Graduate show aglow with students creative spark
A new stream of design and artistic talent are revealing their fresh creations at the celebrated Edinburgh College of Art’s Graduate Show.
Illustrations inspired by family dynamics, a film profiling a complex father-son relationship and an ecological city design inspired by the structure of a dining table are among the highlights.
The week-long exhibition offers a captivating visual display of more than 150 postgraduate students’ portfolios.
The visionary works – which explore new possibilities for the disciplines of Art, Design, Architecture and Landscape Architecture – will be on show from 20 to 26 August at Lauriston Place.
The Graduate Show is taking place across two venues – the University’s Edinburgh College of Art Main Building and Evolution House.
The event is part of the acclaimed Edinburgh Art Festival, which attracts audiences from around the world.
Attend the Graduate Show 2022
The Graduate Show will take place between the 20 - 26 August 2022.
Entry is free and booking is advised to allow monitoring of the capacity of the building, but walk-ins are welcome.
Dynamic exhibition
The dynamic designs on show draw on a range of influences and themes including sustainable design, cities of the future and the complexities of human relationships.
The work reflects the spectrum of design and artistic skills training on offer at Edinburgh College of Art, including emerging disciplines such as artificial intelligence, digital art and immersive experiences.
Artistic collaboration is a key part of postgraduate training for students and there are examples of group portfolios also on display.
The students’ portfolios can also be viewed on the Graduate Show website.
Viewers from more than 100 countries have visited the online hub since its launch last year.
At Edinburgh College of Art we have a firm belief in the value of sharing new possibilities. This show provides a unique insight into the creative minds of the future, and an important glimpse into how they are adapting to a rapidly changing world. We are immensely proud of the commitment and energy of our students and staff who make this exhibition happen.
This year’s Masters Show features portfolios from a number of programmes including MA Design for Change; MA Interior, Architectural and Spatial Design; MA Illustration; MA Graphic Design; MA/MSc Design Informatics; MA Film Directing; MFA Glass, MA Contemporary Art Practice, MA Material Practice and ESALA – Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape.
Works to look out for include Dette Allmark’s illustration project Lines of Inheritance, that weaves together stories from myths and personal biographies to play out a strange and mysterious tale. The work uses a variety of printmaking techniques such as etching, linocutting and monoprinting as well as drawings, illustrations and paintings.
Filmmaker Sam Bassett has created a short documentary featuring a father and son attempting to navigate the turbulence of parenthood and youth. Atur shares the story of their common identity, which both blossoms and isolates them as people.
The work of Contemporary Art Practice student Hannah Cash uses choreography, moving image and sculptural installations. Working with her twin sister Jasmine, the artist questions how the body is viewed and explores its potential for choreography. The terrain and landscape of North Wales inspires the work called, Draw the body back in to me / Dod â’r corff yn ôl imewn imi’ (Welsh title).
Elizabeth Finley’s Design for Change portfolio, Freshened Waters, offers a solution to help people engage with freshwater ecosystems when feeding waterfowl. The design proposes a food stall located at St Margaret’s Loch at Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, to share eco-friendly bird feed and freshwater health information with the community.
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Student portfolios
Zhipeng Han’s Architectural and Urban Design project, Proximity Theatre, is a collaboration with a four-person design team called Close Studio. The project explores the relationship between people, the city and nature, revealing a design concept focusing on Edinburgh closes – the small alleyways and courtyards typically found in the Old Town.
Karla Spahic’s Interior, Architectural and Spatial Design project, harmoneED, scrutinizes how objects and people move in relation to each other. It explores the strategic placement of structure, openings, lighting and furniture to provide opportunities of interaction and inclusivity, as well as creating spaces that harmonise company and privacy.
Jiarong Yu’ s Design Informatics portfolio is based on a group project called Crowd Reality, which takes inspiration from the distinctions between the digital world and the physical realm. The project combines a virtual game with a physical garment that provides users with the experience of being in a crowd. Other student collaborators on the project are Root Cai, Philip Han, Jiatong Liu, Sihong Liu, Honya Rara, Thomas Stewart and Rui Wu.
Yi Zhang’s Architecture and Urban Design portfolio is part of group project with fellow student’s Zhang Yi, Chen Lu, Wang Tzuyen, Wang Weilin. Sporadic Ecologies uses a daily object – a dining table – to represent multi-ecologies interwoven in human life. The table represents the potential crisis of Edinburgh’s food ecology, with excessive reliance on imports and increasingly long food miles, exposing the city to a potential food crisis.
ECA’s postgraduate study programmes give students the opportunity to engage in an intellectual and personal challenge in their chosen field of enquiry, while working with research-active academics.