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In 2018, the group of artists whose work can be seen in this exhibition, first entered through this studio’s doors. Those artists were very different individuals, and the world was a very different place. Seeing the development of this group of creative thinkers/makers has been a privilege, but what is the most impressive factor in witnessing this journey is the resilience and agility demonstrated in the last year or so. These artists have switched modes, sites, disciplinary directions, all the time responding positively to what the uncertainty of our landscape has demanded of them. The spirit and dedication that has been displayed is testament to a cohort whose creativity and determination as a group translates into the work seen before us in this show.

 

The show itself is a collection of artworks that embody the journey these individuals have been on together over the past three years. There are too many themes and concerns at play within these works to pick out any single examples in this text, but what can be identified as being universally present is an attention to shifting relationships with space. What resonates in these artworks is a collective attention to the materiality, and perhaps liminality, of the spaces we occupy, with others and as others. There is attention paid to our bodies in space, the natural world, our domestic environments – the list goes on. Our understanding of our relationships with people and places has, through recent shared local and global events, forced a rethinking of the space around us and how we navigate it. This show questions that space and asks its audience to reconsider where we find ourselves now, what brought us here, and where we are heading.

 

The word sanctum has a rich etymology, with most roads of derivation leading back to private retreats, sacred places, and spaces free from intrusion. The Fine Art Class of 2021’s decision to title this show Sanctum is perhaps a clue to the collective thinking at play in this exhibition. This studio has, for the past three years, been a place of risk, experimentation, and necessary uncertainty. Artist studios are where things are tried out and decisions are made about what is made public for exhibition and what remains private. The studio, as a safe space, has never felt as important and necessary as it has over the past year. What can now be witnessed in this studio and its con-nected exhibition spaces is a public manifestation of what has been private. These works are the material of these artists’ imaginations made manifest, protected by the studio in which they are housed. The relationship that has developed between these artists, their studio, and their life at university can be considered as a space in itself, and it is this space, certainly in the eyes of this writer, that is the sanctum.

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