After a 4am start, we landed, dropped our bags and headed straight to Basquiat at the wonderful Brutalist Barbican centre. New to many of the students, we sought to understand his art and came away inspired by his brave and uninhibited style. We then had a wonderful talk at the Guildhall Gallery at Somerset House and viewed artwork from the 16th century onwards, discussing and understanding the meaning that can be read through gesture, pose, composition and technique.
I had heard a lot about the contemporary exhibition called 'Everything all at Once' at 180 The Strand; an amazing 4 level warehouse space. It. Was. Brilliant. We were led from room to room by lights, sounds and art work that is a reminder to everyone that artwork can move beyond the 2-dimensional frame on a wall. We then finished of enjoying the festive/shopping spirit at Oxford street.
The next day we went to see Rachel Whiteread at the Tate Britain and saw through Whiteread’s eyes the ‘inside’ and ‘inbetween’ of objects. I particularly enjoyed the toilet rolls! The rest of the gallery was amazing too with some large scale work from the 60’s onwards and of course it’s always nice to see again Milais ‘Orphellia’.
The wonderful enterprise Cockpit Arts in Deptford was next on the list and is a craft makers (and a personal) slice of heaven. David, the guy who supports all the makers to develop and grow their businesses, kindly spoke to us about his role and the enterprise. Maybe one day one of our students may end up in a place like this! Emily got to meet Sian Zeng and speak to her about her work that Emily loves and Katie spoke at length to Shelley James who makes collaborative projects with scientists, connecting material, mathematical and scientific shapes and patterns. I bought a ring from my favourite jeweller Hannah Bedford.
Sunday, normally a day of rest, for us started off with a Street Art tour led by the very knowledgeable street artist Karim. I’d been on a tour with him before and he didn’t disappoint. He covered street art that ranged from the ‘I was here’ sort of graffiti to the more social and politically motivated street art. I will always highly recommend this tour as you come away looking at the street with renewed appreciation of this highly coded and accessible form of art. We had a couple of hours to enjoy the bustling ambience of Columbia Road street market and some Spanish tapas and then headed to the wonderful Wellcome Collection. The exhibition ‘How Graphic Design can save your life’ was amazing. Such a great example of how Art, Science and Graphic Design can meet and a reminder of how the skills students are learning in the classroom may not only lead to work for the gallery wall but in commercial projects too.
The last day took us down to south London at UAL Camberwell where we went on a whirlwind tour of some of the studios and were given a talk about the foundation course. A great insight into where the students might go next and what they need to do to get there. If they don’t apply, I will!
All in all, London didn’t disappoint and we’ll be back!
