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Craft graduate Samantha Jones selected for Aesthetica Art Prize
Monday, 4 March, 2024 — Samantha, who researches and represents lost or forgotten things through her creative practice, was longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize for ‘Stand Sure (2023)’, her final major project created at Arts University Plymouth.
<p dir="ltr">Mixed media artist <a href="https://www.instagram.com/samanthajones_mixedmedia/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Samantha Jones</a>, a BA (Hons) 3D Design Crafts (now <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/ba-hons-craft-material-practices">BA (Hons) Craft & Material Practices</a>) graduate from Arts University Plymouth, has been selected for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2024.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Samantha, who researches and represents lost or forgotten things through her creative practice, was <a href="https://artprize.aestheticamagazine.com/projects/samantha-jones/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize</a> for ‘Stand Sure (2023)’, her final major project created at Arts University Plymouth.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Describing the project, Samantha said that her narrative is fed by demographics surrounding a person or subject; she uses and contextualises this data to show what we can remember through art. In this way, she communicates a more conceptual way of remembering, memorialising individuals, events and objects lost to the ravages of time.<br /></p>
'Stand Sure' by Samantha Jones
<p>Samantha was profiled as one of our <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/posts/playful-and-sorrowful-landscapes-craft-material-practices-ones-to-watch-2023">Craft & Material Practice graduates to watch</a> last year and at our Summer Shows 2023 Samantha was selected as the winner of the Board of Governors Award, in recognition of the outstanding quality of her work and academic achievements.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Samantha first joined Arts University Plymouth as a mature student in 2017, enrolling on our <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/level-0-extended-degrees">Extended BA (Hons) degree</a> programme which offers a four-year route that includes an initial exploratory year for students to develop their insight into a range of art, design and media skills and approaches, before progressing onto a specialist undergraduate degree.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Gayle Matthias, Course Leader for BA (Hons) Craft & Material Practices, said: “Samantha makes personal and poignant work that demonstrates both vulnerability and playfulness in terms of material combinations. Materials are presented with an inner tension and soft exterior, for example, fragile coils of drawn hot glass are bound in wool. Samantha’s work is very striking and we’re happy to see her ambition being rewarded with this kind of recognition.”<br /></p>
'Coil' by Samantha Jones
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/ba-hons-craft-material-practices">BA (Hons) Craft & Material Practices</a> at Arts University Plymouth is an ever-evolving course at the forefront of thinking and making, with an increasing emphasis on ways that people in the UK’s craft industry can live harmoniously within natural and fabricated environments that support a healthy ecosystem. Visit our next <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/open-days">Open Day</a> on Saturday 23 March 2024 to find out more.<br /></p>
