Arts

17 Jun 09

Adeniyi Olagunju's work in the Ruskin Degree show 2009

Final year students from the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art have taken over a disused building in Osney Mead and brought it to life by displaying their final year art exhibition.

The building is an ‘energetic departure’ from the High Street building that has been their creative home for the last three years. In the vast main space, the artists have constructed two walls, which allows for more flexibility in presenting their work.

Final year art student Oliver Beer, said: 'It’s completely different, it’s not the teenage party we've always had in the Ruskin, it’s an impressive space that demands a lot more from us. We step out of the cloistered Victorian architecture and are a step closer to the real world.'

The students are all finding different ways of utilising the space in the best way possible. Jasmine Roberts and Hannah Mezaros-Martin are turning one of the old squash courts into a cinema space. 'Without painting out the traces of the court we are attempting to build a comfortable and intimate area for the audience to sit whilst they are presented with a half-hour program of films shown on the enormous screen,' Jasmine said. 

The neighboring squash court is being transformed into a classic bright white gallery space by Tom Howey and Stephanie Farmer so they can display their painting and sculpture with as few distractions as possible.

And fellow art student Elizabeth Porter added: 'We're a contemporary art school as well as being part of the university, we have to really push the boundaries of ‘what is Oxford?’. By taking on a new space, we're challenging the perception of what an art school in Oxford is, and showing what it could be.'

Artists have taken on unexpected nooks and crannies of the building, so visitors can expect to discover work in the kitchen, on the balconies and even outside.

Ruskin Master, Richard Wentworth said: 'At the Ruskin, I tell the students we can offer them 60 weeks of intensity, spread over 3 years. I tell them to take responsibility for this and all the bits in between, and promise them that they will enjoy coming up for air when they graduate.Artists thrive on aeration and need to learn to make their own luck.

'This year's opportunity for Ruskin students to take responsibility for an unused warehouse in which to exhibit is exactly the kind of thing which they embrace, a great way to rethink the habits of mind of the school, and their own, and to celebrate new ways of exhibiting work.'

The Ruskin Degree Show 09 is the culmination of three years’ study for the seventeen final year students. Based in the SERS Building, it will include new sculpture, painting, printmaking, installation and video.The exhibition will be open between 20 and 23 June, from 10am until 5pm with a private view on Friday 19 June.