Saturday 1 July 2023
– Saturday 5 August 2023
- Archive
- Reid Gallery
POST
1 July – 5 August 2023
This exhibition selects works from this year’s recent GSA degree shows, choosing themes that travel across all the courses. The title ‘post’ reflects on this moment in time post degree shows and is a play on phrases such as ‘past the finishing post’ and ‘post-pandemic’. Themes include tradition and future; health and wellbeing; protest; social justice; environmental and identity.
The visitor enters the exhibition through a museological display that plays with the idea of archaeology of future to present works that either look back at the emergence of electronics and new media to create new aesthetics, or, facing the prospect of a chemical explosion, give birth to post-terrestrial scenarios.
The second space metaphorically reflects on the concept of borders as a tool that separates and systematises. From commemorating our own memory on a customisable monument, to passing on local folk tradition or revealing gaps in the way we systematise and calculate time, the practitioners disrupt pre-conceived categories.
The third space is dedicated to printed works, such as posters, publications, research journals and fanzines, which explore key concepts related to the themes approached in the exhibition.
Selected by Jenny Brownrigg and Francesca Zappia
Exhibitors: Alexandra Bell (Sound for the Moving Image), Vytautas Bikauskas (Interaction Design , Caroline Brewer (MSA Stage 5), Lin Bu (MDes Communication Design), Fairouz El Tom (Master of Fine Art) , Beth Fairgrieve (Product Design Engineering), Chih-Kang Hsu (Master of Fine Art), Doug Kennedy (Product Design), Poppy Langridge (Sculpture & Environmental Art), Aino Larvala (Interior Design), Shawna Li (MDes), Max Longhurst (Sculpture & Environmental Art), Stefan Mocanu (Silversmithing & Jewellery, Tumi Mokopane (Communication Design), Lena Pogodina (Fashion Design), Anita Sarkezi (Textile Design), Ted Tinkler (Painting & Printmaking), Umarell (MSA), Qiaoni Zhang (MDes Communication Design), Nadia Zhaya (Sculpture & Environmental Art)
View Exhibition Documentation Here
ALEXANDRA BELL
Sound for the Moving Image – School of Simulation & Visualisation
Alexandra Bell is a multidisciplinary artist, composer and chartered materials engineer. Originally from Belfast, she has lived, worked and expeditioned on all continents, often in remote cultures and landscapes, before setting up her seaside studio in Scotland. Alex’s practice explores the intersection between culture, arts and science to confront entrenched ideologies and beliefs. She believes the creative process is universal regardless of domain – that the most innovative artists have interests in science and vice versa. Her work incorporates sound, music, moving image, sculpture, writing and performance to create immersive experiences which challenge perceptions and stimulate empathy for the counterargument. She is concerned with 21st century “mauvaise foi” (bad faith, Sartre), where we evade the responsibility of discovering and understanding ourselves and the consequences of our actions, failing to exercise integrity and autonomy in life choices.
The Wave is not the Water I
Alexandra Bell, The Wave is not the Water I, 2023, soundscape visualised with light, space and materials
This immersive Light, Space and Sound garden was inspired by a W.B. Yeats poem about being still and silent. In the context of keyboard warrior noise, cancel culture and emotionally aggressive discourse on social media, the artist has designed a safe space by visualising sound vibrations. It articulates the light of our dreams and allows us to breathe. Whilst being a beautiful sensory environment, the piece asks us to reflect on the value of community and collective responsibility compared with the disease of decadence – narcissism and the cult of individuality. The title refers to ripples at the surface of matter, which do not reflect the body or depth of it, an allegory of media-loud and self-aggrandising “slacktivism”. Concerned about the decline of respectful reason and debate, this work creates a place to be still and silent; a place where light and sound open a path to our subconscious in order to slow see and deep listen.
Instagram: @alexandrabellsound
Website: alexandrabellsound.com
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/alex-bell-187248455
VYTAUTAS BIKAUSKAS
Interaction Design – School of Design
(he/him)
Vytautas’ work revolves around time, rituals, and labour. His multimedia practice ranges from drawing, printmaking and installation to creative coding, data visualisation, and speculative Machine Learning. He particularly focuses on the meaning of repeated actions, the beauty of daily rituals, and labour as a fundamental force in knowledge-making.
Calendars
Vytautas Bikauskas, Calendars, 2023. Letterpress printing
In October 1582, catholic countries in Europe transitioned from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Because of the inaccuracies in the Julian calendar, 10 days were lost.
In September 1752 the United Kingdom and its colonies transitioned from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Because of the refusal to follow pope’s edict in 1582, 11 days were lost.
Clocks
The clock is an arbitrary counting machine. Count your time yourself.
Instagram: @vytautasbikauskas
Website: vytautasbikauskas.com
Degree showcase: gsashowcase.net/vytautas-bikauskas
CAROLINE BREWER
MSA Stage 5 – School of Architecture
(she/her)
Caroline Brewer is a designer who works in architecture and fashion. Her work with textiles and background in urban design led her to an exploration of city fabric, analyzing paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks and their parallels within garment construction. She focuses her attention on architectural form and its role in re-densifying cities by weaving her designs into the granular texture of urban environments while carefully considering the territorial implications of that work. Before coming to Glasgow, Caroline studied at Washington University in St. Louis and worked in New York City for four years, focusing specifically on cultural projects and strategic planning. She is currently completing her Masters in Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art.
Cité du Selfegghe: Inhabiting Borders as a Method of Repair
Caroline Brewer, Cité du Selfegghe: Inhabiting Borders as a Method of Repair, 2023. Models, textiles, prints
Brewer’s project, ‘Cité du Selfegghe: Inhabiting Borders as a Method of Repair’ proposes an architectural intervention establishing new modes of integrating industry into the urban fabric of Brussels through the framework of a worker-controlled consumer cooperative. It considers the leveraging of textile waste to operate a Research, Education and Exhibition space located at the site of the former historic city wall. It draws upon the development of Vooruit, a Belgian socialist organization that transformed traditional working-class institutions into dynamic communities with a wide range of services and social outlets; the writings of Richard Sennett, who debunks romantic myths about community and how it forms; and an analysis of the city fabric using a taxonomy of seams and stitches. In doing so, the project reimagines the fashion industry, its strategy for managing textile waste and its operational structure to establish a sustainable platform around which workers can organize.
Instagram: @cb__archd
LIN BU
MDes Communication Design – School of Design
(she)
As a graphic designer with an interest in typography and bookbinding design and a background in law, I am passionate about translating social issues into visual language and exploring the links between the two. I see graphic design as a way of presenting and discussing ideas, and I want to use this to communicate with people and convey ideas for the betterment of society.
Now Life In China
Lin Bu, Now Life In China, 2023. Publication
Numbness, chaos and loss of freedom flooded the Chinese people in 2022. This publication reflects the experience of ordinary Chinese peple during the covid-19 from the perspective of the designer‘s family. Even if things are getting better, we should know and remember what happened during that period.
Instagram: @linblingi
FAIROUZ EL TOM
Master of Fine Art – School of Fine Art
(she/her)
Fairouz El Tom is a visual artist currently based in Geneva. Sudanese and Swiss in heritage, she grew up in cities across Sudan, India, Nepal, the United States, and Switzerland. This fluidity of movement across borders and cultures instilled in her a fascination with human and natural diversity, as well as a questioning of identity construction and contemporary value systems. Although she works primarily in digital photography, her compositions defy disciplinary boundaries. By exploring themes of identity, multiplicity, opacity, fluidity, and futurity, she creates a new visual language that asks viewers to engage in the act of seeing afresh.
Routes
Fairouz El Tom, Glissant-Diawara (Routes), 2023. Archival pigment print, 75 x 75 cm
Routes is an ongoing series that traces patterns of movement through cross-cultural encounters. Routes of migration prompted by colonisation, routes taken in response to personal histories, others taken for work and leisure. Routes that illustrate the rhizomic nature of movement and connection, and that raise the question of the politics of moving through space. They are also testimonies to individuals who embraced openness and curiosity over fear.
Instagram: @fairouzeltom
Website: fairouzeltom.com
BETH FAIRGRIEVE
Product Design Engineering – School of Design
(she/her)
My practice incorporates the combination of user-centred design with creating the best technical solutions: from early concept ideation, 3D printed prototypes, user testing to detailed engineering solutions. I am passionate about helping all user groups through innovative design solutions and have learned the value of co-design, particularly while working with sensitive user groups. During my project, I have worked closely with Alzheimer Scotland to design a light therapy device for people living with dementia experiencing sundowning. As a product design engineer, it was my role to explore how new technology, combined with the best aspects of current solutions could be combined to create a device which improves symptoms.
Light Therapy for Dementia: ebb&glow
Beth Fairgrieve, Light Therapy for Dementia: ebb&glow, 2023, prototype
By 2030, there are expected to be 1 million people living with dementia (PLWD) in the UK. Many – up to 66% – can experience Sundowning; a type of agitation which typically begins late in the day, causing a repetitive cycle of sleepless nights for PLWD and caregivers. My product targets disruptions to the circadian rhythm, which is the cause of sundowning as dementia progresses. Daily blue light therapy is used to help regulate the circadian rhythm, tailored to the complex sensory needs of PLWD. Introduced early into dementia diagnosis, ebb&glow aims to support caregivers with growing functionality as PLWD’s needs change throughout their dementia journey. The hand-held pebble shape is tactile and the single button allows users, from early diagnosis to advanced stages of dementia, to interact with smart home devices independently. This interaction is fully customisable and includes music, sound, light and helpful reminders.
Further information: https://www.pdedegreeshow.com/beth-fairgrieve
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/beth-fairgrieve-33522817b/
CHIH-KANG HSU
Master of Fine Art – School of Fine Art
Chih-Kang Hsu (b. 1988) is a Taiwanese artist whose works primarily involve photography,
moving-image, and installation. Deeply informed by his architecture and set design background,
he is interested in discovering spatial interpretation in an urban landscape. Chih-Kang uses
photography as a material to explore illusion and reality in imagery by disrupting and destroying
photographs physically. Furthermore, he tries to reveal the unfamiliar moments around us which
are being ignored under the public’s habitual behaviours. His current research focuses on how
memory shifts within monumentality and materiality. Through historical and political
investigation, he delves into how monumental objects in public interfere with the individual and
society’s memory, the creation or cancellation of false memories and untold truths.
How to make a new monument
Chih-Kang Hsu, How to make a new monument, 2023. Building sand, plaster, wood, whiteboard, marker, eraser, 109 x 81 x 204 cm
Memorials are created to remember, to commemorate different matters events and people. They provide visual evidence of the existence of a particular subject, such as monuments, statues, signs, and other artefacts. When we look at history, any single event must be understood in its historical context. However, monuments built and seated in physical space end up in a situation that is irrelevant or contrary to the meaning of their construction. Although most monuments are accompanied by textual descriptions, their symbolism and purpose of praise are not interpreted in the same way by future generations. How to awaken forgotten memories from monuments? Can the meaning of a monument be revised? Perhaps the question we should be asking is, how do we interact with monuments? Through this ironic process, I was aiming to raise awareness of collective memory and reflexivity in society. The key to social progress and trauma recovery lies in whether people can learn and understand the impact and significance of events by facing the past.
Instagram: @wojuhsu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wojuhsu/
Personal website: https://chihkanghsu.cargo.site
DOUG KENNEDY
Product Design – Innovation School
(he/him)
Doug Kennedy’s work is positioned at the borders where different subjects, theories and practices intersect. His work emerges from the points at which practical design meets more abstract influences such as political theory and science fiction. The work is driven by a belief that it is at these boundaries between varied and diverse influences that the most crucial creative pursuits occur.
Design for Disobedience
Doug Kennedy, Design for Disobedience, 2023. Prototypes of inflatable, wearable objects
This self-initiated project builds on the foundational research of the designer’s dissertation paper entitled ‘Embracing Chaos and Designing Disobedience: Re-evaluating Design Pedagogies, Methodologies and Practices’. The findings of the paper were supplemented with ethnographic research techniques to deliver wearable interventions designed to widen participation in acts of civil disobedience. As the rights and freedoms of citizens continue to be suppressed, this project highlights the importance of ensuring as many people as possible can participate in activism, protest and democracy.
Instagram: @ugly_head_projects
POPPY LANGRIDGE
Sculpture & Environmental Art – School of Fine Art
(she/her)
‘I think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren’t going to want to go on living’. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
The aliens have been telling me what to do. Telling me to start their family, to begin populating. I’m starting to make out forms and materials that will best suit their way of life. When I first met them they were hundreds of sketches, but now they crawl and hide. I know where they are. Is it time to start spreading the news? I have a mad scientist alter-ego which researches and communicates with alien lifeforms. I use this character to be wild and more expressive than I ever could be; I filter my mental struggles through to my alter-ego in order to deal with my issues in a humorous and playful way. I want you to take me and my aliens seriously. I want you to feel puzzled and terrified because that is how I feel. You can also laugh too—because I also do that.
I Know They’re Coming
Poppy Langridge, I Know They’re Coming, 2023. Multimedia installation
Collaboration with other people is also very important in my practice; I like to bounce my ideas off of others in order to create things that can’t be done on my own. I sometimes collaborate as the mad scientist, and sometimes as myself. However, most of the time I flit between both myself and the scientist as it is hard to define where one character starts and the other ends. I can then also say that there is a collaboration occurring between myself and the scientist which I often find difficult to do. As mentioned earlier, my alter-ego carries the darker side of myself—so when I have to confront and analyse the work that we’ve made, it is sometimes hard to see the pain and madness that the scientist created because in reality, I know that is me making this stuff.
Instagram: @poppylangridgejewellery
Website: poppylangridge.com
AINO LARVALA
Interior Design – School of Design
(she/her)
I am focused on how design can improve our society, both environmentally and socially. My final year project addresses the climate crisis by proposing a solution to overconsumption, so we could transition to a circular economy that makes sustainability financially viable. In addition to offering technological solutions to the climate crisis, we should also rethink our systems to be better. Reimagining what prosperity will be in a sustainable world allows us to redesign systems, products, and services that restore and regenerate.
Glasgow City Workshop
Aino Larvala, Glasgow City Workshop, 2023, poster
This interior design proposal explores how design could be used innovatively in a transition to a post-consumption world. The project proposes a concept for an accessible and inclusive space that strives to prolong the lifecycle of household objects by repairing and upcycling them in one convenient spot. Instead of getting stimulation from buying ready-made products, the proposed space provides stimulation in the process of embedding value on retaining objects. The aim of this project is to challenge the ownership-based economy and promote a sharing-based economy by providing citizens tools, space, and skills because a sustainable lifestyle should be easy, affordable, and aspiring.
Instagram: @ainolarvaladesign
SHAWNA LI
MDes Communication Design – School of Design
(she/her)
As a graphic designer and visual artist, I specialize in publication, printed matter, and typeface, with a strong passion for abstract graphics and minimalist design style. I’m passionate about establishing connections between design and everyday life, getting inspiration from deep research and observation. I strive to explore the concept, style, and way of communication in design and art and the distinctive visual language.
Invasion: From Concentration to Disorder
Shawna Li, Invasion: From Concentration to Disorder, 2023. Typeface design used for the visual identity of the exhibition
Invasion: From Concentration to Disorder is an experimental typeface and graphic work about how smartphones affect our reading concentration. Through graphic design, I aim to illustrate the disruption caused by mobile phones and other electronic devices on people’s reading process from concentration to disorder and arouse critical thinking and reflection on the impact of the digital age on the classic era of paper media. Moreover, I used this set of typeface for the visual identity of this exhibition.
Instagram: @seangululu
Website: shawnali.cargo.site
MAX LONGHURST
Sculpture & Environmental Art – School of Fine Art
(he/him)
Max Longhurst (b.2000) is a visual artist living and working in Glasgow. Spanning various mediums, his work interrogating the way that we humans communicate and document our own legacy. Looking forwards and back, Max seeks, makes, and invents historically charged objects, setting these objects in relation to each other to gain alternate understandings. Rumour and other informal methods of communication are active parts in his work, exploring alternate ways of archiving and documentation. Growing up in England, Max has studied at Camberwell College, University of the Arts London, and gained a Ba Hons in Sculpture and Environmental Art at Glasgow School of Art.
The re-staging of a photograph
The re-staging of a photograph: Sophus Tromholt and miscellaneous astronomical equipment, 1882-83, 2023. Digital Print on Fibre-based Archival Paper, 100x66cm
A re-staging of a 19th Century photograph of the Danish-Norwegian astronomer, Sophus Tromholt. The original image, taken as documentation of an expedition to northern Sweden undertaken in 1882-83, in his ad-hoc observatory to research the Northern Lights. Despite his scientific findings relating to the northern lights, Tromholt is better known for his anthropological photographs taken whilst on the trip of the Sámi people, whose clothing he is wearing in the original. Through the theatricality of the image, the inseparability of science, colonialism and anthropology is evident, something somewhat obscured in the present day. To re-stage the image, as well as use 19th century formats to present new work, is to re-evaluate notions of discovery.
Constellation maps
Constellations from the imagined colonisation of another planet. Using space mapping software, the prints show the night’s sky from the possibly habitable exoplanet, Ross 128b, which was discovered in 2017, sitting 11 light years from earth. By creating potential constellations from new cultures, the shapes drawn offer suggestions to what moral systems may be brought from earth to the new planet. By keeping the stories behind the constellations vague, it allows the series to question what utopic qualities are present in our own culture today, and what would be forgotten.
Instagram: @maxloonghurst
STEFAN MOCANU
Silversmithing & Jewellery – School of Design
My work invites a sense of awe, even a slight doubt as to the reality of the objects, with their uncanny familiarity and an earthly yet otherworldly quality. Through my creations, I focus on creating otherworldly forms that reflect the complexity and wonder of a natural, yet distant world, embodying artefacts made by entities known as the ‘Light Weavers’. My pieces emerge from the convergence of art, science, and technology, by utilizing rapid-prototyping, press forming, and structural color. The materials used, from multicolor biodegradable polymers to press-formed metals, interact with light in unique ways creating illusions of depth and colour.
Hidden Knowledge
Stefan Mocanu, Hidden Knowledge, 2023. 3D Printing, biodegradable polymer, red, yellow, and blue pigments
My collection ‘Hidden Knowledge’ is a speculative exploration of how other intelligent lifeforms might share their knowledge, akin to humanity’s own cosmic outreach through the ‘Golden Record’ on the Voyager 1 Probe. This object is a captivating artefact, a testament to the advanced technology of the Light Weavers. With their mastery of light-interactive materials, this species has ingeniously crafted such structures, to not only store and convey their knowledge gathered throughout millennia, but also to serve as a beacon into the vast reaches of the cosmos. Upon discovery by other life forms, the pyramid springs to life, sending a signal across the interstellar expanse back to its creators.
Instagram: @stefanmocanudesign
TUMI MOKOPANE
Communication Design – School of Design
(she/her)
As a multi-disciplinary artist, much of my work is inspired by the ever-evolving trials and tribulations
of what it is to be human, with key themes such as mental health and identity being integral to my
artwork. I aim to provoke viewers to leave with a deeper emotional connection to themselves,
looking within. I explore these ideas in my practice through digital illustration, focusing on condensing
these complex subject matters in a balanced, playful way through animation and my keen passion for 3D illustrations. Captivating visual journeys that celebrate the convergence of art, design, and culture.
The Shape of Loneliness
Tumi Mokopane, The Shape of Loneliness, 2023. Video animation
I believe that creativity can evoke emotion and share a part of yourself that may have stayed hidden without that outlet. This can be seen in my animation ‘The Shape of Loneliness’, an interview with my 17-
year-old brother on what loneliness is to him. I aimed to create something deeply personal but with a message many could relate to, aided by visuals that help balance out such a moving topic. With this collaboration, I hope that viewers are able to walk away feeling seen and begin opening up the quiet yet troubling conversation on isolation and loneliness in our society. What is the shape of loneliness to you?
Instagram: @tmokopanedesigns
Website: tmokopanedesigns.cargo.site (under construction)
LENA POGODINA
Fashion Design – School of Design
Lena Pogodina is a knitwear fashion designer with background in textiles and a particular interest in fabric manipulation. Drawing on her Estonian heritage, she often looks for inspiration in the more traditional forms of craft and explores ways of thoughtfully incorporating them in her fashion creations. Her design practice is often experiment-led and is influenced by the inter-play between the traditional and modern.
Uncanny
Lena Pogodina, Uncanny, 2023. Futurism-inspired activewear collection with woven structures: Jumper (detail). Cotton yarn, wool felt, deadstock faux leather.
The jumper was a part of the collection called Uncanny. Its theme was to explore the strange unsettling feelings the dynamic between men and their machines has the power to provoke. The knitted bodice was organically attached to a flexible mechanical structure built from leather components. The colour palette was inspired by reflections of computer screen light on organic and artificial surfaces, rendered in stepped gradient by fabric draping.
Instagram: @ryekilill
Website: gsashowcase.net/jelena-pogodina
ANITA SARKEZI
Textile Design – School of Design
(she/her)
My textile design practice is motivated and informed by my Slavic cultural background. My work is grounded in the interwoven histories of rural material culture and postcolonialism in a Central and Eastern European context. Focusing on rural textiles, floral motifs in these regions have often served as ‘national symbolic guards’. While motifs and colours are apolitical, their context and placement can signify a political meaning. This has been in service of constructing what is considered ‘pure’ culture – the result of political motivations, the antithesis of what culture and tradition are in real life. These concepts, which are personally important, are at the core of my textile design practice.
Hybridisation Of Colour And Ornament
Anita Sarkezi, Hybridisation Of Colour And Ornament, 2023. Woven samples – deadstock silk, silk mohair, nylon
With the use of the jacquard loom, I am able to construct an imaginary space consisting of personal ornaments and motifs and bold and gradient uses of colour. In my practice I explore the relationship between organic and geometric shapes. Merging invented motifs with explorations of colour and colour gradation serves as a visual metaphor for the flux of movement and migration, and an outlet for my personal narrative as a migrant. I have gathered visual information through wandering, catching and recording glimpses of nature in urban centres, then incorporating them within a new reality utilizing digital and analogue ways of working.
Instagram: @studio_sarkezi
Website: studiosarkezi.com
Linkedin: @anitasarkezi
TED TINKLER
Painting & Printmaking – School of Fine Art
(they/them)
My practice centres around handcrafts – playing with ideas of intimacy, liveliness, multiplicity, and trans-ness. I work with the animacy and performativity of crafted objects. They are my co-collaborators. Access and care are at the heart of my practice. I move through making by prioritising intimacy, space, and vulnerability over a productionist, scarcity-based mindset. My work tends to a slowtime.
“they are containers of fluidity”
Ted Tinkler, “pegging down their lace”, 2023. Knitted-lace in suspended hap frame (Hand-spun Shetland wool, fir cone knitted-lace, steel knitting needles, 35mm film, queer bodies, loch Humphrey, soil, moss sporophytes, grass tussocks, 4 plate colour lithography on zerkall paper, hand-made iroko and bocote suspended hap frame, on hand-lathed oak pulley system). Spun, knitted, performed, and printed by Ted Tinkler. Photography by Meadhbh Corrigan. Support by Kitt Glover.
bathing in the sun,
the white wool glowing,
amongst the grassy tussocks.
A knitter may peg down their shawls upon the grass and moss. Let the wind dry out a piece of Shetland knitted lace. When the rain may pause its falling, bring out the soft white knitting to be stretched (known also as dressing or blocking). Lay the wet knit upon the ground, stretch, and pin it out, so as it dries it may hold its shape to reveal the full depth of its holes.
Newsletter: https://tedtinkler.substack.com/
Instagram: @tedtinkler
UMARELL
Rory Thomas, Katy Hope, Andrew Wilson
MSA Stage 4 – School of Architecture
Umarell is a collective based in Glasgow working behind the homonymous newsletter. This publication highlights the work of alternative architectural practice across the world and aims to provide a different perspective on the vocation as a whole and share a variety of views on specific points, while bringing in work that ranges from built projects to the one of those in the peripheries of architecture.
Umarell Newsletter
Umarell Newsletter, 2023. Fanzine, risograph
The image above shows the Umarell newsletter first publication’s front cover in risoprint. Titled ‘Brick though the window’, this issue focused on the notion of protest through works as varied as poems, drawings and personal projects, which raised the question of how architecture can act as a catalyst or facilitator for protest.
Read the Umarell newsletter here
Instagram: @UmarellNewsletter
Bios
Rory Thomas (he/him) is an architecture student going into his final year at the Mackintosh School of Architecture. His practice is based upon the ability of architecture to prompt wider cultural change, notably questioning how architecture can become a form of protest and how the built environment can be actively used as a radical tool rather than as just a space to facilitate such moments. Rory was drawn to Umarell through a frustration at the insular nature of architecture, believing that it is often inaccessible and guarded by those who maintain the status quo in the profession.
The practice of Andrew Wilson (he/him) emphasizes studio-based learning and the reuse of space and materials, particularly those that are overlooked and seen as invaluable. His current research project looks at everyday architecture, specifically inner-city shopping centres in the UK, and questions the place of demolition as the first point of call. His idea of architecture is one that is driven by and involves the people that will interact with and inhabit it.
Katy Hope (she/her) is Part 2 student at the Mackintosh School of Architecture. She views architecture as a voice for change in society and, therefore, she incorporates in her work social and cultural topics of diversity, equality, and sustainability, which are not only architecturally important but hold a socio-political value. Katie envisions architecture as a space for playfulness that encourages imagination and exploration, consciously considering the user group and environmental issues as key for the design process.
NADIA ZHAYA
Sculpture & Environmental Art – School of Fine Art
(her)
Nadia Zhaya is an intermedia artist working in 3-dimensional art, kinetic sculpture, immersive spatial and site-specific installation. Through the use of primeval elements of light, fire and drive the artist explores the universal and inexhaustible realm of energy – spiritual and physical. Inspired by transcendental, timeless and emotional, Zhaya creates objects and installations as mesmerising and empowering experiences.
Explosion realm
Nadia Zhaya, Explosion realm, 2023. Salvaged plastics, 11 x 5 x 4 cm
The air sphere produced by a chemical explosion,
It’s a conception of thought and a birth of a feeling –
– the energy realm born from within.
Made of the ever-lasting material, the inexhaustible realm is eternal.
Instagram: @bdzhaya
Website: gsashowcase.net/nadezda-bayduzhaya
QIAONI ZHANG
MDes Communication Design – School of Design
(she/her)
Qiaoni Zhang is a graphic designer and visual artist who is interested in the power of communication design in complex societal and political issues. She enjoys exploring different media, materials and forms in her projects, and aims to bring positive social influences by creating appealing and effective visual narratives.
Pounds
Qiaoni Zhang, ‘Pounds’, 2023. Publication
This project assesses the value of money, specifically, the Great British Pound (GBP), by analyzing its fluctuating purchasing power and quantifying the labor required to attain it. By making graphic comparisons, the project addresses economic concerns such as inflation and inequality, and questions the sustainability and morality behind the value system rooted in capitalism and fiat currency.
Instagram: @demmau_