Graduation show: A different experience

After a year at university I realised that I want to specialise in illustration as it becames clearer day by day that this is what I want to do.

The Degree show

This year the degree show introduced me to new professionals. I wanted to be very critical as this is one thing you learnt at university.

From my point of view I was disappointed; I don’t know it was the lack of money from university or if the graduates were not able to collect enough money to produce a better catalogue. There were negative points in the show. I was surprised there were not information of for any of the pieces, not even in the catalogue, although I still managed to discover the materials that had been used.

I believe it is very important for people who come to an art exhibition to have a bit of information about the artist, name of the work, materials and a short synopsis.

There were two sections in this small exhibition; the Graphic Design and the illustration. The Graphic section wasn’t interesting for me because I didn’t feel any of the pieces had as much impact as the pieces created by the illustrators. I was impressed by the level of this new illustrators, I absolutely adore the work of Emily Hayes, Kate Mackelvie, Laura Chapman, Michelle Hird and Ceri Jones.
I like their works and found a common mood called “Magic” although some are more effective than others. This is a strong new group of illustrators, these five girls are the best of the exhibition, their work combine magic, narrative and imagination are examples of their young spirit.

The gallery was small and practical but maybe the exhibition should last for more than five days. I went on a Tuesday afternoon and no one could explain me what the video showing was about; this put me off from watching more.

At the end I found information at the www.youarehere08.co website. This website is fairly poor and difficult to use; It took me lot of time to find the artist in the tiny bars. Another negative point is some students hadn’t wrote any information of their work.

I think with a bit more effort, communication and union the exhibition could be far better, these new professionals are worth it!

I will post some photographs of the work made by these artists in the next blog.