image: Sunwoo Lee 깜빡 Flicker (Hell, oh world! : tape1) Mixed media installation
The MFA Interim Show brings together artworks by 34 international artists studying in the first year of The Glasgow School of Art’s acclaimed MFA programme to present new work at The Glue Factory in an exhibition which ran from the 20th to 26th April.
A wide range of art forms and mixed media are on display, including sound, video, sculpture, animation, story telling, printmaking, painting and sculpture. The artists approach their work from a range of perspectives, utilising and referencing a range of materiality and processes. The works explore personal narratives and broader cultural and political thematics including identity, migration and self-hood, the historical re-use of metals during war time, future stories around environmental consequences, nationality and myth-making, public sexual space, gender and the body, and the intersection of personal and collective histories.
The exhibition of interdisciplinary artworks creates a moment to reflect at this midway point in the MFA programme, with the opportunity to see the latest generation of artistic talent on the programme that no fewer than five Turner Prize winners followed.
Renata Ottati’s work is a deep exploration of memories and culture, particularly inspired by details of life in Ecuador. Through playful and humorous imagery, Ottati strives to revive forgotten visual scenes and preserve the value of everyday objects. They are fascinated by the ephemeral nature of symbols that signify family, celebration, and domestic life. Drawing from photographs and family archives, Ottati’s aim is to immortalise moments and blur the line between memory and reality using colour and symbolism from the family archive. Their practice shifts between installation, sound, and photography, investigating the struggle to preserve the past and the inevitable transformation that comes with preservation.
Renata Lucia Ottati Pero todo se acaba but it all ends
Audio 1hr45min, cardboard, plastic bags, paper goods, assorted candy
Matthew Kriske’s paintings delve into themes of human intimacy, interaction, and imagined memories, exploring the unsettling aspects of everyday life and surreal disruptions in domestic spaces. The pieces probe and unpack gender roles, social dynamics, and the power of space to evoke emotion. Working predominately in watercolour, Kriske attempts to blur the line between the human body and imagined landscapes, inviting viewers to question their connection to each other and the surrounding world. The work is intimate in scale and handling, emphasising the physical presence and potential of the body.
Matthew Kriske Love Me Tender
Watercolour on paper
Han-Chen Liu’s work seeks to explore the interconnectedness of humans and animals, drawing inspiration from mythological tales and legends. Liu’s belief is that ancient mythical beings once existed alongside humans, but have faded from collective memory much like extinct animal species. Utilising a blend of oil and traditional Chinese painting techniques, Lui saturates their cultural background into the work, creating a unique Eastern aesthetic. The exhibition piece “Memento Mori,” reflects on the theme of mortality, reminding viewers of their own inevitable fate. Realising this project has deepend Lui’s understanding of the human-animal relationship and will guide future work towards a deeper exploration of the historical and contemporary roles animals play in human society.
Han-Chen Liu Memento mori
Oil on wood panel, rice paper, Chinese ink
In his artistic practice, Jai James is constantly evolving and reacting to his own previous works. Time spent working extensively on audio/visual projects has provoked a focus on material practices, creating a balance between indulgence – oppressive and overt, and resistance – subdued and tactile. In combining these opposing elements, James’ intent is to harmonise and corrupt them simultaneously. The use of specific equipment to display moving images on CRT televisions mirrors the copper surface of the sculptures, creating a reflective, contemplative relationship. Through this multiplicity and convolution, James seeks to highlight the collision of conceptual art and philosophical ideas, emphasising the ultimately futile struggle to bring them into the physical realm of understanding.
Jai James ōscillum
Copper, pine needles, DVD video on CRT television (colour, silent) 25 Min
Lucia Lernyei’s delves into the complexities of her personal heritage by examining materials and objects. Drawing inspiration from her Hungarian family’s historical experiences during communism, Lernyei questions the duality of being both Hungarian and English, and how these cultural identities may intertwine or repel against each other. The symbolism of the orange, and the contrast between its historical and contemporary meanings, serves as a focal point within the work. The oranges tumbling from the crate symbolise the ongoing quest for Hungarian identity, while a worker’s badge, an archival family object presented to her grandparents as a thanks for their service to the communist state, adds layers of historical context. By juxtaposing personal and historical perspectives, the work reflects on the ever-evolving nature of cultural identity and heritage.
Lucia Vera Rosa Lernyei The Hungarian Orange is a Lemon
Wax castings, MDF panel, wooden crate, shock worker of communist labour badge
Nidhi Bodana’s work delves deep into themes of societal pressure, conformity, individual autonomy, and the insidious, unrelenting impact of these external forces on personal identity. Bodana’s work expresses the pervasive struggle between societal expectations and individual desires, highlighting the suffocating weight of relentless social conformity. Through her own experiences of financial hardship, professional setbacks and heartbreaking personal loss, Bodana frames her experience as an instance within the collective saga of humanity shaped by shared struggles against confining societal constructs. The use of makeup as a potent symbol of conformity and societal sculpting further scrutinises the impact of external influences on emotional and mental well-being. Her performance within the work functions as a visceral commentary on these profound pressures, a mirror held up to society reflecting the intricate dance between conformity and autonomy, urging viewers to confront this interplay between individual free will and collective conditioning, empowering them to reclaim their own narrative in a world that seeks to confine every individuals self-determination.
Nidhi Bodana YOU MAKE UP ME
Wipes, cosmetics, body, metal wire and nails
In his current work Douglas Rogerson is exploring the themes of sets, replication, and the shifts of meaning that arise through duplication and reproduction. By incorporating found materials in their natural state, Rogerson’s piece offers a subtle twist on a familiar DIY style barrier to highlight hidden connotations. He questions the demand for individual exceptionalism called for in the brand phrase “Do It Best” by crudely pouring concrete into buckets to anchor posts yet delicately transferring graphite drawings into the casts. The subtitle “Bucket in the Brass,” slants the commonplace objects into a metaphor highlighting the penetration of the posts into the solid concrete and the chain link threaded between their hollowed holes.
Douglas Rogerson Do It Best (Bucket ‘n the Brass)
Graphite drawings cast in concrete penetrated by posts, buckets, hardware, chain
Within Albertina Tevajärvi‘s interdisciplinary work, sculptural installations blend with dance-like interactions between human and non-human bodies, informed by her own perspective of contemporary animism and influenced by traditions within Finnish magical thinking. Drawing on improvisational movement practices and Butoh imagery, Tevajarvi’s pieces explore the psychoacoustics of space and materials. They exist in a non-hierarchical, mythopoetic landscape where the mundane intersects with the sacred, the trivial with the humorous. Microplastics shimmer inside tissues, and the archaic sprouts new mechanical branches, creating a multisensory experience that challenges traditional boundaries.
Albertina Tevajärvi ‘aerodynamic exercise (imaginary sounds for Melusine)’
Plastic, wood, steel, silicone, copper wire, disassembled motor, cables and fan, feather, seasalt, sea shells
Hwa-Jin Seo creates artwork by transforming fictional lexical sources into images, utilising figurative, abstract and text-art representations. Human beings are central to Seo’s storytelling, focusing on the interconnectedness of the body and mind in conscious and unconscious movements. Abstract forms and patterns within Seo’s work reflect the consistency of abstract words, while text-based elements highlight the integration of visual and verbal language in their art practice. The 2D images Seo creates showcase a combination of figurative and text-art representations, demonstrating the fusion of visual and linguistic elements in both explicit and implicit ways.
Hwa-Jin Seo The Personification of an Unidentifiable Word
Oil on Canvas
Full list of MFA student’s displaying at this years exhibition:-
Jennifer Aldred
Sophia Archontis
William Armstrong
Anderson Asteclines
Yiwen Bo
Nidhi Bodana
Richard Domenico Ehlert
Yiwen Bo
Nidhi Bodana
Richard Domenico Ehlert
Lilian Evans
Katie Grenville
Julita Hanlon
Julita Hanlon
Xinyi He
Jessica Hewitt
Reed Hexamer
Roanna Holmes-Frodsham
Yi Hong
Jessica Hewitt
Reed Hexamer
Roanna Holmes-Frodsham
Yi Hong
Yaqing Hu
Jai James
Jai James
Nayeon Kim
Matthew Kriske
Sunwoo Lee
Lucia Vera Rosa Lernyei
Junhao Li
Han-Chen Liu
Michael James McCormack
Sunwoo Lee
Lucia Vera Rosa Lernyei
Junhao Li
Han-Chen Liu
Michael James McCormack
Nana Miyagi
Renata Lucia Ottati
Sarah Palmer
Douglas Rogerson
Hwa-Jin Seo
Sophie Stewart
Albertina Tevajärvi
Renata Lucia Ottati
Sarah Palmer
Douglas Rogerson
Hwa-Jin Seo
Sophie Stewart
Albertina Tevajärvi
Eekie Watson
Isaac Willis
Jingwen Xie
Isaac Willis
Jingwen Xie
For further information contact press@gsa.ac.uk