Create at Salford Festival – Degree Show

Degree shows are the final hurdle in a three-year race to the big wide world of the creative industries. In June, The University of Salford presented Create at Salford Festival, which acted as a showcase for its creative graduates and their work. Held at MediaCityUK, home to the BBC, the festival launched students directly into the heart of the media industry. And judging by the work on display, the class of 2013 is one that is creatively confident and ready for the real world.

Straight off the tram we encounter a sculpture from Thomas Greenstreet: a swirling form of tree branches, it fits beautifully in its site while at the same time appearing like an alien form among the concrete landscaping of MediaCityUK. Upon close inspection, the branches are harmoniously balanced, using the natural shape of the wood to construct the structure.

Photography student Richard Meftah’s intimate portraits show a close up view of nature – the kind of images more associated with wildlife documentaries than exhibitions. The micro view that Meftah employs allows us to look in the face of the insects that we often share space with, but rarely consider as anything more than an annoyance. Through his presenting of the insect profiles in such fine detail, we are able to look at the unique and beautiful forms of each individual subject.

Amy Parker’s oversized swing dominates the space in which it is placed. The large, metal structure would not seem out of place in any park, if not for the golden locks that are flowing from the seat of the swing. Echoing the female surrealist artists from the 1920s, Parker has used hair to experiment with the idea of female presence and domesticity. Swings remind us of youth, frivolity and freedom, and long hair often comes to stereotype a certain kind of femininity. Parker’s piece has strong female attitude: she doesn’t choose to present a representation of female form shackled by male oppression, but one that is independent.

Constraint rather than freedom appears to be the message of Hayley Tonge’s work. Wooden pallets, painted yellow, are crudely constructed to form a tunnel with a wheelchair placed at the end. Facing the chair towards a wheelchair lift, Tonge’s work brings into question our notion of mobility and how we consider access, especially when it is something we take for granted.

Echoing Duchamp’s Fountain, Shannen Fisher’s toilet is filled with flecks of gold leaf rather than the more unsightly things you might expect to see down the pan. Opposite the toilet, on a plinth, stands a box of tissues and peeking out from the slit of the box is a gilded tissue; static and ready for the taking. Gold has been traditionally used to highlight the divine or important, but here Fisher chooses to focus on the things that we are more used to throwing away.

Benny McCrystal Plimmer’s video piece shows the artist walking around the site of MediaCityUK intermittently falling over, played out in slow motion. In the context of the degree show, the piece seems to reflect the journey that an artist undertakes when producing a piece of work, right up until it is ready to be shown. The journey is long and arduous and there are always slips along the way, but that is where valuable lessons are learned and it is what makes creative production so exhilarating.