- Tessa Mackenzie chosen as “Rising Star” by Talent Spotting – a Creative Review project with JCDecaux
- Her work, My Walk to School, will be presented on digital screens across the UK from today until the end of July
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| "Rising Star" Tessa Mackenzie's My Walk to School will be featured on JCDecaux Digital screens across the UK from today and in leading design magazine, Creative Review |
Tessa Mackenzie, a recent Communication Design (illustration) graduate from The Glasgow School of Art, is one of only 15 graduates from across the UK to have been chosen as a Creative Review-JCDecaux ‘Rising Star’. From today, 12 July 2016, to the end of the month her work will be showcased on JCDecaux’s digital screens in railway stations and shopping centres across the UK. Tessa will also have her work featured in the leading design magazine, Creative Review. The project, Talent Spotting, highlights up-and-coming art and design talent from universities and colleges across the country.
“My Walk to School project started when I began to get nostalgic about my time at The Glasgow School of Art,” says Tessa, who hails from Wimbledon in South West London. “The final deadline was a couple of months away and I started to appreciate things that previously I had taken for granted.”
“I think when you walk the same route every day it becomes a task that you tend to complete it on autopilot. I was interested in the notion that when something becomes familiar it is often ignored.
“There’s nothing particularly special about my walk to school, no monuments or statues, just a Sainsbury’s garage and the M8 motorway - but I felt like it was mine. I started sketching the walk, sometimes on the go and sometimes from memory. Then began experimenting with some watercolour textures I had scanned in previously to make the digital collages, isolating shapes and playing around with the composition until the drawings became recognisable.”
“I’m delighted that Creative Review has chosen to display my work on billboards across the country and in the magazine. It’s fitting, if not slightly ironic, that this project will be shown to people who are on their daily commute to work or school. I hope it will allow them to take a fresh perspective on the routes they walk everyday on autopilot too.”
“The Illustration staff at GSA are pleased as punch that Tessa McKenzie has received this recognition from Creative Review. Over the last year Tessa has developed a distinctively personal and eloquent body of work. She has a playful, instinctive and inventive practice that has seen her construct a series of narratives that are simultaneously dreamlike and firmly imbedded in her day to day experience. From capturing the sensory mapping of her morning walk to the art school to creating tactile interactive game systems or writing and drawing poetic and enthralling comic strips, Tessa's work has been full of surprise and a constant delight. “
Patrick Burgoyne, Editor of Creative Review, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to be able to run Talent Spotting with JCDecaux again this year. Last year’s project was one of the most exciting we have done. Giving recent graduates such huge nationwide exposure was a real thrill – for both them and us! It was wonderful to see the reaction to the work up and down the country. I’m sure this year will be even better!”
Russell Gower, Creative Content Director at JCDecaux said, "This is the second year that we have worked with Creative Review to bring the work of new design talent to an audience of millions, celebrating the next generation of artists across our digital channel. We are delighted to bring this inspiring work for the public to enjoy when they are out and about.”
Tessa’s Mackenzie’s work can be seen nationwide on screens (see a selection of screens below). In London it can be seen in all the major train stations. In Glasgow it can be seen in Glasgow Central station, Buchanan Galleries and Silverburn Shopping Centre.
Ends
For further information on the GSA
Lesley Booth
07799414474
press@gas.ac.uk
@GSofAMedia
Janet Guest Editorial Director, JCDecaux,
janet.guest@jcdecaux.com
+ 44 (0)776 9701268/ 0207 298 8023
Locations
Locations where the work can be seen include all major rail hubs including: Euston, King's Cross, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, St. Pancras, Victoria and Waterloo in London as well as Brighton, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool Lime Street. Manchester Piccadilly, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, York to name but a few.
It will also be showcased across retail screens UK-wide including major shopping destinations such as Bluewater, intu Lakeside, Bullring (Birmingham), St David's (Cardiff), Liverpool One, Trinity Leeds, and Eldon Square (Newcastle) and intu Metrocentre (Newcastle), West Quay (Southampton) and Brent Cross (London) and many more.