reaction through your art is, I believe, the basis of all art ever and, “if nobody is reacting to your work, then what have you created?”. 

@beccabarronart / www.beccabarron98.wixsite.com

Becca’s practice highlights people’s desire to humanise dogs, critiquing codes of behaviour, in how humans interact with pets. Through paint, she explores how people’s inner thoughts and feelings are projected onto their pets, using costume, showing how they are treated like babies or consumer items by being dressed up.

The personification of the domestic dog can be emphasised with the power humans have, to give them any identity they choose, often a reflection of tastes, values and status. The humanisation of dogs through clothing is intended to be appreciated ironically through humour and excessive sentimentality. The settings explore domestic spaces, giving the viewer a further insight into the absent owner.

Her work is inspired by artists Lydia Blakeley and David Hockney’s ‘Dog Days’ series. Overtime, domestication of dogs has resulted in their facial features being enhanced, resembling those of a baby. Many believe this triggers a parental release, as cuteness often relates to aesthetic childish traits. Instagram acts as a platform to ‘show off’ people’s beloved animals, some treating them as lifestyle accessories. Notions of kitsch art and cuteness are influential to her practice. Her paintings have a kitschy contemporaneity to them, a real subversion of traditional pet portraits.

@franbass_art

The continuous mistreatment of our planet is a tragedy humanity commit every day. We abuse the life the Earth brings to us by consistently neglecting its natural resources; burning up fossil fuels, cutting down entire ecosystems and polluting our oceans and air. These are the global crises that are threatening all of us on a major scale, however, many of us feel helpless against these issues.

The focus we must have is of our individual contributions to the demise of our planet, and how that affects our own mortality. My practice explores similarities between the 17th century, still life movement “Vanitas” and our modern-day global warming crisis. From research into both aspects, my practice will both inform an audience of the danger that global warming raises as well as reflect historical still life symbolism as seen in the Vanitas movement. My practice aims to provoke thought and insight into our mortality due to our actions and therefore the misuse of our planet.

The theme of this work is to do with addressing the uncanny, and the idea of the original and the copy, and the way in which replication has an effect on a piece of work, altering the way things come across and how they are received by the viewer.

In this particular piece, the use of repetition is present through the quantity of the bags and balloons used, giving the materials more conviction, making the piece more striking to the viewer. The use of balloons specifically is due to the human like qualities they possess when they stand at general head height, as it’s as though they’re looking at or confronting the viewer. Again this pushes the notion of the uncanny as it presents an element of familiarity and almost discomfort for the viewer at the same time.

@sarahbennett.art / www.sarahbennettart.wixsite.com

My work revolves around the virtual world, more specifically looking at facial recognition technologies. Biometric Artificial Intelligence work by examining an individual’s facial landmarks such as the eyes and mouth. I demonstrate how as humans we are data categorised, coded and stored using our facial patterns and shapes. I focus on the disconnected spaces between the 2D and the 3D and how they come together in both the virtual and the real world.

As our current working methods are continuing into the digital realm, we are engaging with platforms such as ‘Zoom,’ ‘House Party,’ ‘Skype’ and ‘FaceTime’ as means of communication. We are unaware as to how and where our biometric facial data is archived, denying us the ability to provide consent, therefore violating our privacy and removing our anonymity.

@mkberoin

'Sampaguita Memories'

In my practice, I explore feelings of nostalgia based upon my own experience whilst also drawing inspiration from my own memories. Having been born in the Philippines and then migrating to the UK at the age of seven, my work aims to reflect my goal to connect deeper within my roots. Photographs are one of the most crucial components to my artistic practice – a method I’ve chosen to document and capture the people and events in my life that gradually become an integral part of my work; like some sort of visual diary.

I lean towards a more introspective approach whereby I use symbolism and significant imagery relating to my family life and culture which highlights fond memories of the past. The altering of images incorporated within my mixed media collages is a recurring visual concept within my work that aims to showcase these moments in my life like a fleeting memory. It aims to capture the very essence of the moment showcasing the flavour of life at the time which in turn triggers a sense of nostalgic feeling.

At the heart of my practice is my story, and my story is a journey which explores the autobiographical through satirical and playful effigies, sculpture, modelling, and multimedia. My work charts both positive and negative emotions, memories and experiences as well as trying to present a different cultural experience to the one the viewer may have. I aim to demonstrate to the viewer, in sculptural form, what it is like to move from not been comfortable in your own skin, to celebrating and cherishing it.

I am an artist who loves to make and do, wallowing in an experience, explorative and curious. I become excited engaging in different mediums, moulding, sculpting, and developing concepts. The combination of different genres coming together, I find encourages the artwork to be thought-provoking, exciting and fascinating.

Pictures are lesser mystery. They are sublime, silver, and cinnabar; they speak of gold. 

The picture is the ideal position of myth; it veils the mythical world. The grandest stories exist in pictures. 

It is the heritage of the craftsperson to perform magic. Transformation is always miraculous.

Truth is to be seen. 

Beauty is its splendour.

To reach the impalpable realms of the true and the good we must wander the palpable realm of the beautiful.

The metaphors of understanding are of seeing.

@bethany_fineart

Bethany Broughton is an artist that articulates the horror, distortion, and skin-crawling aspects through their daily life. She captures misshapen, absent bodies through soft, puppet-like figures. Using the puppet-like dummies as a metaphor through her practice, seen through photography and films. She does this for the uncanny and for the disturbing, to create this style of ambience within her practice. Re-creating scenarios that she and herseverely disabled sister endure on a daily basis, using medical equipment, false blood, and demonstrations of physical emotions as a focal point throughout her practice, to portray the uncanny thinking throughout.

She represents her relationship with her sister through her practice as well as projecting her own intrusive fears and anxiety through their relationship. The association between the trauma and pain that this brings allows her to express the frustration and anger within this subject, allowing the audience to experience this too.

She intends to draw the viewer in and uncovering their sadistic minds, exposing the truth to her dark and abject reality, covering topics many are ashamed and afraid to speak of. Including: Disabled bodies, access, discrimination, trauma. Bringing these topics to light, allows us to have open and necessary conversations about them.

Continuing from focusing on the depiction of women as the temptress stereotype in film and tv I have since narrowed my field of practice focusing on fairy-tale princesses, and how the media is used to condition girls into society’s wholesome damsel in distress. These supposedly sanitised characters are surrounding girls as they grow up yet are simultaneously sexualised. Having been raised on renaissance Disney, I was indoctrinated to believe that love, sex, and romance is what defines me.

In response to this I wanted to create a satire series of art depicting the ‘Expectation’ princess vs the ‘Reality’ princess. I explore what a modern princess’s life would really be like, the gritty reality young women will experience; the good, the bad and the ugly.

@ivo_campbell_arts

I have spent the last three years developing my skills and abilities. As my confidence has increased so has the size of my paintings.

The two paintings exhibited are a culmination of everything I have learnt and an expression of how I have felt in these difficult times. Despite the current situation the lockdown has not been an inhibition but an enhancement for my work.

Throughout my course I have been fascinated by the abstract forms of architecture and urban life in art. The dichotomy of the structured form of buildings on the outside hiding the chaos of life within. To begin with my work was full of negativity but these last few months which should have exacerbated this have in fact resulted in two paintings which I feel show a bigger sense of positivity – a crossing over from isolation to inclusion, the more we have been shut away the more we are reaching out and making new and more positive
connections.

www.ucyclayton12.wixsite.com / www.picuki.com/profile/lucyclaytonartt

Through a process driven practice, I explore the instabilities that surround the term “nature.” What is nature? What does it mean for something to be natural? In a society reliant on single use products, and non-biodegradable materials, in light of this to what extent is our current “nature” natural. The once successful co-existence between humans and the Earth has become unbalanced, and humans have encroached upon it, damaging what is natural in the process. This illusion of a non-definitive line between humans and “nature” is questioned within my work.

Combining ceramics and 3D printing I explore the dislocation between what is natural and artificial. Trees are fundamental for life on earth to exist, yet they are decreasing rapidly due to land clearing and deforestation. The ceramic trees display the fragile, precocity of “nature” and its blurred interconnection with the altered, human world. Through these materials there is a connection to the past, present, and the impending future.

@hccollinss / www.hannahcollins112.wixsite.com / vimeo.com

I am a fine artist who is currently working with 3D visual art. My work concentrates on technology, through utopian views alongside online trends through social media, exploring the relationships between humans with technology. Through computer-generated graphics, I create simulations which reference the body in relation to technology and gender. I am interested in digitalising the physical and exploring how the rapid increase in technology could lead to negative effects. By creating augmented realities, I combine the virtual and the real, which emphasises my views on what I believe to be the unsympathetic dominance of technology in our shrinking world.

 
I create digitally rendered avatars which replicate the way in which humans move. This replication is done in such a way where there is a wrongness to the movement, emphasising the gap between human and computer but also commenting on the advancements in technology closer to the human brain.

Contemporary Artist, Jade Connolly deals with the dynamics of interior space ad is interested in the passages and the transitional spaces within the home. the role of the viewer is central to Jade Connolly's work, they are the witness, the observer. Her work looks into the psychological spaces and explores the meanings behind different rooms and transitional spaces.

My practice emerges from an interest in questioning the inherent life, energy and vibration pertained within inanimate matter. I endeavour to reuse materials that have been discarded and to appreciate that within their ontological form that resonates a narrative of temporality, both contemporary and historically.

In this project I have chosen an old tree measuring 190cm length x 55cm. circumference. A process of transformation was employed by embedding hand dyed cotton yarn into the crevices to suggest a venous circulatory system, a metaphor to indicate the human affiliation with nature and vice versa.

Part of this installation assemblage includes a placenta which has been modelled using handmade felt. The placenta is sometimes referred to as ‘the tree of life’ and is synonymous with the tree both in functionally and in its similar visual structure, again critiquing notions of human-nature interrelationships.

@Susan_Loves_Leeds / www.sdaubney033.wixsite.com

Horizontal assemblage of a 3D installation of handmade components including (left to right): Pigmented Jesmonite, C-Scape in Wood and Acrylic Paint, Stained Wood Cubes, Trellises in Wood and Acrylic Paint, Resin and Wood - 100cm x 20cm.

My practice is rooted in finding inspiration in the things I encounter on a daily basis such as pattern, repetition and colour. The patterns, shapes and reliefs seen in architecture or the swirls and spirals in nature are particularly beguiling to me and often become the starting points for small observational paintings which can be described as symbolic representations of experienced visual situations.

These paintings progressed to become the raw material for processing a new body of work and by expanding the images out into the field of sculpture I have found that my practice has shifted to include a blending of different casting, modelling and woodworking techniques to produce three dimensional objects which are inspired by my paintings. These objects themselves go on to become components in a multitude of assemblage combinations or simply as standalone pieces.

@kieran.a.davies

My practice is based around the idea of the relationship between the artist and their material of choice. I have spent the past year casting aluminium and thought this time I have developed a lot of respect for the material. It has been a hard and lengthy process, which has left me cut, burnt and exhausted. The more time I invested into the material the more knowledge I gained and the more I understood what was possible. This is something that you only understand through working with a material.

Unfortunately, I was unable to realise the final outcome physically and had to transfer my ideas to a digital format. A digital format is useful yet lacks the atmosphere a physical sculpture would have. Which was such an important aspect to this work. I wanted people to come up close to view each individual cast, allow people to touch the finish and let them determine an outcome for themselves. Digital can only give a broad overview on what something "would" look like. As disappointing a time this has been, I fully intend to return to and finish this piece of work at the first opportunity.

@caldoesart

Callum’s practice is focused around his life and the emotions that he experiences. Art is an important aspect to Callum as it’s a form of releasing his emotions and expressing himself, instead of containing and letting them build up inside him. In order to get the best result, Callum paints with his hands, and also blindfolds himself so that he doesn’t focus too much on the aesthetics of the piece and lets himself truly express the emotions he is feeling, so that the audience also gets a sense of them too. Emotions are a common aspect in art but rarely seen from male artists, also men in general.

In society it is acceptable for females to express their emotions, yet for a male there is a different set of expectations, who are expected to conceal their emotions. Therefore, the purpose of Callum’s art isn’t only to express his personal emotions but to express them as a male. In his recent work produced in lockdown, Callum has reflected on his emotions he is experiencing whilst being confined due to COVID-19, expressing paintings that appear to be suffocating and toxic due to the darkness and colours he uses.

Megan Ekberg is a Welsh artist who approaches her practise through personal reflection, documenting ideas through daily journalistic study. In order to convey this inner dialogue, paint becomes the vehicle to emulate thought and movement or a particular feeling motivated from theory, and objective observation of environment and society. Quite like the pop art movement she is inspired by, and acknowledges, the aesthetics of modern advertising and how these relationships have impacted society, as views are under constant change and transformation.

Time becomes a factor; time speeds up as the world becomes more connected. A connection through a new technological language in an automated culture. Painting and the process of human manipulation within and of paint, becomes a way of disengaging away from that system. Combining autobiographical subject with surface consideration, Ekberg achieves to focus on the language of movement, the layers of paint and its form, as a way of staying in the present. Through an understanding that painting is used to capture temporary manifestations of the past, the artist attempts to combine being the audience as well as the artist.

@fen.art_

At this moment in history, my artwork has been heavily influenced by the repercussions of the Coronavirus. The severity and anxiety caused by the pandemic and changing environments has encouraged me to paint more boldly and pushed the scale of my work even further. Painting to express the personal journey through the darker and lighter days during my time in lockdown has made me think deeply, forcing an intellectual relationship with the canvas and the outcome has been positive. As an artist I want to convey a message of hope and understanding through the contrast of warm and cold colours combined with feather like brush strokes and jagged lines.

My childhood was spent in the Far East and I grew up in an all green tropical environment. The sharp-edged leaves and vibrant colours of the Eastern hemisphere have left a lasting memory that lives in my work today. As I work, we have just transitioned from spring into summer, drawing me to using a cool pallet one day and a hot pallet the next, adding bold lines that contrast with soft rounded shapes. The colours of nature are in contrast to the frightening and worrying implications of the
Coronavirus.

@willllf / www.willllf.com

Will Fice’s figurative paintings place his practice within a contemporary debate surrounding gender and class, depicting an aspect of young manhood obtained directly from photographs within his immediate circle of friends. Taken directly from Instagram, these primary and secondary materials are connected through an established criteria of painting and camera. The selection of images consisting of diverse compositions of young men. The figures in his work occupy a distant temporal space moulded by a sense of emptied time, where young men perform such behaviours found between a period of adolescence and adulthood.

Through thin, washed out applications of paint, the construction of the painted image is questioned as Fice layers his paintings to reposition his subject matter in an assembly of forms, where the work operates as a collection as opposed to a single unified image.

@julchthepulch

'The Last Judgement'

Julia Finkel is a young artist from South London who has been studying Fine Art at Leeds Arts University. Her interest in people has led her to create stereotypes of people and the society in which they live. She makes characters and scenes inspired by humour, memory, power struggle and humanity. Her characters are set in social context and images emerge from her thoughts and emotional engagement with the world. By observing people in public, in coach and train stations or in pubs, where actions and language are often exaggerated, she gets her grasp of human types and behaviour. As a mixed media artist she uses diverse materials and styles to reflect her storytelling. Her figures come forth to us in watercolours, oils, ceramic figurines, painted plates and standing sculptures. There is no time period imposed on her work and her narratives embody perpetual themes that reflect the chaos of people and society. In her triptych Last Judgment, Julia has created a work in which our world is seen as the classical Limbo, poised between Heaven and Earth, where human beings undergo judgment of their actions within their unfolding normal lives.

I am a minimalist abstract artist who is process driven and works both digitally and physically. I focus on two key aspects in my work: colour and emotion. Through the use of colour arrangement, which I selected from nature, my paintings reveal an invitation for the viewer to escape from the stressful reality in which we all live in today.

   
Henri Matisse once said "An artist must possess nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language" (Henri Matisse)

@meili_paints

My practice explores the themes of honour, respect and gratitude through the celebration of women and the domestic mother through painted pictures, objects and symbols in a mosaic. Through doing this it also allows me to explore the loving and precious relationship between me and my own mother, as well as giving the audience a nudge to think about their own situations; possibly triggering an emotional response.

This project began as an important journey and personal exploration for me to explore my own emotions and allow me to express my gratefulness for my own mother through one of the best ways I know how- art. It serves as a tool to preserve these feelings and even to make a mark on the world on behalf of my mother, to emphasise her importance and the respect I hold for her. It then moved onto something much bigger and became a celebration of women in general by shining a light on the domestic mother, which is sometimes looked past during these more modern times.

'Absence, isn’t it convenient?'

Series of 18 reproduced drawings on paper, 6.5cm x 9.5cm.

Working primarily with drawing, Chelsea’s practice explores the human condition through various series of deteriorated portraits. Her fascination with people and current social issues has ultimately led her to a conceptual approach to portraiture where each series is not only a representation of the individual, but also of society. Her series are particularly concerned with mental illness and how popular culture has been involved with the building of stereotypes.

The subjects are captured in a state of vulnerability; trapped within an empty space. She sometimes uses bandages to allude to the associations of illness and implements the ‘confrontational gaze’ to create emotional intensity. The small scale of the pieces further reiterates the vulnerability of the subjects and creates intimacy between the viewer and the subjects. The use of charcoal, ink and graphite subsequently isolates all colour in her work, where the monochromatic portrayal of her subjects further isolates them from reality and further reduces them to their simplest, most deteriorated form; much like the realities of living with a mental illness.

@grisley_artist

'Manete In Media' 

Christopher H Grisley’s practice looks at the inner identity of the artist focusing on the mental instability that reflects his own mental health, through the exploration of stripping back Baroque paintings of the 18th century. Grisley’s aims are to express the monumental nature of mental instability through the reduction of the humanly aspect of a grand painting and it the flatness of Hue that creates this ghostly space that he says is the monument to mental health in the 21st century.

@art_by_nash

Nash Hales is an artist that has vivid hallucinations and uses these to envision dreamworlds. These fantasy worlds of virtual or hyper-reality, constructed from CGI software and traditional hand worked materials, are ‘real’ places from within her mind, recreating the seamless blend of the digital metaphors we encounter everyday enhanced by the humans bias and imagination and everything we confuse to be real.

Hales asks "In a world that's working towards such high definition standards are we all not escaping from how reality is?" The world is a fast pace place to be, so the artist is inviting you to enjoy the stillness of her paintings and take a minute from the rapid society we live in. She is raising awareness of how deep we are submerged into everyday digital platforms. Her work is seen as creating a unique opportunity, offering escapism that people are looking for, something new, something better and something to enjoy.

Knowing we live in such a fast-past reality, which we are forever working to make faster, this work is a response to the rapid change on how society prefers to kill reality and live through hyper realistic maps of ourselves.

@artbyrobyn

Robyn Hall produces large scale paintings that explore shape and colour in the world through a process of abstraction. Her intention is to create paintings that are joyful and exuberant, using vibrant colours that are almost childlike in nature. By isolating appealing shapes from her surroundings, she is able to manipulate them into motifs to create playful compositions that evoke joy and a bold presence in the varied spaces they inhabit.

Within her practice, she explores the dichotomy between digital and analogue, and the translations between these two formats. Robyn investigates the dialogue created between various shapes, colours and compositions. One of the key questions she explores is how she can recreate this dialogue through the medium of paint. Using geometric forms and un-modulated colour, she began to generate a collection of paintings that are aesthetically enjoyable and have the ability to impress and overwhelm the viewer with a sense of pleasure and nostalgia.

Alternating between the digital and the analogue has informed and cultivated Robyn’s practice. The intersection of these two forms of painting allows her to compare and contrast recurring themes throughout her work. It has also inspired her to consider the concept of value within her work - does a painting deplete in merit when translated into a digital form?

@olivia.harper.art

My practice is form driven creating gestural paintings as a response to my emotions and feelings of everyday life. Each gesture created within my work is a response to what’s being felt at that time and place. This body of work is non-representational to the physical world we live in, but is a representation to personal emotions felt within everyday life. My work is bringing non-physical emotions into a physical painting.

The main formal elements my work focuses on is the gesture/marks made, colour and surface texture. I want all of these to be a part of creating an emotive response from the audience. I want the audience to acknowledge that these oil paintings are a representation of personal emotional moments I have felt in everyday life and from this create their own response. Whether this is an emotional response to what the formal elements mean to them or simply responding to the physical qualities of the paintings such as the colours or gestures. As I want my work to create a response from the audience I have really focused on creating an impasto surface and vibrant contrasting colours to almost overwhelm the audience inducing a response.

@artyhorrocks

'Change in Direction'

The visionary wonders of what I experience in my mind during sleep have in past embedded themselves deep within my memories, inspiring my practice and guiding me to delve further into these unconscious narratives that are intertwined with the realities of my own life. My work has developed into more than just an image marked with paint onto a piece of canvas; it is an immersive experience, encompassing the viewer into the abstracted portrayal of my dreams.

I have been creating work that gives an insight on a variation of memories within my practice for some time now, with previous pieces mirroring specific images of memories, whilst also using the physical attributes and qualities of the paint to create almost a feel of hazy thoughts that can only just be pinpointed to a forgotten corner of the mind. The work that I create is a personal expression of my own emotions in response to these memories.

@emmalaurenart

‘Deunydd Hiraeth’ is a material form of grieving. Through reconstructing scenes of play from childhood with ‘gwenny’ materials and a playful attitude, I’m reminded of a simpler time playing with blocks in my Nain’s front room. 
 

The work references the soft blocks babies play with when they are young, yet created at a scale and style more fitting to adults. I find comfort in the process of making the cubes and intend that their soft and squeezable form also comforts those who encounter them.
 

The material quality of the cubes has nostalgic links to my home and childhood. I source the material from charity shops, repurposing old curtains, valances and quilt covers into objects of play. The second-hand nature of the materials is important as I can imagine how they used to furnish and decorate a home not unlike my Nain’s, who had a deep green floral sofa in her front room. In an exhibition setting the cubes would be piled high in a corner, and the audience would be welcome to come and play with them in any way that they choose. Alongside this wouldbe a children's book for the audience to read, this book can be viewed online here.

@samjoyce.photos

Sam views his practice as a cartographic passage through history, the natural world, people, collaborations and archives. Using this way of thinking helps Sam to find a structure within his practice that’s seemingly unstructured, comparing his position within fine art to an endless walk through nature whilst mapping out the route he takes, with all the chance encounters and discoveries that go along with it.

Sam has a focus on researching local areas through finding information whilst in the area to provoke a sense of praxis, He investigates the area cartographically with maps discerning geographical features laid out on the map. The trail is very important to Sam as it sets out a key path through the landscape, Sam views the trail he is on as the artwork similar to how Hamish Fulton views the act of walking as his art and anything made after is to fund his next expedition. Anything Sam makes in reaction to the trail he is on is just an emotive reaction to highlight a piece of history or knowledge on the subject to broaden people’s understanding of the natural world.

www.mydakalim.com

Myda Kalim is a contemporary Yorkshire-based artist who creates phenomenological and sensory installations through the use of colour, form, vibrant spices and natural flavours. She aims for the viewer to become immersed in the installations she creates, letting their senses heighten, focus and become aware of themselves at that moment.

Her interest lies in what stimulates the brain, interconnectivity and how the release of neurotransmitters are responsible for our emotional responses. She uses geometric shapes through their form to assert order.

She works with a range of different spices including turmeric, paprika, cumin, red chilli flakes, ginger, somaq and black pepper. The natural pigmentation and textural surfaces of spices carry aesthetic qualities that add to the visual stimulation encountered by the audience as well as the powerful aroma that can be experienced when she is in the process of making work.

Myda’s formalist installations are made directly onto the floor and walls through the construction of ordered form, that is built using specific materials that reference both her cultural background and the body’s capacity to absorb. The processes involved enables her to retain control by the use of a systematic order and to carry out a formal quality of presentation.

Past, Present, Future, the order of time we believe is always questionable to me. ‘Present’ does not exist, time is passing even at this moment. People could only know the past, the future will never be predictable or definable because nothing is certain what is forward. There are only possibilities and expectations for the future, however, those could be just illusory. As we are living, life is full of unknown, unexpected events and that ‘Uncertainty’ gives me anxiety.

My fear comes from the formless uncertainties in life and time, which is why I am afraid of new beginnings. The fear has no answers, there is only waiting for it to start whenever it will be. In other words, I cannot find my stabilities in the future so that made my obsession with the past. My obsession with the past and memories was the starting point of my work. While the future leaves uncertainty and anxiety, the past existed and also the memory. Based on the existence and the results of the past, there will be no fear or stress and that will make myself stable.

The theme I have been focusing on throughout this year is the ‘Mundane’. My interpretation of this is the everyday and ordinary; rather than the stereotypical thinking that the word relates to something which is boring. Due to Covid-19 and the strict lockdown it occurred to me that there is nothing more ‘mundane’ then us as a nation staying at home; it had become the normal.

Routine was an aspect which I wanted to document has having one in place has a huge benefit on one’s mental and physical wellbeing especially when coping with change. Having my camera with me on a day to day basis meant I was able to capture the everyday activities of my family who were living at home during the lockdown. This ranged from working at home which would have normally been done in an office, children’s lunch and tea times, cooking and general house work such as putting washing on the line.

www.slamrhariart.co.uk

My practice is autobiographical; I create video performances made up of chapters that document my culturally-mixed upbringing. The chapters are broken down into scenes of Islamic prayer, with three specific physical gestures: standing, kneeling and bowing.  These were taken from memories of my dad praying five times a day. My films combine aspects of the concealed and revealed body with scenes that use repetition, symbolism and religious motif. I am expressing my connection to Islamic faith and how I’ve interpreted these moments in relation to my childhood.

These site-specific performances are filmed within domestic spaces. The door is often referenced within my films and display methods, this symbolises both the barrier and connected areas to which Western and Northern African cultures has emerged within my identity.

The monitors are intentionally positioned facing different directions whilst the videos play simultaneously, this intention urges viewers to manoeuvre themselves around my work. My intention is for viewers to investigate and analyse my choice of objects surrounding the monitors and to consider the relationship between themselves, my body and the performative element of the films.  This introduces the idea of embodiment, combining myself as the subject and object of the work.

@miyelowes

'Purgatory'

Digital, 1024 × 768 PX (2020)

Miye Lowes is a contemporary artist, based in Leeds, whose practice approaches the core thematics surrounding the bodily macabre. By combining the exploration of preservational methods of the body after death with oil painting, Lowes aims to portray an unsettled eeriness. Blurring imagery digitally and through the use of oil paints Lowes, is able to facilitate the presentation of violent acts whilst still maintaining a sense of the everyday. This is accomplished by presenting her paintings within jars containing fluids typically used for preservation.

“By utilising digital painting to begin the process of exploring the macabre, I am able to work from the digital painting when working with oil paints physically. This process allows me to act on all things unsettling and aim to abject the viewer into an uncanny environment. By beginning this process digitally, I am able to set myself some boundaries which prevents me
from overworking a painting. This allows me to maintain a sense of normalisation by experimenting with the placement to obscure and maintain the ambiguity.”

www.katealicemann.com / @katealicemann

‘Don’t Be Such a Girl’

Kate Alice Mann specialises in portraiture and figurative paintings. Working in oils, her large- scale paintings present female figures, from a feminist perspective; avoiding voyeuristic or fetishized lenses. She aims to exhibit the modern woman; whilst exploring gender stereotypes. Her paintings create a scene in which the viewer is confronted by strong, confident, powerful female figures. She captures the essence of women in society today exploring image, gender and identity. Her representational style explores contemporary painterly techniques whilst acknowledging historical influences.

@aishamatraxiaart / www.aishaisabellamatraxia.myportfolio.com

My practice in general looks at experience and interaction, making works about these experiences & creating dialogues within my work. My current work examines the home through the use of combined furniture and paintings to ultimately create a dialogue for this universally relatable subject; what does home mean to you? Is it your familial relationships? My work encourages viewers to not only consider my histories but their own too. Working with bright girlish colour pallets, my work aims to draw you in from first glance, then working against the comforting tones, letting you think around the work.

With the current pandemic, utilizing resources from home has been a challenge. In one way it has affected my practice in that I cannot continue my deconstruction of found objects, however this lock-down has also opened up a new pathway for my work. Compromising in my practice, I started to learn how to use photoshop and realised these new possibilities within my practice by using this digital platform in planning out the placement of my works as well as exhibition strategies. In some ways, I prefer the works created on photoshop as it detaches itself further from the home.

@isabellamcgoughart

My installation is situated in a darkened space. At the centre of the space is a piece of stone upon a table with a white cloth over it. The viewer enters the room and the stone is before them. The placement of the stone allows the viewer to come before this piece of work. There are three laser cut acrylic pieces mounted onto light boxes on the wall. They shine shapes and colours onto the stone and onto the viewer.

My practice originated from the feeling of awe that I - and presumably many other people - feel when they are within buildings such as: churches, botanical gardens, and large shopping centres. I became fascinated by this feeling and thus wanted to create artwork that instils awe within its viewer. The purpose of this piece is to establish the same feeling that I experienced when visiting these buildings within those who view it, with the aim of creating a mutual emotional experience between the creator and the viewer.

@kimartmaine

My Practice revolves around the idea of including incomplete stories from my memories, exploring the evolution of two different cultures from Filipino Ethnicity and English Nationality, creating my identity. Work that always looks back on the past where I feel sense of belonging and home, where I feel content and happy around familiar people with no cultural gap. Creating cultural familiarity through my work by recreating homes and places.

Exploring various methods within my work that helps exhibits memories and places, using different materials such as photos, recreating textured surface through manipulation process of fabrics and papers, also using the traditional process such as weaving more from the cultural perspective within my work. Recreating surroundings that are build up with the help of memories and photos, recreating miniature installation of a house that plays with the idea of two places at once.

www.dayoungminart.wixsite.com

Dayoung makes artist’s books inspired by her journey of material decluttering since the summer of 2019. They investigate its impact on how she uses an object, the ways she engages with other people and sees herself. One of her books The List of Items I No Longer Have (2019) is printed on a four meter long tracing paper, talking about the objects Dayoung put away with a brief reason for each. Another part of the body of works consists of seven books made in a series. Each of them talk about an item she uses almost everyday. Each consists of photographs capturing the details of the item that are often overlooked by many people.

The book On a Daily Basis (2020) provides a close insight into her journey of material minimalism itself, exploring the theme of loss and gain. The content is printed on recycled papers, bound with plywood covers. The ebook Kalika, King Yat, Lucy, Paula, Manish (2020) is an interview of five different people discussing their relationship to what they own. Through these, Dayoung’s works as a whole questions how we build our identity through our belongings. The ebook versions are available on Dayoung’s website.

‘Concrete Moments’

Unfortunately, my original intentions for this exhibition was changed and I was unable to create my work I had planned. Instead I chose to exhibit this piece which is a section of my project ‘concrete moments’. This piece in particular looks closely to how I feel and my experiences with Leeds as a city and focusing on modernism within urbanised areas. Fascinated by architectural design and human mannerism’s when inhabiting urbanised areas. I like to research these areas myself using theories of psychogeography, taking images of everywhere I walk in day to day life. Most of my works focus on areas of modernist architecture in areas that are densely populated.

Through my studies of these areas I explore how features of such modernist values effect people’s mannerisms and behaviour. A quote that has stuck with me throughout my studies, giving me a lot to think about is, “We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us”. (Churchill,1934). Throughout my work I have have reacted to my surroundings by becoming comfortable with materials such as concrete as I try to show a connection with my feelings and the builds that surround me.

@louisa0_art / @darmstai

Louisa's practice consists of digitally drawn portraits which highlight subjects around social media, identity and present day social pressures. As well as exploring modern day science concepts like artificial intelligence. For this project she has taken on the traditional story of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and applied it to the present day, It depicts the deterioration of a fictional character (DarmstAI) as she struggles with social media pressures, identity and negative reactions online.

www.pulpquality.com / @pulpquality

Seren is a Fine Art practitioner, currently based in Leeds, England. Her work revolves around exhibition curation, and events organisation, as well as a multidisciplinary art practice centred primarily around activism and performance art. Sustainability and community are important values of the artists work.

@lyd.creates.art

My practice stems from my own racial identity, being half British, half Indian – through the use of language I explore the displacement I feel existing within that duality and reaffirm, through personal narratives, my position in society as a woman of colour. The work attempts to open up conversations about race and people of colour through a tangible lens – provided not only by personal experiences but also by the re-appropriation of text that speaks for them, the following quotes taken from ‘The Good Immigrant’.

The inherent act of a protest is participatory and often relies on the physical assembly of people, unified for a particular cause. However due to social distancing the following cannot occur at this moment in time, thus resulting in an at home protest. The home protest is something personal and intimate because of the environment being my own and the absence of a gathering focuses attention on myself and the work displayed. The modern black t-shirt and tracksuit bottoms signify my everyday lifestyle, juxtaposing the traditional Indian bracelets and bindi spot, personally referencing my grandma’s religion, being Hindu. This is a visual display of my duality, and is the primary concern throughout my work.

@ruby__plank

Ruby Plank makes felt from the fleeces of Welsh mountain sheep, who graze in parts of the Moelwynniog mountain range of Snowdonia where she grew up. A ritualised process of sensual labour pigments and binds the material into environmentally sustainable, wearable hollow sculptures.  When they're filled, worn, squeezed out of, or placed in the sea, their shapes shift from passive blobs and flat squares to forms that could resemble lonely sentient islands observed from far away, or dancing vibrant organisms that emerge and ramble like lichen rambles on slate. 

"I see the sculpture as monuments that demand understanding in ways initiated through touch and through observation. The sensual entangling of their textures can only be felt through the immediate experience of being with them, between them, beside them or within them."

The wool is dependent on moist climates to warm the wearer by its natural heat of sorption process. It is the single most effective organic material at chemically converting water into heat, while drawing its energy inwards onto the wearer's skin.  It can behave like a fuzzy primitive shield;  a “maternal healing device”. A byproduct capable of withdrawing a body from the threats of chaos.

@j.uliapomeroy / @julia.pomeroy / www.jp268455.wixsite.com/julia-pomeroy

My practice transforms personal and seemingly ordinary everyday scenarios into compelling depictions through large oil paintings. I document observations of people I know in comfortable and inviting domestic or public interiors. Through a very specific approach to colour and lighting, I magnify the importance of these individuals' relationships formed with various spaces and consolidate fleeting moments made within them. Recognising the inviting, emotive and psychological atmosphere these spaces emit, which is then experienced by us. My subjects are often caught in unguarded moments, as we come across them almost as intruders into their world, with narratives hinted at but never fully told. A one-way relationship is created as we quietly observe them without interruption but in a close and comfortable context. This brings in the idea of the viewer as a voyeur.

The use of complementary colour palettes allows me to create vibrant atmospheres in my paintings. By veiling layers of colours and playing with translucency, light and colour synthesise as a watery luminosity. Wavering marks and organic shapes render as clothing and figurative poses; juxtaposed with qualities of abstraction seen in the surrounding space. These fleeting, everyday moments are captured and elevated in my large, light-filled, figurative paintings.

@katiepotton_art / www.katiepotton.wixsite.com/website

This series ‘Unsolicited Dick Pics’ is a representation of being a woman online in the modern age. In previous paintings the artist has created artworks that have explored the relationship of sexual thresholds within societal norms in a celebrated form. But this issue of these men sending unsolicited images is a boundary being crossed. The painting's intention is to shock. The power of painting the photos is a way of reclaiming ownership and the power exerted by these men, also to create a discussion about the topic of consent.

@emerson.artist / www.emersonpullman.com

'Turn'

Oil on linen, 120x90cm

Emerson Pullman is a figurative painter with a dynamic use of colour and technique who creates contemporary portraits exploring the boundary between realism and abstraction. This causes the viewer to pause and reflect. His work alludes to the difference between the trivial and the profound, the transient and the eternal, the surface and the substance, order and disarray.  In his latest body of work, he developed paintings exploring themes of isolation, memory and introspection.  With subjects depicted either turned away, or averting the viewer’s gaze, he creates a distance between the sitter and the audience inspired by the work of Gerhard Richter and Johannes Vermeer. These are not paintings attempting to display only the characters’ personality and traits, but to hint at something just out of reach for the viewer to contemplate.

@jesspunchardart

As a mixed media artist, I am representing the social construct of contemporary femininity from an autobiographical perspective. Throughout my practice I display a use of varying materials and form depending on my emotive response to each social situation and my experience. My conceptual focus has become about the visualisation of my relationship with femininity and my response to society’s ideals around gender. My aim is to bring attention to the gender roles integrated so deeply in our lives that we do not see them as a social construct, but as our biology. Due to the extent of society’s gender construct in my day to day life my identity has formed around the roles set for me, my work questions and draws attention to the everyday factors that are intertwined with my femininity. My paintings are a way of expressing my emotive response in a set frame, demonstrating my frustration around the topic in the energetic tones and textures. The paintings illustrate the processes and layers involved in my femininity, with the ability to show a set snapshot that represents the story line behind my gender routines.

@_dirtylittlerat / www.youtube.com

'Heaven'

Digital Painting

This image’s main focus is to place the viewer as a voyeur looking upon an unsuspecting nude. The suggestive pose gives a sexuality despite the figure being unknowing. The dull colour scheme and messy composition is an attempt to capture the grimy nature of nude pictures sent and received online. The work focuses on ideas of a ‘Gay Male Gaze’, being heavily influenced by the use of dating apps and the exchange of nude pictures on these platforms. The images attempt to place the viewer as a voyeur with a focus on the male form in intimate moments. These nudes were looked at as a form of currency within the online dating world, which was translated into the drawings with exaggerated faces and bodies and performative poses. The colours used were decided upon by examining a series of explicit images sent online and matching these within the drawings to try and achieve the same grimy nature. Questions around masculinity, sexuality and narcissism are also ongoing themes throughout the series of digital work.

www.siripaints.wixsite.com

My practice is about the two contradicting personas I have developed to please people, to be the perfect child according to societal expectations. Being accepted by everyone always felt good, and that feeling has continued to play a very significant role in my life until I realised that I am living my life not based on my rules but based on people’s judgements. I am very fake to everyone; I have learnt not to express my emotions or discomfort. I have perfected the skill of being so emotionless to the extent that I have forgotten expressing. Being fake, always smiling, being happy and bottling up emotions is an automatic response to anything and everything.

I explore these personas using texts and materials that have a specific cultural quality that supports my practice. My work is a journey of how I enjoy this toxic relationship with myself and the people around me. I am learning to accept that it is the underlying human tendency to be judgemental, and it’s how people choose to deal with their judgments that make all the difference because acceptance is a positive experience.

@artbylivvie / www.livvierenny.wixsite.com / www.artsteps.com

My practice revolves around the aesthetics of science. Looking at the patterns bacteria produces and how pleasing they are, is central to my practice. The materiality of my work is important in relation to the concepts surrounding my practice. Creating these fragile pieces from resin reinforces the juxtaposition of man made vs natural. The works material is so harshly chemically based but representing the natural aesthetic of our world. Through this juxtaposition of concepts and materials we see a dialogue starting to emerge. My work is continually informed by the visual qualities of cellular structure and biomorphic forms, the long standing link between Art and Science is continued through my practice using scientific imagery alongside artistic technique.

@ruthie_reynolds / www.rr264925.wixsite.com

Ruthie Reynolds’ sculptural practice looks at the hidden disability of fibromyalgia and the interruption of chronic bodily pain from an autobiographical narrative. The purposeful countenance of the work is informed by the juxtaposition between comfort and discomfort and a physical representation of awkwardness. The work fuses together process-based casting of pigmented concrete cushions with embedded repurposed ambulatory scrap metal, bent leg protrusions. Concrete is used for its brutalist, raw and hard qualities to comment on the heaviness, fragility and vulnerability imposed on the body. The pastiche of the faded pigmented colour added to concrete is an intentional act referencing the passage of time, whilst maintaining the truth to the materiality of the greyness of concrete.

The metaphor of a cushion, a recognisable object of comfort, is a recurring theme in the work, by changing its materiality to concrete, the functionality of its initial intent, renders them not fit for purpose. The toil employed in the making process creates an intentional unrefined quality and happy accidents that emerge are celebrated for their imperfections, referencing feelings of strife.

@gosiareza_art / www.youtube.com

My work is about the experiences faced by a Polish immigrant that has moved to the UK and feeling a part of both cultures. I use the universal language of flowers to create pieces that represent both the Polish and English pictorial idioms. I explore on how universal symbols can be used to convey messages throughout my work. I use the language of flowers, as different flowers can portray different messages, I also look into different meanings of flowers across many cultures.

A big inspiration behind my pieces is Polish Folk Art, which is a very traditional decorative form of art of which I have become very familiar with during my upbringing, it is used to decorate the interior and exterior parts of traditional Polish homes. Folk art varies across Poland, with its decorative garment flower art in Krakow, to the symbol of "Parzenica" from Zakopane, which can be seen in my artwork. My work is a process, where I start with digital drawings which I transform into projections, that are then turned into documentaries about culture, to provide knowledge for the viewer. I mostly work with painting, on canvas and wood, presented in a French salon-style exhibition.

'You never look at me from the place from which I see you'

In my painting’s subtle chromatic shifts of colours which veil as white, divide the surface operating at the limits of perception whilst deeply receptive to the changing of external influences of light. These colours, known as vanishing boundaries, concern a visual phenomenon where colours sharing the same chromatic value and light intensity, when situated amidst its relative neighbours, are pulled towards a visual infinity. I invite the viewer to observe what was seemingly an image of masked dormancy; an animated painting which transforms and materializes under the gaze of the spectator, as invisible colours slowly manifest within the reach of our vision. Therefore, its irregularity of image requires longer than a brief moment of seeing and invites quiet contemplation.

The paintings are temporal, each experience is inimitable and purely individual to the observer. I intend the viewer to experience a heightened awareness of seeing to provoke an essence of calm meditation and the transcendental; to slow down time through a completive manner, to encourage prolonged looking through an act of mindfulness and to be mesmerised by an image which reflects the environment it resides.

'Corrupted Files'

'Corrupted Files' is a mixed media art piece that expresses climate change's current emergency. The film projection acts like found footage, reminiscence of humanity as we know it today. A large part of the current climate change discussion focuses on the problems of tomorrow, but we have been having that same conversation since the 1960s. The conversation we should be having is, has tomorrow already arrived? In 2020 we are witness to a year for the history books, it may also be the point of no return. Droughts, fires, floodings, pandemics, cyclones, hurricanes etc. everyday brings another extreme change in our natural environment.

'Corrupted Files' is meant to appear as a reel a film that was left after humanities demise, the film file is old and corrupted specifically meant to reflect the technological capabilities of today. A cmd prompt loads the file and a less than intact film plays out the devastating destruction we have experienced in the last 24 months. The scenes begin slowly with very recent and familiar imagery with related news headline audio played over top it. The scenes begin to escalate and it becomes more evident the mounting crisis we find ourselves in.

@milly.routledge

Largely influenced by early 20th century women surrealists, performativity and symbolism, this work explores a multifaceted self through a stylised and unreal form of self-portraiture. Informed by a variety of theorists and art movements, the work is intrinsically linked to any and all research done prior to or during its production. Using oil and canvas, a surreal environment has been created to surround the archetype inspired subjects of these paintings, each subject has been formed from Jung’s theories on collective unconscious.

The archetypes of Mother, Persona and Shadow have been used in this work, with Shadow used to reflect the opposites of both Mother and Persona. Mother is representation of creation, birth and nature, her shadow is Decay. Persona appears in the form of the painting Performer, her shadow is the Viewer. Each of these paintings hung in pairs, parallel across a room are meant to encircle their audience. The symbols present in each environment are meant to be analysed. The work intends to portray aspects of self and explore personal experience with identity that could be interpreted as catharsis while remaining immersive and engaging to the viewer.

@megansanandres.art

A long time ago on the island of Ibiza, the sun god Baal divided the land amongst the local people. The men were given dominion over the rich and fertile lands in the centre of the island and so they prospered. The women were given the rocky shoreline where crops grew sparsely and grazing animals failed to thrive. After centuries of suffering and subjugation the women formed an alliance to ask for help from the moon goddess Tanit, the protector of women. The women made ritual offerings of bread, milk, honey, oil and salt to their goddess. And behold, the island of Ibiza saw the influx of tourism it is known for today and the coastal regions grew rich and the centre of the island no longer had need for agriculture. The women of Ibiza, no longer forced into marriage and dependent on their menfolk, gave thanks to Tanit, the protector of women, for now they have found their freedom.

@hollysarllart / www.hollysarll.wixsite.com

My practice challenges the language of colour and light, exposing the limits of perception through the ability to create and experience. The use of colour has perpetually flowed throughout my practice, exploring how colour and light occupy a given space. The use of bright colours, such as neon, quickly become defining elements in my work. Electric colour can escape its container and spill onto any surface that will accept it, such as the reflective surface of aluminium, which captures the colour and pushes its boundaries.

My pieces begin to adapt fluidity to different type of room situations as each element provides a purpose in the space. The sculptural aspect of the work provides an environmental discipline where the audience must move around the works, which questions whether you have suddenly entered an immersive experience where the participation of the audience is key to the success of the works. Celebrating colour and forcing people to see with the use of light, developing further into painting in the expanded field.

'Necessary and Unnecessary Work'

My work centres on ideologies exploring land politics and human relationships with environments around us. My practice is rooted in personal explorations into Landscape as an entity, using personal exploration and interpretations of landscape to bring around discourse on how land is used in modern day society, and how this influences human use of space. I endeavour to create work which speaks of land as an incredibly important part to all our lives. How people use it impacts every one of us on earth, whether that is through what is grown on it, how it is maintained, or how it is manipulated for human greed and consumption.

@ruth_sultman_art

I work with Origami/Paper Engineering, 3D printing and digital imagery. Using varying combinations, I can create “hybrid” sculptures that use both traditional crafting techniques with more modern methods of making. Digital imagery tricks the audience into thinking my sculptures have been constructed in CAD, despite them being hand-crafted. It transforms a unique object that would have been difficult to replicate, into something that has the potential to be reproduced and changed many times in its now digital format. Similarly, 3D printing allows me to print origami like objects that now have the potential to be mass produced.

If “lockdown” has taught us anything, it is about finding the right balance between enjoying the physical world around us, with our new found digital work and social lives. My work aims to allow these two competing realities to work together harmoniously.

@kirstensutherland.art

I explore the concept of the ‘in-between’, focusing on what can be created amongst the juxtapositions of lines. Through experimentation with space, light, projections, colour and sculpture, I create immersive environments in which the viewer is permitted to become an active, engaged participant. The space or spaces I delineate are divided by mazes of string or wool, creating an obstacle course-like installation for participants to climb through. Taking part in the installation, the viewer experiences the different aspects involved in creating the environment; catching glimpses of reflections, colours and shapes they would otherwise not see.

Everything within the space has been created from inspiration of the ‘in-between’- the space created amongst the lines. Wire sculptures mimic the cage that builds the base for the environment- yet without external walls or boundaries, breaking up the space and providing movement through their floating presence. Mirrors provide opportunities to see yet more, while visually stimulating the viewer through the distortion of projections. My intention is to build an environment that appears transcendental yet chaotic: a space for fun and play.

www.maphub.net/AbbiVasey/virtualexhib

Abbi’s practice materialises the relationships between human and non-human entities through the creation of anthropomorphic furniture. Her work challenges anthropocentric thinking and the subject-object hierarchy. Whilst adopting a more radical way of thinking she explores the reality and agency of non-human entities.

Using a multidisciplinary practice Abbi combines sculpture, photography, film and drawing to prompt the audience to reflect on their own interactions with objects around them. Objects and furniture are produced to be subservient to humans and often have naturally occurring anthropomorphic qualities. Abbi is particularly drawn to found objects as they appear to have their own stories to tell, from the marks on their skin to the ways they are left damaged and abandoned.

With the use of photography Abbi captures these objects as they wander around the streets, as if they have become feral and are experiencing life beyond human ownership. She imagines lives for these objects and draws attention to how, like humans, these objects too appear to experience negative emotions and deep thoughts. In making the audience realise they can relate to and feel empathy for these inanimate objects, Abbi hopes people will also reconsider how they treat both other human and non-human beings.

'The Art of Language: Part Three, Understanding'

The Art of Language is a study of the relationship between written language and visual art. The study encompasses expression, information and aesthetic to embody the complexities of this relationship. The works themselves take on the form of text-based art, mirroring their linguistic content. This written content remains the same throughout all works produced within The Art of Language. Created through research, much as previous practical explorative findings, it explains the core understanding and standpoint of the relationship between art and language from the perspective of these works. The Art of Language from the standpoint of its writings is a curious consideration of text and aesthetic. In previous practice text-based art had been explored as an art form but not as a whole in this same sense. This new level of art to inform had not previously been intertwined within the works themselves.

@indiiart

‘Every Flower Enjoys the Air it Breathes’

India is a Scots-Welsh contemporary painter who draws inspiration from the mountains and valleys of the landscape which surrounded her growing up. Her vibrant palette and bold markings echo the sudden bursts of colour that can be found in the rural wilderness. Her work also responds to the effect of nature on our senses, such as the overwhelming experience of walking in extreme temperatures or breathing thin air at high altitudes. She is intrigued by the relationship between wellbeing and nature; in our fast-paced, anxiety- inducing world, she sees her paintings as reflections of peace and tranquility that evoke a sense of calm and joy in the viewer.

My work uses plastic to highlight worldwide environmental issues, but more directly the plastic pollution in the ocean. I show this through photographs, using plastic that has a water like quality to it, so the audience can make the connection in the photos between water and plastic and the issues surrounding it.

For me, my concern started with the Amazon and Australian wildfires and the realisation that global warming is such a problem and is affecting the planet and us. I made changes within my own life and learnt a lot during my project, all of which shocked and upset me, but showed me that we need to do better. With my work I aim to provoke and engage conversation about these issues, as we are the first generation to be aware that we are destroying the planet and could be the last to save it.

@poppy_sculpture

My sculptural work is an expression of how some women may initially find themselves in a position of vulnerability within current patriarchal society and how they might then find the strength and power to rise above their personal difficulties without losing their femininity. Always beginning from somewhere personal, my work makes connections to wider social concerns about feminism with the intention to inspire discussion around feminist concerns which are influenced by current issues surrounding young millennial feminists today.

The sculptural forms vary in sizes, are completed by the use of metal and wood skeleton frame under mod-rock, hessian and plaster to imitate fragments of the human form. When set up in a gallery space, the boulder-like forms are congregated into a bulky group, in an environment that allows and invites the viewer to stroll around and view the piece from different viewpoints.

The use of the front window was ideal with attacking the issue of social distancing this means that the viewer could only view the work from a physical distance. The idea of the use of the window as a means of displaying work has worked well as it gives the audience a view into where the artist creates the work.

@wocial_art / www.wocial24.wixsite.com

My artwork focuses on the tensions and interrelationships between human society and urban space. I aim to communicate this through the relationships between objects to highlight how space influences human behaviour and life experiences. This has been expressed by using the opportunities and constraints of the studio environment in order to explore the interaction of materials to each other, and the space available, as a parallel to real life experience.

I define my practice as sculptural drawing, my site responsive work explores the architectural space through the process of expanded drawing. Defining my practice as sculptural drawing was inspired by Rosalind Krauss’s (1979) essay “Sculpture in the Expanded field.” In this essay, Krauss states that the definition of sculpture, has become significantly broader and harder to define. I explore the concept of the expanded field across my practice through evolving from two to three-dimensional drawing, questioning the boundaries of drawing, using materials, line, space, form and process.

Through the use of ad-hoc techniques, I question the dialogues happening within the space, improvising with the materials and exploring how the materials interact with the existing properties of the space; emphasising that my work is a process of thinking through making.