Ruby Pluhar is about to begin her final year at Glasgow School of Art where she is completing a degree in Photography. Last year she was chosen as one of British Journal of Photography’s Portraits of Britain, and was shortlisted for their Send Anywhere Award as well as taking part in an exchange in New Mexico, called Land Arts of the American West (LAAW), offered by the Art and Ecology department at the University of New Mexico. LAAW is an extensive five month programme, which involves travel across the states of New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona camping with a small cohort of interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate students, following a widely varied itinerary. During this trip, Pluhar had the opportunity to investigate various sites and make work that responded to emergent issues which has seen her evolve and develop a series of ecological projects around subjects such as fracking and global warming.

Pluhar’s work combines an aesthetic of contemplation and a total immersion in culture. She is interested in relationships between humanity and nature and her desire is to convey harmony between these elements. Pluhar is currently working on a project shot in the highlands of Scotland which works with installation, photography and moving image. She will continue to develop this project during her time on residency. The work uses layered and multi-dimensional installations in the landscape to create an illusionary, dreamlike perspective that centers around relationships between the human and non-human.

Adelana Hughes works primarily with video. She is interested in race, gender and diasporic identity, and particularly in how these things interact with popular culture. Recently, Hughes has become interested in ideas surrounding critical consensus and universal acclaim, specifically with regards to the language used on internet public forums, social media and in reviews in reference to living or recently dead celebrities and artists.