Edinburgh College

Breakfast, lunch and dinner. The inspirational Lee Miller

When #CAPetcAlumni Julie Duffy and Hayley Mathers developed a common interest in the life and work of, artist, photographer, model, muse, cook and host Lee Miller neither had imagined that within a couple of years they would be giving a talk on their collaborative practice to a packed out Hawthornden Lecture Theatre at the Scottish National Gallery, but this week that’s exactly what they did. 

Although the collaboration started just 2 years ago the artists have known each other since studying with us on the HND course at the former Edinburgh’s Telford College from 2005-2008 before heading on to Duncan of Jordanstone College or Art & Design (DJCAD). Post-graduation Hayley took a role as chair of the acclaimed Generator Projects in Dundee and Artist in Residence at SWG3 in Glasgow. Julie returned to Edinburgh taking up a studio at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW) as well as role curating the organisations TANK gallery/project space.

In Sept 2013 and Sept 2014 in what became something of a full circle both Hayley and Julie respectively joined us once again at Edinburgh College Granton as resident Artists on our #AIRetc… programme. During their time they developed both their individual and collaborative practice which you can view on the AIRetc… website: https://airetc.wordpress.com/

The collaboration has spawned a number of object based works, themed culinary events and workshops including a birthday party for Lee Miller, featuring party hats which have become something of an emblem for the project, and childrens workshops at local primary schools.

The presentation this week at the Scottish National Gallery was excellent and stimulated great responses, ideas and very high praise from the audience. Despite being something of a punctuation mark for the project we are all hoping for a next chapter.

The exhibition Lee Miller and Picasso runs until 6th September at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

ECA Degree Show 2015 #CAPetcAlumni

This week it was the turn of Edinburgh College of Art to show off the hard work and creativity of their graduates at the 2015 Degree Show.

Once again there was a fantastic representation of Edinburgh College #CAPalumni work across the fine art disciplines of Painting, Sculpture and Intermedia. Congratulations to them all and we look forward to seeing what happens next after a well earned rest!

CAP Diploma Exhibition 2015

Posterfinal1

Artists: House of Lords debate

The question of government support for individual artists, including visual artists, writers and composers, was the subject of an hour-long debate in the House of Lords this week.

The debate covered a variety of themes including the contribution of art to society, individual and state funding of the art and artists and whether or not art production is becoming a preserve of the rich.

A full transcript of the debate can be found HERE and the following extract relating to art education is taken from a fuller article on the a-n website HERE

A key theme picked up on by a number of peers was the importance of education to the wider debate around the diversity of artists and the value of art in society. Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (Liberal Democrat) said: “It is essential that the status of the arts in the classroom is properly recognised.”

“Have you noticed that whenever an important person visits a school – a prime minister or a president – the first things that they are shown are the paintings of the children? The next thing they are invited to do is to listen to the singing of the children. I rest our case.”

This week the Secretary of State for Scotland visited Edinburgh College to speak to students about votes for 16-17 year olds:

Skinny Review CAP @ESW

Jay Easton ESW
Extract from FEATURE BY ROSAMUND WEST.
PUBLISHED 04 JULY 2014

“The Contemporary Art Practice course has a fine art focus, offering students the environment to experiment, to investigate processes and challenge themselves. Says lecturer Alan Holligan, “We offer a very broad range of contemporary practices so people can specialise in sculpture, 2D practices, 3D practices or mixed practice. Usually they make decisions based on the courses they specifically want to go to, wherever that might be. They’re encouraged to work into areas that we as lecturers don’t necessarily have expertise in. I think in some courses they’re supposed to stay within the knowledge of their lecturer, which is why there’s often an emphasis on painting, an emphasis on sculpture, whereas we’re very clear that the students’ ambition shouldn’t be set by our skillset. They need to outreach that and often we have to keep up with them, which is good for everybody concerned.”

This year’s class first exhibited in the working professional environment that is the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, before transferring a pared-down version of the show to Summerhall. They’re a mixed bunch, exploring a wide variety of disciplines with varying degrees of success. Still at an experimental stage in their practice, this is to be expected. However, some students display a striking level of ambition, notably Jay Easton, who delves into the realms of technology to present work which aims to pose challenging questions. In ESW, two iPhones communicate with one another, displaying the mundane chatter between a couple. With the human protagonists removed from the equation, the relationship is reduced to two screens interacting eerily.

In Summerhall, Easton displays two QR codes, one on a slate (redolent of history, sculpture, early man) and one on a box afixed to the wall. A hasty download of a QR scanner (the technology seems a bit retro already, ironically) reveals the works to link to texts on his blog meditating on the dangers of an unconsidered embrace of technology, and the parallels of Pandora’s box, respectively.

He’s now off to GSA to delve further into his research. Like many in the Let’s Glow showcase, Easton is at an interesting point in his development. The bright prospects each has before them suggests this will not be the last we hear of them.”

Read the full article here: http://www.theskinny.co.uk/art/features/308272-edinburgh_college_lets_glow