The Oxford Brookes University Interdisciplinary Arts MA Show 2008 will showcase 12 richly diverse artists all working within a multi-disciplinary framework. Part of what gives this group their integrity is their difference – classically trained musicians study along side film makers, draughtsmen/women, textile designers and art historians. This is art in its expanded form, art that is pushing forward into new territories, but bringing with it existing knowledge. This is the art of ideas.
What connects this group of artists is their own awareness of where and how they are working. Each artist creates work, in order to manifest meaning. There is no frivolous object or action produced by this group. The M8 artists deliver intelligent, substantial work that is rich is content as well as form. The context of the work is in many cases vital to its meaning and consequently much of the work in the show can be found in ‘non gallery’ situations.
As the work ventures out into the world, it encounters and in some cases depends on the public. In addition to the M8 artists pushing the boundaries of discourses and traditional art environments, they also activate the blurring of the artist and the audience. In many cases the individual is pushed to the forefront of work that inspires changes in perception. This is work that makes connections between people, places, action and living.