Fine art students explore issues of belonging with return of annual Surface Gallery festival
The exhibition is entering its 14th year and gives students the chance to display their work outside of a University setting
By Callum Wright
Nottingham students using fine art to explore issues like belonging have seen their work go on display for the first time in a competition at the city’s Surface Gallery.
It comes as part of an annual gallery at the Sneinton gallery – running for the last 14 years – with an NTU Festival event giving students the chance to have their work displayed in a professional environment.
Four groups of students were chosen following an application process, before being given a week to put together a piece that matches this year’s theme of ‘The Push and the Pull’.
Opening on Tuesday night (February 18) and running until March 1, the work will be split across two weeks, and exhibitions co-ordinator Jez Kirby says it’s a vital tool in allowing emerging artists to have their work open up to the public.
“It’s crucial, it’s a good confidence booster and all part of the process of showing your work publicly,” he said.
“One of the things I was keen on was to ensure the quality was good and that the art was on theme, and I think each of these groups do that.”
Sophie Stephens, a second year Liberal Arts student at University of Nottingham has helped oversee the co-ordination of the festival whilst on placement at Surface, and she said that she feels ‘really lucky’ to have helped make things happen and give more students opportunities.
“We had long meetings discussing who we thought would be the best fit but it’s been really lovely getting to know all the different portfolios and looking through it with a critical lens,” she said.
“It’s utterly fantastic, this opportunity is just so cool for young people to be able to get into an art gallery setting and have the experience of co-ordinating their own exhibition and coming together with other groups, we’re really heavy on the community here and want to see each other thrive.”
A multitude of different art styles were on display at the festival, from sculptures to photography across two different floors of the gallery.
One of the artworks, titled ‘Knotts of Tension’, was created by students Amber Clarke and Tilly Wattam and the pair said they were shocked when they were selected despite – being one of the smaller groups.
“We had to respond to the festival theme and me and Amber work in the same studio. I just mentioned it because I saw her work and thought it would work really well with the theme,” Tilly said.
“We were one of the smallest groups so we thought there was no chance but our tutors were saying it’s good experience to just apply, so when we got the call back we were like, ‘we did that’, and we’re really happy.”
Amber added: “We decided we were going to incorporate the majority of the ‘push and pull’ motion with our materials, so we used a lot of knots, strings, tension in the way it’s hung and stretched,” Amber added.
“It’s an amazing experience in getting your name out there and people to see your work, because as a student it’s really hard to get opportunities to showcase your work in places like this, especially when its in a public gallery.”
Another one of the works on display, titled ‘Why I’m Always Late’, incorporated a different style of art with a short film being shown, and creator Holly White says the inspiration came from her love for dancing and music.
“It’s a video compilation of me when I’m running late for Uni or work because I’m pretty much just always dancing around my room listening to music, so to make the music I just disconnected from my headphones and filmed myself dancing to whatever I was listening to,” she said,
“It’s about being present and in the moment, I feel as if our generation is super concentrated on romanticising the past and being nostalgic, so I wanted to focus on being present in the moment enjoying small things that make you happy, and for me that’s dancing to the music that I like.
“It’s lovely having a space that’s our own, we’ve had a few self-direct exhibitions within Uni but having somewhere we can fill out ourselves where the public can come and look, it’s really exciting and lovely to be able to put our names out there and show people what we do.”
Another opening night featuring more fine art will start at Surface Gallery on Tuesday, February 25.
The overall Push and Pull event runs there until early March.
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