Our annual MA shows continue with the September gallery exhibitions, following on from the successful MA shows in June. MA2011 showcases diverse new work by students graduating from the MA courses in Sequential Design & Illustration, and Arts and Design by Independent Project at the University of Brighton, alongside it is Made-2011, our exhibition of graduating students from MA Photograpy at Brighton.

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MA2011

The exhibition includes animation, illustrated books, experimental writing, product design, graphic novels, packaging and typography. The highly acclaimed Sequential Design/ Illustration course attracts new and established illustrators, designers and makers from all over the world, keen to explore the principles of sequence within their chosen field.

Work featured in the exhibition - ranging from an animated study of crowd behaviour to a detective novel exploring the parallels between quantum physics and Taoism - demonstrates the variety of individual research. Other work considers the narrative potential of T-shirts, the perplexing ambiguity of optical illusions, the secret language of headscarves, and the moral redemption of a naughty dog who has been sent to hell.

The Arts and Design by Independent Project course encourages experimentation and innovation within a specific field on a central project. Students come from a wide range of disciplines, giving the course its characteristic diversity; the areas of study and possible outcomes are hugely varied. This year's show includes an illustrated bestiary of exotic animals; identity graphics for fresh fruit cosmetics; and a range of gifts designed for the fearful, the angry and the heartbroken.

Clare Harris, 'A Secret Language of Headscarves: Souvenirs and Insignia' Exploring scarf conventions & the themes of place and person

These internationally recognised postgraduate courses support self-initiated projects and help students to develop an informed, critical and imaginative view of the subject. This exhibition is a testament to their unique creative inquiry.

Exhibitors: Anthony Atkinson, Lucy Collins, Katja Dell, Clare Harris, Sally Henry, Sung-Yung Hong, Lenka Hrehova, Lucy Irving, Angela Asriana Kurniawan, Adam Moore, Anna O'Niell, Cathy Page, Mark Pembrey, Jungeun Ryou, Gallit Shaltiel, Pongsakorn Thongsuk, Gregg Virostek.

The students have an online catalogue at www.ma2011.co.uk/

MADE-2011

Paul Munson, #1 2011, from the series 'Signs of Spring'

Our MA Photography exhibition showcases several artists who have explored a variety of photographic practices. It includes work based on sculpture, light and portraiture, as well as others. Each student reveals a unique perspective on how photography can be used to capture and express the world around us.

Course leader Joanna Lowry introduces the exhibition:

It is common for people to talk about ‘taking’ photographs, as though perhaps the photographs are already there, immanent in the material world, simply awaiting extraction by the photographer. Or perhaps the sense is that they are even stolen from the world by a photographer who bears more resemblance to a thief than an artist. Photographs from this perspective are hunted or collected, then added to the
archive of all those images taken, and all those waiting to come. ‘To Take’ implies a swift, grasping gesture, and sometimes this act is attributed, tellingly, to the apparatus itself – it is the camera that ‘takes’ the picture. In one click of the shutter a small fragment of reality is trapped on film inside the dark body of the apparatus itself. An automatism without any real human agency. The image taken from the world. What might it mean, alternatively, to think about ‘making’ photographs, to consider the photographer less as a hunter or collector, and more as an artist or craftsman? How would this be different, and what might it imply for the way we think about the medium?

...

It is clear that each of these photographers has had to make difficult and entirely individual decisions about how they are going to occupy the space of photography, and how they are going to use the technology as a tool for thinking. All of these pictures are beautifully crafted: we recognize the significance of photography’s materiality, but we also have to recognize that there is no simple way of talking about photographic representation. Above all we have also learned that this technology is an open-ended tool with many unexplored possibilities embedded within it. If it comes with instructions we have to ignore them or even throw them away.

Download the full introduction to the Made 2011 MA Photography exhibition as a pdf document.

The students have an online catalogue at www.made-2011.com