The last two weeks of this semester we’ve had summative tutorials – individual presentations of our work so far this semester to tutors and peers. It seems that most of us have been through a major questioning of our practice – why we do what we do and why we should do what we do. It is difficult for us as artists to justify making work in today’s world, but a strong belief in the resonance of our work, and the importance of what we do should encourage us to continue.
Having such a long period of time to research and develop work this semester seems to have really focused our practices and caused us to pin down exactly what we’re interested in. There are themes recurring within our work as a group, most notably a respect and value for the natural world, as well as interpretations of landscapes and cityscapes and our experiences of them.
From now on we’re encouraged to go off the path of the known territory within our practices… we’ll see what follows.
An interview with Nathalie Eigen:
What’s your contribution towards organising the degree show?
I’ve been desperately looking for sponsors to help raise the £4000 or so needed for the degree show catalogue. Big companies aren’t proving successful so we’re going to try contacting university alumni, local businesses and personal contacts.
What are you currently working on?
I’m brilliant at working on five things at once! I’ve been working on the discrepancies between written descriptions and visual images; how you can make image match word and word match image, even if they’re unrelated. I’ve been doing some metal etchings too that I want to incorporate into my work. I’ve also got a poster project on the go that I’ll be carrying on over the holidays and I’m developing some black and white photographs taken on a recent trip to Mexico.
What are your ideas for future work?
I want to continue with more black and white photography to make a visual alphabet, looking at the boundaries between the visual and the senses. At the moment, I’ve got several ideas for more finalised pieces, all continuing to explore various ideas of the ‘alphabet’.
Are there any difficulties you’ve come across?
It’s the simple stuff that’s most frustrating: printing, paper sizes, image quality, type – all the little things. But this year my practice involves the initiation of a concept that is very personal to me, so it hasn’t been too much of a struggle; I’ve been really enjoying making the work.
It’s approaching the end of semester and consequently the end of Research and Development towards our degree show at the end of this year. Dissertations will be finished in a few days time and we’re looking forward to some festivities and the art social on Thursday.
Stress levels are high but we shouldn’t forget that other final year art students around the UK are all in the same boat! This blog will share our experiences (from the Brookes point of view) in the lead-up to the degree show.
After a long few weeks of headbashing against the wall we finally decided on the crucial name for the show. Ba³, a nod to the typical white cube exhibition space, the three years of our degree, as well as suggesting the nature of art as an alchemical process.
This blog will include our fellow students experiences in preparation for the degree show. Look forward to hearing from one of them in the next post!
Over and out to fellow students and good luck with any approaching deadlines!
