Student Showcase: Megan Walden

“We’re warned about identity theft, but how far can this go?” – Megan Walden

Photo: © Megan Walden 2013

Photo: © Megan Walden 2013

As promised, we have some brilliant new student work for you this week! Megan Walden is currently working on a series of self-portraits, in which she performs as a number of famous women, evoking both their look and personality, by mimicking iconic poses and facial expressions.

Photo: © Megan Walden 2013

In this series, Megan questions the solidity of identity, asking that if we can steal credit card details and passwords, can we not also “steal someone else’s ‘image’ and their representation of themselves?”

More broadly speaking, the work is a comment on our appetite for instantly recognisable celebrities and public figures. In these portraits, Megan reflects our desire for iconic images of iconic faces, exploring the nature of identity while also, of course, having a great time playing dress-up.

Photo: © Megan Walden 2013

Megan Walden is a second year Photography student at Southampton Solent University. To see more of her work, you can (and should!) visit her Flickr page.

Joe Rose

Review: The Seagull @ The Nuffield Theatre

Having studied Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard earlier this year, I was so excited to hear that The Seagull (one of his most famous works) is currently being shown at The Nuffield Theatre. 

From the first scene, I was sat on the edge of my chair and was throughout the rest of the play.

I tried to read The Seagull a few months ago and the classic literary text is quite difficult to comprehend as I did not really get the jist of what was going on, until last night. The way that the actors and actresses on stage performed it was absolutely incredible!

The language was so fluent and 'normal' if that is the right word to say... Chekhov being a Russian playwright, many would expect the linguistics to be quite tough to understand  but the way it was performed was marvelous and very comical.

©Tristram Kenton

Director Blance McIntyre did an phenomenal job of making the play come to life, by the actors continuously asking the audience what theatre is, what does it do, what is its role?

Through this, we were left with these questions running round our heads whilst the play went on to philosophise on what the human condition is.

"We are sleep walking into oblivion, we need to wake up"

©Tristram Kenton

The play centers itself around the act of passing time and lost time and encapsulates major themes of hope and despair.

For me, the 4 main roles of this play are concerned with a famous writer Boris Trigorin, Masha: a broken soul who would give anything to be loved, Nina: an aspiring actress and a frustrated abstract artist: Konstantin.

©Tristram Kenton

Each are a reflection of each other; what they want to be, who they used to be and what they wish they weren't. All the characters are put through the harsh reality's of life and are forced to face their brutal ending, with the particularly dark scene of Konstantin's death.

The co-production from Headlong Theatre and The Nuffield Theatre Company is an absolute must see. Even if you are not in to going to the theatre, this play will teach you about life and you will leave the theatre with a great sense of enlightenment.

The Seagull is showing at The Nuffield until Saturday 20th April. Click here to find out more details.

Jenny Lupton

Student Showcase: Francesca Solloway

“Is this really a utopia, or just another nightmare?” – Francesca Solloway

Photo: © Francesca Solloway 2013

Hello everyone! Today we have some more excellent student work for you. Francesca Solloway is a second year Photography student at Southampton Solent University, and is currently working on a landscape-based project, centred on the conflict between seduction and repulsion, utopia and nightmare.

Photo: © Francesca Solloway 2013

Her images offer new perspectives on sceneries which we may pass every day. By photographing them at the “hour of twilight… the blue hour”, Francesca transforms these sites into stages for eerie and uncanny experiences and her work simultaneously challenges and emphasises the notions of beauty associated with nature. This is achieved by fusing the rich, almost luxurious blue light produced at this time of day, with the dark, slightly blurred, claw-like tree trunks and branches, which pierce the serenity of each image. This conflict questions our relationship to nature, as our own fears and desires are played out projected onto the landscape that surrounds us.

For more of Francesca's work, visit her Flickr, Facebook page, or Blog.

And finally, be sure to send us your own work. We want to feature as much of it as possible on the blog!

Joe Rose

Co-Editor