Flying insects art

The Staffordshire University Arts Graduates Final Show is on in Stoke this week – dozens of rooms of new, original work. It makes for an insight into what art schools are teaching now and how their students are responding.

This piece is from the Fine Art department.
Called Absconditus, by Zoe Tomlinson, it highlights the plight of species-endangered flying insects. The works are hung lightly from the ceiling and, because they are at head-height, one can walk ‘through’ them. It creates an odd feeling - passing through a crowd of creatures that are slowly disappearing from the Earth.

Fine art rabbits

The Staffordshire University Fine Art Show for its final-year students should be a glorious romp of creativity; and fizzing with original ideas.  You're only young once!
But for the past few years, it has been rather dull and uninspired in my opinion. Some stuff looks very professional, yes - but flat - while the rest is just take-it-or-leave-it.
The university has also hidden the exhibtion away, off the main site, as though somehow this work doesn't fit with the smart design courses in the rest of the institution.

The work of Lisa Nash (above) did seem striking though. She is trying to grasp just how and why animals have become so central in our imaginations.
The figure is holding a new-born/foetus rabbit.

Living wall

This is a 'green wall' - at Staffordshire University.  There are a number of these around the site.

They are part of a project to see if the plants in them, which are irrigated through small pipes in the trellis, can help reduce pollution in the urban environment.  The research is also looking at which plants can do the job best.

I guess the idea is, once that research has been completed, that they will encourage us all to put them up on our houses (etc).
Sounds good to me.

Wallpapers inspired by Stafford

The High House Wallpaper company has an interesting, Staffordshire-angled genesis.

Named after the Ancient High House, an old Tudor building which still stands in the centre of Stafford, the purpose of the company is to harness the creativity of design students at Staffordshire University - as the university's graduates have designed many of the company's patterns.

The range of papers in this photo come from the 'Dorrington Collection' - named after the man who built the Ancient High House four hundred years ago.  The deisgner of them, Anna Drezova, says she took inspiration from the old wallpapers discovered when the property was restored.

The university also lends expertise to the project in the shape of its academics, such as Rowena Beighton-Dykes, who are experts in the history of interior design.

I saw their stand when I was at the London Design Festival.