Published on: Thursday, 26 May 2022

MTU Crawford College of Art & Design’s final year students in Contemporary Applied Art, Creative Digital Media, Fine Art, and Visual Communications will display their work in two separate exhibitions. Information can be found at  http://crawford.mtu.ie. 

The Crawford’s Department of Media Communications, has two honours degree courses – one in Visual Communications and one in Creative Digital Media.  Here, exceptional skills and ingenuity in graphic design, illustration, animation, interactive media design, photography, film, gaming, VR, and video are showcased.  Viewers of the degree shows can expect to see exciting and engaging work, such as Nikola Loska a final student in creative digital media, who’s project is entitled ‘Fragmented Descent’. It is a 3D first person puzzle horror game based in Eastern Europe. It primarily uses an aesthetic approach to invoke a sense of surrealism in a world that makes no sense. The project reflects her passion for aesthetics, storytelling, 3D visualisation and illustration.

Val Renehan, in her first exhibition as Head of Department of Media Communications said ‘This year, the Visual Communications & Creative Digital Media students work is a reflection of not just their creativity & talents but their awareness & connection with the world, the things that matter to them from a local community and global perspective. Their work highlights the importance & necessity to engage in visual discourse, visual communication and visual problem solving in static, moving & interactive forms as valuable strategic tools for social, economic and cultural change. Project topics include; appearance anxiety, sustainable graphic design, the future of humanity, elderly isolation, pollination, mental health empowerment, tangible smartphone connections and more.’

The Department of Fine Art and Applied Art, has honours degree courses in Contemporary Applied Art (Ceramics, Glass, Textiles) and Fine Art.  You will have the opportunity to view an extraordinary range of visual art practices ranging from drawing and painting through textiles, glass, sculpture, photography and film to digital media installation. Chris Sophie Van Der Vlugt is a final year student in contemporary applied art. In this series called, ‘Growth’, she communicates the difficult effects of cancer through abstraction. She says, “In my works I show systems of repetition, and disrupt these systems either by deformation, addition or breaking the pattern I create.”

Image: “Growth” by (Chris Sophie Van Der Vlugt), BA Hons Contemporary Applied Art

Trish Brennan, Head of the Department of Fine Art and Applied Art is excited that there will be no restrictions or need for controlled booking systems this year, and final year students will have the opportunity to engage audiences with their exhibitions directly: “The Crawford College’s Degree Exhibitions are one of the highlights of Cork’s cultural calendar, and the final year students of 2022 have overcome considerable challenges to present their exhibitions exploring a broad range of research areas.   We are incredibly proud of our students’ hard work and creativity over the last few years. Due to the pandemic restrictions, these cohorts have made their artworks under the most challenging circumstances.  The work produced has undeniably been influenced by a period of global crisis and change when nothing feels fixed or certain. However, it’s also been an exciting time to produce artwork as new challenges and circumstances have, for many, caused the work to take unforetold directions. Visitors will have the opportunity to support exciting new artists and to acquire work by new, emerging talents”.

Image: “Fragmented Descent” by (Nikola Loska), BA Hons Creative Digital Media