I recently qualified with an MA in Fine Art. My work is based on my local woodland landscape in Boughton Under Blean, illuminated by failing light and the moon. I am interested in symbols of figure and landscape and the traces left by past inhabitants. I constantly re-visit preferred sites, then re-work and re-order. My explorations explore beyond the evident as I seek to reveal images as ciphers and signs of the unknown.

These paintings and prints and installations inhabit a world of moons, chasms, openings, and recessive forms, treasures beneath are preserved and commemorated within a cool dark abyss, a labyrinth of the subconscious, uncovering what is in the human heart. This is a world of ciphers and symbols, leaving only the question “what is real?” little pieces of memory to entice and beguile.”

I am interested in developing prints as 3D installations that evoke a sense of sacred significance involving participants in the natural world that they have been removed from.

Location: Boughton Under Blean
Website: www.ruthmcdonald.co.uk
Contact: ruth.mcdonald@tesco.net

I am researching the topic of “Personality and Working Conditions.” The project approaches the theme using photography, video and installation. The photography series explores the oppressive dimension of uniformity at work in particular business fields. Furthermore, it looks at the way this might impact an employee’s personality, the different and competing roles an employee might encounter, as well as their consequences. The images are largely based on my personal experiences in working for various corporations as well as from field research I have conducted in the form of audio and video interviews; the participants were former colleagues of mine and employees from different professions. They also describe the certain ideological pressures I encountered. Moreover, a visual exploration – is attempted – of how these experiences might be interpreted to create a story using photography as expanded collage with actors and post-production.

In my field research in Greece, I have encountered many instances where people feel exploited; with these individuals giving accounts of how their personality is limited or endangered when confronted with the ideological structures of corporate giants. Employees have to alter their personality in accordance with the corporation’s desires and policies. Part of the videos explore the difference of perception employees might have concerning everyday notions related with the workplace and how films can be incorporated in order to build dialectics, between perceived reality and fantasy. Another part – experimental in nature – seeks to highlight the process of altering ones physical appearance – due to work policies – and the impact this might have on personality. The installation – an extension – of the project, challenges the very limits of personality, by detaching self from self. Nowadays, as the line between work and exploitation becomes ever more uncertain, this is an area that urgently calls for attention in all fields including artistic practice.

Location: Chatham – Rochester
Website: www.nikitasalmpanis.com
Contact: nikitasalb@gmail.com

Jennifer Price is an artist intrigued by the association of art, artist and viewer, and the interaction between these elements. She takes man-made objects that perform a task for us in modern society and inks them up and prints them. Two main elements underpin her work; the first of these elements concerns dimensions. Jennifer takes a recognisable object, such as a television, that is three-dimensional and prints it so that it is splayed out flat onto a canvas; turning the 3d into 2d, and removing its purpose and function. The second element underlying her work is its association with stereotypical, psychiatric “Inkblots”. The concept behind this aspect is the creativity of the viewer as much as the art or artists themselves. Similarly to a psychiatrist’s inkblot, the imagination is invited and the accidental can become a whole new image: the emergence of creativity.  By using a recognisable object to begin with it challenges the viewer further, asking them to look beyond the obvious. Their interpretation is their own, and not the artists: they become the works meaning.

Jennifer sees artist, art and audience as all part of a piece of work. In her work they are inseparable.

Her aim is to take this idea further, constantly refining it and reacting to society and her position in it. The work will always be evolving.

Price has recently received recognition for the exhibitions she has been organising in her hometown. Tackling the issues of art recognition outside of London Price began with her local area around Maidstone UK, organising non-profit “THE/RE:Generation” exhibition in a vacant shop in the heart of the town. Bringing together local artists at all stages of their career, local and national celebrities, the town council, local businesses and trades people, both local and national press and media recognition and the public she began her aim of creating a local network, with art as its catalyst, that all members can benefit from. Life was brought to a desolate area affected by the recession and opportunities were created for artists. The main aim Price is working towards with shows like this is rejuvenating and creating vibrant art scenes outside of the traditional areas such as London. She is creating new opportunities for artists, and refreshing a buzz about art in areas that are often overlooked by the art clique. Jennifer wants to bring art back to all the public.

Location: Maidstone
Website: www.jenniferpriceart.com
Contact: art-at-heart@hotmail.co.uk

My work will be in the Canterbury Art Fair once again this year, my studio practice is based in London and Relubbus, Cornwall although I have ongoing work in Wales, Devon and associations with Dungeness, Deal and the Kent coast where my interests are both historical and geographic.
My work is based on the concept of drawing as a research medium, using absolute generality through such materials as may be appropriate, fishing line, sailcloth or caulking oakum to quote a sample which in turn has fostered wider interest in textiles based work as well as paper based drawing and community arts events.

Website: www.axisweb.org/artist/jonathanpolkest
Contact: jonathan_polkest@hotmail.com

The focus of much of my work is on archaeological and ethnographic collections, of the kind that were common in museums fifty years ago but are now found more rarely. The twist is that although the battered and decaying objects in these “collections” look as though they are the booty of some long forgotten expedition, they are in fact made by the artist.

On one level a collection is a metaphor for memory. Museums are a form of collective memory, but a memory that needs the interpretation of the curator for it to make any sense. My cabinets and cases seem to have lost that narrative. If there are labels, they are blank; the significance and purpose of the objects is obscure, as is their age and geographical origin; we are left wondering who collected them and why. This is the tragedy of memory – it is at the heart of what makes us human, but suffers a continuous depletion.

On another level, these works are not real collections at all but inventions. Museum collections depend for their integrity upon the notion of authenticity; I made these myself, so is my collection a fiction? In a sense, my objects have their own authenticity. After all they are not imitations of other things, but exist in their own right. Even so, their outward appearance as collected relics verges on the misleading. Perhaps memories are like that too – a raw material that is shaped to fit into a personal narrative.

Location: Lamberhurst
Website: www.julianrowe.co.uk
Contact: info@julianrowe.co.uk

Installation, collections, cartography and curiosities.

Location: Margate
Website: www.stevemcpherson.co.uk
Contact: info@stevemcpherson.co.uk