In Free Fall - A Visual Research Exhibition

Exhibiting artists:
Nurdan Akyildiz, Caroline Brown, Sara Clark, Niall MacCrann, Mick Paulusma and Jenny Seabrook

In her 2011 essay In Free Fall: A Thought Experiment on Vertical Perspective, Hito Steyerl explored the contemporary experience of groundlessness as floating free of constraints. Perspective, defined as ‘seeing through’ and ‘a view onto a calculable future’, is reframed as multiple and shifting. Aerial perspective and divine omnipotence have been replaced by technological surveillance and control. This exhibition seeks to reflect on these concepts. Lifting three main themes from this essay – Floating, Vertical and Perspective – the artists have linked them to themes in their current work in progress and methods of practice-based research in fine art and printmaking.

The 6 artists, MA students from Cambridge School of Art, ask you to join them in free fall, to see what emerges from this group exhibition, which has been curated to reveal the artistic process and experimentation behind their work.

MA Course Leader Dr. Véronique Chance says:
“What is particularly exciting and unique about this exhibition, is that it reveals a range of artistic methods and processes that are not finalised artworks but are still a core part of these artists’ practices. They are the tools of investigation that have led through successive iteration and experimentation, towards new approaches and ways of working. These are the things we do not normally see publicly, that may even be discarded, but in making these public and a core part of this exhibition, they are able to communicate in more depth what goes into the making of an artwork. In doing so they demonstrate that these are equally, perhaps more important than the final artworks themselves.”

Exhibiting artist Jenny Seabrook adds:
“I’m excited to be participating in this group exhibition-with-a-twist, along with my fabulous MA cohort. I hope visitors enjoy this glimpse into our artistic practice in free fall - we are interested in seeing where we land!”


ARTISTS

Nurdan Akyildiz Nur is a multidisciplinary artist whose main practices involve installation, video, sculpture and painting, while exploring themes around nostalgia, relationships and human emotions. She is currently exploring lead as her main material – using lead-pouring methods for her sculptures which are based on her traditional Turkish ritual.

Caroline Brown Caroline’s fine art practice deals with the forces of humankind and nature and how they shape the landscape and the world today. She has used experimentation with immersive walking, photography and sketching on location, combined with personal memory and association, to develop paintings and mixed media works evoking verticality in the horizontal landscapes of North Norfolk.

Sara Clark Sara is a multi-disciplinary printmaker informed by her immediate surroundings through site-specific interaction. Her current body of work is not topographical in nature, not accurate representations of what is being seen, but an exploration of the physicality of the place, to call witness to the mark of human interaction. Focusing on post-industrial locations exploring movement as an act to gain knowledge through observation, drawing, collage, print, camera-less and digital photography processes, she is looking at ideas around fixity, perspective, and response forming an iterative process of reflection, to find ways to visualise the bodily experience of place.

Niall MacCrann Niall starts with observational drawing and painting in the life drawing room and streets and eateries of Cambridge. He focuses deeply on the human figure to build up a vocabulary of the body. This, as well as compositional play in printmaking, feeds larger works in oil, featuring protagonists that respond to the demands on our bodies from dating and food delivery apps and interior design magazines.

Mick Paulusma Mick is an interdisciplinary visual artist. He is drawn to making work which attempts to visualise the influence invisible structures have on our worldview. Currently he is investigating the algorithms that are based on traces of our collective and individual activities. Mick is exploring this through a variety of drawing, printing and paper folding techniques which weave between digital and analogue and virtual and physical artist’s materials.

Jenny Seabrook
Jen is a mixed media artist whose work has a strong curatorial element. She works intuitively and often incorporates things collected and held onto for years. Nostalgia and memory are important themes and play a huge role in why she creates. Inspired by natural forms, and often using photography as a starting point, Jen is currently exploring ways to abstract images to challenge perceptions and question traditional ideas of what is natural or unnatural, beautiful or unsettling.

Private View Thurs. 8th Dec. 5-7pm

Opening Times Wed.nesday 7 December. - Wednesday. 14 Dec. 10am-5pm

Event contact: cab247@student.aru.ac.uk