The University of Edinburgh Art Collection has acquired the work of three 2024 ECA graduates, recipients of the annual Art Collection Graduate Show Purchase Prize.
The works of Katie Gabra (MA (Hons) Fine Art), Clarissa Gurd (BA (Hons) Photography) and Evie Mae Harding (BA (Hons) Intermedia) will be added to the University’s Art Collection, after selection during this year’s show.
As recipients of the prize, they were awarded a fixed fee in exchange for their work and each of the artists worked with the University Art Collection curatorial team to decide on which aspect of their Graduate Show work would be collected.
The selection of the 2024 prize recipients was made by the University Heritage Collections staff, specifically the Collection’s curators and Collections Management staff. Assistant Art Collections Curator, Olivia Laumenech said: “We were incredibly impressed by the high standard of work produced by all of this year’s ECA graduates and we are so excited that the artworks of these three artists are joining the collections. We look forward to continuing our conversations with each of the artists, following their careers and connecting their works with teaching and research across the University."
Clarissa Gurd BA (Hons) Photography
Clarissa’s practice aims to give visibility to unseen or overlooked communities or histories. In particular, she has been interested in making work that highlights the interconnectedness of human activity and the natural world.
The Art Collection has acquired two prints by Clarissa which focus on, and are made with, the South Esk River.
Caddisfly Larvae is an intaglio print depicting a microscopic image of the tail of a dead caddisfly larva. The ink used in this print was made by Clarissa from samples of iron oxide collected from the same site as the caddisfly larvae along the South Esk River. Iron oxide is found in the water due to mine water pollution in the area. Therefore the very pollutant that killed and coated this invertebrate has been used to produce this print. The Seaweed anthotype is a microscopic image of a piece of seaweed collected by the artist from Musselburgh. It is made with an emulsion created from the same seaweed.
Evie Mae Harding - BA (Hons) Intermedia
The Art Collection has acquired three examples of Evie Mae Harding’s sculptures - two works from her Five Diaries 2020-2022 series and one from the series entitled Burn Out. As well as exploring ideas of perception and value, the pieces demonstrate her work with the Japanese technique of Raku.
Historically, Raku was used to create tea bowls for traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. The clay is fired at low temperatures and removed from the kiln while still hot. It is then plunged into different materials, and this process of combustion leaves traces on the fired clay. Evie Mae was particularly drawn to the philosophies embodied in Raku; from its embrace of the natural as beautiful, and the move away from perfectionism to the requirement for a release of artistic control in the making process. Raku is said to translate as 'happiness in the accident'.
Five Diaries 2020-2022 and Burn Out were made using different methods of firing and with different materials; each of the vessels from Five Diaries 2020-2022 was wrapped in tinfoil which enclosed shredded paper from one of five different diaries belonging to Evie Mae, detailing trauma, anorexia, bulimia, divorce, depression, first love, anxiety, breakup, death, grief. Burn Out was fired in combination of dandelion hay, redwood sawdust and The Daily Mail.
Read more about Evie Mae Harding’s series of works on the Graduate Show website
Katie Gabra - MA (Hons) Fine Art
Katie’s practice spans collage, film, photography, drawing and performance. It explores her heritage as well as sociocultural landscapes and our relationships to, and with, them. Along with archival objects that form part of her wider presentation, the Art Collection have acquired two works by Gabra – a moving image work: Miss Lyall (Strathspey) - Miss Lyall (Reel) - Andy Browns Reel, and a sculptural piece: I Love You… Me Too…
I Love You… Me Too… developed from a vintage film poster which Katie found on a research trip to Egypt - the film’s title translated to ‘I Love You… Me Too’. Miss Lyall (Strathspey) - Miss Lyall (Reel) - Andy Browns Reel demonstrates Katie's interest in collage as a methodology of making, in this case through film. Bringing ideas and footage from different time periods and cultures, the work considers the connections and tensions between personal and collective identities.
She says: “My autobiographical approach to making concerns the gathering of material (sound, footage, items) to create a form of personal archive, which functions as the starting point for all of my work. This personal archive stems from a desire to acquire ‘things’ in order to better understand myself and my relationship to the spaces I occupy and to create a dialogue between dream and reality, past and present and the here and there.”
Read more about these works and Katie’s practice on the Graduate Show website
