Annual art and design show celebrates students' creativity (From Bucks Free Press)

Annual art and design show celebrates students' creativity

6:00pm Tuesday 1st January 2013 in News By Neil Phillips

CREATIVE treasures went on display at Buckinghamshire New University as its annual MA art and design show celebrated students' talent.

The week-long show at the University’s Campus in Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe, featured work by MA Art and Design Practice: Printmaking; MA Art and Design Practice: Furniture Design; MA Advertising; and MA Conservation of Furniture and Decorative Arts students.

Jake Kaner, Professor in Furniture, said: "We hope visitors enjoyed seeing the fantastic work our master’s students had produced over the year.

"The shows coincided with the second anniversary of the National School of Furniture (NSF), which is a thriving partnership between ourselves and Oxford & Cherwell Valley College, and this was a wonderful way to mark the occasion and celebrate the creativity and flair of our talented students."

MA Printmaking student Remi Allen, of Penn, High Wycombe, depicted images of her three children onto two-metre-high steel sheets, and also created an interactive visual presentation looking into her Indian heritage and how it related to her ‘Britishness’.

She said: "The work turned out extremely well and was the result of research I had carried out over the past year. It was centred around my children and I hope it was thought-provoking for visitors to the show."

Fellow MA Printmaking student, Yasin Watson, displayed a selection of etchings and monoprints, based on his perception of the riots in London in 2011. He said: "I looked to capture the rioters as frustrated consumers, who, when they were free to do as they wished, took the opportunity to go shopping."

MA Furniture: Design graduate Emile Jones worked with counselling service Relate in High Wycombe to come up with nature-themed furniture, including chairs and lamps, aimed at helping people when undergoing counselling.

He said: "My parents work in mental health and my mum is a psychiatrist so the opportunity to work with Relate appealed to me.

"It highlighted problems Relate has experienced with ill-prepared rooms, which may not be suitable for providing comfort and reassurance in times of need. I am well aware of these issues for people undergoing counselling and thought I could develop furniture to help in this. I gained a lot of good feedback from visitors to the show, which was very pleasing."

Marcin Gladzik, from Jelenia Góra, in Poland, who also studied MA Furniture: Design, made a 146cm-high flood and drain hydroponic system that could be used in the home to grow plants and food.

He also used a machine to make polycarbonate discs that made up the outside of the illuminous blue system, as well as a drip irrigation system to sit horizontally on the wall and which people could grow plants in.

He said: "The system allows people to grow plants quickly and efficiently without having to use soil. It has special lighting designed for photosynthesis. This type of system is used in the food industry and on large-scale food production and my concept is about bringing it into the home."