Mastering the mundane at Gray's Postgraduate Show

Postgraduate students at Gray's School of Art have been hard at work over the summer months preparing for the Masters Degree Show exhibition which launches tonight (Friday 3 September).

Anna Shirron (24) from Peterhead, the 2007 BP Fine Art Award winner, has been mastering 'the ugly face of beauty' in her final-year project, questioning the pre-conceived ideas in art and society of 'what is beautiful'.

Looking specifically at areas of Aberdeen deemed less aesthetically pleasing, Anna's work discovers whether adding something ordinary but beautiful to a site can change people's perceptions of it.

Anna's exhibit consists of large-scale intricate pattern work cut from plain everyday white paper which is displayed on the walls and floor of her exhibition space, taking inspiration from the surrounding scenery of Gray's, and basing her patterns on the view from her studio windows.

Anna explains: "My work looks at whether our views on what we consider ugly, plain or ordinary can be changed by the use of decoration or patterns. By taking my bare exhibition space and filling it with these unusual detailed patterns, I am showing how our judgement of something 'plain' is altered by a simple, but effective decoration."

On the same theme, Matthew Wickham (39) from Drumoak has also been making an artistic statement out of ordinary, everyday objects.

Matthew's exhibit, entitled 'Museum of the Hyperreal: Boo inside the White Cube', explores the work of his split personality: Matthew the student, who curates and showcases his work; and his alter-ego 'Boo Simulacrum' - the outsider artist he becomes.

Fully immersing himself in Boo's character - complete with costume - to produce and create thought-provoking art, Matthew examines the difficult relationship artists on the fringes of society have with formal galleries such as his 'White Cube Gallery'.

Giving significance to the seemingly everyday and mundane activities of 'real' people, Matthew hopes to challenge the exclusive and bourgeois nature of the formal gallery context.

When morphed into 'the outsider artist', Matthew wears a long dirty jacket, boots and hat, reflecting undertones of Boo's personality: vagrancy, addiction and multiple-personality syndrome. As well as hand-made furniture including a bed, table and chair, a dressing-up box and a film-projection, Matthew's installation incorporates other materials or 'residue' of Boo's time spent 'dossing' in the gallery such as empty alcohol bottles and cigarette butts.

Matthew explains: "I am inspired by the plight of the under-privileged, under- valued and disenfranchised members of society; in other words, the outsider."

Iain Irving, Course Leader for the Masters Course, said: "The Masters Degree Show is the culmination of an intense full year of development and study by the students. The course supports committed practitioners who are keen to further develop their work into the cultural and professional sphere."

The Masters Degree Show is an opportunity for the 21-strong cohort of Master of Fine Art and Master of Design students to publicly exhibit their stimulating new work. The exhibition will showcase a diverse range of socially and critically engaged work using time-based media, painting, installation, performance and photography from tomorrow's talented conceptual thinkers, artists and designers.

After its launch tonight (Friday 3 September), the exhibition will continue at Gray's School of Art, Garthdee Road, Aberdeen until Saturday 11 September. It is open to the public from 10am-8pm Monday to Friday, and 10am-5pm on Saturdays.

Please visit www.rgu.ac.uk/mastersdegreeshow for more information.

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