Congratulations to the winners of St Hugh’s Art and Photography Competition which was open to all College staff and students. This year an additional category was introduced which was: “Photographs of St Hugh’s”. The winners received a prize of £50.00. Entries were evaluated by a small panel chaired by the St Hugh’s Curator of Pictures, Professor Shelagh Vainker. Those judged to be of particularly high quality will be exhibited in College as part of a temporary display.
The awards were made as follows:
Student Art Prizes
Eva Cohen (BA English & Italian): “Getting to know you”
From the early man tracing their hands on cave walls to Rothko saying “You’ve got sadness in you, I’ve got sadness in me – my works of art are places where the two sadnesses can meet, and therefore both of us need to feel less sad.’ Art has always been a personal interaction. This is because art allows us to feel a moment of presence with ourselves, each other and the artist. This in turn has scientific effects; stimulating neurons that activate the pleasure response, lowering our cortisol levels. Science even suggests that observing a thought provoking or aesthetically pleasing piece of art increases blood flow to the brain by 10%, the equivalent of looking at someone you love. By generating an emotional response, art is helping us to recover from any damage of neurons caused by stress or anxiety. In this project I wanted to connect the mental benefits of art with the benefits of general human connection. I chose three men to paint, each of whom shared a similar appearance, and who I knew at various levels in order to assess how the degree to which I knew each person influenced the painting itself. For me the most exciting thing in connecting with someone is that they are allowing us the privilege of knowing something about themselves. I work with energetic and spontaneous brushstrokes in a variety of colours to symbolise the individuality in each person. The brushstrokes spread away from the person reminding us that however close you are with an individual there is always something more to learn.
Alexander Manville Muench (Masters in Mathematics): “College in collage”
It is easy to lose oneself to the freneticism of life in Oxford, in weeks punctuated by deadlines and a constant fever of work; indeed, the impression of the world can seem somewhat narrow, and lacking any order or harmony. Yet both are nearer at hand than we realise. In my study of symmetry in St Hugh’s I hope to encourage people to look a little more deliberately at the world, not just for the fussy sake of scrutiny, but to remind the reassure that however inwardly in tumult circumstances might be seeming, there is greater security in these foundations than we sometimes grant. Those who seek will find, so take a breather, and let your eyes roam.
Student Photography Prize
Abra Attoh (MSc African Studies):”Untitled – Ghana”
Depicted in this image is an informal settlement in Korle Conno, Accra, known locally as ‘Lagbasety’. I took this photograph during fieldwork in Ghana for my MSc in African Studies, as part of research into how blame forms around waste in Accra’s market spaces and how this connects to a wider history of blaming market women for economic and urban crises. As part of this research, I interviewed informal settlers about waste disposal and how it shapes everyday life.
This photograph was taken while walking through Lagbasety, a densely populated, close-knit community where homes stand shoulder to shoulder. Many residents had been displaced from other informal settlements in Accra because of construction and redevelopment, and now live with the fear that this place too could be taken from them. What stayed with me was the contrast between the insecurity of the settlement and the strength of the community within it. People sell goods, cook for one another, braid each other’s hair, run small businesses, and make ordinary life possible in the narrow spaces available to them.
Eileen Morrow (DPhil Muscoloskeletal Sciences): “Pareidolia”
Taken of the Hakata Ōshima Bridge along the Shimanami Kaidō, this photograph initially suggests a calm and remote setting with a flat expanse of water. An isolated human figure appears to be standing on the foot of the bridge. As this pareidolia resolves, the scene shifts – the figure becomes an engineering infrastructure and the distant cityscape asserts itself to what at first appears a tranquil landscape, but is instead shaped by large-scale engineering and proximity to a metropolitan centre. The tranquility, like the human figure, is a fleeting construct.
Staff Art Prize
Mary Helen Mack Last: “Probably just a girl”
Media: Pen and ink. Watercolour pen.
Rendered in pen and ink with watercolour accents, this piece depicts a female figure in profile, her dress suggesting the structure of a dancer’s costume but the looseness of her hair disrupting the expected formality of such endeavours. The image is based on a figure from my time at art school, now a fashion designer of some note, though this is not relevant to the work and will not be referenced further. She remains present here less as portrait than as residue – something remembered rather than recorded. The contrast between the controlled line of ink and the softer fluidity of watercolour reflects this balance, capturing a moment that feels both composed and unresolved, and only partially in agreement with itself.
Staff Photography Prize
Amanda Moss: “A quiet haunting at St Hugh’s”
A photo of St Hugh’s taken on a misty Halloween as I was leaving College after an event.
