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SHOWSTOPPERS As Scotland’s art colleges prepare to open the doors on their annual degree shows The Listgets a sneak preview of some of the most eye-catching work on display
Sam de Santis (1) The Glasgow School of Art’s image for its Degree Show 2012 publicity materials is ‘Hand Compacted Sphere’ by fourth-year Fine Art photography student Sam de Santis. The sphere was created from soil collected from the physics department at Glasgow University, formed into a lacquered ball and then treated with a lengthy Japanese process that allows the sphere to crack and distort.
Gabriella DiTano (2) Visual Communication student at GSA, Gabriella DiTano, has just won the £10,000 Deutsche Bank Award in Creative Practice, which will enable her to set up a business using a bespoke printing approach called the Risotto Risograph. Her innovation creates work that resembles quality screen prints and is perfect for smaller jobs that may have previously been digitally printed.
Louise Robinson (3) ‘Shedding Perceptions’, the project from BA (Hons) Photography & Film student at Napier Robinson, is inspired by the media’s influence on society, particularly the younger generation. Her project focuses on the perceptions people have of themselves compared to celebrities and seeks to celebrate different body types, with dust used as a metaphor for the shedding of perceptions.
Cristina Zani (4) Recent graduate of the MFA in Jewellery at Edinburgh College of Art Cristina Zani approaches the creation of her work in the same way she would compose a 134 THE LIST 24 May–21 Jun 2012
story and is inspired by the colours, textures and materials she encounters on her travels. Her latest collection, which will also be exhibited at New Designer in London at the end of June, is inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, and is a reflection on the urban environment and the concept of invisibility. Lisa Scrimgeour (5) Painter Lisa Scrimgeour explores issues of beauty in her work, which is partly inspired by her experience of school bullying. Her solitary human figures are
DITANO USES A BESPOKE PRINTING
APPROACH CALLED THE RISOTTO RISOGRAPH
striking for the contrast between their beautiful eyes and the abstract, grotesque nature of their faces. ‘They work when they aren’t too literal,’ explains the Duncan of Jordanstone graduate, meaning that these are not ‘real’ deformed people, but artistic inventions. Heather Anderson (6) Anderson, a final year undergraduate in Time Based Art at Duncan of Jordanstone, creates photographic portraits and soundworks that respond to her experience of having overcome a childhood weight problem and a sense of being ‘different’ as a child. She has photographed her own body in its altered
states, emphasising the sense of identity that comes from embodied experience and reclaiming the idea of ‘difference’ again.
Felix Davey (7) The ‘Water Folk’ project, from Felix Davey, BA (Hons) Photography & Film student at Napier University, comprises a series of portraits and audio interviews around people and their relationships with water. Focusing on the northwest coasts, including the Inner and Outer Hebrides, Davey explores water-defined Scotland, portraying the ways in which the solitude and fortitude of these individuals speaks of wild and beautiful places and our place within them. Gillian Boyd (8) Gillian Boyd is currently an MFA student in textiles at Edinburgh College of Art. The culmination of her studies is a series of panels that provide acoustic insulation and thus have a clear practical purpose as well as an aesthetic appeal. Boyd previously won a competition to design an interior look for the Stirling Management Centre and has also been shortlisted for the Deutsche Bank award.
Duncan of Jordanstone Degree Show, University of Dundee, until Sun 27 May; Edinburgh Napier University Degree Show, Merchiston Campus, Fri 25 May–Fri 1 Jun; Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show, Lauriston Campus, Sat 2–Mon 11 Jun; Glasgow School of Art Degree Show, various venues (see listings) Sat 9–Sat 16 Jun.