Manchester School of Art Degree Show: Breaking Boundaries

1.79308995x10^-5N

23.80756626 N

This vinyl text from Christopher Paul Curry, he tells us in the work's title, shows “The gravitational attraction between two works of art, below the gravitational attraction between Manchester School of Art and the Moon.” This work, which amusingly comes with its own dimensions of 34cm x 120cm, is part of The Holden Gallery's 'The School Of…' exhibition-within-an-exhibition, showpiece of MMU’s 2015 degree shows (which have a title way too long to reproduce here). The exhibition is curated by MOSTYN’s Adam Carr, who has chosen to split up the selected students, taken from Fine Art, Photography and Interactive Arts, into separate ‘schools’ or groups of enquiry – ‘The School of Biology & Social Sciences’, ‘The School of Geometry & Mathematics and The School of Horology & Wizardry’ – each denoted with a colourful line down the wall to tell you which department you’re in.

This may sound a bit complicated, and on the super hot, stuffy and packed private view night, it's certainly too much to be bothered with, but on a subsequent visit – an altogether calmer, midweek afternoon experience – it is a really engaging way to thematically approach a pick of the work on offer across the University. “The exhibition,” says Carr by way of wall text, “also considers the function and history of Manchester School of Art – the second oldest in the country after The Royal College of Art – as well as Arts Schools in general.” It also breaks down some of the boundaries between the courses. In the labyrinthine corridors and surrounding galleries the courses are, of course, clearly separated, and it is enjoyable to experience the mix-up of work in the curated show without necessarily knowing which student came from where or which peer group. It would actually have been nice to see this show continue (it closed on 24 June) to see if it had an afterlife beyond the rest of the degree shows.

A soothing female voice welcomes you to the exhibition. Something about a circle, a clip, a small vehicle. It could be instructions for something; the voice sounds very reasonable. At first it seems like the voice is married to Emily Harbot’s spinning wooden arm, which draws a pen circle on white hardboard in the centre of the gallery floor. The motion is constant and mesmeric, the voice steady and comforting – this is a much preferable Geometry and Mathematics experience to ones remembered from school. These two works work so well together that it is surprising to find that the audio work, in fact, comes from a different student, Nina Bristow, whose unassuming little black speaker box occupies a corner space in the Biology department. (Bristow also has a space upstairs in the degree show proper that is just painted white and occupied by an unoccupied projector stand and a chair. I thought I overhead another student saying she had already taken her work down but I hope not – I rather liked it, empty and disappointing.)

Back in the Holden Gallery, crazy flicker lines courtesy of Joe Brotherton tucked away in between two columns, also in the Biology department, are interesting. Things just look better between columns… just look at anything they show at GoMA in Glasgow. Another light-up line installation, although slightly and shoddily lo-fi (as is always the way with trying to create black-out spaces for student shows), catches the eye later, from Lorna Jones. Over a criss-cross of white ropes she has managed to project a little worm of a beam of light, which follows its path and finally lights up the whole rope net in a sort of jagged Alpine landscape. Perhaps this is very simple to do, but it seems very clever and quite beautiful in a science museum kind of way (so, the best way).

---

“This is a much preferable Geometry and Mathematics experience to ones remembered from school”

---

Strong photographic work comes from Katie Meadow, whose prints of glimpses of an old woman in various poses are paired with text underneath (also acting as their titles) – Stewed Fruits, Red Cherry Pie and Sultana Sponge. Composed and Parr-ian, these images really work, the words evocative and the woman non-identified; all of our grannies or great-aunts at some point in memory. Elsewhere, Meadow has an ‘imagined archive’ built up from diaries she bought at a car boot sale which are less successful – imagined archives seem to be replacing the big fuck-off black or white cubes that seemed to be at every degree show ten years ago. Next to Meadow, Aimee Walker’s pinkish latexy medicinal skin work with a circular nipple is also quite attractive, and, close to both of these, James Robertson’s cardboard asthma inhaler, on its plinth, is really quite delicate and moreish.

Less impressive is the Department of Horology & Wizardry. Gideon Vass’s Horses video is pretty diverting. A circle of horses stand as if placed or choreographed and then slowly wander off or out of become sync, often looking at the camera with a mixture of awkwardness or bored acceptance – they seem to be saying, “Yes Gideon, whatever, please fuck off now.” Nearby a plinth is covered with Blumenthal vs. Martian pastel pink popping candy vs. cocaine. It spills off onto the floor pleasingly as its plinthian cup runneth over (by Annie Hanegraaf). Above this, Jordan Alex Smith has written in Hollywood child murder handwriting “the point where it starts to become confusing,” and then points to a small frame stating that this point is “forty two thousand one hundred and thirty eight pounds.” We don’t know what this refers to – has he just won the lottery? Has a beloved granny died? Did he sell his writing bits and bobs which appear all over the degree show, to Saatchi? Maybe he sent Trinny and she liked it…

Final mentions for the Holden show are Charlie Hitchen’s corner pasted views of interiors and exteriors – a good use of the gallery space although the actual images themselves are less interesting. Elliot Minor’s wooden wall-mounted construction Siciliana is super with its pared down greys, whites and blacks (he is also showing some nice stuff in the rest of the show) and finally, Tom Lambe deserves a mention with his installation of graduation certificates from 69 of his fellow classmates. The work is entitled One Million, Eight Hundred and Sixty Three Thousand Pounds, which refers to the amount those students have contributed to the school and the economy in general. It is nicely installed also, in a more formal Don Celender or 70s conceptual kind of way, which is pleasing.

There is an overwhelming amount to see over the rest of the shows. Our mentions however, go to Carwyn Rhys-Jones’s images of Wales, Amy Hodge’s scrunched-up paper, Nadine Nevitt’s images of Rhyl and Olivia Madden’s photographs of sites where murders have taken place around the UK. Also enjoyable is Stewart Honeyman’s wallpaper of sausage, bacon, eggs and tomato. These guys are all from the photography department.

Upstairs in Fine Art and Interactive Arts there are a few quite horrible painted pseudo-installation environments and a large amount of good painting, drawing and print (poor on sculpture). Of note are David Pearson’s almost disappeared jellyfish, Laura Hopkinson's Carl Andre folded thingummies; Henry Northcroft Brown’s miniature man on a miniature asteroid; Georgia Alexandra Kerr’s Lissitzky/Hepworth bubble prints; Jade Fawcett’s odd, colourful odes to Bruce McLean and public art of 20 years ago, and the sublime sublime of Kathleen Martin. In fact, if I had any extra money, this is the work I would want on my wall. The bruise-like blues fade to almost imperceptible orangey yellow. The process seems laborious yet surprisingly loose and subtle.

The graduating cohort is really impressive this year. You can’t see the show any more but these are ones to watch in future, and can demonstrate how to do a jolly good and worthy of attention degree show.