NEW GRADUATE AWARD

Each year members of the SSA council visit the degree shows of Scotland’s five schools of art and, this year for the first time, City of Glasgow College, selecting artists to be awarded the New Graduate Award. The award offers two years complimentary membership of the Society and inclusion of selected works in the Annual Exhibition.

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART

NANCT DEWHURST

‘Currently, my artistic practice focuses on ‘time’ and different notions of it – geological time, ancient time, time dictated by labour, and time punctuated by play. I aim to create meditative pieces that encourage contemplation over, and reclamation of, time. Clepsydra is a participatory installation in two parts: Generator and Clepsydra. A clepsydra is a water clock – one of the oldest methods of measuring time.’

nancydewhurst.com

HOLLY OSBORNE

‘Lunge is based on a YouTube screenshot of an online workout video. The comical characters smile with glazed expressions, following their instructor in a religious fashion. Naomi Wolf speaks of weight control as a cult in her book ‘The Beauty Myth’ (1990); a regime in which followers must not deviate from the rules, meticulous calorie counting and workout routines. The weight-loss group ‘Slimming World’, refer to less-healthy foods as ‘syns’, you are allowed a limited amount of ‘syns’ per day. Lunge is loosely based around these ideas, the societal norms that we buy into.’

holly-osborne.com
@hollyceosborne

EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART

PIP DENHAM

‘We come into this world via the water-filled vessel of our mother’s womb. We complete our life cycle in a vessel of skin and bone.  In turn, we make the transition from life through death into the unknown, via a crafted vessel, fashioned from our earthy resources.  We think we know what life and death are as if they are fixed and separate experiences.  With Koan, I have endeavoured to explore and question our apparent certainties and the emotional consequences that arise, when we confront the paradox of life and death without cultural baggage.’

pipdenham.com
@pipdenhamartist

TAYLOR SHAW

‘Art and sport share many values and in investigating this relationship I create sculptures, installations and video works documenting my sport taekwondo. Full Contact is a display of technical precision and improvisation challenging the typical means of creating sculpture, by using my feet to kick clay I capture the raw action and impact of taekwondo. I get lost in the action of creating the work, similar to when I’m fighting. The clay is equivalent to my fighting weight of 73kg so in essence, it could be seen to represent myself.’

taylorshaw1395.wixsite.com/taylorshawartist
@taylorshawartist

GRAY’S SCHOOL OF ART

PHOEBE BANKS

‘A large proportion of life is dedicated to rationality; there is little time for exploring the illogical or ridiculous. Art is the place to delve into this, with no pressures to be sensible or reasonable or even to be interesting. These objects, which started merely as experiments in materiality, have developed over some months, and friendships based on mutual awareness have been formed. Questioning the relationship between the art sphere and normality, my polystyrene pals are to be interacted and played with.’

phoebebanks.com
@phoebewholikesart

KATIE AVEY

‘A chosen memory is always the stimulus. Developing shapes and forms from initial drawings, my paintings reflect the sensations felt while unpacking the memory, through a specific texture, a precise colour or a particular noise.  Shape is an important element in my work. I believe that developing specific shapes, relating to individual objects and spaces (which are often suppressed beneath layers in the painting) harmonises with the mysterious workings of our minds. These paintings describe two very different memories, both of which revolve around one family home and the memories held within this cherished place.’

kbavey.wixsite.com
@katieavey.art

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art

NINA STANGER

‘My practice is engaged with rituals, myths and artefacts through blending digital and physical realms within a space. Interested in transitory states and liminal experience, I enact digital practice as a faculty of the spiritual. Standing Wave is a sympathetic light upon the beastly apparitions of femininity that have appeared throughout history in numerous cultures, from the siren to the sphynx.’

ninastanger.com
@_brain_pain_

Moray School of Art

MARIA ROYUELE MARQUES

‘The exploration and better understanding of who I am is something that has been constantly present in my practice in one way or another. This has led me to analyse in a deeper way the aspects that form my persona, which range from daily life actions to my background and ethnicity. My current work is the creation of a multisensory space where projection, sound, sculpture and scent interact with each other. Each of these elements is a representation of my experiences of body or/and mind.’

mariaroyuela.com
@ mariaroyuelam

City of Glasgow College

EMMA BOOTH

‘Working in abstraction allows me to capture thoughts and feelings that cannot be put into words. My relationship with yellow neither negative nor a positive; its boisterous personality captures my anxieties but also represents a state of calmness that I feel a connection towards. If yellow was a person, it would take on the forms of Fran, Kate, Missy and Rose. They are also part of ‘The Negative Wee People Who Follow Me Around’ family that I bring to life through collage.’

emmaboothartist.com
@eeb.art