Student show-offs
Art students go virtual with online graduate celebration
ARTWORKS from more than 400 graduating Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) students are to be shared with a global audience by means of a virtual graduate show. The online experience celebrates the fresh creative talent of this year’s ECA graduates, showing their ingenuity and imagination while overcoming the challenge of the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The student portfolios will appear on the digital platform and draw on a range of influences and themes, including climate change, the digital world, identity and belonging.
Pandemic restrictions meant that many of the students sought inspiration and value from everyday objects and their homes and adapted their practice by experimenting with different materials and ideas.
The platform builds on the success of last year’s online show which attracted more than 100,000 views from more than 100 countries.
The Graduate Show website has more than 4,000 pieces of media from 35 degree programmes from 28 subjects, including paintings and drawings, architectural plans and models, animations and digital visualisations, musical compositions and performances, film, photography, textiles, jewellery and interior design.
ECA Principal Professor, Juan Cruz, said: “The class of 2021 has shown remarkable tenacity and ingenuity to navigate the extreme challenges and difficulties of the past year. It is really extraordinary to see what they have achieved and how they have responded to these circumstances, and I know the shows will enable us all to reflect on our own experiences of these times. The virtual show builds on the success of last year’s online event opening up new possibilities for our graduates and future degree shows, with the smaller on campus show providing us with a welcome opportunity to start carefully to inhabit our buildings again.”
The online graduate show runs