Goldsmiths MFA Fine Art Degree show - 2008

I went to Goldsmiths on Sunday, my research for the trip involved looking into train schedules and checking the opening times on their website. This took some doing as the page giving all other details failed to list hours! However I persisted and found a diary (on their official site) that said they were open until 5pm. Imagine my reaction when on arrival, the signs stated that the show shut at 4pm. Anyway I started off, trying to be as quick as possible, in the Ben Pimlott building. I realised the second building (Laurie Grove Baths) was going to be very rushed so I had a word with the man at reception who assured me he was going to lock the building doors at 4:30pm and then clear the building with a view to the last people leaving at 5pm. However at 4:10pm I was firmly told to leave, so I never got down to the basement to see the work of Jonathan Acker, David Brazier, Asiya Clarke, Emily Glass, Sefak Kemanci, Kirsten Lovelock and Charlie Tweed.

I did see a Charlie Tweed film in the Showreel though, “Man from Below TV” (which I recall seeing previously at New Contemporaries) an amusing spoof. Seems to be a bit of a mix of anti-establishment and post-apocalyptic but I don’t mind that. There are a few virtual reality pieces in the show, the most memorable being “Gallery Goers” by Harry Meadows where we, the gallery goers, are looking at art about gallery goers. With a similar twist ‘looking at the artist looking at us’ is core to the work of Bona Park. We are directed, by some text on a window, to look down into the next building to see a shy artist making tiny boxes ……….when you look, either with or without the binoculars, all you see is the artist waving. Mildly amusing but very slight and the binoculars are not really needed (except as a signifier) so it feels a bit contrived.

The painting on show include quite a bit of pattern making (very popular this year at all the collages) some geometric and modernistic for example Tom Hackney’s colourful pieces, but more unusual were some fluorescent works that were weirdly reminiscent of Rorschach inkblots by Joanna Billingham. Surreal with political connotations are Yiorgos Tsalamanis’ garish works which are produced by painting onto inkjet prints on canvass. One, a radioactive looking landscape with frog figurine and a United States Department of Agriculture’s organic logo, is titled “New World Order”.

Sculptural pieces in the show include two fountains, a protesting robot and a rugging project but I was far more taken by the props used in performances by Yun Kyung Kim whose boldest project involved her wandering around London wearing a house. I was reminded of Louise Bourgeois’ “Femme Maison” and her other early feminist drawings and paintings where houses are morphed with women. The canvas ‘buildings’ also on display here have comic, convict clothing attached in surreal ways, a merging which makes the house a prison. Strangely another Bourgeois reference can be found in Monica Ursina Jäger’s tree which is supported by monopods giving it a ‘spider look’ but the more remarkable element of her work can be found in the cathode ray screens arranged on the floor with apocalyptic scenes engraved on them.

I was very affected by an installation in which Conrad Ventur projects a short film of Marlene Dietrich performing ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone?’ onto a mirror ball – the sentiment of this anti war song is, of course, as relevant today. However the song is erroneously credited to Bob Seger instead of Pete Seeger (who I think co wrote it with Joe Hickerson) and this sloppy research lets him down a bit. Ending on a lighter note I enjoyed a humorous project by Sam Curtis titled “Collected Reports” which describes various jobs he has had as if they were artists residencies. This is accompanied by videos including a work in which he demonstrates how his time spent with Ikea was more as a sculptor than as a dogsbody.