Catapult: Urbis Champions’ Local Talent

Urbis

As part of Urbis’ ongoing mission to support the local creative community, this month the exhibition centre played host to Catapult; an annual showcase of recent Art and Design graduates from The University of Salford and Manchester Metropolitan University. The aim of the show was to give young artists an opportunity for public exposure and to help nurture their professional careers. The seventy pieces on display were selected from a range of creative courses; the result being a diverse mix of video art, graphic design, fashion, painting, sculpture and architecture.

The motivations and concerns of each artist were similarly diverse. Lee Brown explored the feeling of being individual, yet part of a collective family identity by overlaying images of family members to form a single portrait. Alan Williams looked at notions of language and authorial ownership by translating the poems of Salford punk poet John Copper Clarke into French and then back into English again. With each translation meanings and contexts were subtly changed impacting on how the poems were understood as a whole.

There was animation from Tom Judd inspired by the TV series Modern Toss. His visual diary of notes and spontaneous doodles kept over a year was also on display. A spiralling sculpture of paper was created using traditional book binding techniques by Sara Brown, while Laura Boast looked at ways of developing environmentally responsible graphic design. Boast has already enjoyed some professional success as her environmentally responsible notepads are currently on sale at Magma in the Northern Quarter. Altogether, the show was an exciting chance to view the most innovative and original work of our peers.

Somewhat appropriately the exhibition set to replace Catapult is dedicated to the highly successful Manchester born fashion designer Matthew Williamson. The D&AD exhibition of advertising and design will run until the 6th April. Both of these shows highlight the level of success that the Catapult participants aspire to and perhaps might hope to achieve. Acting as springboard for the start of their careers, Urbis will be behind them all the way.