Reviews
In June 2024 two BA Fine Art Degree shows were visited, Central Saint Matins and Chelsea Art School in London.
Reviewed by Annie Watts.
Central Saint Martins Degree Show 2024
Gallery Review
Date visited: 15/06/2024
Location: Via Victoria mainline station and via underground to Kings Cross St Pancras. A 10 minute walk.
Good directions on the website.
The University is set in a large flat public space, with ground fountains and seating. It is a modern, industrial designed building and has several entrances to the main area.
Maps were provided, but the signage was not clear and the BA Fine Art work is set out over 3 different floors, mixed in with other degrees student courses.
It seemed as if there were ‘themes’ but this was not clearly identified.
There were long corridors with ‘rooms’ at the side where students work was displayed in individual spaces. The floors are polished concrete and the walls were painted white. It was very well lit, and there was plenty of space for each student to display their work.
The whole exhibition felt rather disjointed, lacking in consistency and a professional element to the displays. Most of the students had no clear signage to their work, no statements or explanation of the topic or themes chosen. Some of the students had provided postcards or business cards, and these were randomly displayed. There were discarded bouquets of flowers on the floor, presumably left by those students who did not want to keep them after presentation.
This course has 120 students and following discussion with the one student we met, it became clear that they are allowed an independency in displaying their work, however this led to an exhibition which lacked the value that should have been given to the work of these students.
Chelsea School of Art
Gallery Review
Undergraduate and Graduate Diploma Show
Chelsea College of Arts, London SW1P 4J
Date: 15/06/2024
Chelsea College of Arts is about a 20 minute walk from Victoria mainline station. A beautiful traditional building with clear signage to the entrance of the first Exhibition. However it soon became clear that the building was a warren of smaller rooms and it was difficult at times to navigate the actual Diploma show spaces. There were several students available who were all helpful in directing the public.
The rooms are well lit and in general the work was displayed so that it could be clearly viewed. Each student is given a large wall and floor space, however the actual displaying advantage did not seem to be equal, with some spaces being narrow and dark. The students generally were in control of their space, themes and presentation of their work. There was a range of painting, drawing, installations, ceramics and sculpture.
One disappointing fact was that the displays were poorly labelled. Some sections had no labels at all, and in others the students had handwritten titles etc on slips of paper and stuck them to the wall. There was no information about the students themselves and no student statements or elevated statements about the work. There were no obvious ‘themes’ and no apparent ‘journey’, just a juxtaposition of random pieces of creative work. This gave an unprofessional impression and was disappointing with such a high level quality of work.
We did find one student who was available and keen to discuss her work of ceramics and textiles. Arabella Muir. She had clearly displayed her work of large pieces of ceramic linked with crochet pieces, and provided links with Instagram etc. It was very colourful and dynamic, memorable for its energy and quality.
Overall, despite the lack of information, the work was stimulating, and there were moments of real inspiration.
