The Sculpture Room, Inverness College, 7-14 June 2007

Box I - one of a series of images exploring the theme of boundaries using a 12 sided three dimensional box by Melissa Gray.

Inverness College Art and Design Department provides an important bridge to further education through portfolio preparation and the opportunity to experiment with a variety of media and techniques including painting, drawing, photography, digital media, sculpture and printmaking. This was very much in evidence in a mixed exhibition by graduating students from the HNC & NQ Art and Design courses currently on show at the Midmills campus.

It is always fascinating to see creative design process represented and this could clearly be seen in the work of Cecilia Smith. Her accomplished progression from analytical working drawings to large sculptural and conceptual work was one of the highlights of the show. Mid sized sculptural geometry ingeniously constructed in cardboard culminated in a large piece coated in a hard rock like finish. The strength of Smith’s designs lie in adaptation of scale and the interplay of different forms. They have the potential to be adapted to enormous scale or in the case of the largest work on display cast in Bronze for outdoors. It will be interesting to see her work progress through further study as part of the Moray College BA Fine Art course.

Julie Robertson’s work “In Pursuit of Perfection” focused on the preoccupation with body image in our culture. The most successful exploration in this series included a wire sculpted dress with labels suspended above the main dressing room installation and a digital photograph of the wire sculpture. The metallic sheen of this empty cage dress imitated the gloss of couture in a beautifully wry digital image. Another dress of plaster and bandages was an ironic use of materials given the associations of perfection and surgery. With a background in visual merchandising in Sydney, Robertson’s work could easily be further developed for a large scale public mall installation. Although the main installation in the show was somewhat obvious, the artist’s exploration of materials could really expand the range of enquiry into the whole size zero debate. A collage piece depicting a red handbag on a yellow ochre ground in mixed media gave a hint of the possibility of layering both in terms of meaning and materials in a more subtle way.

Exploration of mixed media techniques were a particular strength of another artist in the group, Samantha Leggett. Her portrait of a young girl exhibited great interplay of materials and surfaces, framing a sullen young face old before her time. The dead dried flowers in her headscarf, leaves in her hair and the glossy varnish on her lips and eyes added poignancy to the girl’s expression. A series of small assemblage pieces in silk, wool, wire, hessian fibres and watercolour collage displayed a willingness to experiment essential in further creative development and the promise of future possibilities. An ink and chalk still life drawing was another highlight of this student’s work, simply rendered and beautifully realised with a minimum of marks.

A more conceptual approach was explored in the photographic and video work of Melissa Gray on the theme of “Space and Boundaries”. A constructed metal frame photographed in black and white in the landscape and with the human figure was very effective displayed as a series. The idea of exploring our “comfort zones” and personal boundaries defined by ”garden fences, religions, nations (or) identities” formed the core of this interesting body of work.

Another student who will be developing her work in the future as part of the Moray College Degree course is Lesley Sholes. Her sculpture, photography and glass consistently reveal a fascination with texture and consistency of vision. Black and White close-up photography predominantly of organic materials complimented low relief sculptural works such as “Mare Serenitatis” (Sea of Serenity). This moon like silver texture on black panel displayed an inventive use of materials. “Bodhi” a low relief work with silver painted bandage and plaster of paris on black panel was a similar exploration. “Unseen” best represents the presence of this series of work with the stencilled imprint of a tree seen emerging from grainy stone like square panel. Meditating on the invisible forces of nature this work also celebrates the tactile quality of materials used to create the piece. Previous work as a glass artist in London and the process of sand blasting seem to have great resonance in “Unseen”. A larger free standing untitled work covered in divorce papers with layers of metal piercing the insides seemed a great work of sculptural catharsis. This conical chrysalis like form burst open marks an important creative transformation in the artist’s life and in relation to the other works on display a confident, positive personal and artistic statement.

With the recent Six Cities Design Festival focusing on the importance of art and design in Scotland, HIE’s strategic commitment to Creative Industries and the Inverness City partnership’s ambitious Public Art programme it would seem that there would be no greater time to invest resources in the development of creative talent in the city through education. The importance of Creative Industries to Scotland’s economic, social and cultural wealth has already been acknowledged nationally in the draft Culture Bill and in local enterprise strategies in the Highlands and Islands. It is ironic to see such creative potential in this context in a campus that is now on the commercial market. The vision of an out of town downsized provision for tertiary education and training is totally out of step with the creative dynamism and potential of the area. I hope that in the future students of Art and Design in Inverness will not be forced to scale down their vision in accordance with the limited provision of a new build or have to complete their studies elsewhere. This should not be necessary in any place that considers itself developed or calls itself a city.

(Fine Art Exhibition is open 9.30 -4.00pm weekdays only at Inverness College, Midmills Campus, Crown Avenue, Inverness. Telephone: 01463 273345)

© Georgina Coburn, 2007