Spectral sculptures, sensory classrooms, the death of the 80s diner, building the new out of the derelict and railing against the love of money – all this and more featured in The Guernsey Institute’s UAL Level 2 and 3 art and design course end-of-year show.
‘It’s been a really good year and quite a few students will be going on to uni,’ said lecturer Mark Cook. ‘We’ve had some quite diverse work, from textiles and fine art through brand design and digital – a real mixture.’
Nineteen-year-old Lola Pang’s work followed the theme ‘rise versus ruin’.
‘I’ve taken this as the modern-day cafe against the 80s diner. Why cafes? They’re everywhere, there’s so many of them.’
Lola’s old diner is called Jukebox and follows a 1950s Americana feel while her modern invention, Canvas Coffee, is more contemporary and sleek.
‘I did all my own brand development. I’d like to open my own place. Something a bit like Chefan. I work at the Rohais Chinese Takeaway and the North Side Fish and Chip Shop.’
Lola has been offered a place at University of Brighton.
Amy Hill, 21, chose the theme ‘tension versus release’ and designed a sensory classroom.
‘It’s an overall space for neurodivergent students, where one side is for stimulation and the other side is to chill.’
Amy made a model of a chair and maquette of the space, based on the college building.
‘I treated college like they were my clients. I made a brochure for the target audience and also a budget breakdown.
‘The Coutanchez campus is interested and might want to take up my ideas. I believe they’re looking at pricing.’
Amy will be studying interior design at Bath Spa University.
‘My work is based on 3D modelling and animation,’ explained 18-year-old Libby Le Lacheur. ‘There’s a lot of stuff but it’s not super-specific.’
Primarily, she designs characters.
‘I look at game design and work on them and transfer them into 3D models. I make up a storyboard and move them from key frame to key frame. This one took me three hours. I did it at 3am. The longer piece took me four days.’
Libby has enjoyed the UAL course and would like to go on to university or find a job in the design industry.
Emily Radford works in photography and the theme she chose was ‘thread versus fray’.
‘It’s about relationships and memories – my sister was the model. I have stitched thread into the photographs. Red to relate to the urban legend “red string theory”, where everyone has a red string attached to their soul and the soul of someone who they desire and eventually they will find each other.’
Emily is looking towards taking photography at the University of Brighton.
Nicole O’Connor, 19, has created Howler’s Lament.
‘It’s a piece for anime. I heard the music by Utopian Art Machine and thought it would fit one of my characters.
‘I make a lot of characters to express myself. I can experiment, use the characters to express my thoughts. She is expressing a lot of feelings.
‘Howler took me six weeks. I try to do a shot at a time and sketch every single shot and when I’m proud of it, I work on it.’
Nicole loves creating animation.
‘I can’t see myself doing anything else. I’ve been doing it since I was 11 or 12. It brings me joy. I’m going to continue with the HND course.’
Isla De La Mare is interested in architecture and picked ‘rise versus ruin’ for her theme.
‘I’ve gone for a ruined structure, crumbling and decaying, and designed a new building within it,’ explained the 19-year-old. I was inspired by online photos. I’ve lifted a new building into the old, repurposing it.’
Her uncle works at a local estate agents.
‘I visited Six Eighty One, a renovated bunker at L’Eree, and had a look around.’
Isla has an apprenticeship with Lovell Ozanne, where she’ll train to be a architectural technologist and attend college one day a week.
‘Money is evil and it clouds your judgement,’ said Dom Paradise, 19, by way of introducing his powerful photographic triptych. ‘Having money leads to pride.’
His work shows a figure ‘blinded’ by money – US dollars, Guernsey pounds and Polish zloty.
‘After pride it leads to wrath. I’ve shown the figure wearing a crown, raising himself on a throne. But it’s a park bench, a false throne.’
By taking the pre-cut figure from the last frame, the triptych can have two endings
‘Either way, it’s a bad ending. There’s no good ending when it comes to money.’
Dom said that he can’t see himself being anything but an artist and wants to work in graphic design.
‘Form versus flux’ was the subject chosen by 18-year-old Emily De La Haye.
‘I call it Static Fluidity, make it look like it’s moving. I made it from plaster and fabric and 3D print. I wanted to show the movement.’
The effect is uncanny.
‘I was inspired by Greek statues and that’s why I left it all white. I didn’t want to take away from the movement. I like the way you can’t control it and that it has a mind of its own.
‘I was going to paint the background but with the lights it complements it quite well.’
Emily is interested in working in interior design or with animals.
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