Manchester School of Art Degree Show 2017 Part 1
Welcome to this years review of the Manchester School of Art Degree Show. If you want to ‘make it’ too, then it’s on from the 10th – 21st of June, so you’ve just got time to pop along and see the latest crop of Manchester creatives before their work goes down to London for the next exhibition at New Designers in Islington.
I had about two hours to scoot around the principal areas I wanted to view… Textiles, 3D and Illustration. If you want to know more about any pupil’s work, contact details etc you can check that out here under the course heading that they are on. I’ve taken a few images of each collection that has caught my eye, apologies to those people I’ve not included and I hope I’ve placed the correct names with the right designers work, there are so many it does get a little confusing !
Some strong Girl Power photography from Rachael Kurs (above) and these bright cushions by Olivia Easton are a great way to get us started, they made me think of Hockney for some reason.
Some beautiful moody work from Laura Hampson. Raindrops, watercolours and old Flake adverts (let’s see who gets that reference!!)
These ladies made by Bukky Jesusanmi really made me smile. Beryl Cook has indeed come to life lol
Looking deeper into Freja Burgess’s work, you start to see her cutlery jumping out at you.
One of the show highlights for me, were these fabrics by Ffion Lewis. Ffion says that her work is inspired by her home, North Wales. ” Every mark, brushstroke and colour choice, within my work is drawn from the landscape. The way that the rocks lie on each other, the ripples of sea water as it steadily comes into land. This is where I find my Inspiration.”
There’s a lovely flow / movement in her textiles and I also like the brightly dashed sewn lines with it’s charging and changing sense of direction.
Colourful folk, in and out of the exhibition.
Some Victorian inspired botanical-florals by Lucy Burgess, with a great eye for detail and the natural world.
Great to see the inspirational paper drawings that Molly Torkington based her fabrics on, alongside the final cloth pieces. It could have been interesting to see how she may have taken her ideas into full repeats.
Jessica Cutler has a wonderful eye when it comes to putting colours together in her weaves. They felt a little sixties inspired and had a warm sense of calm to them.
Celina Szczebra showed us a thing or two about her personal take on body architecture. The photographs compliment the work perfectly.
Bright, confident, urban street bags and designs from Emily Tejera. Memories for me of 80’s magazines The Face and I.D. jumped out when I saw these. Punchy, vibrant and local with it’s ‘0161’ telephone area code for Manchester.
As a contrast, some cool, refined and detailed delicates from Imogen Wilkinson.
A little more exotic flavours from Dominika Moskals prints and embroideries. Blending cultural elements to create mysterious textural curiosities with detailed, layered complexity.
Part 2, will be appearing next monday after the work has been taken down. Don’t forget it’s on until Wednesday and do let me know your thoughts on the postings. Feeling inspired ?
fishinkblog.com 
Ffion Lewis’ textiles with hand sewn lines are something I am definitely going to put to use in my hand quilting. (I think you know of Jude Hill/’Spirit Cloth’, don’t you Craig?). And I am coveting Jessica Cutler’s weaving. I love color, line, shape, and perhaps most of all, something textural–cause then you can not only enjoy the art but you can feel it too!
Thank again Joy. Yes Ffion’s work reminded me of ‘Spirit Cloth’ blog, which also get me re interested with line, movement and natural marks. So much to appreciate if you know where to look 😀