13 June 2009

Slade MA show

After class, to the Slade School of Fine Art for the MA show. We'd been to the BA show a couple of weeks ago and not found it very memorable - apart from, for me, a piece with many sheets of tracing paper hanging sideways-on between two pillars, with very fine drawing and the edges carefully cut around the drawing. In a corner, a long thin roll of paper cascading from the ceiling, with a similar drawing, such thin lines and so detailed, as well as rolls with gouache flowers and leaves -- at last, something pleasant to look at in this sea of non-representational post-modern concept-driven outpourings.

So, here are photos of some of the fixtures of the building. Which is not to say there wasn't work to enjoy in this show. Some of the artists seen have websites, some not. Do Kyoung Kim's work, a "Rainbow" of copper welded garments, amid documentation of her coffee consumption and the state of her studio each day, interested me. (It does help to be able to chat with the artist.)

The studio space is stripped bare for the show but there are some things that have to stay in place. Others get hidden away in nooks and crannnies -

Outside, drinks, hilarity and group photos in the UCL quad -I was intrigued by Richard Whitby's video of a red liquid being flung at or sprayed onto various wallpapers, Kristin Sherman's "behaviour structure", Sarah Macdonald's grey paintings, Susan Kordalewski's books "Every Word I Know" derived from 8 years of her writings, Kate Keara Pelen's use of stitch and fabric (including gravestone-shaped cushions), Allison Maletz's "dirty furniture", a chair that whispered seductively, Nisha Duggal's "Only Looking" video, Da Kyoung Jeong's long paintings on fabric, Hye Joung Park's water-jet-driven revolving mirror ball, and the "ginkgo" video by Janne Malmros, and picked up cards to help me remember them.
Katherine Murphy came up with some very collectable cards -

Mine is a record of "The Venus: a quarterly journal devoted to the study of mollusca" published by the Malacological Society of Japan, 1928-33. Ah, the care and work that went into the making of catalogue cards!

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