DJCAD - Degree Show Highlights - 2013

This Monday past I had the pleasure of taking a trip down to Dundee to see the DJCAD degree show (And the Wonderland show at DCA).

I'm ashamed to admit that until Monday I had never actually been into Dundee apart from the skatepark, I had passed through it in the car or train, but had never been in and walked around. After being there on Monday I really wish I had been down sooner as Dundee does seem to live up to it's Cultural name. I was also amazed by the DCA and what it had to offer, I had expected a small gallery space, shop and studio but was very much pleasantly shocked when I got there.

Anyway, back on track and onto the DJCAD show.

Gabriele Jogelaite - Fine Art

I was instantly drawn to Gabriele's work the moment I walked into the room. Being a sucker for process her prints really engaged me and made me want to look closer into them to see how they were created. Her prints married different printmaking methods such as etching and relief printing to give a sense of depth.

 Pamela Goodman - Jewellery and Metal Work

I've known Pamela for a few years and have seen her work progressing via Twitter & Instagram so I was really interested in seeing the final outcomes of her work at the degree show. Pamela's work combines leather and precious metalwork to create daring and edgy designs (edgy being literal, those triangle corners look sharp!). My favourite piece is the leather and metal necklace (?) seen above. I really the way the metal triangles somewhat look like barbed wire wrapped around the models neck.

Mary Beth Quigley - Fine Art

Mary's work definitely had the impact factor where she created embroidered animals from different fabrics, one of which being a Giraffe at 4 x 1.45 x 1 m in dimension. As well as her embroidered animals, she also created a sitting room replicating a cosy granny sitting room, completely with tiny TV, cosy chair and floral wallpaper. The twist in the room was that all the portraits of people were created as Pandas - on the walls, on the bookshelf, even the passport and ID cards in the drawers.

Kit Russell - Illustration

My favourite work in the Illustration department came in the form of Kit Russell's Flatland posters. The posters are screenprinted and designed to fold up into three dimensional shapes. I especially liked the written messages through the lines as they are not initially seen from a distance.

John Russell - Graphic Design

The highlight of the whole degree show for me was John Russell's 'The General Store' project. The project is a fictional project about a shop in Dundee which specialises in quality hand crafted goods ranging from limited edition prints/illustrations to flavoursome home brewed whisky, all of which has been handmade by local creative’s and craftsmen. This is something I think would lend itself perfectly in Dundee going by what I have heard, and seen from our trip.

Jordan Took - Graphic Design

 

Jordan's work really grabbed my attention with her four seperation screen prints for her project Here&There - her project focussed around reinjecting the excitement of travel and discovery through scavenger hunts of York's best independents. Promoting traveling like a local. Her degree space as a whole was really well designed too, and used perfect use of the small space given. I especially liked the use of a wooden palette to hold her items and tote bags.

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So that is my highlights of the show, of course there was a lot more great pieces of work there and if I was to write about them all I would be here forever. I shall look forward to next years!