"My toddler son is fascinated by animals at the moment: the four legged kind especially. He is so attuned to their characteristics that he often calls out 'horsey' or 'wuff wuff' long before anyone has even spotted the tell-tale outline in a rough-torn piece of bread or in a tiny illustration buried amongst a clamour of abstract shapes and colours. Such fascination with animals is surely universal - one that is expressed in the earliest cave paintings as well as in religious iconography and even the sounds and concepts that we use to communicate. Whether in reality or representation animals stare back at us in inscrutable silence. For millennia this mute incomprehensibility has provoked us, sometimes toward acts of celebration and veneration and sometimes towards acts of cruelty and invasive scrutiny. Beverley Cornwell's images talk of this paradoxical relationship of fascination and violence. They speak of hunting and of simulation, of brutality and deathly precision. And in this play of the real and the imagined they refer also to photography's transformation of the real into fiction, of representations into things of ardent fascination. And in those implacable shining surfaces, like eyes that stare back at us, we see only ourselves reflected."He can see the selection page for yourself here, and for those who are graduating this year and are interested in submitting their own work, click here.
Josephine Sowden uses lens-based media to explore the human condition in relation to modern day consciousness. Commissioned by Hand in Glove, Sowden’s new work As a Lotus Flower is Born in Water is an immersive two-channel video installation.
Inherently performative, the work features the artist amidst the natural landscape, externalising notions of ‘nature’, ‘self’ and ‘ego’. The oppositional personas that Sowden assumes reduce experience to a series of words, distorted memories of the past and predictions of an uncertain future. These confrontational actions exaggerate and bring in to sharp focus a modern day obsession with inner streams of thought; ultimately seeking to question a separation from nature and more primal instincts and desires.
A piece of critical writing by artist Trevor H Smith, recipient of Hand in Glove’s PLATFORM Professional Development, will accompany the exhibition.
Sowden graduated from BA Photographic Art at University of Wales, Newport in 2012 and has since been selected for the Catlin Guide, Videoholica International Video Art Festival in Bulgaria and the 2012 Aesthetica Art Prize. Her degree show piece Lilies of the Field was selected by Hand in Glove for PLATFORM 2012; a group exhibition showcasing work by promising arts graduates from Bristol, Bath and Newport. Sowden was then awarded the PLATFORM Commission, to create new work with the support of Hand in Glove for her first solo exhibition.
Lilies of the Field will be screened on the opening night only.
The PLATFORM Commission is part of a twelve month series of projects funded by Arts Council England. University of Wales, Newport are also supporting As a Lotus Flower is Born in Water. With thanks to Motorcade/FlashParade, Louisa Fairclough and Maia Conran.
Boutographies, a renowned photography Festival in the south of France, has specially selected the Photographic Art course at Newport to showcase some of its best work over the past four years. Ranging from current students to graduates there will be 14 people representing the course in total. Screened on a showreel in Montpellier this is a fantastic opportunity for the course and its students to gain international recognition. This is another accolade for this high achieving course in photography.You can view the showreel here and continue reading below for the list of photographers and artists represented as well as a short piece of writing about each piece of work.
This work takes a critical view of the wealth and cultural status of the Catholic Church within Ireland. During the 18th Century, while the country was stricken with poverty, the Catholic Church was investing enormous sums of money into constructing altars, in order to use them as stages to evangelize and to propagate.The money will allow Stephen to continue the project and potentially broaden its scope to include the rest of Europe.
The panel selecting this year's Awards had a difficult task and were impressed by the scope and ambition of all the projects submitted for consideration. The panel consisted of Helen Sear and Paul Cabuts. The panel would like to thank Daniel Shires, Graduate Intern, for his help during the selection process.
The Reginald Salisbury Travel Award is an annual award drawn from a donation by the Salisbury family of Newport to assist students studying Photography at The University of Wales to develop or complete projects that have some element of travel associated to them - either nationally or internationally.
The award is only open to all year 2 and year 3 students currently studying BA (Hons) Photographic Art, BA (Hons) Documentary Photography and BA (Hons) Photography for Fashion and Advertising at The University of Wales, Newport who plan or currently are making a project with some element of travel associated to it.
