Saturday, 20 October 2012

Generating Fashion: First Cut Exhibition





This week, the Manchester School of Art held a formal evening reception for first year art students at the Manchester City Gallery. This was a chance for the Dean of the School of Art to formally introduce himself as well as an opportunity for us students to potentially mingle with the city’s ‘creative and cultural sector’.  As well as this, currently the gallery is hosting the First Cut, which was a relief as my networking skills are not quite up to scratch!




The exhibition invites 31 international artists who work specifically with paper to push their practice even further in order to create what were truly awe-inspiring works of art. On one end of the spectrum were controversially charged works such as the intricately detailed cutwork scenes by Kara Walker which depict a provocative narrative of African-American history. In contrast the sculptural piece entitled ‘Roil’ by Mia Pearlman appears to conjure the humble material out of its basic form into a majestic explosion that appears as though it has been frozen in time.




My favourite piece of the exhibition was definitely the miniature piece entitled ‘Fotocken’ by Sarah Bridgland. The artist works with found objects on a small scale as in this case she has used a found German photo corner-mounts box and embellished it with a microcosm of cut outs and pop-up imagery. I love her quirky style and her ability to breathe new life into the most mundane, discarded objects. In this way I think that the piece epitomises the spirit of the exhibition. 

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