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News

Mother and son shine at City College's End of Year Show

7 June 2011

City College Brighton and Hove's Art & Design End of Year Show, one of the highlights of Brighton and Hove's art calendar, is being held in the College's York and Trafalgar buildings on Pelham Street for three days commencing on Saturday 11th June. The final projects from over 300 students who complete their courses this year will be exhibited. It will be a feast for the senses and an infinite variety of different creative work including photography, fine art, games development, fashion, textiles, graphics, illustration and 3-D design will be presented. 'This year's show once again brings a wealth of fresh creative talent to view, providing a fabulous opportunity for the local community to come along to the College to roam the exhibits and see what amazing work the students are producing', says Carolyn Wright, the College's Curriculum Manager for Digital & Visual Arts.

One striking exhibit featured in the show is a larger than life-sized sculptural bag made by part-time Art & Design Foundation student Clare Evans. The bag, made using latex and Clare's collection of old lace petticoats took around 240 hours to make. 'The inspiration came in the form of a wonderful old leather doctor's bag I stumbled across in The North Laine Antiques & Fleamarket, while browsing one college lunchtime', explains Clare. 'It was really well worn, a little bit broken, and coming apart at the seams, but had such life and charm and although discarded, it was still useful. Also, on the very stained inside lining of the bag there was a faded name and place 'stamp'. I typed this name up on the internet, and discovered that this man had been a doctor who had a practice in a small village in Cambridge nearly 100 years ago so the bag had actually had, and showed a real history. The bag sort of reminded me of me and the stage of life I'm at, at the moment, feeling a little worn, and slightly 'coming apart at the seams' as my children begin to fly the nest. In your role as a parent, are you still useful in the same way, does the outside always explain the inside. If you had to contain your life in a series of pockets with different headings, what would those headings be? Hopefully I have managed to encapsulate some of these issues and feelings into this piece.'

Clare and Charlie Evans

Of her time at the College, Clare adds: 'I can honestly say that being on the course over the past two years has been one of the best and most rewarding experiences of my life. It has re-awakened a whole creative part of me that, over the years, because other more pressing things came along, has been asleep. I can't praise the tutors, technicians and support staff enough. They have been absolutely amazing. As students, we are so lucky to have such brilliance at our disposal, with such wonderful facilities and in such a brilliant area of the city.'

Clare's son, Charlie also attends the College and his exhibit is an experimental short film shot in Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands which he's made in collaboration with hip-hop artist Franck Hopkins AKA Frank Bunnies. 'Being on the course has encouraged me to find my own pathway and discover my own talent', says Charlie. 'Its been strange being at College at the same time as my mum but good because she's very talented and its great to be able to bounce ideas of each other even though we're very far apart in terms of what we do in our work. We try to keep talking about it at home to a minimum though otherwise that's all we would talk about!'

Another striking exhibit featured in the show is a life-size replica vending machine by Art Foundation student, John Ingle. Alongside his artistic talent, John had to utilise his carpentry skills to create the piece. 'My inspiration came from David McCandless's book 'Information is Beautiful' and one of the interesting and bizarre facts that really struck me was that ten people a year are killed by vending machines', explains John. 'I spent a week or so building something that resembled a vending machine using wood and timber. To recreate the chocolate bars and crisps, I used photoshop to manipulate the designs on the packets to make them look as realistic as possible while replacing the name of the snack with something that represents what the snack is shouting out at the consumer to make them so desperate to get it that they cause the machine to topple over on top of them. Seeing the finished piece makes me feel that all my hard work on the course has paid off but it's also a relief to have finished it in good time for the exhibition.'

Also featuring in the exhibition is a beautifully-made hunting jacket by Foundation Art & Design student Emily Marsh. 'The inspiration behind the piece was the old-fashioned high society culture and foxhunting which was once considered glamorous and 'the done thing' so I was interested in how attitudes to it have completely changed', says Emily. 'The jacket I made has more architectural qualities than the original designs so I was trying to combine the old with the new. I made it all from scratch and cut the pattern myself which involved around five weeks of work. It was very challenging because I'd never done pattern-cutting before. Overall, I've really enjoyed the course and I've found that you have a lot more independence than being in sixth form and can explore your own ideas.'

City College's End of Year Show is at the York and Trafalgar buildings on Pelham Street, Brighton and will be open to the public on Saturday 11th June 11am-4pm, Monday 13th June 10am?8pm and Tuesday 14th June 10am-8pm.

City College is still recruiting for a range of art courses starting in September. For more information, see www.ccb.ac.uk or call course information on 01273 667759.

For media enquires, please call Brian Bell on 01273 667788 Ext. 488 or email bb1@ccb.ac.uk.

About City College Brighton and Hove: Situated in the heart of Brighton, City College Brighton and Hove has become an international centre of vocational excellence. Every year 2,000 full-time, 10,000 part time, over 500 Higher Education and 250 14-16 year old students as well as many international and European students choose City College as their place of further and higher education training. In addition, the College provides training to over 2,000 businesses via its 'City Business Skills' department which focuses on employer training needs. Offering over 700 courses from basic level right through to business and postgraduate training, City College is working with its partners to develop the workforce of the future.