BA Fine Art at Oxford Brookes encourages students to engage critically, explore imaginatively and take risks, to form an independent fine art practice. The broad-based course aims to equip students with creative, interpretive, critical and analytical skills to develop an informed understanding of contemporary art and its origins.
Oxford Brookes Degree Show goes to London!
13 of us graduates are taking our degree show work to exhibit at the annual graduate art and design show, Free Range. Just off Brick Lane in East London, we’re hoping the exhibition will attract a whole new audience to the work.
We’ve been preparing for this show since the beginning of the year, and with various adjustments to our work to accommodate the requirements of a different space and the logistics of transporting our work (and ourselves) to London for a week, here’s hoping the opening on Thursday will be a success – and this time we won’t run out of wine!
More info about the show here: http://lightboxfreerange.wix.com/2013
It’s a week into the degree show being open and the first chance to reflect on how it’s gone so far..
The private view on Friday was one of the busiest Oxford Brookes has ever seen, so it seems all the hard work put into compiling our mailing list and sending invitations paid off, and having the opening in the new university exhibition space ‘The Glass Tank’ drew a large crowd.
We’ve had some great feedback about the exhibition so far – especially the professionalism and standard of work – even challenging a few people’s perceptions of art along the way.
Despite much of the university being under redevelopment at the moment, and the Glass Tank Gallery being located in the centre of it all, it’s an impressive space, with an atrium stretching about four floors high and a long glass walled gallery for the sculptural pieces.
However it’s been a challenge managing the exhibition, as it is spread across three venues within the university. Ensuring there are invigilators, catalogues, maps and (during the private view) wine, at both sides of the exhibition requires a lot of legwork and organisation – not to mention understimating the signage needed to help unsure visitors find their way.
Keeping up with the Twitter account and blogs, greeting and responding to the press and visitors, maintaining the artwork (and dealing with a few hitches) is also an ongoing job – whoever thought the hard work was over when the exhibition opened was wrong!
The exhibition continues until Friday 17 May, open everyday 10-6.
The studios have been cleared and we have all (rather reluctantly) handed in the workbooks we’ve been working in and carrying around with us for the last few months, with all our emerging and changing plans for degree show work.
Private view invitations have been mailed out to Oxford, London and beyond.
The catalogue has gone to press.
Wine ordered for the private view.
Mopping floors, painting walls, cleaning windows: in progress.. in between last minute prints, framing and constructions. So many decisions to be made about the final display of the work.. and just 9 days to go before the opening on the 10th May!
An interview with Char Le, speaking to Bette Wood.
Hello Char!
The show is getting closer, what has your role been in pulling it all together?
I became involved in the fund-raising team, and as team leader my role was to organise various fund-raising events. As a team we held bake sales across the university’s campuses which were all really successful. We included various foods and baked goods made by everyone in our class, as well as decorations and apparel (some courtesy of Nanna Le, thanks!)
Regarding your practice now, what are the key themes in your work?
I’ve always been interested in women’s roles in society. Over my time in uni I have researched techniques used in the media and explored the concept of ‘social normality’ and the pressure that places on women.
My work is mostly photography based, depicting morbid exaggerations of the results of such pressures.
… Wow, so what drew you to these powerful themes?
As a woman I feel a personal connection to my work, as every woman exposed to such a commercial volume of pressures.
And how is your final piece coming together?
It’s been an interesting project – clashing 2 gender stereotypes as I look into a world I am unfamiliar with (the army) and one I am very aware of (domesticity). As I am using both themes in parallel; the unpleasant domestic scenes and real life footage of drone operations, it has certainly added a level of realism and unpleasant truths as they collide in my final images.
All of this considered, what have you found most challenging in this process?
Technically I have explored design programmes I have not used to this extent before. A challenge, but ultimately invaluable for the future of my practice and the direction my work is taking.
What I’ve found most challenging while researching my project has been discovering some harsh realities of war. Learning what must take place is this seemingly inhuman act, as a ‘duty’.
The last week has been a mad week for preparation and organisation for the degree show, about 6 weeks away now! Despite the massive task ahead it seems like we’re on track for a spectacular show and there’s starting to feel a bit more of a buzz in the building and the studios.
We’ve got a timeline in place of the weeks remaining before the degree show, with plenty of tasks stuck on the corresponding weeks with their deadlines and the person responsible for each one. Something we’d probably been avoiding for too long, but now it’s all up in the studio and we can see exactly how much time we’ve got left and what needs to be done each week.
We’re just finalising the press release, and deciding on the press images. The catalogue’s well on track for printing in April, the private view mail invites are being sent off to print, our adverts are set to be published next month and we just need to work on the elusive mailing list for sending out email invites to the show.
Through our open studios this last Monday and by chatting to first and second year undergraduates, we’re building up a list of those interested to get involved with the preparation of the building and installation of work, as well as on the evening of the private view itself.
Just got to make time for our own practice in between all of that!
