Gerry Walker introduces the class of 2011 art college graduates unified by their rejection of postmodern ennui.
Most of the contemporary crop of art college graduates are under twenty-five and, typical of their generation, they operate within different codes of media literacy. Many of today’s aspirant artist practitioners employ a ‘medium bleed’ that intermingles and redefines traditional forms of painting, sculpture and photography. This process began with European Expressionists like the German painters and filmmakers Heartfield and Hans Richter. These were the photo-collagist agitprop artists of the 1920s–1930s who found the more orthodox forms of painting and sculpture too constricting for an ever-widening range of expressive imperatives. The prime movers were the Dadaists and Surrealists exemplified by Marcel Duchamp, culminating in the development of intermedia and multimedia from the 1960s onwards.
Stephanie McBride talks to Mike Bunn about the craft of old school photography and his plans to establish an academy for photographers
Losing faith in the early success of her work led Miseon Lee on a journey of self-discovery, both in artistic terms and geographically, writes James Hanley