Hasta La Ideas

At Wimbledon College of Art’s degree show, I had a look around the Painting exhibition. Strange imagery abounds, not least in the form of a naked Jeremy Clarkson receiving an unlikely helping hand from Boris Johnson…

But first up, Benjamin Bridges. His work has a serene, surreal quality to it and was one of my favourite series in the show. Rejoice of the Oppertunist (sic), above, and The Settlement and Green Orb, below.

While Michael O’Reilly‘s large-scale creations seemed to inhabit an even darker realm of deformed cartoon characters:

This lovely decoupage creation, Hibernation, by Francesca Hill resembles a stained glass window made of butterfly wings:

Here it is up close:

And these bleak, unpeopled paintings of buildings are by Yuichiro Kikuma:

These mixed media pieces by Ji Yoon Ryu were great. Up close, each reveals itself to be the work of several layers, the peeling paint creating shape and form in the picture.

Sophie Bevan’s acrylic pieces were a nice counterpoint to the oil paints on show:

Russell Moore was on-site to offer some explanation behind his decidely un-painterly tool making endeavours (health and safety required he be there in person to ensure visitors didn’t hurt themselves).

Carpentry runs in his family and so Moore forged his own steel blades in the college and made all the wooden handles for his selection of tools, including a hedger, sickle, and axes, below. He made the tools, but isn’t skilled enough to actually use them, he explained, seemingly addressing how we have gradually become separated from traditional means of production (unlike, say, his father and grandfather). There’s something about hanging tools up on the wall, too. Mmm.

Robert Jenkins’ paintings of comedy legends in domestic settings also caught my eye. Les Dawson in classic mother-in-law mode, particularly.

And Frederik Tyson-Brown’s work warranted a warning for sexual content on the gallery door. Not quite what I’d expected, but then it’s not an image you easily forget. In What the Returning Officer Saw, Tyson-Brown is pictured with the bag on his head, apparently, while Boris Johnson and Jeremy Clarkson tackle environmental issues in the foreground:

And yes the mayor really is doing that:

Shown alongside the painting was a bit of backstory to an incident where the work was seized and held at Kennington police station in London. Here’s one of the officers handing Tyson-Brown his painting back (below). The transcript of the encounter at the station, typed out alongside the picture, is also very funny (section shown).

And I’m ending with the beginning, but mainly because I only saw the second sign, apparently written by the college, on the way out. Josh Whitaker‘s protest banner hangs out of the front windows of the college.

Prompting this rather dry response from the college. Or was is Whitaker?

Wimbledon College of Arts degree show, which includes Painting, Print and Digital Media, Time-Based Media and Sculpture ends on Thursday this week. More info at wimbledondegreeshow.com and also wimbledon.arts.ac.uk.