Fine Art Degree Show 2008 University of Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is my local University, so not a year passes without me knowing some of the graduating students personally and I have visited most recent degree shows. A problem that I have frequently pondered is the overlap between the many courses at UH, for example the campus has excellent BA Applied Art and BA Digital and Lens Media courses. The degree shows for these courses are up at the same time as Fine Art so inevitably it is hard not to compare and contrast. There are always a couple of Applied Artists who should or could have been on the Fine Art course because, as well as fabulous material sensibility, there is an underlying depth and conceptual content that by any definition makes it art and not craft or design. Typically the photographs produced on the Digital and Lens Media course are far better on a technical and professional level but arguably the content can be more obvious and less conceptional. However this year there are a large number of the Fine Art students relying on fairly straight photography and to be brutal, very little was of interest. There were pieces that looked like Foundation course work, and I found absolutely no reason to be drawn in. The exception to this were Anne Kermarrec's luscious large prints of blobs of toothpaste!

There was less painting than I expected, perhaps it is still being discouraged here. Joseph Woolf 's work references both Carrivaggio and Banksy, an intriguing combination, the canvas titled "The Martyrdom of St Ursula" is a huge work (2.4 x 2.7 metres). There are similarities I wouldn't have expected between these two inspirations of his and I like the ambition and absurdity of this project blurring the lines between traditional painting and street art. However collaging newspaper stories about Banksy into the corner of the work insults our intelligence!

An interesting installation by Erini Gregoriades had a couple of technical issues - the space wasn't completely light tight where the walls joined the ceiling and the curtain was tied back (Health and Safety have a lot to answer for!) However the effect created with crumpled white paper stapled to the whole space was quite eerie, as if one was in an ice room, something I haven’t seen before. It had a sense of disorientation presumably created by difficulty in focusing and a muffled effect a tiny bit like an anechoic chamber.