- Venue
- Wolverhampton
- Location
- West Midlands
The Fine Art Degree Show is the cumulation of three years' hard work by some fifty young–and some not so young–students working in a variety of media and I was most impressed this year by the high technical quality of the work on display.
Some of the best work has been produced by mature students. Trevor Clarke's sculpture Untitled has been carved from a solid, 1.5 metre block of Ancaster limestone. It has an infinite number of perspectives which lead the viewer to constantly move round it, though from certain aspects it is reminiscent of a spinal column. But it is also true that the structure has a timeless and enduring quality which reflects the material from which it is made.
Another mature student, Pauline Stead, describes her work as an interactive piece which crosses the borders between sculpture and two dimensional work. This construction of latex sheets, ropes and pulleys is a metaphor for life in that we are often pulled this way and that by forces beyond our control and was very much a hands-on experience on the opening night.
Dragos Stroe came from Rumania last September on a term's Scholarship from Bucharest University and ended up staying for the whole year. In Rumania the emphasis is purely on art skills, he tells me, while here the important thing is concept and he felt able to learn much more here in Wolverhampton. His paintings consist of small abstract panels which combine to create a figurative whole.
Rowshona Begum's work deals with her identity as a young Muslim woman in Britain. Central to her pictures are portraits of herself as a young Asian woman, but surrounded by the rich textures of patterns of Indian spices and henna designs which are suggested by her cultural background.
A parody of our urban environment is the subject of Zoe Van Well's exhibit where the juxtapositions and dualities of modern life react with each other in a way which makes us question the way in which our urban space is utilised.
Maggie Ayliffe, Fine Art Course Leader, said,“This has been a very diverse group of students, the first group to have completed this new integrated course. They really have succeeded in challenging our preconceptions and inhibitions.”
The Degree Show is open from 9am-7.30pm Monday 9th till Thursday 12th June.
