Rich tapestry of college work goes on display

AN exhibition of student’s work will run at the Burren College of Art from April 17 to 26. Timothy Emlyn Jones, dean of the college, said two students completing postgraduate courses will feature prominently.

“This is the end-of-year exhibition for our Masters students, so it’s a showcase of what they’ve been doing and achieving over two years on their postgraduate course, which is accredited by NUI Galway. There are two of them graduating, John Freeman and Jill Miller. Jill is a painter and she has a series of oil paintings that explore reflective states of mind, especially melancholia. The paintings are figure paintings and interiors. She’s trying to extend understanding of that sort of poignant, quiet, reflective state of mind, that has the potential for the development of new understanding.

“John Freeman’s videos and installations explore ideas of the anima. The anima in psychology is the term used to describe the woman that is within every man, basically man’s feminine side. He is presenting aspects of himself, a kind of self portraiture, although they aren’t pictures of a face, they are explorations of his own female persona.”

Timothy said the work of other students will also be on show. “In addition to those two students, all the rest of our students will be exhibiting. There will be a total of 24 people exhibiting.”

With a variety of different art forms and artists, he feels all tastes will be catered for. “I think it’s fair to say that there will be something in this exhibition to please everyone, but not everything will please everybody all the time. It’s child-friendly. If there’s anything of any sensitivity it will be signposted for parents, if necessary.”