Exhibitions

CAPetc… Celebrates partnership with Scotland + Venice

The original article was published on the Edinburgh College Website 20th June 2022.

Photography by Matthew Williamson 

Two Edinburgh College HND CAP students are getting ready to fly across Europe after being selected to take part in a prestigious contemporary art professional development opportunity in the Italian city of Venice this year.

HND Contemporary Art Practice students Chloe McHardy and Kirsten Grant have been selected to work at the Venice Biennale, a series of exhibitions curated around a specific theme representing the cream of global contemporary art.

This year there are 213 artists from 58 countries taking part which can be seen across the city of Venice from April to November and is one of the most prestigious cultural festivals in the world and a celebration of art and architecture.

Edinburgh College’s HND Contemporary Art Practice (CAP) course is celebrating the first year of a partnership with A-N (Artists Newsletter), The British Council, and Scotland + Venice, meaning two fully-funded places were available for CAP students to take part in Scotland + Venice’s Professional Development Plan.  

After a competitive application process, Chloe and Kirsten were selected to be the first successful CAP recipients of this prestigious professional and career-defining development opportunity and will spend four weeks living and working in Venice.

During their time in Venice, Chloe and Kirsten will gain invaluable hands-on experience and will draw from the rigorous training programme they have already undertaken. This programme has included learning about the day-to-day running of a contemporary art gallery whilst working closely alongside Scotland’s representative artist Alberta Whittle.

Scotland + Venice was originally founded in 2003, identifying itself as distinct from the British Pavilion, a place that could celebrate the unique and independent space that Scotland has within the global Contemporary Art World.

Edinburgh College Art & Design lecturer Jennie Temple said: “The HND Contemporary Art Course is absolutely delighted that this partnership has been established and we celebrate the significant recognition from Scotland + Venice, the British Council and A-N that our students are rightfully valuable and highly capable contributors to the Professional Development Plan.

“The CAP course works continually hard to ensure that students are provided with a meaningful, appropriate, and active learning experience that sets solid foundations for both continuing education and working within the art industry. We are very proud of all of our students, and the work that both Chloe and Kirsten have put in to successfully achieving their well-earned places on Scotland + Venice’s PDP stands as testament not only to themselves but the course itself.

“Well done Chloe and Kirsten, we are incredibly proud of you, and we look forward to the CAP community benefiting from your first-hand experience and the ripples of your time in Venice reaching the distant shores of the Granton Campus in North Edinburgh in the coming months.”

Norah Campbell, Head of Arts, British Council Scotland, and Scotland + Venice partnership board member said: “The Scotland + Venice programme has had a hugely positive impact for those taking part over the years, and I’m sure this year will be no different. The invigilators will have a unique opportunity to build lasting global connections, grow their professional network, experience a vast range of contemporary art, and most importantly – to generate ideas for their own work and practise.”

Degree Shows 2022

In the distant pre pandemic past it was always with great excitment that we would visit the degree shows across Scotland and on occasion, south of the border, to see whats happening in the various schools our graduates are going to or will be applying to. Keeping up to date with what is happening in the art schools is an essential part of what we do on CAP as it keeps us up to date with contemporary thinking and practices at undergrad and Masters levels. However it also gives us a chance to catch up with some of our own amazing graduates who have gone on to degree study. This year was the first opportunity since 2019 for us to get out into Degree Show land, so excitment was high as we jumped at the chance to get away from the screen and out into the world.

This year the majority of exCAPers were graduating from Glasgow School of Art’s Sculpture & Environmental Art course and we begin there with Niamh Mairead Cullen Dunphy:

Niamh Mairead Cullen Dunphy.

Niamh’s Links: GSA Degree Show Artist Page — Instagram

Next up Rachael Watson who responded directly to the restrictions encountered during the pandemic with a series of interventions into various public spaces using hand made posters to raise questions of authority and compliance.

Rachael Watson

Rachaels Links: Instagram

Coire Simpson‘s practice navigates a fear of the unknown, finding meaning through storytelling. She is interested in the ways in which we come in and out of being, drawing upon both personal and collective narratives of grief, loss, and healing. Recent work moves between physical and digital environments, using 3D animation and installation to explore the ambiguos nature of memory between virtal and real life spaces.

Coire Simpson

Coire’s Links: GSA Degree Show Artist page — Instagram

Nirver Kaur’s pots, clad in colourfully paterened knitted cosy’s conjour ideas of the domesticity and craft adopted and adapted by many during the pandemic.

Nirver Kaur

Nirvers Links: Instagram

Heading beyond Scotland this year we had our first graduate from the University of the Arts London Camberwell School of Painting. Reueben Sian de Gourlay has produced impressive large scale allegorical works reminiscent of the Pre-Raphaelites, however as Rohena West explains in their review of Reubens work they go beyond any direct comparrison.

Reuben Sian de Gourlay

Reubens Links: Website — Instagram

Unfortunately this year we were not able to get to all the degree shows we would have liked to for various reasons but here are some of the other works that caught our interest at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee:

DJCAD Dundee: Although there were no CAPalumni graduating this year Ben and I did catch up with wonderful exCAPers now living, working and studying in Dundee.

Edinburgh College of Art:

Glasgow School of Art:

hubCAP hosts CAP1

Earlier this month 4 of our CAP1 Artists presented recent work in the hubCAP gallery. The physical gallery had been closed for over two years and the new programme of events does not start until after the summer so the opportunity arose or the current committee to cut their collective teeth in the space by inviting colleagues to show some work from this year.

4 artists took part and exhibited the work below:

James Byrne:
Izi Avison:

Reece Nicol:

Jagoda Zwiernik
Jagoda Zwiernik

Grad Show Review by hubCAPs Jagoda Zwiernik

Blog post by CAP1 artist Jagoda Zwiernik on the recent Graduate Exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery Edinburgh

Jagoda Zwiernik WordPress

20.05.22–22.05.22.

Edinburgh College School of Artand Design presents their annualend of year exhibition, showcasingwork from Graduating HigherEducation Diploma students

May 2–22 2022

Edinburgh College:Graduate Diploma Show

it was a pleasure to be able to go in person for the show.

I was impressed totally by the work, hard work of all the students.

Attending to the shows allows me to be surrounded by the artistic world and to have opportunity to talk to my colleagues , lectures and to talk through some future opportunities like UNI.

It was really uplifting overall.

Fruitmarket gallery, Edinburgh,Scotland

Rachel Hughes

“This project was based on me discovering myself through my cultural identity.

Throughout this project I explore bringing together Scottish and Malaysian culture to create something new that helped to represent me. I looked at art techniques, national flowers, fabrics, dances , and music from both countries” – R.Hughes

its beautifully handmade body of…

View original post 469 more words

HND Graduate Diploma Show 2022

After 2 years of online learning and teaching it was an absolute pleasure and a privilage to return to an in person Graduate Showcase. Despite our live online presentations in 2020 & 2021 being a fantastic exeprience for us and a huge success it was with great relief on the part of myself, Jennie and Colette that this years presentation was at the prestigous Fruitmarket Gallery.

You can see the work presented in the galleries new warehouse space below:

Vera Bartolozzi:

My practice explores archetypes and gender with the use of found objects, sculptures, performance, and installation. After considering the universal symbols of the circle, source of life, and the pilar, activating power, in prehistoric art around the world, and then considering some of the main archetypes of Ancient Greece, I have inverted the features of some goddesses and gods from the Greek pantheon, and created screen-prints of the two renewed archetypes. On the floor, one vulvic and one phallic circle of sculptures offer the stage for an imagined ritual of integration.

Vera has direct entry offers for both Glasgow School of Art (GSA) and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD) at Dundee University

Barbara Di Tucci:

Shifting and floating. Clouds are the greatest protagonists of this arduous world. Teaching us how to endure and persevere, without changing our true nature. I am a huge lover of those ethereal and yet powerful elements. I define myself a “clouds hunter”, often looking for the most captivating moment to capture their immense beauty. Life is already hard as it is, and our constant worrying accentuates and influences defining portions of it. Just like clouds do, our thoughts are constantly flowing, and “following” us throughout our daily existence. A perpetual cycle that powers itself through the ongoing emotions seasoning our life. In often cases, it hides distressful circumstances, which are merely visible when getting closer to knowing others.

Barbara is returning to her home town in Italy after several successful years in Edinburgh.

Kirsten Grant:

‘Living Quietly’ is a project about the day-to-day life, the mundane tasks that can build up when suffering from mental illness. For the past couple of months I have been documenting my life through a visual diary and how the pandemic has affected me post lockdown. 

Kirsten is returning to their home town of Brighton to develop their art and music practices.

Rachel Hughes:

This project was based on me discovering myself through my cultural identity. Throughout this project I explored bringing together Scottish and Malaysian culture to create something new that helped represent me. I looked at art techniques, national flowers, fabrics, dances, and music from both countries. The piece I have on display is a multi-purpose piece of fabric, currently being used as a tablecloth but could also be used as a kilt or shawl. Accompanying this is a short photo montage video with music from both countries playing. 

Rachel has direct entry offers for bothe Glasgow School of Art (GSA) and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD) at Dundee University

Tammy McMaster Stewart:

‘I know this place but it doesn’t know me’

Tammy has been offered has direct entry for Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh University, Glasgow School of Art and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design at Dundee University

Sean Obrzud:

The inspiration behind these artworks grew from the idea of creative rekindling. Relearning, trusting, and nurturing creative intuition. Each composition feels like an ode to growth, snapshots into a developing meditative practice of creative self-confidence.

Sean has direct entry offer for the Painting School at Glasgow School of Art. (GSA)

Caitlin Porteous:

This portrait serves as a reflection of my relationship with femininity and an invitation for the audience to think about what ‘feminine’ means.

The various expectations of women – young, attractive, hairless bodies – and the need to conform to the unachievable is instilled into girls from an early age. I am using this work as a means to reflect on how I view and present myself in everyday life.

Caitlin is currently looking for a studio to develop her painting practice in Edinburgh.

Finlay Warner:

In this project I wanted to show the loss I felt at the demolition of a city’s historical buildings and to combine that with the inspiration and colour of the architecture of Spain. I achieved the feeling of the loss of structure by creating an abstract piece which has allowed me to represent the feeling and drama in the loss of the historical buildings and cityscape. (This is a work in progress)

Finlay has acheived his dream of gaining entry to Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD) at Dundee University.

Ben Wilson:

My ritualistic gown was inspired by traditional pagan costumes and 70s folk horror films, and the small offerings are based on ancient methods of treating epilepsy or the ‘falling sickness’, for example the Romans used peony roots and hare’s stomachs and continuing on from that I included natural substances that I believe helped like turmeric and ginger. The performative ritual shown in my film would be to ward off unwanted epilepsy spirits or demons.

Ben is our prize winning artist for outstanding studentship over the last 2 years. As a result of his hard work and dedication he has received offers from Edinburgh College of Art (ECA), GSA, DJCAD and Goldsmiths University, London

Murdo Wilson-Watt:

For this piece of work I wanted to capture the streets of Edinburgh as I have found myself walking them in their almost never ending, winding paths of asphalt and cobbles. With this collage piece I have strayed away from my initial intended idea how ever I feel the collaged work highlights the multi levelled nature of Edinburgh’s layout and housing as a whole.

Murdo is taking a year out to further develop his portfolio.

:

“Damn her, the old witch; she has lived too long. Let her burn”                                                                      – Patrick Sellar, Factor of the Earl of Sutherland, 1814.

Coming from a family who have experienced the generational trauma of forced displacement, the personal accounts of the Highland Clearances are painfully relatable. 

In particular, accounts from the burnings of Strathnaver have driven the need to create this series of works.

It is important to me that history be actively remembered and engaged with; and this pattern of displacement is arguably still perpetuated today, with the majority of land in Scotland owned by nationals of other countries, not resident on the land owned.

This is a matter of course not limited to Scotland, as we can see specific groups of people the world over being forced from their ancestral lands again and again.