"Reflect"

The first day of March saw our reviewer attending a preview of the exhibition “Reflect” at ‘The Orchard Centre’ situated on West Bar next to the Central Police Station.
Hosted and curated by Chloe Gill and Phillipa Kosowski both second year art students at Hallam University the exhibition showcased work produced by them as part of their second year studio practice with the exhibition as part of their professional practice portfolio.
Chloe’s work is centred around landscape photography whilst Phillipa dealt with sculptural forms depicting a life form from land, sea and air in the shape of a dinosaur, shark and bird, unfortunately neither student was able to provide a artists statement about themselves to help the visitor assess the concepts of the works, where the artist was coming from, or the aims and objectives of the work.,
Whilst it may be argued that the work speaks for itself it does help to give it a voice.

Not with standing that, a conversation with the artists did reveal a leaning towards certain aspects of their work tending to lead in a direction that should be interesting to see how it will be followed through this time next year.

When visiting exhibitions I find it fascinating, where possible to see the “real work” leading up to the finished piece through drawings and experimentations which enables one to get inside the artists head, and to appreciate the why’s and wherefores,
The construction leading to the end result is the easy part as the artist knows where they are going, the hard part is finding where to go and how to get there, and for that reason I would liked to have seen more back ground work, however the work was presented and its content showed a commitment which opened up directions of travel for future exhibitions.

From experience I know that not withstanding any remits presented to students many will either not bother or fail to full fill that what is asked of them, and in that respect they are the losers.
In the case of this exhibition we have two students who have cast around, obtained a space, and created an exhibition featuring some of their work as part of their degree portfolio, all well and good academically, but the “real work” has been the journey leading up to the finished piece [the exhibition] making them the winners with knowledge and experience the prize.
A case of getting out there and making it happen for which we wish them success.

The exhibition is open to the public and will run until the 3rd March 2011.