Ceramic bowls that had fingers, voodoo masks, and soft toys with an eerie makeover were some of the artistic creations on display — but not all artworks were macabre at Birmingham School of Art’s ‘Exhibition Exhibition’ held at Secret Space, a multipurpose event venue in Birmingham, on 16th and 17th April.
Birmingham City University’s second year BA (Hons) Fine Art students also showcased vivid and three-dimensional creations.
“I’m very proud of the students for having made such ambitious work,” Jennifer Wright, Making Practice module leader, told Birmingham Eastside.
“Work of such a scale and level of experimentation and expertise has really enlivened and filled the sweet Secret Space, which is a very large open, quite challenging space for students to work in.”
Rising to the challenge
The senior lecturer hailed the students for their creations, particularly students who worked with two-dimensional pieces, as it involved conventionally operating within a flat wall space.
“They’ve been challenged to produce bespoke and individual support for their work so that they could work more sculpturally, and they’ve risen to that challenge brilliantly,” Wright said.
“And the result of that is a very exciting show of work that’s made in a very great variety of materials through various media, including sound and video painting, projection, textiles, ceramics, and painting.”
‘Exciting resolution to the module’
The artworks and pieces displayed were a culmination of work that had been developed over the Making Practice module, as well as the semester two Studio Practice and Critical Theories module that the students are presently working on.
“It’s a module that demands that they acknowledge the way in which work needs to be thought about towards exhibition,” Professor Wright explained. “So not just making work, but how do you exhibit? How do you engage an audience? How do you want your work to communicate to an audience and keep them interested?
“And I think they have thought about those concerns and presented the work in a very professional way. It’s been a very exciting resolution to the module in terms of the exhibition.”
Exhibition Exhibition: what’s that?
Professor Wright explained the ‘mirror effect’ behind the name.
“The exhibition is actually called ‘Exhibition Exhibition’. But the way that would be visually written is with the second word of the exhibition reversed, so mirrored.
“There was some discussion about the title of the exhibition, which was thrown open to the students. They thought that there were some commonalities between certain pieces of work that dealt with the idea of mirroring or reflection in various ways. So the title became ‘Exhibition Exhibition’, but with the second word written in mirror writing.”
Favourite pieces
When asked about her favourite pieces, Professor Wright highlighted the creations of students Jack Smith and Faith-Anne Guilford.
“I think there’s work that is really interesting in terms of its narrative quality, like the work by Jack, which engages with his individual personal family history, his relationship with his grandfather, and the camera that his grandfather had.
“And his interest in new technologies, digital translations, and the way in which there’s a cyclical translation through the virtual or the digital and the analogue in terms of the production of work.
“And I’m very impressed by Faith-Anne’s piece, which is made out of archived elements of paper, including a lot of information that has been collected over a long period of time that’s developed into a neural network of information that mimics the way in which an overstimulated, overactivated brain might be envisioned in space, a very ambitious piece sculpturally!”
Life after university
To the left of the entrance to the exhibition space stood an aluminium barrier with several T-shirts spotlighting a contemporary issue.
‘So what are you going to do with your art degree?’ read one T-shirt. The word ‘art’ highlighted in red.
‘Would you pay £7000 for one outfit?’ read another.
The artwork brought to attention the student debt crisis and high tuition fees that students not only in the UK but across the world can relate to.
“This piece of work is part of a module which is called ‘Making A Living’,” said Professor Wright.
“It is a professional practice module that engages specifically with life after university, after graduation.
“It questions and engages students in how they are going to progress, how they’re going to engage with life after university, life as kind of practising artists, within whatever kind of career path they may progress. So that particular piece is made specifically in relation to critiquing and engaging with the perspective of life after they’ve graduated.”