The New Faces

UCL's Slade School of Fine Art and Bartlett School of Architecture are in the final stages of preparation for the ever-important annual degree shows.

Both schools are counted among the most prestigious in the world and consistently attract and produce young architects and artists of the highest calibre. Many members of staff are practising professionals who have received international recognition and praise for their work. Through their creative influences, UCL graduates often go on to become leading figures in the contemporary arts and architecture scenes.

The schools pride themselves on a tradition of producing work at the cutting edge of their respective disciplines, and associates of the Slade and Bartlett possess enough confidence and talent to challenge the status quo and push the boundaries of their chosen media even at early stages in their career.

It therefore comes as no surprise that the annual shows attract large numbers of visitors, keen to catch glimpses of some of the big names of tomorrow. The list of alumni of the schools is extremely impressive, including a clutch of Turner Prize winners and architects from most of the world's renowned practices.

Slade

Around 100 students will exhibit sculpture, films, painting and installations at the Slade Summer Show 2005. Work by students on the BA Fine Art runs 21 to 26 May 2005. The MA, MFA and GDFA Fine Art students follow with their show on 9 to 15 June 2005. The works can be seen 10am-8pm weekdays and 10am-5pm weekends for the duration of the show.

Bartlett

The Bartlett Summer Show 2005 will showcase the final year projects of more than 450 students, including drawings, models, devices, texts, animations and installations. With such a large student body, the exhibition is arranged by individual teaching units, each of between 17-20 students, led by two tutors. Professor Iain Borden, Director of the Bartlett School of Architecture, said: "This system of teaching leads to an intense tutorial relationship between staff and students and between the students themselves, permitting many distinctive approaches to architecture and teaching."

The show opens at 7.30pm on Friday 24 June 2005, an event attended by approximately 3000 people, and runs until 2 July 2005. The exhibition is complemented by a lecture from the show opener (recent openers have been Bernard Tschumi, Zaha Hadid and Daniel Libeskind) at 5pm on the opening night and a guided of the show by the Bartlett Professors at 6.30pm on 27 June 2005. Both shows will be held at the Slade School of Fine Art.

The Institute of Ideas

Luke Chandresinghe (Diploma in Architecture 2004) displayed his diploma project 'The Institute of Ideas' at the Bartlett's Lobby Gallery from 3 to 20 May 2005. The institute is Luke's vision of a new Patent Office for the UK. Luke received the Bannister Fletcher Prize for his Diploma and the Serjeant Award for Excellence in Drawing at the 2004 Royal Institute of British Architects President's Medal Students Awards for the project.

"The institute consists of two hundred storage towers and expiration vessels which dominate the site of the Lea Valley in East London," explains Luke. "It houses all registered patents or 'ideas' in the UK for 20-year periods, continually expelling expired ideas and receiving newly registered patents. On the expiry date of the patent, it is released and transferred to the expiration vessel where it can be blown across the terrain. The surrounding landscape is a junkyard, market and forum for discussion of old ideas where intellectual scavengers steal, recycle, sell and buy expired inventions."

Land of Scattered Seeds

John Puttick (Diploma in Architecture 2001) created an architectural narrative for his final year project, presented in the form of a book. Land of Scattered Seeds begins with the desperation of two brothers, the inhabitants of a single street at the centre of Graz, Austria incrementally convert their environment into a patchwork of farms, vineyards and gardens.

The ambitions of each character lead to conflict and collaborations that evolve through the development of exquisite new constructions and the growth of the plants. Nature - with ambitions of its own - constantly threatens to overwhelm them. The work has been exhibited in London, Coimbra and Munich, and in 2002 a copy was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for their Art and Architecture Collection.

The work was awarded a commendation at The Royal Institute of British Architects President's Medal Students Awards in 2001. John is enthusiastic about contributing to education and co-teaches Diploma Unit 22 at the Bartlett. After graduating John joined David Chipperfield Architects and now works for the newly formed architectural practice, Make.

Bat Opera

Lali Chetwynd (Anthropology and History 1995; Slade School 2000) is becoming increasingly visible as an artist and is noted for her baroque-style performances. Her paintings and exuberant performance works explore notions of the grotesque and have featured appearances by Jabba the Hutt and Meatloaf-inspired cast of bats. Lali often uses familiar audiovisual references like Meatloaf's 'Bat Out of Hell'.

Her performances rarely disappoint, and were instrumental in securing her place on the shortlist for this year's Beck's Futures awards. Lali has also just been nominated for a Times/South Bank Show 2005 Breakthrough Award. Her recent solo exhibitions include 'Born Free', at the re-launch of Gasworks, London, in 2004 and Bat Opera, at Millers Terrace, London. She has also participated in a large number of group exhibitions, most recently 'Year Zero', NGCA Sunderland and 'New Contemporaries' at the Liverpool Biennial and Barbican Gallery, London.

8 Hours

With custom-made cameras, Martin Newth (MFA Slade School 1999) offers viewers a new perspective on everyday sights by using extremely long exposure times. In his 'Rush Hour' series of photographs, Martin photographed motorways around the country and tube stations in central London at the peak of rush hour. The hour-long exposure time turns the thousands of passing cars and people into nothing but a ghostly trace. His series of images, 8 Hours was made on a road trip in the United States during his honeymoon in 2001.

The photographs show entire nights' sleep in budget motels. Using eight-hour exposures, the night-long shots record the movement of the sleeping figures as vapour trails over the bed. The following morning after each exposure, the negative was developed in the motel bathroom. The technique used to make the series, a large wooden camera and paper negative, differs little from that of the early pioneers of photography. Martin's work can be seen at the forthcoming 'Passing Through' show at Ffotogallery, Cardiff, from 4 June to 17 July 2005.

Images: (Top to bottom) The Slade Summer Show; The Institute of Ideas; Land of Scattered Seeds; an evening with Jabba the Hutt; 8 Hours.

To find out more about The Bartlett and The Slade use the links below.

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Links:

The Slade
The Bartlett