Fine art students container exhibition

The students worked as a team to put the whole exhibition together, resulting in an eclectic yet coherent showcase of their installations, sculptures, paintings, drawings and performance works. They describe the exhibition as: “the artists expressing their innermost feelings, experiences and thoughts. These talented artists have poured their hearts and souls into creating works that will invite you to reflect on your own inner thoughts, memories and experiences. Some artworks offered moments of solace and tranquillity, providing a space for contemplation and inner peace, others provoked a sense of introspective nostalgia, transporting you back to meaningful moments from your life.”

Toby Taylor, whose practice is to work in as much of a sustainably conscious manner as possible, focused on mixed media work that consisted of mostly discarded recyclable materials. Toby said, “The whole module has been a massive eye-opener. It’s been tough, but it’s been a reality check of what it’s like to run something like this. It reaffirms that you can participate in a group environment effectively as well as confirming that you can take pride in your work and use the opportunity to market yourself.”

Agata Adaszynska, a mature student from Poland, based her installation ‘15 Girls’ on Andrew Bissell’s book, ‘Southampton’s Children of the Blitz’. She said, “Working with younger people has provided me with constructive feedback. It’s been really useful to grow together in producing art. We’re individuals, but we’re creating something together. It’s been an amazing experience of exhibiting to the public and it has given me the motivation not to stop. Even if they’re not into art, they like it.”

Having previously worked as a manager in IT, Agata decided to study something she loved when she moved to Southampton and is proud to show her artistic skills. The course has inspired her to now pursue art as a career.

Module Leader, Sarah Filmer, said, “I am so proud of all the students. This exhibition is the outcome of a module called ‘Collaboration’ in which we challenge the students to work together as a whole group to devise, design, market, promote, curate, install and invigilate an exhibition from scratch. They have to dig deep, work incredibly hard, and learn a great deal about themselves and each other to succeed – and I think you will agree that ‘Introspective’ is a huge success. Watching them stand proudly by their work and speak so confidently to the public about it is a joy.”

Final year BA (Hons) Fine Art students will be exhibiting their final pieces in the summer, so keep an eye out for more inspiring work.