Where Are We Now?: Graduate Show 2020
Lockdown Creations by MA Students in Fine Art and Printmaking
Virtual Exhibition | Virtual Gallery
Where Are We Now? Virtual Graduate Show 2020 | Middlesex University MA Students in Fine Art & Printmaking | Virtual Exhibition
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY
Where are we now, for this new generation of postgraduate artists, leaving art school within the university into a physically distanced and ‘locked-down’ world, unsure of what will happen next?
No longer in the familiar studio spaces or with access to extensive workshops or materials, the situation initially seemed bleak, but the approaches demonstrated by this years’ MA graduates, from the outset of the sudden deprivations of the Covid-19 period have been many and varied. Moving from the first shocks of, “now what?” to “ok, let’s see what we have,” to “actually this other idea might work, (even better?)” and of course to then ask, “where are we now?” in this new world of restrictions but also of unexpected, newly honed skills and possibilities.
Whilst the spring and the summer unfolded around us, so too did the adaption, inventiveness and resilience of this MA cohort, continuing to work on their practice and research regardless, from cramped bedrooms, corners of kitchens, back at home or in exile and a long way from the familiarity of friends and family. By inventing, re-inventing, imagining and re-purposing, the resulting work has been humbling in its show of acceptance, diligence, tenacity and engagement.
Embracing the Zoom-ed seminars and tutorials, coping with an uncertainty of purpose, amidst the intimacies of messy rooms, piled up books, home-schooling, new hair solutions and inventive back drops, the students showing this year have achieved great success in the face of unprecedented adversity.
A very different spectacle to that of a final, physical MA degree show is in evidence this year however, as an altogether more thoughtful body of work perhaps, and situated in the ‘ghost’ of our Hendon studio, G301, as a newly invented space that can now be thoroughly explored in a timeless way, and in a new Virtual Reality.
“Where are we now?” indeed. They are the authorities now.
Dr Tansy Spinks, Programme Leader in MA Fine Art, Middlesex University, October 2020
With grateful thanks to all the technical, teaching and support staff who have made this one year MA happen - Professor Ergin Cavusoglu, Dr Loraine Leeson, Emeritus Professor Jon Bird, Dr Emma Dick, Dr Alexandra Kokoli, Dr Paul Harper.
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