6.

VIBE 18/11/2011

VIBE Launch show - the first show was a relaunch having already passed out the flyers, the flyer as shown below encorparated the previous logo. The flyer was sent to all the campus' of the BIAD allowing us to reach a broad range of people further to this we set up both a Facebook page and group to advertise and promote the exhibitions and to encourage students and creatives alike to get in touch and provide feedback.

Sophia Moseley -Untitled

I used to hoard things as a child. I was a magpie. Anything I could get my hands on I did. They usually found a place underneath my bed or behind the curtains; until my parents caught on and confiscated whatever treasures I had collected. My inspiration is a collection of saved dialogue in the form of old postcards, old letters and a hoard of handwritten notes, scraps of paper and saved memorabilia, which sometimes incorporate in to my current work. I never like to physically incorporate them; they should be left as they are. Although. I have been using old photographs and text playing around with photocopying and incorporating different medium like charcoal and pencil, in a repetitive nature. This work is about repetitiveness and structure. I usually make the photocopies in groups of three but sometimes they end up as a whole book of repeated prints or patterns. I like to keep them simple. Not too many layers or mediums, very basic, very clean. 

 

 

 

Annabel Wyatt - Faces

My art is based around the notion of human observation and behaviour. I like to observe people as they go about their normal lives, documenting what I see via photography. Birmingham has provided a wealth of interesting and diverse people and faces to capture. My inspiration predominantly comes from German Expressionist pieces, and I would consider myself to be a Modern Abstract Expressionist painter, who specializes in crowd scenes and portraiture.

 

 

Chloe Hodge - Laser Cut Screen

This text work features extracts of text that narrate twenty-five family films taken by my grandparents between 1948 and 1972. Some of these are dated, some titled, some entirely without explanation or context. Watching these silent 8mm films, I acted as detective, piecing together clues – place names, faces, and dates – to learn about the lives of my family. In doing so, I realised how little many of us, myself included, understand about the lives led by the generations before us. Like memory, the text is disjointed and confused; and like these films it reveals only a tiny glimpse of a lifetime.

 

Scott Bartram - Belishan Bliss

I find myself fascinated with dilapidated objects, things that once possessed a use or a purpose, but have since become void or disused. My aim is to breathe new life back into these objects, whether it's by slight of hand, arrangement or lighting. Looking at my work 'Belishan Bliss' I particularly wanted to incorporate the use of lighting within the objects. I wanted to somehow celebrate the spherical object's former use, but also to accentuate the curve of the form. I placed the four beacons stacked on top of one another, to completely take them out of their original context and to submerge them in a contemporary space. Combining the old with the new is another aspect of my practice that is touched upon in this work. Using remote controlled LED lighting I’m able to recreate the flash of the beacons; however I also have the choice of 10 other colours, making the piece interchangeable.

 

Uttsav Patel - Temple Row - Birmingham

The image is a still removed from a series of photographs that document a select set of streets within the heart of Birmingham. Isolating light the still removes itself from the subject that is being documented and in turn creates an abstract semiotic viewpoint. The still itself has also been isolated from the series, although there being no real selection process and no determined reason as to why I’ve selected that still, the underlying aim is to present each image on their own in order to establish an individual meaning for each image separate to that of the whole series.

 

Alexandra Grimes -Designs for Cellular Living: A work in transformation

Confronting the global dilemma of over population and lack of habitable space on the planet, my work seeks to maximise the potential of small spaces by way of its metamorphic quality, as one central area transforms and evolves into many functional rooms. A ‘Swiss army house’ if you will.

Here, I present a series of abstracted drawings as the concept is currently in the premature design stages. Although initially appearing to reference Mondrian aesthetics, primary colours are in fact intended to instil Bauhaus ideals of purity of design, colour and shape, whilst assisting the viewer to locate the different living segments.

Inevitably, with an ever-increasing population, individuals vie for space, living standards are compromised and resources become stretched. It is for this reason that I envisage my finalised concept to look starkly different, primarily constructing it from re-claimed cardboard packaging and other lo-grade materials, as opposed to a vibrant mass of colour. Underpinning a living space from this material may seem a distinctly obscure choice (and absurd), yet also seems incredibly appropriate in demonstrating the temporary nature and apparent ‘use by date’ of contemporary accommodation blocks and housing. Creating such a piece from found materials, I hope, will instigate a re-evaluation of our attitudes to our consumerist habits, resurrecting seemingly redundant materials for purposeful and positive means.

 

Andre De Jong - Paper Places

Paper Places takes its name and starting point from the term(s) Paper Towns and Paper Streets. Paper Towns and Paper Streets are terms that refer to areas or roads that exist, as proposed developments, on local authority maps but have, for one or another reason, never materialise. There is a play between the authority of maps and the unreal places they depict, they are unrealised ideas. The Four Colour Theorem states that it is possible to colour in all of the countries of the world using only four colours without any clashes, thus breaking up uninterrupted landmasses into segregated geographic units. The pole becomes the metaphor for the break up of geographies under flags, banners and ideologies.

Two incidents, one on going as this is written, are depicted on the scalp of paper. The World Occupy movement has besieged squares, streets, parks, buildings, bridges, etc over the last few months in protest against, broadly speaking, capitalism. Another incident, that of the riots that took place around the UK in August of 2011. The latter has had the world searching itself as there was no reason for the riots, apart from greed: consumerism had become a victim of its own success. The former has been criticised for not having a unified ideology.

The riots were broken up and occupy sites are being dismantled, the ideas, ideals and ideologies they represent will become paper.

No ideology means no banner or flag to unify or operate under.

The scalp of paper, as installed, will never function as flag or banner.

Inherently, it will fail/ fall when one tries to raise it up.