BA (Hons) Illustration and Visual Media at London College of Communication challenges the role and significance of the image in contemporary visual culture. Students develop individual critical practices across a range of image-led processes, investigating the role of the author in visual media and exploring the intersection of analogue and digital methodologies of working.
This year's exhibition as part of LCC Degree Shows 2019: Show 2 will showcase the breadth of practice on the course, including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, animation, 3D modelling, digital imaging, print and performance.
Explore a handful of the projects on show...
Tara Garden
Under Construction
My project is about social constructs. I wanted to highlight the artificial nature of those constructs, leading viewers to think a little more about their origins and social validity. Social constructs often oppose the natural inclinations of humanity. They are simultaneously civilising and constraining, soothing and oppressive.
They normalise the majority view and, in so doing, marginalise and disenfranchise minorities. I wanted to depict these social constructs in a way which seems alien and strange, making the familiar unfamiliar, and thereby inviting examination with a fresh approach.
https://www.instagram.com/taraagarden/
Ellie Bond
Queeriocity
Psychogeography is the study of how geographical locations influence us, our mind and our behaviour. I take this concept and apply it to my love for research and experimentation. I’m currently exploring Queer Narratives and how their lack of representation in Education is a detriment to our fight for equality.
I experiment with Typography both through digital creation and Letterpress printing. This project has resulted in visual pieces, both through print and VR, that entice the audience to look closer and learn more about these narratives, to really concentrate on what information is usually hidden between the lines.
Brogan Bertie
Y'all Better Quiet Down
Story-telling, hereditary legacies, and familial mythologies have always been at the centre of my work. With my graduating film, which is a tribute to Sylvia Rivera and her 1973 speech “Y’all Better Quiet Down”, I wanted to explore the specific way queer people find ancestral connections to those who came before us with preserved and hand-me-down histories such as the archival footage of Sylvia that I used as the backbone of the film.
Sylvia’s legacy as a trans revolutionary who was excluded and abused by the mainstream gay liberation movement was something I wanted to give space to in the context of the relentless coverage and vilification of trans people in the UK media over the last few years. Along with the LCC degree show, my graduating film will be shown at the Leslie Lohman Museum and BGSQD in NYC (June – September).
broganbertie.com | instagram.com/broganbertie
Vytenis Semenas
Metamorphosis: Inner Creature
These two multi-layered 66x46 cm linoleum prints represent the topic of metamorphosis. Both of them explore not only alternative realities but mainly the inner self of the author. As the topic is based on abuse within families, the inspiration for these two pictures also stems from the author’s unhappy childhood experiences.
Those led to him creating his own reality into which he used to escape due to his physical and psychological abuse. These prints are to a considerable extent inspired by Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. There are many hidden allusions and associations within the pictures, most of which are left for the viewer’s imagination to find and think about.
The repeating pattern of a bear, however, is a depiction of the author’s inner creature and it symbolises strength as well as freedom which, although hidden sometimes, may break through and manifest itself. The red balloon represents the metaphorical hopes and dreams that may fly away very easily unless held firmly.
Eve French
Retrospection
As humans, we have a natural desire to constantly relive experiences through telling stories, whether that experience be a normal day or a lifetime event. ‘Retrospection’ focuses on these shared human experiences, telling a story of my family over two decades. Using acrylic, gouache, pencil and pastel on paper, the 12 paintings depict scenes using footage from a VHS camcorder as reference.
The over-saturation of colour throughout these paintings aims to create a strong sense of nostalgia, colour being a key factor of how and what we remember. Despite the memories depicted being personal to me, this work is a collection of shared human emotion, aiming to portray a sentimental yearning for the past, something which most can relate to.
Céleste Mueth
Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants
This piece is an immersive video projection installation, its aim is to tell a compelling story using projection mapping, animation and sound. The intimate space created looks like a family’s picture wall. Through the animation of framed photographs and a voice-over, the audience gets to learn about the fascinating story of the Forty Elephants.
The story is told through the eyes of their most notorious leader Alice Diamond. This female-only gang based in Elephant and Castle was, in the Victorian era, the most powerful crime syndicate in the country. It is a portrait of some of the most powerful and rebellious women of this era, who did not want to be considered as inferior to men. It also explores the way of life of the people in the neighbourhood where it is shown, Elephant and Castle.
LCC Degree Shows 2019: Show 2 takes place from 19–22 June 2019.
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