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John Eaves
John works at the weekends in the Leven branch of Sainsbury's supermarket, a part-time student job during his years at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design which has come to greatly influence the subject matter of his paintings. Taking his lead from Surrealism and Pop Art, John paints still lives, the objects of which, could be said to come straight from the supermarket shelf. In " JS Pineapple Squash" a hybrid fruit vegetable sits proudly in the centre of the canvas on a primary blue background. The edible object is a combination of the green spikey part of a pineapple and the body of butternut squash. The painting is composed of three canvases, which when placed together in their triptych will resemble a shop window display. Luminous-coloured star shaped shop labels are scattered throughout the painting. John successfully makes the everyday objects he paints seem like something else. Often elements can appear to be human like. Mince can look like brain matter for example, or bread morph into meat. In looking at paintings by Dutch masters from the past, John has brought the traditional still life painting to a contemporary arena.
John is 23 years old and has recently been awarded the Data Solutions Award by the Royal Scottish Academy and last year won the Duncan of Drumford award. Upon graduating he will move back to Fife and continue to work on his paintings as well as at Sainsbury's supermarket.
Gordon Robin Brown
A large white rabbit having its ear cut off by a pink man wearing a surgical mask; a mole digging itself up out of the ground, a baboon, dog, cow, bird, and other small human figures dressed up in animal costumes or as trees all co-habit in the strange world of Gordon Robin Brown's paintings.
"Gleefully perverse" is the phrase that Gordon says would best describe his paintings. The subject matter is inspired by Brown's interest in the hierarchy of humans and animals, and how, in our world, it is the humans in control. Brown weaves a surreal narrative in his large-scale acrylics paintings between the humans and the animals - in a small part of one painting a pile of frogs are hugged by miniature people, whilst a rhino's mask is hung out to dry on a washing line. For his Degree show, Brown will show his paintings alongside some sculptures made out of corrugated cardboard, one of these being a hyena.
Brown recently sold a painting in the Annual Student Exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy. He is also applying for the Threlfall travel scholarship proposing to visit Winnipeg in Canada, to experience the work of a group of young artists making work with similar themes. Upon graduating he will be showing at the second Dundee Alternative Degree Show; this is the second year that a group of DJCAD new graduates will take the results of their degree show on the road to Glasgow. Gordon is 21 and will move back to his hometown of Inverness where he hopes to find a studio and continue his work.
Kai-Oi Jay Yung
A cacophony of exuberant work will be on show at Jay Yung's Degree Show. British born Chinese student Jay refers to her series of works as 'doodles', and 'blobs'. Working across a diverse variety of media including video, sculpture, drawing and painting, her eclectic work takes as its starting point the tension between two identities, for her, being British and Chinese. This tension manifests itself as opposites in her work, whether chaos versus order or beauty versus ugliness. The free-standing plaster 'blobs' are colourful sculptural elements, which come out of the many collage drawings Jay has created. These collages are the raw ideas of what she is experiencing and thinking at that precise moment. Jay will also be showing 6 video works, many exploring the pursuit of happiness in the face of endurance. In one 'Digging You', she digs up the floor of a Dundee factory in mid winter, with only a tiny pink spade, reduced three hours to thirty minutes of video performance.
Jay is 29 years old and is from Chester. Her first degree was in French, University of Sheffield, and before art college in Dundee she had a London career in PR. Jay is currently writing a blog for a-n magazine, to be featured on their website about her degree show experiences. She has also been selected for the Professional Artist Development Scheme, run by the Chinese Art Centre in Manchester, a two-year mentoring programme for British Chinese young artists, which will culminate in a touring exhibition, profiling the best of the UK's emerging Chinese artists.
Ewan Manson
Ewan (23) from Eastbourne has created the 'Manson Ltd. Storage Facility', complete with security guard, for his degree show. The storage facility houses the collection of all of his ideas and processes for generating ideas from the last two years of his life as an art student. The facility will house all of his failures, as well as successes, and will be accompanied by a written inventory. Items he has collected include all the anonymous shopping lists he has found over this period; piles of newspapers that were given to him by The Herald and Press & Journal that never made it into a finished artwork; all the records he has bought but is unable to play as he does not have a record player; all the trophies other people have won; down to toothpicks he has chewed to refrain from smoking. The facility will also house objects from previous projects, including items used in a previous performance at the RSA, in the form of a monetary collection, where 300 people visiting the student exhibition gave Ewan donations to make a piece of artwork for the show.
This exercise in self-analysis began when Ewan realised that he was inevitably going to face the void that occurs after art college - if he could physically collect all his work and ideas he would at least have something to show for this period as a student. Furthermore, in marking this transition from student to professional, Ewan decided to become 'Manson Ltd' - a happy discovery being that he could get things quicker if people thought he was a business rather than a student. Ewan will man the storage facility as a security guard during the degree show, when it will be open for business to the public.
In 2005 Ewan won the Carnegie Scholarship, becoming David Mach's artist assistant for a 5-week period last Summer. Ewan hopes to stay in Dundee after graduation.
Emily Stanley
Emily,(22) from Dorset, was16 when she first travelled to Africa to do voluntary work. Africa's music, rhythm, pattern and tradition were to become strong influences in her work. Last semester Emily was funded by Dorset County Council to go back to Africa and travel through Namibia and Botswana.
Bringing together music, dance and fine art, Emily will be showing an installation for her degree show, which includes the video of a performance she collaborated with a female dancer on, following a previous project with dancers from The Space in Dundee. In the performance the camouflaged figure emerges from wallpaper. The pattern was inspired by the bark of a lone tree that Emily saw in Namibia. Emily painted the same wallpaper pattern on the dancer's body, the paint coming off onto the surfaces of the space as the dancer moved around. The video will be shown in a room that replicates the stage set of the performance, its walls with the same wallpaper. In advance of the opening, Emily has asked the dancer to perform again in the degree show space - the audience will be able to see the remnants of her movement through the space by the paint marks left behind. The soundtrack is captured recordings of Emily's encounters during her African trip, overlaid with a track from 'The Album Leaf', music made in Iceland by Californian musician Jimmy Lavalle.
DCA Print workshop gave Emily the opportunity to make the wallpaper there.
Emily is considering taking the year off after graduation for travelling, and feels the draw of Africa again. She then hopes to do a Masters degree.
Fine Art students at Dundee enjoy working in a multi-disciplinary environment that includes painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, video, computer-based imaging, installation and performance. Students are able to specialise or to work across disciplines, developing their practice with the support of tutors and in continuous contact with others pursuing their own pathways. The School's ethos of independent creative thinking linked to high standards of production equips our graduates for successful careers as exhibiting artists and in the wider visual economy where so many contemporary opportunities lie.
Head of School: Euan McArthur.
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