15 February 2006

‘MESSAGE NO MESSAGE’ - Exhibition

Lower Foyer Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, 13 Perth Rd, Dundee DD1 4HT
Mon-Fri - 9.30am-5pm, Sat 10.30am-4.30pm

Photo opportunity: Fri 17 Feb, 5pm, Lower Foyer Gallery

Five students from DJCAD explore the transmission of meaning or meaninglessness through graphic media in 'Message No Message', an exhibition in the Lower Foyer Gallery.

Lynnemarie Szpak, Perri Mackenzie, Graeme Halliday, Lesley Young and Santiago Osnaya Baltierra were brought together by Exhibitions Department from diverse areas of the art college in order to relate through their unique visual languages the themes of subjective identity, the personal experience of the world and the subconscious.

The students communicate through an extensive artistic vocabulary which incorporates symbols, labels, printed and written text and the drawn line. Expressiveness is modulated through distorting, isolating or repeating the subject. The participants of 'Message No Message' communicate their messages or non-messages through drawings, installation work, and prints supplemented with sound and visuals.

Lynnemarie Szpak, a Third Year Fine Art student, has always been intrigued by the mystery of existence. Her work questions her identity by examining the tangible and intangible debris of life - old photographs, written records as well as human memory and experience. In particular, her 'meme' series of work examines her identity through repetitive rubber-stamping - a method that gives her work a meditative and introspective quality.

Graeme Halliday, a Third Year student of Time based Art uses a technique similar to Lynnemarie’s Zen-like approach in his treatment of related theme of subconscious identity. His large wall-sized continuous-line drawings describe visually a stream-of-consciousness that he calls "a link to the self-portrait". These drawings are accompanied with his own haiku-inspired poetry spontaneously imagined and written on the wall. In this way Graeme’s work freely and expressively communicates his sense of identity.

Lesley Young examines in her final year studies of Art, Philosophy and Contemporary Practices the role of language within the art world. Like Graeme her work is wall based and spontaneous, however she works purely with language, de-contextualising words and symbols with the intent of her audience creating individual meaning themselves. Lesley mostly works with plain text, and in 'Message No Message' she examines the language and conventions of the gallery and how they affect the reading of the work.

Santiago Baltierra, a graduate from Mexico, studying for a Master in Design, uses a similar vocabulary of words and symbols in his work but uses it to an intensely communicative effect. His feelings on social problems such as murder, kidnap, and robbery give rise to a powerful visual expression. This is realised in posters that simply and effectively subvert letters and numbers to create a new personal meaning. He feels that 'Message No Message' is "a shout, a declaration - it is my message, one amongst the thousands of messages that get lost in transmission".

Perri MacKenzie, a second year student of Fine Art, works in a way that combines several of the approaches of her fellow students. She uses the same single-line technique as Graeme but chooses as her subject a similar theme to that of Lynnemarie’s - her own experience. Perri looks at the world around her and intensely examines the detritus and rubbish that is so essential to our lives - from crumbs and peelings to drying underwear. Her sources are extensive and also include life drawings, re-drawn childhood drawings and studies of mounted animals. Her intent is to communicate to her audience a sense of visual delight in the mundane, a delight she particularly feels when absorbed in the continuous line.

'Message No Message' previews in the Lower Foyer Gallery on Friday 17th February at 5pm, and runs until Sat 4th of March.

For more information:

Jenny Brownrigg
Exhibitions Department
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design
13 Perth Road, Dundee DD1 4HT
01382 345330
e:j.brownrigg@dundee.ac.uk