Fine Art

Fine Art is a studio and workshop-based course, that is driven by discourses emerging from engaging in critical looking, observing, analysing, making, writing, thinking and discussing the world around us in the context of the wide field of contemporary art practices in an increasingly global context.

Students are encouraged to develop critical making and thinking in dialogue with and inspired by the incredibly diverse world of contemporary art and its histories and undercurrents. Students’ work is informed by theoretical and material- based research that enables the pushing of boundaries towards an increasingly confident critical visual language.

Seismic cultural shifts are under way and have been brought to the fore in the year of the Pandemic: equality, decolonialisation of culture, ecology and social justice are key drivers of this new decade, and students’ art works are driven and underpinned by these concerns.

In a year, in which certainties evaporated and freedom was curtailed all art students had to re-invent their approaches to creating work in improvised studios whilst continue research with limited access to live events and exhibitions. To adjust, invent and remain ambitious whilst being in various states of COVID-19 related isolation worrying and caring for close friends and family infected by the virus.

Within the context, students have created an incredibly diverse body of work, that ranges from documentary filmmaking about anonymous inter-racial adoption to podcasts for and by young lesbian creatives in Manchester, from community engagement through virtual landscapes and gaming technology to the development of growing and self-generating sculpture materials; immersive soundscapes, critical landscape paintings, text-based work and playscapes as antidote to overregulated public spaces to mention just a few of the many highlights.

There is an urgency in the work of this year’s graduating student, whose work needs to be seen, listened to, touched and discussed, which will be possible in Spring 2022, when this years Final Year students will exhibit their work in real three-dimensional space and time at Manchester School of Art.

Dr Brigitte Jurack
Reader in sculpture and time-based arts
Programme Leader Fine Art