The 2023 University of Edinburgh Art Collection Graduate Show Purchase Prize has been awarded to Edinburgh College of Art graduating students Ammna Sheikh, Ffion Williams, and Tanatsei Gambura.
Ammna, BA (Hons) Intermedia, Ffion, BA (Hons) Fine Art, and Tanatsei, BA (Hons) Intermedia, were selected for the annual prize from the ECA Graduate Show exhibition in June. As recipients of the prize, they were awarded a fixed fee in exchange for a piece of their work, which will be added to the University’s Art Collection.
The artists are working with the University Art Collection curatorial team to decide on which aspect of their Graduate Show work they would like to be added to the collection.
Curator at the University of Edinburgh Art Collections Claire Walsh said: “The University’s Art Collection will be enriched by the addition of works by Tanatsei, Ammna and Ffion. In different ways, these artists are dealing with urgent realities: living with digital technologies, understanding the colonial legacies that continue to haunt our present, and negotiating the entanglements of language and identity.
“At first Ffion’s hanging canvases could be defiant protest banners but a closer look at the painted phrases reveals the self-consciousness of negotiating an unfamiliar language. Urdu, Arabic, Persian and English meet in Ammna’s work. Her installation contrasts digitally produced images with the labourious process she undertakes in weaving them together by hand. Tanastsei uses digital means to confront the viewer with the privilege of their own gaze in Chameleon, a beautiful counterpoint to the usual one-way street of observing works of art.
“This was a truly impressive trio of Graduate Show presentations and we look forward to continuing our conversations with the artists about how best to record their practices with the collection and connect their works with teaching and research across the University."