Launch Pad: Manchester School of Art, Graduates 2014

Castlefield Gallery (CG) is pleased to present new work by Ian Malhotra, Emily Rusby, and Sunshinejack, three graduates from the Manchester School of Art. Co-selected by CG’s Director Kwong Lee and Manchester School of Art, Head of Art and Associate Dean Penny Macbeth, from the 2014 BA (Hons) Fine Art and Interactive Arts degree shows, Launch Pad: Manchester School of Art, Graduates 2014 is the second in a series of three annual exhibitions profiling the most promising artists coming out of the school.

For this exhibition Malhotra, Rusby, and Sunshinejack present new work including drawing, video and sculpture. Though their practices are diverse, a conversation about the effects of technology on our lives runs throughout the exhibition; with references to the exchange of goods and information, government secrecy, warfare, and human interaction via digital media.

Rusby’s recent work is informed by the continued stockpiling of data by governments and big business, largely without the permission of the people surveyed; treating individuals like data machines that create constant streams of information to be harvested and commodified. For this exhibition Rusby’s Untitled Vending Machine 2 (2015) invites visitors to participate as the custodians and disseminators of information. Malhotra interrupts the instantaneous transfer of imagery across the internet with his labored drawings which reproducing images found online with Morse code. Though repetition each of the handmade marks that make up Malhotra’s drawings are unavoidably unique, unlike the determinate 1 or 0 of binary code. Manifesting digital images with an almost 200 year-old system of communication based on the same binary system used in modern computing, presents potential mixed messages about the sensory side of technologies. Sunshinejack appropriates material from many sources, including working with leaked footage of US military action, terrorist activity on social media and retro toys to produce sculptural and video works. At times with a dark sense of humour Sunshinejack’s work, like the work of the other artists in the exhibition, expresses both the power and ubiquity of modern technologies. The ease of their availability and potential to do just as much bad as good, hiding or leaking secrets, communicating with friends, spying on strangers, documenting our lives and alienating us from reality.

Preview: Thurs 26 March 2015, 6-9pm (All welcome)

Part of CG New Art Spaces Federation House: OPEN HOUSE

Exhibition Continues: 27-29 March 2015 Open: 1-6pm

Venue: Federation House, Federation St / Balloon St, Manchester M4 2AH