So I’ve been hitting up the Graduation Shows at NAS, COFA and SCA with friends and fellow art workers to have a look at what the current students/future artists are doing of late. Each show was very different with defining features that come with each School. This post focuses mainly on the College of Fine Arts.
About five months ago I heard through Facebook that the COFA Graduation exhibition would be held at the Roundhouse, a music venue at UNSW’s main campus in Kensington, Sydney. The responses from students, current and past was not happy. The Roundhouse is a venue that not only smells like yeast but has been the site of many toga and piss-up parties over the years. So one could imagine why students were so disappointed in having their major works squashed into this tiny smelly space for their graduation show. Let me just make clear that I don’t know the reasoning behind why the school decided on this venue (you could try asking them) I’m simply going to tell you what I thought.
Overall the works themselves were of the quality you’d expect for a grad show. There were a lot of really interesting installations, a wide range of video and sculptural works, lots of photography and some interesting design pieces. However, for a show that consisted of so many large installations I have no fucking idea why the Roundhouse was even a logical consideration, let alone their final choice! The works were encroaching on each other, pushed right into corners and walls just to make enough room for there to be a pathway (yeah “pathway”) between the works. During my walk-through I even found it difficult to photograph the works I liked. Every time I went to step back and take a shot I’d literally bump into another work. There was too much in the amount of space available to fully enjoy the pieces on show. Part of me felt sad that this is the best that “Australia’s top art and design school” (according to the website here) had to offer their hard working graduates for their final show.
A grad show, in my opinion, should not only show off the final results of a year of hard work, but also promote the college to new comers who might be checking out what they have to offer. This almost felt like a mild “fuck you” to any student who worked their ass off over what would have been the toughest year of their studying life. But I’m going to end on a positive note, because the people who I know worked hard and who created amazing intelligent works deserve better. The standard of work was great. The thing I enjoy the most about COFA’s grad shows is the wide range deciplins. Too often sculpture, installation, video and sound works only make up a tiny portion of grad shows. But at COFA I saw a wide rage of very different works where students showed off that they are more than happy to think outside the plinth or frame and create something egdy or different. Looking at some works I felt proud to know these people and proud to have worked with them in the past, in and out of the college.
Great work guys, you deserved a better venue but you did your best with what you were given, and it shone through your work regardless.
