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Degree shows: Wimbledon College of Art
Posted by Mark Sinclair, 22 June 2010, 14:50 Permalink Comments (2)

At Wimbledon College of Art's degree show, I had a look around the Painting exhibition. Strange imagery abounds, not least in the form of a naked Jeremy Clarkson receiving an unlikely helping hand from Boris Johnson...
But first up, Benjamin Bridges. His work has a serene, surreal quality to it and was one of my favourite series in the show. Rejoice of the Oppertunist (sic), above, and The Settlement and Green Orb, below.


While Michael O'Reilly's large-scale creations seemed to inhabit an even darker realm of deformed cartoon characters:


This lovely decoupage creation, Hibernation, by Francesca Hill resembles a stained glass window made of butterfly wings:

Here it is up close:

And these bleak, unpeopled paintings of buildings are by Yuichiro Kikuma:


These mixed media pieces by Ji Yoon Ryu were great. Up close, each reveals itself to be the work of several layers, the peeling paint creating shape and form in the picture.


Sophie Bevan's acrylic pieces were a nice counterpoint to the oil paints on show:


Russell Moore was on-site to offer some explanation behind his decidely un-painterly tool making endeavours (health and safety required he be there in person to ensure visitors didn't hurt themselves).
Carpentry runs in his family and so Moore forged his own steel blades in the college and made all the wooden handles for his selection of tools, including a hedger, sickle, and axes, below. He made the tools, but isn't skilled enough to actually use them, he explained, seemingly addressing how we have gradually become separated from traditional means of production (unlike, say, his father and grandfather). There's something about hanging tools up on the wall, too. Mmm.


Robert Jenkins' paintings of comedy legends in domestic settings also caught my eye. Les Dawson in classic mother-in-law mode, particularly.


And Frederik Tyson-Brown's work warranted a warning for sexual content on the gallery door. Not quite what I'd expected, but then it's not an image you easily forget. In What the Returning Officer Saw, Tyson-Brown is pictured with the bag on his head, apparently, while Boris Johnson and Jeremy Clarkson tackle environmental issues in the foreground:

And yes the mayor really is doing that:

Shown alongside the painting was a bit of backstory to an incident where the work was seized and held at Kennington police station in London. Here's one of the officers handing Tyson-Brown his painting back (below). The transcript of the encounter at the station, typed out alongside the picture, is also very funny (section shown).


And I'm ending with the beginning, but mainly because I only saw the second sign, apparently written by the college, on the way out. Josh Whitaker's protest banner hangs out of the front windows of the college.

Prompting this rather dry response from the college. Or was is Whitaker?

Wimbledon College of Arts degree show, which includes Painting, Print and Digital Media, Time-Based Media and Sculpture ends on Thursday this week. More info at wimbledondegreeshow.com and also wimbledon.arts.ac.uk.
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2 Comments
I really enjoyed this show and agree that much of the work has stayed with me since seeing it four days ago. Bridges work was very engaging and I have gone back to look at his images a number of times since (in the excellent free show catalogue) and I learn from one of the students his grandfather was a "Hero of Tellemark" and wonder if there was a Norse myth connection to the paintings. I also think it worth mentioning the work of Yasuhiro Onishi of simple and haunting images of industrialised war.
Tyson-Brown's work was the most controversial and in that it achieves one of the foundations of modern art, that is to get a reaction and what a reaction, seized by the Police! I do hope Boris and Jezza get to see the piece and the artist films their reaction!
I also enjoyed the cell room, the haunting mastectomy dining room, the sound room and Nathan Cash-Davidson's thought provoking paintings.
2010-06-23 08:31:08
Meant to add as a student in the 70's the banner outside the college by Whittaker made me laugh out loud and i thought i was at a Trot Student Demo re-enactment event, maybe I was?
2010-06-23 08:44:37
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