Glasgow School of Art MFA Interim Show 2025

The Scotsman

COMMA MFA Interim Show 2025 29 March – 3 April Glue Factory, 22 Farnell St, Glasgow G4 9SE  Colourful, thought provoking and inventive work from this year's latest cohort of talented young GSA artists.  The MFA Interim Show brings together artworks by 51 students in the first year of the MFA programme at The Glasgow School of Art.  A wide range of art forms are represented in the exhibition including painting, performance, sound, video, printmaking and sculpture.   From plastic sheets and acrylic panels to pom-poms, paper and printed fabrics - vivid oil paintings, video and live performance to field recordings and installations.

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Roddy Hunter, I'm Programme Leader of the Master of Fine Art programme at the

00:03Glasgow School of Art.

00:04We're here in the glue factory in Maryhill and we're really excited because tonight we're

00:08going to open the MFA Interim Show, which is a fantastic exhibition of 50 artists from

00:15all over the world who have now completed the first year of the two-year MFA programme

00:20at the Glasgow School of Art.

00:22Students from all sorts of backgrounds, all sorts of countries, it's just an amazingly

00:26inspiring thing to walk around the studios and constantly see all the creative ways that

00:30people work.

00:31As an artist myself, it's the most inspiring place to be.

00:34My name is Eimear Atkinson, I'm a painter, sculptor and drawer.

00:39Being part of the Interim MFA Show with GSA has been so important to my practice.

00:44It's evolved greatly, I've been able to explore different mediums and ways of working and

00:50I've been influenced by people around me.

00:52My practice is always a constant exploration of painting and situating it in a field of inquiry.

01:00As a cohort we all came together and we worked the space really well and I'm really happy

01:05and I think everyone else is as well with how the show has come out.

01:09I think all the work complements each other in a really lovely way.

01:13It's speaking to each other across the room but there's such a diverse range of works

01:16as well and that's something really beautiful in the exploration of the MFA course.

01:21My name is Martin Newth, I'm the head of the School of Fine Arts at the Glasgow School of Art.

01:25One of the things we really like to do with our students in the School of Fine Arts is

01:30give them opportunities to engage with the city and get their work out into the city

01:34and invite audiences to come and see their work in different kinds of spaces.

01:39So this is the third this week actually, so this week we've also had some of our BA students

01:44and two other amazing spaces in Glasgow, we've had them at the Govan Project space where

01:49third year photography students have been and we've also been at Strangefield in French Street

01:54which is another fabulous space.

01:57So one of the things this is fantastic for is it gives students an opportunity to really

02:01work with these super interesting spaces which have a kind of, they're not quite white cube

02:06spaces but they have a kind of feel of being kind of temporary and provisional but also

02:12give a great opportunity to see the work in a kind of different light outside the studio.

02:17So I'm Sebastian Lindemann, I'm really really enjoying this course specifically because

02:22of all the collaborative opportunities it provides, it's something I've felt I've been

02:28missing a lot in my undergrads and I don't know what it is but the people just seem open

02:35to it and for me as a photographer it's quite nice to be a part of the whole crew in the

02:41sense of like I can document for them, I can help them visualise their work and also

02:46just come up with collaborative pieces which is quite a nice thing.

02:50Seeing where everything fits, what plays well with each other, where do you put the installations,

02:56what kind of room do they need, so yeah I think it's a really important experience for

03:00everyone to do a show this size at some point.

03:03So I think a group show is so vital for them to see how their work interacts with other

03:07students' work, so how these different practices can kind of be in dialogue with each other.

03:12So what you see when you come in here is how paintings that have been made in the studio

03:15for example sit next to a sculptural work and how you can see they're actually set up

03:20all these kind of small little conversations and little kind of dialogues between the work.

03:26It also gives them an opportunity to be in a space where they can talk about their work

03:30with the rest of the group and so all of next week they'll have group critiques when they'll

03:35discuss work and discuss how it's operating and how it is for a viewer to navigate these works.

03:42So that's why it's such a key kind of learning experience, thinking about how a viewer actually

03:46navigates different works and sees them in different ways, with different speeds and

03:52different kind of distances from the work and really thinking about what it is to think

03:57about that sort of nature of the encounter with an artwork.

04:00Yeah, it's been really interesting to exchange as well, like seeing how everyone approaches

04:05their work stemming from these vast variety of cultural backgrounds, so it really I think

04:13is reflected in the work but also in a lot of people's thinking as well.

04:17There's an incredible track record of success of this programme. Artists who graduate from

04:23this programme are well known in the art world internationally and the great thing is they're

04:28part of our extended community. So in addition to the staff who are teaching on the course,

04:33we also regularly have visiting artists come in who've been graduates of the course and

04:38now in their own right are leading artists, Turner Prize winners and so on. But the Turner

04:43Prize is just one metric. What we're about is making sure that these artists know how

04:47to direct and sustain their own practice for the audiences they want to work with, for

04:51the locations they want to work in, in the practices that they're going to work in all

04:55over the world. So it's just so exciting and it's just such a big part of Glasgow that

05:00we attract these students from all over the world to come here and work with us. So we're

05:04still a creative city that people want to come and work in.

05:07My name's Hanine Hadi, I am originally from Iraq, born in Glasgow. My practice is based

05:13around my cultural heritage, my family history and what it means to grow up into different

05:21geographical locations and adapt to different cultures, both my Iraqi and my Scottish culture.

05:30The work shown at Calma today is titled Mourning and it's an installation in memory of the

05:37Martyrs. Martyrs are usually really soft, delicate human beings with really soft, pure

05:46intentioned souls. So that's the reason why I've chosen to print on tracing paper, it's

05:52the most kind of delicate paper that one can print on. So throughout the process of printing

06:00on this scroll and also hanging the scroll, I had to be really gentle with the work and

06:09it kind of brings this idea of introducing the gentleness of the Martyrs who sacrificed

06:15their lives for the sake of their homeland.

06:17We open tonight, 6 o'clock to 9 o'clock, everyone's welcome, you don't need an invitation, come

06:21on down, see all this amazing work. There's also a performance programme this evening

06:25as well, in addition to all this amazing painting, sculpture, video, moving image work, everything

06:30that you could possibly hope to see in terms of contemporary art. We're open on the weekend,

06:34Saturday, Sunday, 10 till 5 and all the way through till next Thursday, inclusive 10 till

06:395 as well, so lots of opportunity to come down. And there's also a performance happening

06:44at lunchtime, 1 till 2 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, that's going to be a real knockout.

06:49So if you're looking for something to do on your lunch hour, come on down and see us then.

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