Turner Prize nominated artist and academic, Professor Christine Borland, and leading fashion designer, Pam Hogg will be recognised with Honorary Doctorates of Letters at GSA Graduation today, Wednesday 22 June 2016. Both awardees, who are graduates of The Glasgow School of Art, are being recognised for their major contribution to the creative life of the nation.
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| Christine Borland was presented with an Honorary Doctorate at GSA Graduation this morning |
Over the last 25 years Christine Borland has made and exhibited work across the globe. She is recognised particularly for her cross-disciplinary practice working, for example, with medical and forensic specialists in projects such as From Lifeat Tramway (for which she received her Turner Prize nomination) and Cast from Nature (Glasgow Sculpture Studios-Camden Arts Centre). She has also collaborated with fellow artists on major projects such as Circles of Focus with Berlin-based Brody Condon.
“Christine is one of the most successful graduates of the Glasgow School of Art,” says Professor Tom Inns, Director of The Glasgow School of Art. “This Honorary Doctorate of Letters recognises her critically acclaimed artistic practice and her service in support of creativity in Glasgow and beyond.”
"My great, sociable education at GSA and the friends, peers and teachers who contributed to it, has been the foundation for my subsequent career and practice as an artist," says Christine. "It's a lovely testament to all of them to receive this award and share it at what I hope will be a great celebration with the Scottish arts community, present and future, at the Degree ceremony."
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| Pam Hogg was presented with an Honorary Doctorate at GSA Graduation this afternoon |
Pam Hogg has been a singular presence within British fashion design, music and art since the early 1980s. Celebrated, collected and revered by fashion critics, museums, her peers and the popular press, she has been a huge inspiration to generations of students.
Hogg’s was a meteoric rise to fame. Joining her first band, Rubbish, at the end of the 70s she regularly supported The Pogues in their early years. She launched her first fashion collection in 1981 and went on to design clothes for leading performers including Siouxsie Sioux and Debbie Harry. More recently Pam Hogg’s creations have been worn by Kylie Minogue, Lilly Allen, Kate Moss, Rhianna and Lady Gaga.
“Pam’s work has acted as a catalyst for huge shifts that have taken place in British culture since the 1980s when London, and its associated club cultures, came to influence and dominate the visual language of fashion, graphic design, magazines and music worldwide,” says Professor Tom Inns. “Along with her contemporaries – such as John Galliano, Body Map, Leigh Bowery and Vivienne Westwood – she developed an approach to design that draws upon an understanding and melding of popular culture, fine art, music and the club scene that spawned them."
“Pam still places huge pride and importance in her Glaswegian origins and her time at GSA and the feeling is entirely mutual. As an institution we are immensely proud of her and her achievements. And, as a city, we still think of her as one of our own.”
“It’s a great honour to receive my Honorary Doctorate of Letters, especially from Glasgow as it's this city which gave me my identity, my character and inspiration,” says Pam Hogg.
“Going to The Glasgow School of Art was momentous, at school I'd won all the art prizes, but this was the first time I'd felt challenged as I was amongst such talented people in the most inspiring surroundings."
"As a teenager, arriving at the bottom of the steps leading up to the main door of the Mackintosh building, I knew my life would change forever.”
The Honorary Doctorates, which will be conferred by The University of Glasgow, will be awarded at the GSA Graduation ceremonies today: morning (Christine Borland) and afternoon (Pam Hogg).