April (She/Her)
April (B.1998) is a Glasgow based Contemporary Artist, currently graduating from the BA (Hons) Fine Art, Sculpture and Environmental Art course at the Glasgow School of Art. Her most recent exhibitions include: Surplus Saltspace Gallery Glasgow, Exhibit A Govan Project Space Glasgow, SSA Royal Scottish Academy Edinburgh and West VAS at the Briggait Glasgow.
Www.Aprill.co.uk
Undergraduate Degree Show, Living Landscape (2023)
Living Landscape, is the title of my Year 4 studio-based project, in which I explore my long-standing relation to the natural world and to landscape, through a very specific material focus.
In early September of 2022, I initiated contact with the Scottish Leather Group- A conglomerate of local Glasgow based tanneries near Paisley- Using artistic intervention into industry, as a form of Environmentalism and to acquire surplus material for Visual Arts Exploration. Scottish Leather Group (SLG) already have their own in-house circular economy, they recycle all non-dyed offcuts into fuel, using an on-site thermal energy plant at Bridge of Weir. However, my intervention has emerged as SLG cannot recycle dyed hides or scraps, thus opening window for the collection of quality material for free. Several tours of SLG facilities highlighted the suitability of our collaboration, fusing my own sustainability conscious visual arts practice with the producers of the world’s lowest carbon intensive leather.
Leather is a curious material, to work with it means to acknowledge its continual rebirth in the world. It is synonymous with heated environmental debate and often poses itself within dichotomous debate regarding its classification; Natural/ artificial, nature/ culture, living/ non-living. Thus, disseminating notions of Posthumanism, New Materialism and the imbued agency of rural landscape.
A huge part of my project regards the situation of Craftwork in Contemporary Art Practice, as I employ a faux amateur position to leatherworking. Challenging notions of Aesthetics/ Functionality as I hand fabricate garments such as purses and cushions.
I am using artistic processes of Casting and Printmaking, in a similar manor, by rejecting their discipline specific stereotypes of mass production and similarity. Instead, producing modular unique pieces which contribute to much larger installation works. In doing so, context becomes half of the work- Bridging the gap between artistic and curatorial space.
My Undergraduate Degree Show encompasses eight A1 framed abstract Screen Prints, ten cast domed cylinders encapsulating SLG surplus, one largescale pine wood structure concealed by a full orange aniline dyed hide, handmade oak dowels and a fiery orange wall work.
‘Thus, things are active not because they are imbued with agency, but because of the ways in which they are caught up in these currents of the lifeworld’ – T.Ingold, Materials Against Materiality (2007).
Www.aprill.co.uk
McLaren Orange (2023)
McLaren Orange (2023) was a site specific installation work at Govan Project Space, Glasgow. It was part of the Year 4 Sculpture and Environmental Art showcase of student work titled ‘Exhibit A’.
One large cow hide is stretched across a flat walled surface, blurring the boundaries of the work as it transgresses into surrounding space, blurring the distinction between human and other. It is modular yet haphazard, dynamic and theatrical- Gifting a contemporary flare to age old materials.
The work points to landscape, animacy, thingness and agency. Challenging notions of New Materialism and Posthumanism.
Materials- Surplus Scottish Leather Group material, Waste Scots Pine from GSA Degree Show 2022, Oak dowels, Waxed thread and Spray paint.
Project Links
Surplus Exhibition (2023) The Axiom Building, Glasgow.
March (2023) witnessed the launch of April and Garrett’s most recent exhibition, titled Surplus, at Saltspace Gallery, The Axiom Building, Glasgow. The show gave both artists an opportunity out with the confides of the Art School to test work prior to their Undergraduate Degree show in June.
The exhibition encompassed an array of abstract sculptural artworks fabricated using surplus material, from both the Scottish Leather Group and Glasgow Wood Recycling Centre. By bringing such mediums into a visual art context, the artists, through a heavy focus on materiality and sculptural process, seek to gift them a new found identity. Thus, challenging the ways in which we categorize materials as different from one another.
Project Links
