Oxford Brookes

Interview with Mita Vaghela:

What’s your role in the organisation of the degree show?

I’m the mum of the degree show! I oversee the organisation of it as a whole, crucially making sure everyone gets heard and we make democratic decisions. I’ve organised shows before, so I also identify what needs to be done and make sure we’re on track as a group! I’ve also been involved in finding potential sponsors for the show.

What are you currently working on?

I’ve found an object that I want to work with, these collar ‘stoffers’, I’m working with these as well as other disposable packaging materials I’ve got hold of in bulk. The theme I’m working with is the worth of the Indian woman. These shirt clips and collar stoffers reflect the remnants of what a man would wear, and hark back to when women would eat their husband’s leftovers.

Previously you were concerned about the need to include a social aspect to your work. Have you resolved this?

Mainly, I want the piece to be thought-provoking and instigate conversation. I really like participatory work, but I really feel the need to make an object for this work.

All my past projects seemed disparate at first, but I realised I have been bringing objects and subjects together. And I keep coming back to the human condition, the way we behave and perceive. The work is my own personal response to the world that I’m living in.

What are you thinking of showing in the final exhibition?

I’m planning to sew the collar stoffers together to form a sari, with possible gold and silver embellishment. I’ve also been making jewellery with the other transparent packaging materials, I’m hoping to eventually have a complete wardrobe of what an Indian bride would wear. I plan to hang the sari and project a film onto it, possibly an Indian bridal scene or an image of the joining of hands in the marriage ceremony.

What difficulties have you encountered in the process of making your degree show work?

I’m also concerned with aesthetics, and I wrote my dissertation on the role of beauty. I want the piece to look good, but not for the sake of it. I make decisions about the work and then refine it, I’ve realised that the work has to be meaningful for me.

An Interview with Claire Ringrose:

How is preparation for the degree show going?

So far I’ve found a couple of sponsors and helped with several bake sales at university. I’m mainly involved in fundraising and finding sponsorship for the show.

What are you currently working on?

The concept for my work is a mixture of mythology, anthropology, prehistory and fantasy. At the moment I’ve got a series of immersive photographs, all of objects within or on the surface of water, which are highly ambiguous and perhaps even unsettling. These photographs take us to a state of mind, hopefully bridging a link to our primal selves.

I’m researching into displaying these photographs to fit the ideas of the project and the objects that go with them. My starting point was imagining objects cast off from the river, and the objects, these tools I’ve made, remind me of figures, members of an imagined community living alongside the river.

I will be making more objects, just to see what comes up. I’m still trying to figure out whether to take an artisan or bricoleur approach to the objects.

What are you thinking about presenting in the final show?

I’m working on producing an installation, using wall and floor, and both the photographs and the objects.

I want the objects to be leaning against the wall, which implies a latency, an action waiting to happen, objects that perhaps have the power to be used in some kind of ritual. I also might include a vitrine of smaller objects.

What problems have you encountered in the working process?

Well I’ve been examining my work really closely, why I am doing what. I want to be unencumbered by debates on form and surface, it’s just not an issue in the way I want to work. I trust my own eye and hand, I want the work to be driven by instinct rather than theory or aesthetics.

An interview with Alex Hackett, speaking to Bette Wood.

Hello Alex!

What is your role in the organisation of the degree show?

I am part of the publicity team, in preparation for the show I’ve been setting up social media profiles for BA³ to connect as many people as possible to the show. Also, I contacted artist Tamarin Norwood recently and she has kindly agreed to be our guest speaker at the show’s opening.

And what are you working on in your practice?

There are three themes in my work – the body, the landscape and food. Their relationships to each other interest me, and I’m looking at how they are interlinked. Bodily experience of a landscape, sensations of food and how food can be linked to a landscape, a certain place. The body as a place; I take images of the body to create imaginary landscapes, record experiences of the body in real landscapes.

What does the near future hold?

My final work doesn’t have a shape yet. I am looking for a way to bring my own body’s experience of food and landscape to the audience. Working with large scale drawings, and text, combining mediums. Food will perhaps be involved.

Lastly, what have you found challenging leading up to producing your final piece?

Excluding work. Choosing how to represent an entire body of work, a whole practice in one ‘thing’. Also, I’ve found myself stuck in the studio a lot and am working on overcoming that – getting out and exploring the less restrictive areas of my practice.

For the past few weeks we on the publicity team have been busy establishing a network of social media strands that will hopefully give an insight into the preparation process of putting on the degree show, and as a result encourage many to visit the final exhibition in May.

Despite being three Twitter-phobes and none of us owning a smartphone, we’re gradually getting to grips with our brand new Twitter account, and have enlisted help from a fellow student who’s happy to post the ups and downs of their busy studio practice.

As well as our contributions to the a-n blog here, where we continue to post interviews of our fellow students about their individual progress with degree show work, we’ve also established a visual blog for images of work in progress and studio shots. It might not quite be Damien Hirst’s studio webcam, but we hope it will give an inside view and taster of work to come – a virtual version of the almost obsolete studio visit.

We’ll keep you updated!

bacubed.tumblr.com

facebook.com/bacubed

@BAcubed

An interview with Oli Wortley:

What’s your contribution towards organising the degree show?

I’ve suggested an artist who lectured at my previous university, (I transferred here at the beginning of my second year) to be guest speaker at our degree show opening. I’m also on the design team, putting together the degree show catalogue.

What are you currently working on?

I’ve been working on one project with various materials – printmaking, photography, drawing, sound and text. I want people to be in awe of the earth as a physical being, as mother of everything. Whereas icon painters painted religious figures, this seems misguided and these aren’t real. The earth is real – not god. Earth is god.

I want to explore how human beings relate to the earth as a thing, our relationship to the earth. There’s a verse in the Bible that says “remember man you are but dust, and unto dust you shall return”. Reminding people we’re not immortal, they’re going to be stardust again. This year I travelled to strange landscapes of Andorra and Iceland. Iceland is the quirky face of the earth. It’s the youngest place on earth. You can physically see land, earth, being made there.I realised there’s a theme recurring throughout my work, the mountain shape. And I’ve been developing the Mountain/Sun emblem as a symbol in my work. Hopefully it will be a symbol that will bring the whole work together.

What are your ideas for future work?

I want to make a film as a finalised work, with samples of the surrounding work on exhibition. The film is to reflect human beings’ destruction of the planet and suggest the connection to our actions.

Are there any difficulties you’ve come across?

Letting go of the photographs has been difficult, not getting attached to the images. Realising that I can’t make something as beautiful as the earth, can’t challenge the earth’s beauty. I can’t make something more beautiful than that.