My friends (Alan, Piper and Gillian pictured here) and I enjoyed a visit to the GSA 2012 degree show in the Mackintosh building – this was our reaction afterwards! Although the drawing and painting especially was disappointing this year, there were indeed some thoughtful and meditative works to consider. The synchronised light and sound installation by Nick Thomas (‘Red Shift’) using LCD projector lenses and filters to merge abstract images in a dark space was particularly interesting, plus in a slightly similar vein, the quirky video installation piece ‘Falling Stars’ in studio 43 took us on a trip up a white ladder into black space to gaze at Hubble telescope inspired imagery.
After a visit to the Glue Factory Master of Fine Art exhibition, which showed some good signs of a more hands on sensibility in the works but still a bit plasticky sleekness dragging the heels of some and most artists struggling to make an impact in the enigmatic industrial space, we walked down to Skypark for the design degree show. Fashion and Textiles was fun, with confident, striking fabrics by Min Zhong. Communication Design had a strong impact with a focus on video work, although not much drawing – we did like the artist books and atmospheric film by Danny Pattison and Solveig Suess.
