By Maryam Patel
DMU second year Fine Art students are set to open exhibition Sonder at a series of locations at DMU campus on the 28th of May showcasing their works across the year.
The main location for the exhibition will be Castle View, with a second display at the Vijay Patel Building display window. Bethany Read and Callum Brassington from the marketing team explained the plans.
“The name Sonder is about the experience when two people meet, or you just go out into the wild and everyone’s just living different lives,” said Miss Read.
They thought the name related to the historical aspect of the castle building while also representing the variety of artists and creativity brought together in the exhibition.
The work earmarked for presentation will range from digital, installation, photography, paint, and sculpture to printmaking.
Mr Brassington works in features glass sculptures based on the concept of animals going extinct and their habitats destroyed and how humans are the cause of this issue.
“I think the idea came when I found a sculpture on my phone,” Mr Brassington said. “My tutorial leader recommended I could almost use the glass to show the transparency and use the extinct animals as a reference point and merge those two.”
After facing some ‘disasters in the kiln’, caused by using untested glass, he was able to come up with the idea that the broken sculptures can show different stages through animal life as well.
Miss Read’s work is based upon the idea of childhood and nostalgia.
This is something she believes is relatable to many today as she has observed people regressing back into their childhood interests for comfort. For example, she has created a furby, Tamagotchi and hand sewn teletubby.
“The fun of recreating those in different mediums is quite nice,” she said. “I have never sewn before, and the idea to sew a Teletubby myself was just quite therapeutic.”
Organising this exhibition has given Bethany and Callum the opportunity to gain industry level experience and understanding on how to display and organise their own exhibitions in the future.
“We have very limited help by staff, technicians – everything like that is pretty much primarily just to ourselves,” said Miss Read.
For them it is a beneficial experience that they appreciate where they have learned to develop teamwork and organisational skills.
Mr Brassington said: “Fine art is so vast in what you can do afterwards, but most people will go into freelance, and they’ll be wanting to go into galleries and museums, so it’s very nice the experience that we’re getting.”
Their aim with Sonder is to showcase upcoming artists and illustrate how many emerging artists there are in the area.
“There will be something for everyone art-wise, we’ve got abstract art, quite meaningful deep work, work with censor warnings and things that pretty much cater to everyone.”
The fundraising team has been hosting events across campus such as a bake sale, a tombola and a clothing sale.
More information regarding opening night on May 28, and any upcoming fundraising events, can be found on their Instagram.