It is always interesting to see what the younger people are up to and the graduate degree shows are always a good place to see a great variety of work in different media and quality of execution. Visiting the show at Brighton this week on the Grand Parade site was no exception. The variety of courses on offer there is immense. I had to ignore the fashion and textile rooms as I simply would not have had enough time to go round the other art spaces.With limited space it was not possible to see evidence of how some of the final works had come to fruition so it was great that many students had got their own websites and blogs ready in time for their show which could be referred to afterwards. The Fine Art Printmaking which was superior, in my view, in terms of the quality of work on show had a handy small catalogue so if business cards had run out it was still possible to get a contact address for a particular artist.
It was clear that the style of teaching must vary quite radically between different art departments. I was disappointed to see a large number of jargon-filled statements - Matthew Collings would have had a field day - some of the students seemed to have spent more time on the statement than on developing the basic skills to develop their work. Generally the presentation was good although some of the installations felt a bit cramped. For future reference it is annoying to pick up headphones to listen to a sound installation and find there is no sound and no clear indication how to get it. Equally, if an installation is in an entirely blacked out space and the torch provided has run out of battery it is impossible to look at. With a number of students milling around it would be wise to make sure someone is checking that everything is functioning as it should when the public visit - you never know who may be coming...
As to my favourites in the show topping the list was Laura White with her beautiful lightbox installations and prints: painter, Grace May Ballantyne - see her image above, Get Me the F*** Out of Here, film-maker Ruben Woodin Dechamps, and printmakers Alison Shurville, Kathryn Maple and Fay Robinson, their images shown below. Their websites and blogs all up and running shows that these guys all take themselves seriously and I am sure all have bright futures ahead of them!
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