'RENDERING SPACE' | 1st Year Workshop

Mark Colgan

Etaoin Doyle 

Any given space is measurable and limited, but the possibilities of expression within that space are immeasurable and limit-less. This is the foundational basis of our ‘Rendering Space’ workshop. We take any given space, small or large - a room, a street, a building - and we produce a variety of individual representations and expressions of it and from it. The workshop explores how students visually interact with their immediate & familiar environment and express that limited space within given time restraints. The workshop is developed for 12-20 students, each closely negotiating the same space in a short allocated timeframe. On this first, experimental workshop the space is the familiar environment of the Studio/Classroom, the timeframe is 2 hrs. 

Ciara Keogh

Derek Lynch

Ciara Keogh

The teaching process is delivered as follows: A short lecture about issues of space and its expression - looking at how several artists have expressed the same space. This brief lecture prompts ideas & approaches, which open up the notion of how many diverse representations can be made within a very restricted environment. This is followed by the allocation of a single room, building or a small compact outdoor area. From within this room – this limited space - students are encouraged to express, in their own diverse style, the environment itself through the creation of three inter-connected images. While the workshop places physical, spacial, time constraints and supposed creative limitations on the student, as well as a degree of pressure to produce, it fully encourages them to rethink and negotiate the space in a new visual way. 

Aisling McCurtin

Lee Murray

Gemma Nicholson

Vicky Mooney

Etaoin Doyle

Holly Skelton

Rose Murphy

Vicky Mooney

Gemma Nicholson

Julia Delatowska

Rachel Coady

Richard Sheehan 

Etaoin Doyle

Rachel Brooks

Claire Daly

I Am My World | 1st Year Theme-Based Project

The subjective document is always, in some respects, a mirror image. Through this small task, notions of ‘the self’ are re-examined and one’s own immediate enviornment is explored.

First year students have adopted several approaches to creating subjective documents. Some are intimate and introspective accounts - showing us inner and private worlds.  Some are consciously challenging notions of the self through the ‘act’ of self portraiture. Here, issues of cultural identity, anxiety and loss are addressed as are the self-affirming notions of self through friendships, relationships and family.

What is presented, in this selection, is a broad expression of students’ present and past experiences, perspectives and perceptions.

The work was selected by a ‘jury’ of 2nd year students who made choices of the work on two levels – firstly on aesthetic merits, secondly the work which, for them, best connects to the theme. Presented here is a selection of the jury’s favourites.

'RENDERING SPACE' | 2nd Year Workshop

Early Morning, Pre-Workshop

Class 917 during Workshop

Pavel Boros

Paulina Golebiewska

Deborah Hughes

Sarah Cullen

Sarah Cullen

Ruta Prendiukaite

Nadine Goubid

Beata Cierzniewska

Ciaran Cummins

                                                                                                   Pavel Boros

Lisa O'Malley

Mike Bors

Christina Gismond

Andrew OToole

Ronan Melia

Emma Cooke

Justyna Kielbowicz

Christina Gismond

All Images Copyright of the Artists

Text by Martin Cregg

  

    

Looking Forward | St Kevins College Graduate Exhibition 2012

This year The Exchange  in Temple bar  plays host to graduates of photography who have come through the level 6 Higher National Diploma programme in St Kevins College, Dublin. This is the third year of the stand-alone level 6 course and the exhibition itself represents the diversity, energy and uniqueness that the college provides.

Developing photographic skills are, of course, a crucial element of any photographic course, at any level. Yet, skills alone are simply not enough in the contemporary photographic landscape. The process we set in place in St Kevin’s College encourages students to find a photographic ‘personality’ – a vision which is a pure expression of the individual’s own visual experience of the world around us, an expression of their own creative sensibilities and a reflection of their own technical strengths and abilities.  At the start of each college year, students propose an idea, or a concept, which will be developed photographically throughout the year. The development of project-based and concept-based photography is crucial in taking the development and understanding of photography ‘beyond photography’ in a sense.  Students are encouraged to consider the fundamentals of photography, yes, but also the complexities of the photographic practice itself.

There is a necessity, within this process, of visual connection to a subject or theme. Students find their own topic, their own vision and to try to translate these effectively. Together with their tutors, students explore traditional and contemporary approaches to given themes and subject matter and, further, find an aesthetic and conceptual solution to suit the individuals own subject. My role has been to help students find their subject, their vision and translate it effectively. The process  is supported on an on-going basis by a series of workshops and further refined through a succession of critical reviews, with the involvement of all tutors and peers. At these critical reviews we have established a type of synergy between tutors and students which is part of the successes of this year’s exhibition.

The work exhibited in The Exchange will reflect the broad demographics within the college itself. As well as presenting more established themes, subject matter and photographic approaches, some students concentrate on their own personal environment - sharing with us a sense of their own subjective and intimate experience with the world.  While some deal with the complexities of their own spiritual, mental and cultural life others deal with a family illness and the theme of old age. The exhibition is also, to a degree, dominated by portraiture. While many students take a classic approach to portraiture, others use the portrait to explore issues of identity and nationality, as well as examining social and cultural life in contemporary Dublin. Another prominent theme is that of urban life itself. While some represent the formal architecture and landscape of Dublin, others focus on the disconcerting atmosphere and sense of alienation and disconnection one can experience in the city. The show overall spans the spectrum of the commercial world to the personal world – each with its own approach and style, strengths and skills. The exhibition is testament to the students themselves, to the investment they have made in their own work throughout the year and the efforts they have made to produce what is the largest and finest St Kevin’s College Graduate exhibition to date.

Martin Cregg
2nd Year Tutor

Images: 
Stacey Glennon c., Jessica Skelton c.,

Chris Connolly c., Chris OReilly c., 

Anna Loveinska c., Mary Kate Hanlon c.,

Angela Goodwin Russell c. 

FACEBOOK http://www.facebook.com/events/245772558855446/