GSA GALLERY SOCIETY - MOMENTUM – The Alchemy Experiment

Glasgow School of Art’s gallery society is a facilitator, organiser, and developer of art and culture inside and outside the walls of GSA. Our aim is to promote aspiring young artists and their art to a wide audience across Glasgow.

We will assist in the advancement of all forms of art and media, as well as giving thought provoking creatives a platform in which to explore their ideas and creations. This is why we wanted to start the first of many exhibitions under the ‘gallery society’ monicker with ‘Momentum’.

In this show you will see artworks that acknowledge a pivotal point in the artists’ education within the art school. The exhibition showcases the refining of artist’s styles, the experimentation of a new media, and the magnum opus of students’ academic timelines.

EVENT INFORMATION

Address

The Alchemy Experiment
157 Byres Rd, Glasgow G12 8TS, UK

OPENING NIGHT

OPENING NIGHT: Thursday 25th May 19.00-21.00
BOOK LAUNCH: Friday 26th May 19.00-21.00

OPENING HOURS

Mon - Thur 9.00-18.00
Fri 9.00-21.00
Sat 9.00-18.00
Sun 10.00-18.00

EXHIBITING ARTISTS

Abbey Coats / @acoats.art
Alice Biolo / @a.biolo.design
Amy Anna Graham / @aa_graham_spsace
Aoife M. Hogan / @aoife_mary_
Axl Kasper / @axlkasper
Bianca Patania / @biancapatania
Claire Duquesne / @clairencecourt
Ellie Forestal Smith / @e_forestalsmith
Ellis Bairstow / @ellis.bairstow
Esther Douglas / @estherdouglasart
Eva-Maria Horn / @evimria
Freya McKinty / @freyaartwork
Iris May / @irisjpmay
Jacob Oliver / @jfo.__
Jonathan Pratt / @Skodeer
Julia Hap / @juliahapart
Lydia Harris / @haarrisart
Michael Dudgeon / @michaeldudgeonartwork
Militsa Milenkova / @militsa_milenkova
Miranda Selina Johnson / @mirandaselina.art
Poppy Fraser / @poppy_fraser_art
Rachel Scott / @rachel.artsy
Stina alden / @stina.alden
Thomas Main / @tmainphoto
Tom Gibson / @sirtomgibson

Born in Sweden now based in Glasgow, visual artist and designer Lydia Harris focuses much of her work on experimental and bold graphics. She’s recently finished her first year studying Communication Design at Glasgow School of Art.

Her way of working has roots in printmaking but is often combined with her digital skills. All you see is True: an acrylic print series inviting the viewer to spend time decoding and analysing what they see in the abstract shapes. Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach inspired the technique, who was the first to use this method to strengthen his research and categorize people's personalities based on their unconscious interpretation of these shapes.

The triptych's title encourages the viewer not to second guess their intuition and encourages personal and unique interpretations of the artwork. Art is for everyone, whatever you see in it.

“£20/hour” is one painting in a larger body of work centred on life modelling and dichotomy between muse/artist. This series investigates the struggle to reach a state of neutrality and view the body as a vehicle for living as opposed to valuing its aesthetic implications.

There is an inherent alienation queer folk often feel towards their bodies being ‘male’/ ‘female’ as so many of the cultural conditions which define cisgenderism depend on being straight. This disassociation is something May continues to explore. Her current practice is focused on post-humanism and the extent to which evolution and technology will change our bodies.

Freya McKinty is a Northern Irish artist, currently based in Glasgow.

Her practice exists in the space between curation and art, where sourcing inspiration is an investigative process that allows the context of images to influence their translation. Interactions with imagery become almost scientific, as minor interferences are introduced in response to the existing scene.

The subject material becomes a collaborator, creating a dialogue between artist and art that incites consistent development and enables the authenticity of the sources - typically physical books and magazines - to remain prominent.

Acrylic on paper

"I’m Bianca Patania, I’m 22 and I’m from Sicily, Italy.

Most of the work I make is taken from moments of my everyday life that I want to remember. Most of them are blurred, fast memories of a moment going on so quickly I don’t have enough time to capture it.

The work I make starts from photographs I take daily and then explore further through the use of paint or printmaking, studying the characteristics of the image by altering them in the colours, compositions and tones.

Recently I have been curious about capturing the complexity and beauty of simple and mundane objects and the work I am showcasing is a representation of this research. This piece of work aims to look more in-depth at domestic environments and the feelings they can arouse.

As I usually go from capturing one moment to the next one very quickly, I wanted to give this work a stillness, a moment of reflection on memories of lived domestic environments that trigger such feelings of nostalgia and affection for a place."

Oxidised copper, Steel

Spiralling is a brooch exploring the theme of trauma and distress, intending to physically represent a sentiment and the experience of anxiety, through metal.

The brooch, of a round shape, holds a rotating mechanism on the inside, filled with steel pins. The pins act as a metaphor for spiralling, also known as catastrophic thinking or magnifying, a series of negative thoughts, like an infinite circle, overwhelming the individual and amplifying the anxiety.

Hailing from Italy, Alice started her studies in Jewellery design at the Liceo Pietro Selvatico in Padova. She further pursued the Silversmithing and Jewellery design course at the Glasgow School of Art, where she is now in her final year preparing for her degree show.

Alice has been exploring the theme of pain and trauma through her collection for the past year to spread awareness about mental health and open a conversation with the public.

Year of production: February 2023

Repurposed charred wood, human hair, found rusty hinge and nail

Militsa is an artist and maker based in Glasgow. She creates jewellery and objects as a means of communicating her thoughts and feelings and draws inspiration mainly from her surroundings and personal experiences. In her practice she explores various concepts that intrigue her, while challenging her creativity by experimenting with different materials.

The inspiration for this piece comes from medieval torture devices (neck traps). These objects were used for detention and control and were unwillingly worn on the human body by their bearers. Using her own hair as the torturing component, the artist challenges this notion that although hair is assumed to be a sign of beauty, once it is detached from the body, it becomes unappealing.

The piece intends to evoke feelings of discomfort to the viewer and wearer. The act of putting it on is a symbol of oppression and once it is locked around the neck, the bearer can’t escape being tortured by the ticklish nature of the cut hair and the feeling of aversion towards it. As soon as it is taken off, freedom is achieved.

Aoife Hogan (b. 2003) is an artist living on Scotland’s west coast and a student of Painting and Printmaking at The Glasgow School of Art.

Her practice moves fluidly across various mediums and is concerned most often with unpicking perceptions of time, place and experience. She is interested in the relationship between writing and making, frequently drawing influence from books and poetry to create work. Evident throughout is a persistent fascination with materiality and texture.

Flow is part of a recent series which, inspired by Robert Macfarlane’s ‘Underland’, seeks to explore the narratives surrounding geological and subterranean landscapes.

The work interrogates our age-old relationship with the underland – characterised by both acute attachment and revulsion – which has often existed as a vessel for those most dark and uncharted areas of our psyche.

Artist Eva-Maria Horn uses photography, performance, and digital media to examine areas of modernity and identity, especially through the lens of language and communication.

Eva’s work often involves some form of audience participation which have spanned from QR codes and webpages to three dimensional interactive objects. Throughout Eva’s artistic practice she has made use of photography, computer programming, 3D printing, and performance.

Eva’s work ‘Do Not Touch’ plays with the audience and ironically encourages the viewer to in fact touch the piece. The work features braille spalled across a self-portrait that depicts the self in a state of vulnerably yet powerfully defensive position.

This work dives into areas of identity, individuality, solidarity, and also stays consistent to Eva’s work in that it continues to utilise not only photography but a mix of media to convey the concept and themes. ‘Do Not Touch’

Tom Gibson is a conceptual artist that utilises visual media and process art within his work to explore and question ideas of existence, identity, and the connection between the internal and external self.

His work touched base with schools of thought of existentialism, semantics, and abstraction to attempt an understanding of the nature of life, reality, and purpose whilst gravitating towards absurdist methodologies.

Tom is concerned with posing, rather than answering, questions, putting his focus on investigating the status behind normality, subjectivity, and bias.

Scrap pine wood and steel

Amy Anna’s current practice involves the manifestation of space and the exploration of various communicative forms, she establishes phrases and simplifies the visual text down into sequence and rhythm.

Method: “LISTEN TO THE BIRDS” “6 2 3 5” “|||||| || ||| |||||”

This current mode of working is being used to create repetitive movement and rhythm. Her works now becoming forms of communication that can be felt, read, and played. It Invites visitors to unravel their hidden message like opening a scroll.

Amy Anna’s works are usually constructed from wood, experimenting with its form and attempting to curve and bend the material though various cutting methods. Her sculptural works when paired with text are often circular, leaning into the repetitive and eternal nature of its natural rotation, denoting a ridge for each of its letters. The phrases are then repeated as mantras in an infinite circle.

This specific piece “listen to the birds” is one of three sculptures that were a part of an exhibition held in The Hidden Gardens in Pollockshields. The phrases selected for each wheel originated from interacting with the community, asking what the Gardens meant to people in the community, and what they felt should be said about the space.

Rachel is a first-year communication design student at Glasgow School of Art.

Her work usually revolves around the design sphere, focusing on illustration and graphics; however, in her spare time, she enjoys oil painting.

Reoccurring motifs throughout her work are patterns, repetition and layering which is evident in this piece - experimenting with distortions of the face.

Ellie Forestal Smith is currently in her second year at Glasgow School of Art studying Painting and Printmaking.

She primarily works with acrylic and mixed media to explore the intimacy of everyday life and the subtlety of human relationships whilst capturing a suggestion of domestic spaces and the feelings attached to them.

Her pieces create room for the viewer to do some work themselves in figuring out the narrative of her compositions, which is done by utilising negative space and making the in-between spaces often more concrete.

She is inspired by and is conscious of observing her surroundings and is awake to the particular nature and qualities of them, which is an important part of her practice.

Julia enjoys finding what is overlooked and sharpening it into focus. Like a camera, gathering snapshots of reality through textures, subjects, colours and sounds.

The Artist’s practice happens at the intersection of painting, photography, writing, dance, sound and moving image. She is inspired by natural phenomena, especially water, decay and transience. Julia is interested in Psychogeography in relation to natural environments vs infrastructure. She draws on Slavic mythology, folklore and ritual as a way to investigate different ways of perceiving and the changing face of communities worldwide.

She uses dream images, deliberate observation and fantasy to create a personal iconography which seeks to explore aspects of the zeitgeist from a different angle. In particular, the effects of a growing coexistence with emerging technologies.

‘Guise’ is an exploration of dissociation and performativity. In the work, the material or second skin becomes a coat, an embodied performance. Humans adhere to various social scripts and alter their behaviour accordingly, often unconsciously.

This is challenging to someone experiencing disconnection from their surroundings, as well as themselves. Julia wants to highlight that as bitter as it is, dissociation is a protective mechanism. It keeps up the momentum of life until it feels lighter again.

First year GSA Fine Art Photography student Jacob Oliver explores the intangible things that seep through the gaps within and in-between photographs.

Inspired by the aesthetics of Robin Friend’s Apiary and Mandel & Sultan’s Evidence, these pictures are an excerpt from a project exploring magic-realism within a narrative based loosely on the novel The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

Purchase enquires - contact us at info@alchemyexperiment.com

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GSA Gallery Society - Momentum

EVENT INFORMATION

Address

OPENING NIGHT

OPENING HOURS

EXHIBITING ARTISTS

All you see is True

£20/hour, 2023

Archive

The Room

Spiralling

Touch – Tickle -Torture

Flow

Do Not Touch

Barrel One

Listen to the birds

Mathilda

Hand to Hand

Guise

Bacchanalia

Trending Now

Popular Products

GSA Gallery Society - Momentum

EVENT INFORMATION

Address

OPENING NIGHT

OPENING HOURS

EXHIBITING ARTISTS

All you see is True

£20/hour, 2023

Archive

The Room

Spiralling

Touch – Tickle -Torture

Flow

Do Not Touch

Barrel One

Listen to the birds

Mathilda

Hand to Hand

Guise

Bacchanalia

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