Vision '23 Exhibition
UHI Shetland Fine Art Degree show is opening to the public again this month from Friday 9th of June until Friday 23rd of June. This exhibition is running as part of the creative industries department end of year show and will feature work from various courses including contemporary textiles, national certificate portfolio, core and life skills and skills for work art.
The BA (hons) Fine Art course is taught over four years, with the first year an emphasis on building on and strengthening key creative foundational building blocks of drawing, painting, photography, spatial practice, printmaking, and contextual studies. As students’ progress through second year the emphasis becomes on an individual creative path being formed and forged, by encouraging vigorous experimentation that is tempered with a strong and in-depth contextual awareness of fine art practice. There are three students exhibiting in their final year show. These students are Elaine Thomason, Cilla Robertson and Susan Pearson.
Elaine Thomason employs found objects and assemblage to explore current and historical environmental themes inspired by the island of Yell. She explores a narrative that connects the lives of two women from different periods of history connected by the thread of the natural world and the industrial elements that have crept into the landscape.
Susan Pearson is showing a series of large-scale drawings and sculptural pieces that delve deep into the subconscious by embracing the surrealist practices of automatic writing and drawing. Her work goes beyond surface level perception to explore themes around spirituality, culture, and folklore. She says ‘the work is fuelled by the contrasting energy and tensions found in seemingly antithetical forces such as vulnerability and strength, light and dark, hidden and exposed, strange and familiar, uncanny and homely.
Cilla Robertsons work explores the spaces and places we enter at different seasons in life. Framed around the vernacular dialect of Yell she uses a variety of artistic media to explore a recent chapter of illness, grief, and loss, expressing through images, emotions that were hard to communicate through words alone.
The Contemporary Textiles course will be displaying a selection of weave and knit that utilizes a variety of approaches and inspirations to textiles. The NC Art and Design portfolio course is bursting with the usual diverse expressions of talent featuring paintings, prints, sculptures, textiles, and a myriad other visual treat. The Skills for Work art course highlights the work of S3 and S4 students who come into the building alternative Fridays to study drawing, painting, and textiles. The Access to Core Skills students have been constructing with clay and Life Skills students have been developing work under the theme of costume where a variety of visual delights have been created.
Simon Clarke Head of Creative and Cultural Industries for UHI Shetland said: “The highlight of the exhibition is the Degree Show of the final year Fine Art students. This is the culmination of 4 years of creative endeavour and will form a large proportion of their degree classification. However, the exhibition also has work from the FE programs, as well as lower levels of the degrees, showcasing the college’s commitment to student expression at all stages of their creative journey”.
The exhibition will have an official opening on Friday 9th June 2023 at 6pm and subsequently run until Friday 23rd June 2023, everyone is welcome to visit, with no requirement to book.
UHI Shetland Lerwick Campus Opening hours: Dates: 9th – 23rd June.
Friday 9th -Opening Event 6 – 8pm
Saturdays 10th and 17th, 10am - 4.00pm
Monday to Friday 9.00 am -4.00 pm (late openings on Wednesdays until 8pm)