Wimbledon MA Fine Art show 2008

The labels in this Wimbledon show identify what the students elected to specialise in, i.e. drawing, sculpture or painting. This is always interesting particularly when one wouldn’t have been able to guess, but it also allowed me to make the observation that in this group, seven sculptors have ended up using film in this final showcase! Among the rest, there are a few who are particularly interested in materials. I very much enjoyed Corinne Felgate’s “Disco Inferno” which is a very large light box covered with slabs of raw jelly (approximately £60 worth by my maths – and that’s assuming it is a ’basics’ variety rather than a brand). The various panels flash on and off and the fruity smell fills the room. Along side this she is displaying 40 pairs of felt shoes and some images and although the shoes are lovely I didn’t get the connection. Nearby Chris Shaw’s centre piece is “Dust Crop” which consists of dust of many colours neatly arranged to spell ‘dust’ hundreds of times in a circle…………

Repetitious working of materials, and the obsession it speaks of, is uppermost in the very quiet works of Yoon Jung Kin. “Balls of Knotted string” is just ten balls of cotton parcel string but it has been unwound, knotted thousands and thousand of times, and then rewound. Another obsessive is Ruth Martindale who makes very rustic paper and rope from leaves. Part of her installation was reminiscent of museum displays as she documents her research for us, including the location where the material was found. Presumably the thinking is that we wouldn’t appreciate the delicate ropes that she has strung up without this background. Justine Blau has produced a stunning three dimensional landscape from two dimensional images, all sourced from the internet apparently! From Bryce Canyon hoodoos and mountain glaciers to tropical beaches and azure water, these sampled images are stapled and pinned onto an armature of polystyrene.

Painting the overlooked or ordinary is very popular at the moment, and in this show it ranges from Aleksandra Frankowska’s lovely large paintings of the painting studio’s high windows, to tiny painted ‘postcards’ of boring bits of south London suburbs by Charles Campen whose titles include “North End (8.4 miles from London Bridge)”. Dmitry Grachev contrasts different cities in his high street paintings, funnily enough it’s the similarities and particularly the multiculturalism that is revealed. My favourite is “London . Somewhere in Tooting” – great title. In contrast Duane J Moyle’s photo realistic paintings are all out glamour and kitsch. In “Because you’re worth it” a billboard like setting of a car surrounded by New Zealand mountains (right out of Lord of the Rings) is set off further with trompe l'oeil gold frames, lovely commentary on today’s commercialism.

Less categorizeable is the unusual project “Shared Dreams” by Aline Von Der Assen but I guess it is a collaborative, drawing, performance dealing with feminist and craft issues. I chatted to her as she and two helpers embroidered words and pictures that visitors had drawn onto her round quilt in felt tip. I wondered why the viewing public couldn’t embroider their thoughts directly but she said she had worried about health and safety issues. Worrying about the public’s safety and sensibilities must be a new thing in student shows with warning signs on the door of Loizos Olympios’ installation (of video and stills involving scalpels and underwear). I didn’t find it as shocking as the signs suggested, more disturbing. Perhaps the sign should have said ‘Don’t try this at home’.