UNIT X EXHIBITION

Last night (Thursday 14th) was the official opening night of our UNIT X Exhibition in Federation House, Manchester! It was an amazing experience to see different exhibitions from other creative students as they displayed diverse ways of thinking and interesting ideas. To my surprise, the 6 floored building was overflowing with visitors who had come from all areas to see the Exhibition (and to drink a free glass of wine!). Overall, it was incredibly insightful to see the other exhibitions from Filmmakers, 3D designers, Fine Artists, Graphic Designers, Textile and Fashion Makers etc because it was intriguing to see how others use the city as a tool to produce their individual pieces.

I particularly liked the idea behind 'The Giant Bear' Installation on the Fine Art floor which had a label stating 'DRAW YOUR WORST' and a variation of coloured pens for which the visitors were allowed to use. Not only was it great fun because it was an interactive piece of art (which meant everyone wanted to get involved) but it also revealed a darker side to the public. They were essentially challenged to draw the crudest of things that first came to mind and the poor bear eventually got covered in horrific ideals. The piece displayed the working minds of local people through their personal drawings and quotations which also suggested how people generally treat other things that are given to them. Can we be trusted with the nice things that are given to us? Is it a bit of harmless humour to draw a Nazi Swastika on the bear's forehead? Is Manchester filled with relentless people? These were the sort of underlying questions I was asking to myself when looking at the Giant Doodle-Bear. 

It would have been interesting if the artists had collected data and created a tally showing different variables such as; age groups, ethnicity, class etc. to show what types of people were getting involved in 'The Giant Bear' Exhibition piece. If I were to assume an age group of the participants after examining The Giant Bear I would definitely have to say that the majority of people involved would have been aged 17-24. This is because of the inappropriate language and images that were drawn on the bear which were childish and immature, some of who would have found very amusing. Everyone to their own haha! Nevertheless it was nice to see the public get involved in an Fine Art exhibition piece.

Here are some photographs of the Illustration and Graphic Postcards from the first night at the Exhibition. I loved the layout of our exhibition piece - simple yet effective! Thanks Everyone and Ian haha!

Our Illustration and Graphic Design exhibition piece was tucked away from the Film and Photography exhibits, nevertheless, the area was crowded for the majority of the first opening night.

I was really impressed at how the Graphic and Illustration postcards were individually unique and equally diverse yet together they're composition and colour scheme complemented each other dramatically. In the right lighting the postcards looked professional and pristine  which ultimately shocked me as I had my doubts! 

I took the time to speak to some of The Manchester Metropolitan film students to see if they could spark any new thoughts and ideas in my mind. 

Rowan Thornhill, a first year film student, said that he found the exhibition fun especially putting the whole exhibition together. His favourite parts about making his film was that he was incredibly inspired and influenced by Andy Warhol's screen printing techniques and furthermore, he also enjoyed engineering the sound as it was absrtact and chaotic to complement his graphic imagery on screen.

Above: Rebecca Chan, 3D Design

*Images and typography combined*

An eerie installation, animation and film piece.

Fine Art 'Rabbits Head'

This student had made the mask from various materials and then painted it in red gloss to suggest that the muscles of the Rabbit's head were revealed. Unfortunately, I did not take photographs of this artists photography work where their model was wearing the rabbits head in various positions.