Emilia Evans-Munton

Emilia Evans-Munton's degree show was an incredible, monumental sock monkey appearing to be left behind by a giant, measuring 18 metres.

          Remember I’m Still Here (2025)

"The piece is an ode to the toys that are left behind, and the painful pang of loosing one’s favourite toy as a child. It lies there in sun, wind, rain and storm; initially pristine, gradually becoming more battered and bruised by the weather, literally having been left behind by the artist, yet discovered by the audience during the duration of its presence at the art school. As well as appearing to have been left behind by its previous owner, the sculpture also appears to have been dispelled from the building and the degree show itself by existing outside, without shelter and vulnerable to the weather. For the sculpture to exist on such a large scale, to take up so much space outside of the school nods to the feeling of rejection of craft qualities in the art school.

The love for the soft toy, is shown through the disfigurement it attains from play. The more bashed and deflated a soft toy is, the more it has been loved; a beautiful paradox. The interaction from the audience allows the rediscovery of  their love for their once favourite toys, all the while showering the sock monkey with a newfound love. The scale of the toy reduces adults to a childlike scale, sparking play and wonder amongst onlookers. Maybe it hasn’t been left behind after all."

Below: 'A new friend' 

Tamara Kostianovsky

 

'Mesmerising flesh', by Tamara Kostianovsky is an abettor of sumptuous fabric carcasses with guts of tropical foliage inhabited by incredible birds. Created from clothing Tamara explains that this medium was affordable to her as a student and the fabric often came from clothing she had accidental shrunk in the wash. The 'carcasses' are suspended and rotate along a runner so they are viewed from all angles and are redolent of a fashion show.  These pieces are rich, sumptuous and equally compelling and horrifying just like real carcasses. 

“I grew up in Argentina during time of dictatorship, so these works for me are made with political intention to denounce the influence of that dictatorship on the female body,”

Hoda Zarbaf

Multicoloured blood and guts Hoda Zarbaf's sculptures spill forth fleshy emotion, rendered in reclaimed textiles and furniture, that have an almost harrowing intimacy and sense of loss. Textiles are our second skin, they embrace us, taking on our shape and smell, gripping onto a persons essence and therefore they have stories hidden in the fibers, good and bad.

Maryam Ashkanian

Iranian artist Maryam Ashkanian has created these intimate sculptural portraits using pillows.

"I am really interested in sleeping people and I want to explore what they see in their dreams. I also believe they are in a different land or a different life. For me, when I start to sleep I really find myself in the middle of nowhere; in my utopia. I change into another person, or my real character, without a mask." Maryam Ashkanian

Celia Meirelles

There is a wonder and joy at shaping and constructing scraps of thread and fabric into characters maybe it should be called 'Pinocchio syndrome' for you do feel that you are making a life.

Brazilian artist Celia Meirelles does this creating salty sea dogs from the curl of their beard to the turn of their boot or the catch of the day, each sailor carries a history.

Emily Speed

Emily Speed wearing her costume sculpture constructed from waste cardboard, wood and plastic as a carapace. 

"Inhabitant was made during Urban Interventions, an exchange residency based in Linz between European Capital of Culture cities. Nominated for the residency by Liverpool Biennial, I worked at Salzamt Atelierhaus from July to September 2009.
A sculpture made and worn around Linz, Austria, Inhabitant is about trying to find your own place or identity in a city and the representation of psychological space. The final form was influenced by the time spent in Linz and took on some characteristics of the architecture there. The materials in the work - cardboard, wood and plastics - were all previously discarded and these made fragile, temporary building blocks. Worn, or inhabited, this work sits somewhere between a garment and a sculpture. It is like a shell or façade, in which I, although concealed safely inside, remain vulnerable, without the ability to see and encumbered by my own creation." Emily Speed 

Madame Peripetie

Madame Peripetie (Sylwana Zybura), 1979 lives and works in Germany though she is originally from Poland. Sylwana's images are surreal and fantastical, her work is a mixture of fashion photography and sculpture, using various fabrics and objects to achieve her end results. Sylwana is influenced by surrealism, dadaism, the new wave era of the 80's, the British post punk scene and the avant garde theater of Robert Wilson.

The blue of this bodice is so vivid and I love the textures.