Hasta La Ideas

I managed to navigate my way around the labyrinthine network of corridors and staircases of Camberwell College of Arts’ Peckham Road campus to discover the work of some promising graduates…

First up, Sam Taylor. His brightly coloured illustrations reminded me a little of Andy Rementer‘s exhibit at Pick Me Up earlier in the year. Later on on my magical mystery tour of an eerilie deserted campus I found his zine, entitled The Industry Standard Pen Test in the shop on a different level of the degree show and discovered Taylor’s preoccupation with drawing Bart Simpson, for the most part, as he’s never been drawn before…

Next up I was drawn to these brightly coloured prints by Kunyalala Ndlovu who has an impressive portfolio site at fortrixon.com.

Kyle Platts‘ illustrations of tanks featured in prints and this image above is actually of an inked metal plate on display. Platts also had a zine in the shop…

Whilst perusing the various wares created by the graduating students to sell in the special summer show shop, I found Coral City, a risographically printed comic by Liam Cobb – cover shown above, spread below and a detail from it too.

Another comic by Cobb entitled The Cab Driver (spread below) reminded me a bit of Robert Crumb comics.

This diorama by Karin Söderquist was one of several that told a narrative. Here we see two young backpackers depart on an adventure. In another frame, (spoiler alert!) we find the young campers having a less than ideal camping experience:

I like this image from Söderquist’s website homepage at karinsoderquist.com too:

Cressida Knapp‘s illustration display was helped by these jolly painted character heads. Here’s a closer look at the illustrations

Illustrator James Cartwright designed this eye-catching record sleeve (reverse shown below). See more of his work at jamescartwright.co.uk.

Sophy Hollington‘s illustration was great (above). I particularly liked her linocut comic, How The Dead Live, based on Will Self’s book of the same title. Here’s a spread and a print that was framed on the wall:

Chloe Simos also had some great linocut prints on display. These four portraits are of female musicians and are from Simos’ Transcending Time project which recognises eleven of Simos’ musical heroines, including Karen Dalton (below) and Rose Madox (second image down)

I liked this set of six postcards by Jennifer Cairns. They commemorate a project entitled Fleeting Phrases which is, Cairns explains, a series of six limited edition letterpressed posters celebrating overheard phrases uttered by strangers which “brought a smile”. Find more of Cains’ work at jennycairns.com.

Nicola Price‘s newsprint publication, De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum (Speak No Ill of the Dead) was beutifully designed and served as part of a project which explored themes of memory and remembrance. “The newspaper fits into the death segment of the project,” Nicola explains, “and focuses on the ideas of rememberance, forgetting, worth and the contrast between old and new. It includes household inventorys from the 18 century and modern day, photography of artifacts, graves and an analysis of the language used in wills.” Here are some spreads:

In 3D design, Roland Beaven‘s Peaucellier Lamp appealed. The lamp pays homage to the Peaucellier straight line linkage and works thus: pull the weight on the right downwards and the lamp moves downward accordingly. Beaven even produced a poster to promote the lamp too.

Meanwhile, in ceramics, Joanna Mires displayed her wares rather brilliantly on an old mantlepiece:

I also really liked the installation of patterened imagery entitled Cultivated by Thomas Perceval from the Drawing (not to be confused with Illustration) degree course. Visitors could step inside a metal frameworked structure in one of the galleries where they were greeted with myriad patterened panels, all created using (as far as I could tell) only Yorkie and Milky Bar wrappers.

In the photography exhibition my favourite project was actually a rather depressing one. Pauline Magenenat‘s Missing project led her to photograph the places where missing people were last seen:

N. 12 years old, disappeared in 1985

D. 27 years old, disappeared in 2005

Camberwell’s Summer Show runs until this Saturday 25 June. For visitor informaion, times and travel details, please go to camberwell.arts.ac.uk/summershows2011

Please also note that the Camberwell Illustration graduates have their own website at ovoshow.co.uk