Mary Roberts – Professor

Although as an undergraduate in London Orsolya was studying Fashion Business Marketing and Management, she also studied Art, Design, & Media, which is how I came to know her. She was my student in Off The Wall, a 3rd year Installation Art course designed to encourage students to experiment with multi-media approaches when making well researched pieces about a specific topic. Orsolya’s particularly memorable project was an unnerving piece about mobile technology and its potential impact on younger generations. It examined both the societal disconnect as well as the interpersonal disconnect that could be a consequence of too much time spent with mobile devices and social media.

I particularly recall the dramatically lit central scene of four ‘bodies’ seated in a circle. Comprised of black stockings stretched over the balloon heads of the four bodies with the heads and phones facing each other and the paper stuffed black stockinged legs facing the opposite way, it worked well to convey a sense of appearing to be connected to one together but perhaps lacking it in actuality. The black stockinged heads gave the viewer the sense of a black hood placed over one’s head making one oblivious to what is going on externally or a sense of being ‘tied’ to one’s devices. Integrated into the installation was a projected video of a girl hunched over her phone pacing back and forth in front of a backdrop of rapidly changing images of news events and social problems. The piece opened itself up to various interpretations including an ignorance/apathy to what is happening in the world, or an example of how, despite all of this constant and instant access to global events on mobile devices, images and news stories tend to get scrolled and swiped through quickly without much in-depth thought. The sound component underscored the distraction of, but also the desire for, constant notifications.

It was a very effective piece, especially given the fact that she was very new to this way of working and approaching art. Her ability to come up with a sophisticated and very atmospheric piece about an increasingly important and relevant issue in a relatively short space of time, was impressive and sticks in my mind.

This is a young artist to keep your eye on.