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Alex De Roeck

Recently Graduated

BA Hons Print

Project title: Valium Daydreams

image 1: "Dont cry Sisyphus, your a 21st century schizoid man"

image 2: "Dont cry Sisyphus, your a 21st century schizoid man"

shotImage 3: "Bait & Switch" Detail

Image 4: "Let me be just a little frightened, so i can enjoy the relief" Installation shot

Image 5: "LOCK & LOAD" Video StillImage

Image 6:  "LOCK & LOAD" Video Still

What was the main inspiration for your piece?

the human stand-in, obvious illusions, the age of mediocrity, bedroom aesthetics, the carnivialesque, targets, makeshift problem solving, degraded objectivity, the unmonumental, language games,  the audiences taste perspective and morals, semiotics, the abject, folkert de jong, extending beyond the image, the absurd, the useless, Kanye West, theatricality, the figure, anxiety, banality, existentialism, janus, desperate gestures, anthropomorphism, post-conceptualism, contradictions, post medium, caricatures, the physiological, Arthur Koestler's 'The act of Creation', Bertolt Breacht's 'the alienation effect', naivety, valium, the myth of Sisyphus, bob marley, dogs and the obnoxious 6 second generation. My inspirations are all equal and i hold no hierarchy between them. On your tumblr you describe yourself as a visual con artist, what do you mean by this?

CON-ARTIST - "a person who cheats or tricks others by persuading them to believe something that is not true".

Art for me is fantasy, by attempting to deal with my work within a social context i become the con-artist by projecting meaning of a certain "truth" upon it, using language as a deploy for the work to multiple in context and content. I dont no how well that explains it but im obsessed with how the artist convinces other artist and non-artist into believing there twisted mythologies of the world have cultural weight or importance and if not does that even matter. What’s your favourite part of the creative process? 

looking to the streets for objects to collect, spontaneous decision making and make shift problem solving, taking an object that has no significant meaning and subverting it into the context of "high art" (e.g a Rastafarian ashtray portraying a woman being penetrated by a banana), creating an object that through a series of projections creates multiplicity. Almost everything is done with the mindset of trial and error. Did your vision and way of working change in the past year?

Zoe Redmond

Third Year Fashion

What was the main inspiration for your collection?

This collection was inspired by the northside of Dublin city and the aesthetic of IKEA. I focused mainly on looking at streetstyle in Dublin like , tracksuits , rain jackets and hooded garments. Functional design is another inspiration throughout this collection , IKEA plays a main part in this . I used mainly IKEA fabrics and products  to create this collection. I took colour , shape and texture from IKEA products , translating them into wearable garments. I wanted this collection to be contemporary , yet commercial at the same time. I wanted to magnify different aspects of the garments , emphasising silhouette and colour. 

What’s your favourite part of the designing process?

My favourite thing is sampling . Through sampling , I get to see shapes and colour come together on the mannequin, by taking loads of different pictures from every angle , the process starts. I think that I am very hands on when it comes to the design process and I think it is best just to jump straight in and start sampling. I also always like to have a certain aesthetic in my head , which I like to keep to throughout my design process. But of course the finished piece is always so satisfying at the end of the process , seeing somebody wearing the garment. 

Did your vision and way of working change in the past year?

Anja Maye

First Year

Fashion

What was the main inspiration for your piece?

Our focal point as a class was to take inspiration from buildings and architecture. At first I didn't agree with the given inspiration, I wanted to seek my own influences. Eventually I emerged with the subject and I became fond of various aspects of buildings; crevices, hidden pockets, archways and ventilation pipes and I used subtle attributes of these in creating my piece.

What’s your favourite part of the designing process?

I love constructing the article, I don't always do it the right way and sometimes not so well but it's satisfying to watch something transform.

Did your vision and way of working change in the past year?

Aoife Dunne

Third Year Media

Image 1 HI Rachel

Image 2 Bubblegum

Image 3  Creative Director / Stylist / Photo editor WIA COLLECTIONS with Joanna Kuchta

What’s your favourite part of the creative process?

I think the sculptural aspect of my work is my most favourite, experimenting with different materials / textures / colours and playing around with their form and function is definitely a lot of fun.

Did your vision and way of working change in the past year?

I took on a lot of different projects outside of college this year which had a heavy influence on more the concept of my work rather than the aesthetic. Over the past year I think the scale of my work has grown a lot. I’ve always been a fan of large scale work I just never had the opportunity space wise to make it happen - really excited for next year.

What was the idea behind each of the pieces?

HI RACHEL is an installation piece which involved my performance video being played within the supermarket sculpture I created. I spray painted lots of empty cans / bottles dull shades, covered the floor with reflective tape, hung blown up latex gloves from the ceiling and had piles of empty white plastic shopping bags spread across the room. I wanted to create an environment which fitted in with the clinical feel of the video piece. I was playing with the theme of ‘customer service’ - what it means to be a consumer / customer, how we're treated / dealt with. The idea of selling yourself as a product, focusing on loss of identity and the creation of a false reality. What's your number, not what's your name.

BUBBLEGUM is my most recent work which was loosely based around the idea of a 'human suit' - wearing your insides on the outside and the communication between the two. In all of my work I play around with the meaning of identity and self portrayal, the act of putting on a 'costume' or a 'front'. For this piece I had a sculpture which faced a video piece I made - a collage of two different videos. The main video is a clip from the show 'How it's Made' on the discovery channel which shows the steps on how to make bubble gum from the beginning to the end. The next video is myself dressed all in pink in an all pink room chewing pink chewing gum and taking on and off my pink dress. I really enjoyed playing around the representation of the colour pink. I wanted to create something really gruesome but present it in a pretty way - glamorizing pain. My sculpture was portraying a dismantled body watching how to put it's self back together which is why I chose a clip from the 'how it's made' series. I filled ice bags with different shades of pink liquid like the body had leaked out (but is forced to be contained) and had bowls of pink material at the side displayed like food dishes that looked like intestines. The audio for this piece was hysterical laughter on repeat. I wanted the viewers to feel forced to laugh.

Tell me about your website ?

haha my website is a crazy gif mess. It took me about 4 months glued to my laptop to code, but I love it - definitely worth the hours! At the moment I'm trying to make a game at the start when you enter where you can create your own avatar and it follows and talks you through all of the pages - so far so good!

Does your styling/ creative direction work influnce your college work?

Yes and No. I feel I focus a lot on the idea of ‘wearable art’ in my work in college - I like playing with the concept of identity using the body as a medium, focusing on shape, texture and colour but I think it's very different to my styling and creative direction work. I try my best to keep the work I do outside of college separate from my art practice, its hard and very stressful but I think that will benefit me in the long run.

www.aoifedunne.com

Jessica Sheil

Recently Graduated

BA Hons  Textile Art and Artefact

Jessica received the Young Artist Development Award 2015, South Co. Dublin. The award is funding her residency at the Icelandic Textile Centre for the month of July. 

Cartographic Translations #1 is the piece with all the small boxes

Cartographic Translations #2 is the piece with the three larger boxes

Cartographic Translations #3 is the black and white wall piece

Cartographic Translations is a series of three dimensional textile sculptures highlighting the connection between land, cartography and identity.

What was the main inspiration for your piece?

My thesis is titled 'Cartography as a Cultural Practice', and my degree pieces are a result of my research and writing. Cartographic Translations #1 & #2  take inspiration from Brian Friel's 'Translations'. 'Translations' is set in 1833 in the fictional town of Ballybeg, County Donegal, when the Ordinance Survey (OS) were mapping Ireland six inches to one mile. The play is about language and miscommunication as well as heritage and identity. The OS employed a mixture of English and Irish to complete the mapping. Irish place names were being replaced with English translations of them, or, in many cases, not translations but words that were more palatable for English speaking people, yet had no meaning in either Irish or English. Altering the place names in Ireland meant not only taking away the actual meaning of the words, but also meant removing heritage and identity. These pieces represent this loss of meaning and heritage. The colours in Cartographic Translations #1 are taken from 'Clouds at Sunset' 1910-11 by Paul Henry, as I wanted to use a personal view of the Irish landscape, and Cartographic Translations #2 is takes its colours from the 1829-41 OS map they were creating during the play 'Translations'.

Cartographic Translations #3 moves on from Ireland, or any specific culture but speaks more generally about mapping and cartography. When writing my thesis, I argued that all maps were intentionally or unintentionally objective and reflect the culture they are produced in. In Lewis Carroll’s fictional, ‘Sylvie and Bruno Concluded’ (1893), they make a perfect map— a map on the scale of one mile to one mile. When one character asked was it used, the responses was as follows:

"It has never been spread out, yet, the farmers objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well.”

This puts into humorous terms the impossibility of an accurate map. Human involvement causes maps to lose their objectivity. This gave me the freedom to create my own subjective map. I borrowed globe gores, road lines and contour lines, having no obligation to scale, map type, or indeed the truth, to prove the subjectivity of every map. I have used a mixture of hand embroidery and multihead embroidery to create this piece.

What’s your favourite part of the designing process?

I love dying fabric, all the layers are hand dyed. I think its a very therapeutic and rewarding process.

Did your vision and way of working change in the past year?

I had begun working with maps last year so I think I knew there was a lot more to discover and that my work would still revolve around cartography. I think the way I work hasn't changed much either, but I have become more confident in my process.

Jessica Sheil

Mairead Fox

Recently graduated from The National College of Art of Design

BA Hons in Textile Surface Design.

She specialised in printed textiles for fashion. Recently Mairead won a Future Makers Award for innovative use of materials.

Q1:What was the main inspiration for your collection?

The main motivation behind my work is to create fabrics with a tactility and sensibility. I wanted to create sensory experiences through raised surfaces, tactile quality and considered detail. My final Graduate collection was titled Touch, Handle & Interaction. The idea behind the collection was to create fabrics which provoked a touch response. As a material designer I feel I have a responsibility to enhance the way we interact with the fabrics we wear. I wanted to create a collection which was very considered and really reflected both my personality and my practice.

Q2:What’s your favourite part of the designing process?

The designing process for me is all about considering each stage of the process and bringing them together to create something which is very clear and coherent. I feel I am always working toward a particular aesthetic, with a certain look and feel in mind. For myself the excitement starts at the sampling stage where most of my creating happens.The reason I specialised in printed textiles was because I liked the immediate nature of creating something. I enjoy seeing how each design can respond uniquely across different fabrics. I work on the balance of creation and response, which I feel allows for a freedom in my work.

Q3:Did your vision and way of working change in the past year?

Mairead Wall

Third Year

Textile Art and Artefact

What was the main inspiration for your collection?

My collection was driven by the collaboration of old and new. I wanted to combine hand and machine techniques to create pieces that had their own unique aesthetic. In particular I was inspired by Aran knitting techniques, such as cabling and diamonds, as aran garments are recognised world wide as Irish. I wanted to infuse these traditional Irish techniques with a contemporary twist by using modern techniques of transfer printing and machine knitting. Using simple garment shapes and playful colours and patterns I drew inspiration from my own childhood in order to bing my own past and present together.

What’s your favourite part of the design process?

I have a very tactile approach and I am always driven by hands on techniques. I love to construct and build fabric and garments by experimenting through knitting. Sampling is my favourite part of the design process as it allows me the scope to try new things and explore new materials in unexpected ways. Did your vision and way of working change in the past year? The biggest change for me in the last year has been realising that I wanted to work through knitwear. Before I had been nervous about pigeonholing myself too early, but in the past year I have been able to focus on what skills I wanted to build for my career and I realised that knitwear design felt very natural to me.

Did your vision and way of working change in the past year?

The biggest change for me in the last year has been realising that I wanted to work through knitwear. Before I had been nervous about pigeonholing myself too early, but in the past year I have been able to focus on what skills I wanted to build for my career and I realised that knitwear design felt very natural to me.

Donal Geheran

Second Year Paint

ink drawings

What was the main inspiration for your prints?

Repetition, patterns and the mind.

What’s your favourite part of the creative process?

The process itself. Did your vision and way of working change in the past year?

No.