Art Sheffield’s young artists spark up across the city June 8, 2011 Everyday and baffling suburbia, dead-end employment and handmade animations, showing citywide in the midst of Sheffield’s creative surge

Sheffield’s art and design students have put down their cameras, pens and brushes and installed their labours in the new Creative Spark degree shows for 2011. Creative Spark are in their sixth year of supporting / branding the SHU degree shows, so they fall under one sizeable umbrella. Creative Spark have granted one Graphic Design student Thomas Dabner the role of sign maker so he designed huge arrows to help you locate all the shows. No excuses for getting lost.

Both inside Sheffield Hallam’s new Furnival Building, SIA Gallery and branching out into the closeby S1 Artspace. In the Photography Degree Show (Furnival), Tom Archer’s abilities to capture everyday scenes at some exact, uncanny moment where the most menial of domestic and suburban sights are in fact beautiful, comedic or baffling. Also here, check out the work of another street photographer Alex Burrell who, with a skateboard under his arm, has documented the extended community that comes with the sport from the local to the international. Both photographers acutely aware of the nano second at which to press the shutter release, trapping something barely there, imagery both familiar and extraordinary.

Hailey Evenett is an early pick of the Illustration/Graphics crop, she makes cute and clever handmade (often card) animations based on her travels or as remakings of popular film opening sequences.

Into the wild, title sequence remake from hailey evenett on Vimeo.

Edgy short film, ‘Insurance’ follows an unsucessful call centre operator, struggling to provide for his wife he hunts down a new role…less ideally winding up a lone data inputter in a huge abandoned warehouse with an odd-ball manager to boot. It smacks of the paranoia some students feel for their post-grad prospects! Directed by a few of the Film and Media students it will make the big screen at Sheffield’s Showroom on Wednesday 15 June. Filmaking and production is arguably a Sheffield specialism, just look at Doc/Fest opening today, the greatest documentary festival around!

Two other students worked on branding and based their idea on a ‘sparking off’ idea. A domino effect has become the publicity visual to symbolise a breadth of creative work being shown simultaneously and visitors propelled across the various sites in a wave of interest rather than falling down flat and/or disoriented.

The big launch for Creative Spark is from 7pm, Friday 10 June, continuing until 25 June 2011.

Creative Spark Degree Shows tie in with Site Gallery’s Eva & Franco Mattes Exhibition, Late Night Opening.

Jane Faram