The Degree Show is the annual undergraduate showcase of final year students across the schools of Architecture, Design and Fine Art at Glasgow’s School of Art. The Show can seem a bit overwhelming as there are so many different departments exhibiting across three buildings but it’s worth taking the time as each department has something interesting to offer.
Start in the Reid Building which is opposite the Charles Rennie Mackintosh building. The basement contains Interactive and Digital Design projects including a piece of work called Design Cultures by Callum Ritchie. This work contains moving images within what looked like a petri dish and the images were linked to Twitter, being produced by a word or hash tag appearing on Twitter at that time. Digital work like this has applications in both processing software and data visualisation.
The ground floor contains Jewellery, Silversmith work and Textile Design. There were some unique jewellery pieces on show and several of the silversmith students had already won awards for their work. I particularly liked the textiles. Many of them were incredibly tactile and I was already designing outfits I’d like to see created from them. At the end of the textiles gallery is a smaller gallery containing incredibly creative fashion designs which Vivienne Westwood would be proud of!
On the upper floors are Communication Design (including interactive and video work), Interior Design and Product Design. The Product Design was a truly impressive wide range of ideas from a modern take on the water fountain by Connor McFarlane to the recycling of older vehicles by Jamie Fleming (I loved his beautifully recreated models) to a new idea for an even fake tan from Ashleigh Neill – now if this can actually provide an even tan from a bottle. she will be a very wealthy young woman …..
On the same floor as Product Design is Interior Design and on another floor a gallery called Communication Design, which housed installation pieces and video art. I quite liked the work by Tom Joyes which looked at the theme of conflicts in conjunction with video games. One of these was a Basha (a waterproof tarpaulin used by the military) which was emitting a regular pulse sound. It was called In Game, Out of Sight and addressed the links between the military, conflicts and video games.
While you are up on the 4th floor you must remember to look out of the windows so that you can see the ongoing restoration work to Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s original building following the fire in 2014.
Diagonally across from the Reid Building is the Bourdon Building which housed the work of the Architecture students. However, no matter how good the building models are they always remind of the classic line from the film Zoolander “How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read… if they can’t even fit inside the building”! One of the architecture projects looked at the themes of Dwelling and Gathering in the town of Beith in conjunction with the Beith Community Development Trust. Look out for the beautiful miniatures of people and trees. There are several large gallery spaces here so, if you’re not an architect or a specialist you just have to pick out a couple of ideas which appeal to you.
Finally I headed down to the Tontine Building which is a 20 minute walk from the School of Art, but definitely worth the effort. This building houses photography, painting, printing, sculpture and environmental art. For those not familiar with the term Environmental Art, this is work which often address social and political issues, is frequently made of natural products and can sometimes be located outside or created in a way which may be painted over or disappear after time (think of an artist like Banksy). A good example of Environmental Art is the in the group of works by Heather Lane, Alistair Mackenzie and Rosie Giblin. I loved the boat with a dress as the sail. I also liked the paintings by Ash Kitchen – really arresting images of young women – and I’d like to find out more about the artist. Again, there are several small gallery spaces over two floors and you could spend a couple of hours in here.
You don’t have long to see this Show as it closes on the Saturday 25th June but do try and pop along to at least one of the venues. You’ll certainly be impressed at the wealth of talent and impressive creativity on offer in Glasgow in 2016.
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