East Sussex College Rising #Talent Art Exhibition

Art students from East Sussex College showcase their work to a wider audience in an exhibition at Hastings Arts Forum

The exhibition features the work of Fine Art, Art & Design, Fashion Textiles and Photography students at the college, and includes self-portraits, construction pieces and landscapes.

Niamh Fitzsimmons, Art & Design Diploma student from the Lewes campus, developed ‘Broken’, a piece of work made from plaster, intaglio ink and recycled plastic pipes.

Talking about her art, she said,

“These sculptures explore the plight of refugees from Syria. The shards of plaster cast-etching around the cylindrical forms concern the plight of families and individuals who have fled their home country due to the ongoing civil war. These fragmented images, taken from media, have appeared online and have been printed in newspapers and magazines all across the Western world, showing the emotional strain and physical anguish that many of these people have endured over the past eight years. In fact, this exhibition opens the very week that the Syrian War will enter its eighth year of internal conflict. The broken shards of pottery visually communicate the idea that their domestic home has been disintegrated.”

Other student work explores themes of identity, work inspired by Russian artists and Renaissance painters. A total of 25 pieces are from East Sussex College students.

Rising Talent offers young and emerging artists the opportunity to submit work to be exhibited and always features a broad range of exciting and innovative new work.

This is the fourth Rising Talent exhibition at Hastings Arts Forum and runs until 15th September.

Art & Design Diploma student Chloe Laforest had her work featured in Charleston’s ‘Home’ exhibition earlier this year. Her installation has been reconstructed for Rising Talent (this time it’s on dry land) and depicts the plight of refugees who have fled their homes in search of a safe haven, but the grim reality is that many lives are lost at sea.