Young artists shine at show (From Stroud News and Journal)

Young artists shine at show

INNOVATIVE new talent was unveiled at Stroud College art department's end of year show on Saturday, June 11.

A broad spectrum of ideas in every discipline imaginable will be on display between 10am and 5pm until Friday, June 17.

Amongst the most interesting concepts is Barney Heywood's Hands, an installation combining mysterious-looking sculptures with footage of people talking about their relationship with their hands, and how it is affected by the ageing process.

Mr Heywood, 19, said: "The film and the sculptures are closely linked. There are seven people in the film. The youngest is two and the oldest is 83.

"The sculptures are the negative spaces between their hands. As they get older, they get more and more lines.

"I used iron in the sculptures because I wanted to give them that quality of disintegration. In time they'll rust and eventually they'll dissolve away to nothing."

Noemi Gregoire-Kaye, who has a jewellery stall at Stroud's Farmers' Market, hung her striking felt designs on a tree. The piece, entitled I Relate, is about the relationships and connections between people in her life.

Miss Gregoire-Kaye, 19, said: "I was researching body language. I got tons of people on the course to make felt hands. If you rub them with soap and water for a really long time, they sort of go hard.

"I was in the fine art group but I'm more of a crafts person."

Up-and-coming visionaries also included 19 year-old Harriet Peters, exhibiting multimedia fashion illustrations inspired by surrealism.

Miss Peters said: "I scratched into the photographs, bleached areas and used Bulgarian newspaper from our trip in January.

"They are all supposed to be quite seductive because surrealism is all about sexual connotations."

Tutor Mark Mawer said: "In many ways it's gone quite smoothly. The students have been excellent in pulling their weight.

"I and the rest of the tutors have all been involved with helping students and advising them, but that's not to stop them having their own ideas about how they want to put things up.

"I personally feel sad not to be continuing to teach a lot of them, but some of them are coming back to do a HND."

The show represents the culmination of a year's work for the students, who have all been offered their first choice place at universities across the country.