Yet again, that time of year has come around where young artists across the country spend their last month of University life sweating away in the studio with bad aircon, dreaming longingly of a freedom external to yelling at printers for misspelling names in catalogues. Whilst the rest of the student population revel in the sporadic June sunshine, and (for the most part) drinking through the realisation that this fun-loving attitude to post-university life is soon to shrivel up, along with their liver, art students have been setting up their Degree Show.
Manchester School of Art students, including myself, managed to bid au-revoir to the dreaded set up last Friday and along with glasses of wine in the double digits (the school was dry of free booze an hour and a half into the show), we collectively celebrated the culmination of three years of hard graft. I’d been so consumed with my own set up that I’d failed to notice the sheer magnitude of talent cropping up amongst the whitewash walls I’d come to know and love, and suddenly there it all was, spreading across the pinewood and up to the refectory windows, fresh talent in all its glory. There is something inherently enjoyable about being blown away by a sculpture by someone you’d previously only come to know through that time he fell down the stairs at a house party in first year. So in response to my awe of my fellow graduating class of 2014, I have put together my top 5 pieces I have seen through out the show thus far, and in this urge you to go see the show if you have not yet.
Jodie Cheung
Jodie’s work in this years degree show was a winner for me, it felt as though someone had crawled into my mind and created the perfect installation for it. Her playful pastel colour scheme against harsher concrete tones applied to simplistic shapes creates a series of sculptures that individually are fetes in their own right, but once viewed straight on come together to create a significant symphony of textures, colours and shapes. The piece is fun and nostalgic of childhood through aesthetic, but Jodie’s compositional approach to her work also emulates a sense of sternness and formality, playing on the role of the gallery space and installation works. You want to touch it, but you know you can’t, and this frustration paralleling the notions of play results in an interesting reaction from the viewer.
Emma Price
Emma’s installation video piece “Underwater Challenge 2.0” is an uncomfortable and raw experiencing in which Price submerges herself underwater for the length of famous cinematic scenes of the same nature. The use of body in art has always been an interest of mine, and to see the artist pushing boundaries of the bodies limits through submergence created a very visceral reaction. The artist aimed to explore and expose the cliches element within cinematic film, and as each scene gets longer you find yourself utterly engaged within the piece, almost fearful for the safety of the artist whilst juxtaposed against the unrealistic underwater scenes element in Titanic, Fool’s Gold and The Boat That Rocked. I won’t lie, I saw Titanic and was intrigued, but as a result I saw one of the most powerful pieces on display within this years Degree Show, so thanks Emma Price, and I guess Leonardo DiCaprio as well.
Kayleigh Heydon
When your piece is the central sculpture hanging from the Holden Gallery ceiling at a degree show, I think you know in yourself that you’ve done something more than right, and that is exactly what is element in Kayleigh Heydon’s mirrored cube. Not that anyone could miss it, Kayleigh’s cube was magnificent in both magnitude, mirrors and beauty. Following on from themes in her work of space manipulation, Kayleigh’s cube is a manifestation of her work thus far, her moquettes becoming a large scale installation that dominates the Holden Gallery through a simplistic and elegant approach. When I first saw its construction a couple of weeks ago, I was gobsmacked, because throughout its simplicity it spoke volumes and worked so well amongst the historical feeling existent in the Holden Gallery. However when experienced with other people, as it was on Friday, the piece became more alive. It felt as though it had a magnetic force that changed the atmosphere of the room in a strange way I can’t quite articulate.
Craig McLaughlin
“The Solipsism” is a cinematic masterpiece that captures the intensity and beauty of slow cinema that encompasses the very core of themes of isolation and introspectiveness. Through a series of long shots that push the boundary of filmmaking, the film presents an unsettling feeling in the viewer in which the main subjects subconscious journey allows the viewer to experience the darkness element inside. On first viewing it gave me goosebumps, and the film is a credit to the filmmaking course who are consistently tackling different approaches toward the future of film through their work. I don’t want to give anything else away, but I implore you to go watch this, as it hits all the right notes from cinematography to sound design, due to some of the most talented exports of Filmmaking working with Craig on this piece.
Alexandra Ikonomou
Fine Arts contribution to painting this year was phenomenal, large and imposing pieces loomed at you from every surface. The studio they are positioned is perhaps one of the most beautiful parts of the Art School, light and white and complimentary to the artists themselves. However it wasn’t until I got toward the end of the studio space and was confronted with Alexandra’s pieces that I felt truly mesmerised. A triptych of surreal paintings faced back at me, bright and confusing, I felt I could swim amongst them. Her bold use of colour expressed both talent and comfort with her medium, instigating a nostalgia within the viewer. Alexandra managed to balance the notion of retrospective artwork, as the pieces seemed to feel they would have been suited to early 20th century pieces of similar natures, but also managed to encompass futuristic elements through colour and shape. I’m always impressed by large scale paintings of this nature, and somehow I felt I could resonate with the pieces despite the fact the seemed to be talking about and to someone completely different. I’m utterly intrigued and have a very good feeling about this artist and her future works.
I did a review of the Adam Green show a couple of weeks back for bag thing and you can access it 
punching 