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It is no longer necessary to book a visit to our galleries. We are open Monday - Friday, 10am to 5pm. Closed Bank Holidays, Easter, Christmas and New Year. Admission is free. 

Degree Show & Postgraduate Exhibition

22 May - 01 June 2023

The degree show and postgraduate exhibition include a variety of photography, painting, illustration, printmaking and installation.

A message from undergraduate student Dee Matthews regarding her project -all are welcome to participate:

“As part of my graduation exhibition, STUFF (2023, film), I’m going to have an art supplies/material exchange table for the art students. If you have any paints, brushes, pencils, paper or anything arty you don’t want anymore, even down to painted supports or canvas that you don’t want to keep, can you please donate it to the table so that students at the School of Art can use them and we can recycle ♻️ and save the Earth from more STUFF!”

 

CRYING, BLEEDING, KICKING, SCREAMING - prints by Marcelle Hanselaar from the School of Art Collection 

22 May - 29 September 2023

‘He had nothing more to say.’ That is the title of one of the close-ups of human suffering on display in this exhibition. Speaking loudly, the prints of the London-based Dutch artist Marcelle Hanselaar address what is often left unsaid. They give utterance to the horrors experienced by the voiceless and draw attention to acts of silencing. They invite a dialogue about the human condition without claiming the last word.

Crying bleeding kicking screaming conflates two of Hanselaar’s print portfolios: We're all bleeding (2012) and The Crying Game (2015/17). Contrasting selections from both series, the narrative foregrounds recurring themes in Hanselaar’s work:

The secret and the public.

The violence of human nature and the violation of human rights.

The frailty of civilisation and the loss – or myth – of innocence.

The complete series in the School of Art collection are presented in chronological order as a digital slide show.

Hanselaar combines the bitten lines of etching with what she calls the ‘poetry of aquatint’ to imagine lived experiences. In We're all bleeding, her first hand-coloured prints, a voyeuristic impulse is tempered by a longing for understanding.

Her social commentaries and fantasies alike are rooted in art history. The Crying Game is inspired by Goya’s print cycle Disasters of War (1810-20).  In subject matter and execution, it is indebted to The War, a series of etchings the German artist Otto Dix created a century ago in response to the First World War.

Hanselaar was born into the aftermath of the global conflict that followed. Raised in the protestant culture of the Netherlands, she ‘was told to not show any strong feelings.’  In her prints, those emotions come to the fore.

Throughout, the victimisation implied in ‘Crying’ and ‘Bleeding’ is countered by a resilience of the spirit – the ‘Kicking’ and ‘Screaming’ in the face of terror and trauma.

Curatorial team: Zoe Bennett, Charly Brown, Heather Bubb, Kinga Fus, Rhiain Knox, Eva Liss, Morganne Lloyd, Emily Miles, Yara Saleh, Hubert Sikorski, Isobelle Smith, Louise Tilby; Harry Heuser (concept and text), Neil Holland (design and staging)

The prints on display were purchased with support from the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Art Fund

The works in this exhibition emotionally challenging.  They include scenes of sex and violence.  Viewer discretion is advised.