Wednesday Visitor - MA students

MA Students

For this Wednesday's lecture there was a presentation of the MA students who went through their experience of the course and their practises.

Charlotte Hill

she explained that her practise is painting, similar to mine. Her work is based off of image making, lines, space and colour. I relate to her work due to her thinking she can't "break new ground", as she put it. we both see it as out of our comfort zones to experiment with new ideas, but since university I have delved into many new areas and have found experimentation a great way of developing my practise. She went on to explain how she applies a narrative to her abstract pieces to make it easier for her to focus on painting. I can fully agree with this method because I would find it hard to dedicate time to a painting with no meaning or intention. she uses a method of moving on if it gets boring which I found clever due to having a fresh mind when returning to it at a later date. she found that using new materials was the only way to experiment within her style, for example working with different shapes and glossy sections contrasting the matt. I see that this is a good technique of developing her practise, even more so when she said she had began experimenting with different mediums other than canvas. I have noticed this from my own work by trying a more three dimensional approach. Experimenting is about testing out new ideas and with this it doesn't have to be a finished high quality piece. Like her I find it difficult to not end with having an accomplished piece.

Ami Zanders

Originally from Bermuda she came over to study here to escape the mundane. She went on to explain that she has been inspired by the book,"My Life as a Goddess", which allowed her to see herself as a powerful woman and to really delve deep into feminism as a subject for he art. She also takes influence from tribal art with her background being from Bermuda. Methods such as weaving, using natural materials and bright colours to really relate to rituals and her cultures. This has ranged her work into a three dimensional aspect which allowed me to take advise off what she knows as I have only just started to experiment with sculpture. She advised that to have a reason for actually making the piece is a better start than just making an aesthetically pleasing sculpture. For example she uses these methods whereby she gathers words people comment around her and then crosses them out in a circular pattern with her weaving skills to create these disks. The first thing i felt when looking at her work was the colourful impact it has and how even though she uses a wide range, they all work and blend well together. It also

reminded me of the work of Crystal Wagner, who creates work out of recycled materials that flows and grows around a space, which is why it links to Zander's work because hers also develops around the space and takes a key role in her pieces.

Henry Chan

with a background in graphic design, Chan moving to fine art was a big move out of the comfort zone of design and technology. He took pottery classes which grew his interest in the practise and how he could develop it. Being bored and confined to pots, he took his new hobby into sculpture. Experimenting with busts of super heroes made him realise that he should do a fine art degree. I can relate t this because I looked into doing graphic design, but felt that art gave me more diversity and freedom to do all practices. In his first year he used metals and was inspired by the work of Michael Angelo's Creation of Adam. In response he created a contemporary sculpture of this work and it gave me the thought that I do a similar research method, whereby I'll use a previous piece of my own or another artists' to inspire a new chain of pieces for me to experiment from. However, Chan did add controversy to his work by having the hands swearing at one another to represent life's unfairness. I felt this was a strong and powerful message that I would like to get across too in my new pieces. He took inspiration for this from the media and Trumps recent antics within the political world. I like how he mashed up the old with the new and how it contrasts from both of them being powerful within their own times and the more modern media most likely going down in the history books too, just like the story of Angelo has. Relating back to his first year works, In his degree show Chan used religion again as a subject because it's filled with negative press and has a false facade. Based off the news story that a Bishop in Switzerland invested £10 million into his own properties, Chan created a new sculpture that of the bishop showing how money and wealth was his real God to worship to. This shows a clever though process and helped me to understand that the meaning behind the pieces really do explain it a lot better than just observing them.

Angelo Madonna



Specialising in sculpture, Madonna focuses on sounds, landscapes and materials. This all began his interest in the project "Materials Matter", this was a photography based project that looked at markings left from industrial machinery. Such as the abstract appearance of the reminiscence of the sacraficial bed showing the templates of  the pieces. I can connect to this work because in some of my previous photography I have used the subject of random, disused and the mundane to create a series of letters and typography. From the image above it reminds me of one of my own and inspired me again to get back into photography as a medium for my art practise. However, his work wasn't varied and I feel  that he could of taken it further. For example, into what we leave behind and our wastage.

Serah Stringer

Utilising anything to create her work, Stringer explained to us that she loves the freedom of her art from working with any size to  any material. In this  piece she used resin to allow it to flow around the canvas, very similar to why I used melted crayon in my mini degree piece because it created a piece in itself. The  colours she used also relate to my wide range of pallet and shows her willingness to experiment. Her method of the thought process is also very connected to my own because she uses a sketchbook to jot down ideas she may get just being out and about, which is when I gather most of my own inspiration. I am wanting to experiment more like she has done too.  When she told us an anecdote of how she came  across a chameleon on a beach walk and just used all the colours and random objects found in nature to create a series of three dimensional work that encased it all in resin. She just went for it and if it doesn't work then she'll move on. This is a great way to develop my own practise and is something I will aim for in the coming weeks of the St. Georges Hall.