ON THE SPOT

3 - 5 FEBRUARY, 2023

A multimedia exhibition, curated by the Third Culture Collective aiming to deconstruct the binary of culture and redefine what ‘home’ can mean through interactive and immersive artworks, a cultural round table and a lot more!

We are a collective of eight diverse female and non-binary artists – studying at Edinburgh College of Art – who identify with two or more cultures or ethnicities. ‘On The Spot’ will be our third collaborative exhibition, providing third culture artists a platform to share their experiences and insecurities of not having a conventional ‘home’ or feeling of belonging to a certain place; in hopes to define those conventions and create our unique sense of belonging. The aim of our exhibition is, therefore, to continue externalising the broad definitions of third culture while giving the viewers a more holistic perspective of what it means to navigate the contrasting and resembling cultural conditions of immigration.


We welcome everybody at all times to view the exhibition, take a break and/or participate in our events:

OUR PRACTICES

Fiona Goss

Fiona's work aims to collaborate with the environment. The relationship between humans and nature is fundamental and unrelenting, by extension the environment is seen through the history of art. Natural elements become symbols, used as metaphors. Laurel leaves adorn capitals, clam shells and eggs indicate birth, poison ivy suggests danger, however, these plants and shells become iconic and thus perfected removing any organic originality. Every element of Fiona's work aims to reinstate nature, to celebrate and work with the beauty of plants, shells and weather. This is done through installation, painting, sculpture, photography and gardening. A love for nature and the outdoors stems from Fiona's childhood spent in the Kenyan sun and soil.

Medium: Sculpture

Julia Pereira

Ju practices art as a means of cultivating self, social and environmental awareness. Their work for ‘on the spot’ will focus on the acts of seeking ‘home’ and its lack of concreteness. Through playing with traditional foods, Ju investigates multisensorial elements whilst attempting to evoke the unnamable feelings and its contradictions brought by long term departures. Finding comfort in memories and in the process of depicting them, their work is an invitation for self and collective contemplation on the coping tools we are taught and how such directly impact the ways in which we adapt to new and changing surroundings.

Medium: Photography, installation

Katie Gabra

Katie’s practice revolves around the question as to whether it is the responsibility of an artist to ask or to answer questions, neither or both. Sitting on the borders of 'artwork' and 'research', Katie's work explores questions surrounding ideas of mixed heritage, colonialism, borders, identity, diaspora and race. Through film, dance, performance and collage, she places herself within the traditions of her ancestors and their ancient rituals.

Medium: Digital collage : original and archival moving image

Kristel Bodensiek

Kristel Bodensiek is a self proclaimed ‘white passing Colombian’ who is interested in drawing inspiration from not only their country of birth but also the cultures of over six countries in which she has resided in her life for long periods of time. Her practice focuses on mental health, collective experiences and people’s uniquenesses, while her work aims to offer spaces for viewers to interact with the work and reflect on their own emotions and beliefs.

Medium: Ceramics, canvas

Lisa Iwanaga

Considering my art practice as a method of direct communication with others, I provide an opportunity for anyone to experience an act of trying and an attempt of abandoning their common sense through task-based works to interact with. The fundamental idea behind this approach concerns questions on the impact of education and a schooling system on individuals’ ways of thinking and behaving. Lisa's experiences of receiving a Japanese and a British education within divergent school environments, curriculum, norms, values and expectations, constantly question the true purpose of school and how education should be experienced. Currently, not only the works but her practice itself reflect a continuous process of experiential learning; a notion of learning by doing. Lisa aims to keep creating situations which encourage individuals to take action without being afraid of making mistakes.

Medium: Mixed-media, printed photographs for documentation

Lucia Sheppard

Lucia’s art practice is an investigation into boundaries. The interaction between space and by consequence the in-between, liminal spaces, and the passing of time. By using material elements (metal/sand/glass/time/light) often reappropriated from nostalgic moments, can act as symbols of her own sense of personal division, displacement and heritage. Within Lucia’s work she intends to capture the subtle but evocative interaction of oneself and others' continuous presence and absence through the invisible links we have with passing strangers, cultures and spaces.

Medium: Sculpture, interventions, moving image

Nishi Chodimella

Nishi Chodimella is an interdisciplinary artist, with a focus on the notion of home. Endeavoring to make it fluid and accessible by deconstructing the terminology. In an aid to those who find themselves torn between places, with no distinct feeling of belonging to one place over the other. Nishi experiments with language as a visual medium. Expressing their overwhelming opinions of frustration and anxiety from being perpetually othered; this has been the main aim of Nishi’s artistic practice. Recently, they have featured printmaking in their practice for its versatility. A method that can manipulate and transform visual compositions with the use of layering, and distortion of form.

Medium: Printmaking, interventions, language

You Liang

You Liang is a suspicious space lion who exists often in the shape of fireworks. She focuses on practicing private documentary photography, installation and art book publishing. Her work often refers to death, root-seeking, being queer in Asia and Southeast Asia, her homophobic parents and childhood bestfriends. As the minority of China, she knows best that everything she’s doing is just a survival strategy and all the characteristics her works deliver are a result of it.

Mediums: Photography, installation