Illustration by Jady Ong
Earlier in July I headed to Camberwell College of Art on Peckham Road to take a look at the MA Illustration Final Show. I admired and enjoyed the fact that the students from this postgraduate programme had created a custom website and twitter account specifically for the show. I also loved their simple but striking logo design for the show which had also been made into stickers and placed on the floors of corridors and steps of staircases in the college building to guide the visitor to their work. Here is a selection of the work which most took my fancy and also provided inspiration for my own illustrating practice.
I truly enjoyed Jady Ong’s large black and white pieces depicting figures with animal heads in dreamy narrative scenes, but totally fell in love with her sketchbook. In it I found much simpler, but gorgeously effective, collages of anthropomorphized animals which spoke straight to my collage-loving heart.
There was something in Marja de Sanctis’ illustrations which brought to mind Frida Khalo’s work. I loved her version of The Mona Lisa.
The next group of works which I found mesmerising were Linlin Cui’s ‘Falling Women‘. These women float in greenish waters, as if in a cosmic liquid womb, with their umbilical cords still attached to their bellies, connecting them perhaps to their essential human nature, before all the subsequent add-ons.
I thought this stunning, also floating, Fox by David Surman totally stole the show in that particular room of the exhibition. It is part of a series of illustrations to accompany Christina Rosetti’s classic poem ‘The Goblin Market‘.
Among the course graduates was Amelia’s Magazine contributor Marina Muun. The series of works produced for the show is called ‘Horizons‘ and is ‘centered around perception of external stimuli and the ability to match visions and experiences to a deeper knowledge within‘.
I liked how Augusta Akerman’s elegant repeat patterns for textiles or wallpaper, such as ‘The Salmon Run‘, explore cycles within the animal kingdom and often raise awareness around endangered species. A few of her patterns are also inspired by David Attenborough’s ‘Life on Earth‘ series, which I am also a big fan of!
South Korean Hyojin Hwang is interested in the relationship between plants, buildings and people and merges them together in powerful compositions such as this.
This book by Emily Nash contained a plethora of fascinating narrative scenes inspired by folk tales and current affairs.
I loved this image by Eleanor Percival, whose work is heavily influenced by mythology, depicting Aphrodite in her sacred grove gathering enchanted apples.
I found the contrast created by small dense areas of colourful forms placed within a large expanse of white in Qianqian Zhang’s very appealing.
English literature graduate Sean McSorley showed images which reflected an interest in early-mid twentieth century cinema and literature.
Fay Huo’s large pieces were very accomplished and interesting to look at both from far away, as well as zooming in to examine smaller details.
The archetype of The Fool has always held a fascination for me and I found Jamie Lang’s version beautiful.
Hammer Chen delighted me with her ‘Happy Elixir Shopping 1‘ in which this female shopper seems to have eyes like torches, as if searching in the darkness for the next thing to buy.
More eyeballs shooting out yellow matter came from Sungyoon Jung’s piece called ‘Punishment‘, which despite its bright, comical style still looked very sinister.
This was a striking composition by Martina Paukova who explores the world of sculpted bodies a lot in her work.
Nina Schulze’s surreal female figures are inspired by fashion as well as dream visions.
I loved Evelyn Albrow’s expressive use of ink.
I was also very impressed by June He’s series of works entitled ‘A Prototype Myth World in Hallucination 1-9‘ in which he combines various symbols from different cultures to create a new mythology, but was a little disappointed I could not find a website for this work.
Gorgeous print techniques and shapes were found on Chris Kiesling’s monochromatic offerings.
I was taken by this, also monochrome, piece by Alice Ferrow whose work depicted folklore themes mostly in gouache.
And ending back in colour with these fun creatures by Hannah Prebble. I particularly enjoyed Hannah’s Tumblr site, which is a very lively and inspiring blog.
Photographs of images in the exhibition by Maria Papadimitriou; work images courtesy of graduates.
Written by Maria Papadimitriou on Tuesday August 19th, 2014 10:03 am
Categories ,Alice Ferrow, ,Armando Mesias, ,Augusta Akerman, ,Camberwell College of Art, ,Chris Kiesling, ,David Attenborough, ,David Surman, ,Degree Show, ,Eleanor Percival, ,Emily Nash, ,Evelyn Albrow, ,Fay Huo, ,Frida Kahlo, ,Graduate Show, ,Hammer Chen, ,Hannah Prebble, ,Hyojin Hwang, ,illustration, ,Jady Ong, ,Jamie Lang, ,June He, ,Linlin Cui, ,MA Graduate Show, ,Maria Papadimitriou, ,Marina Muun, ,Marja de Sanctis, ,Martina Paukova, ,Nina Schulze, ,Qianqian Zhang, ,Sean McSorley, ,Student summer shows, ,Sungyoon Jung
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