The Playground
Ten Top Graduates Test Their Talents
15th Nov - 27th Jan 2019
Invitation to the exhibition
Out of the creative cauldron of the university Playground comes our latest extravaganza! Ten Top Graduates exploding with energy, excitement and enthusiasm explore new territory, wrestle with new ideas, and emerge victorious!
Flinging The Playground gates wide open we now invite you to marvel at their wondrous inventiveness and revel in their playful creations.
For the last twenty years Kath Libbert Jewellery Gallery at Salts Mill has cherry picked the outstanding talents from all the jewellery courses in the country to make a fresh and exciting exhibition and this year’s is no exception – it’s like fizz wizz popping candy!
The Talents:
Ailsa Morrant, Glasgow School of Art – Like a child given gold stars for simple acts of everyday achievement, Ailsa rewards us with her collection of medals: Sensing Every Moment: a celebration of the ordinary, made up of recognisable objects that capture her daily life. Her Handshakes series of rings and her Balloon rings extend her objective which is to encourage us all to stop chasing nebulous ideals of happiness and instead focus on and really appreciate simple every day pleasures.
Naia Conde, University of the Creative Arts, Rochester – inspired by her memories of Japanese Pop Culture Naia crafts jewellery that is powerfully nostalgic. Her comically named Sidekicks and Sukitxus are reminders of the imaginary friends that our own creative minds conjured up as a child. Naia’s super cute, sometimes ‘cuddly’, and always very characterful companions are designed to ‘support you through your rough adult days’.
Rebekah Wilson, Ulster University – combining self-invented materials such as slime with everyday objects including orange peel and peas (ignoring the injunction not to play with our food!) Rebekah creates jewellery made from this mash up of materials to stimulate our senses. Startling colours, forms and textures intrigue and tempt us to want to touch, try, and even taste her extraordinary offerings!
Sandra Zinkute, Glasgow School of Art - discarded fans, ventilators and PVC tubing are the building blocks for Sandra’s marvellously inventive collection. Her father’s garage full of the above mundane ‘treasure’ allowed her voracious curiosity to investigate, deconstruct and then make her own artistic interventions transforming these mundane objects into desirable eminently wearable brooches, earrings and necklaces.
Sam Phelps, Staffordshire University – presents a collection of elegant wearable sculptures called Human Geometry. Strongly inspired by dance, his large yet light and airy wire neckpieces gracefully encircle the wearer, flashes of primary colour enhancing the sense of almost embodying your own personal mobile!
Xiaoyu Guan, Central Saint Martins - gives a modern twist to our childhood games of counting beans and collecting lucky charms through her tactile, vivid shiny stitched bean charms and brooches designed to bring the wearer ‘limitless happiness’ and good luck!
And in contemplative corners of The Playground there is still more to explore….
Rebecca Gee, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee – bees wings visually inspire this sensitive collection urging us to take seriously their drastic decline and the need for immediate action.
Shona Dobie, Glasgow School of Art - playful kinetic brooches in colour ways of cherry red tomatoes.
Claire Mclean, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee - always looking up and not down at our phones is the theme of her intricately structured jewellery collection - the ceiling of the British Museum being a particular inspiration.
Rebecca Ridley, Nottingham Trent University – jewellery to spark the senses enveloping you with the sound of dry chalky porcelain, the scent of carved Ash, and the touch of soft Merino wool.
Come and give your Gold Stars and take home your Gorgeous Graduate Goodies! We look forward to welcoming you to The Playground!
