River Culture

By Isabel Hayman-Brown

Drawings From Within The Prison Walls

When KU fine art student James Heslip was imprisoned last year for his involvement with the student riots he managed to keep his creativity unleashed with his charming art work.

James kept busy while serving his four month sentence at Wandsworth prison by making eccentric sketches of aniamls and mythical creatures.

He would exchange the sketches with other inmates for colouring pencils and art materials.

“I couldn’t see anything, so I sketched whatever I could think of,” he told The River. “There were pigeons that would come to the window bars of the cell to nibble on food. There are a couple of drawings of them.”

A love story akin to a film, Heslip would then post his sketches to his girlfriend Tabby Booth, also an artist, who would then upload them to his blog Drawings from within the prison walls.

Pixie Lott- Chip Off The Old Block

By Isabel Hayman-Brown

The garments, or lack thereof, adorning pop starlets in recent years has proffered an array of increasingly bizarre moments in pop music, from Lady Gaga’s meat dress to Katy Perry’s iced bun bikini.

Never one to buck a trend, Pixie Lott posted a picture of herself to Vogue’s website clad in a KU fashion student’s design crafted entirely from woodchips.

During a stint as guest blogger for the fashion power house, the pop star posted a snap of herself in Stefanie Nieuwenhuyse’s hand made corset, writing: ‘Trying on all my outfits for today’s video shoot…This wooden corset by Stefanie Nieuwenhuyse is amazing- all handmade and currently top of my list!’

The forest friendly creations were featured in The River earlier this year.

 Stitched Up

By Isabel Hayman-Brown

Ever since Tracey Emin stitched her way into the public eye with her infamous patchwork tent in ’95, needlework has been proudly reclaimed by female artists.

One such artist who knows her warp from her weft is Kingston graduate Inge Jacobsen who has, quite literally, weaved her way into the pages of glossy fashion magazines with her nifty needlework.

Her charming and witty embroidered images have been featured in fashion bible Vogue as well as Nylon magazine.

River Culture speaks to the nimble-fingered KU graduate about her success in sewing, her dream of working with Vogue and life after KU.

 What was it like being approached by Vogue?

 Very exciting. I remember being at university earlier in the day and speaking to my tutor about how much I would love to approach Vogue with this. I got home and found an email from the editor of their website saying how they had seen my work online and that they would be interested in writing an article to run alongside a gallery of my work. That was pretty much a dream come true.

 When did you first come up with this idea to embroider magazines and how long, on average does a piece take?

I came up with it while studying Fine Art at Kingston in 2006. I didn’t really develop it much at that time but when I returned to Kingston in 2009 to study photography I thought thread would be an interesting way to intervene into images. The length of time depends completely on how big the image is and how much detail it has. I just finished a piece that was 40x48cm and had a lot of detail, it took me around 100 hours to complete.

Why fashion? Has this always been a focus for you? How do you pick your subjects?

Fashion just seems like the natural subject for this work. There are the obvious connections between women, fashion, and needle work. I also collect fashion magazines and it’s that sort of imagery that drew me to photography in the first place.

And your commission for Nylon Japan, how did that come about?

That was really exciting, it was my first big commission and a chance to reach a much wider audience as well as a chance for my work to become a part of the world of mass produced imagery which I thought was funny in an ironic sort of way. They had seen the Vogue covers I has stitched online and emailed me asking if I would like to illustrate over their feature spread for the upcoming issue. It happened pretty quickly and kind of went by in a blur mainly because I was in the last term of my third year. That was a busy time.

You tend to push the boundaries of what can be photography, has this always been something you’ve been interested in, or was there a time when conventional photography interested you?

I can definitely appreciate a conventional photograph and conventional photography; I just didn’t feel like doing it. I think coming from a Fine art background I’m used to making images and spending a considerable amount of time on it. Photography feels like the first step in my work, and it doesn’t have to be me taking the picture.

What do you hope people take away from your work?

I would want them to see it as unique snippets of pop culture and the mass-produced society. I’m fully aware that this is lost when most people view my work because it is usually done online. But the idea is still there, just not fully appreciated.

 A lot of your pieces seem quite tongue in cheek, is this you poking fun at how females are portrayed in porn and the media or do you take a more hardened feminist stance?

More poking fun than a hardened feminist stance. I consider myself a feminist but it is not my place to judge the decision other women make. I do think the line between fashion and pornographic photography is blurred and I’m really mocking the coyness of some high-end fashion campaigns.

Where do you see your work in the future? Always in fashion and embroidery?

Not necessarily, but at the moment I’ll stick with embroidery and maybe move away from fashion imagery, maybe embroidering images that are little more unexpected.

How have you found leaving university and what was your favourite thing about studying in Kingston?

The best thing about university is the chance to discuss and develop ideas with peers and tutors; I really miss that since leaving. The course at Kingston allows you the space to work and develop your own ideas and we were always encouraged by the tutors to think outside the box. I was on a photography course but I wasn’t penalised for not taking any photos.  The best thing about leaving university is that you get to continue exploring your ideas at your own pace. 

http://www.ingejacobsen.com/

By Isabel Hayman-Brown

In the latest issue of The River film student Gillian Hathaway showed us that success on the big screen is more than just a pipedream.

Second year filmmaking student Gillian won a bursary from the British Film Institute to produce a film to be screened to 3000 people at The BFI, BAFTA and Tate modern.

Here Gillian speaks to River Culture blog about ambitions, inspirations and moving from Tokyo to London.

What first interested you in film? Is this something you’ve always wanted to study?

No I used to study fine art.  It was an odd because I didn’t do paintings at all on that course, I was just so curious about film all the time that my portfolio was completely filled with media, so a tutor recommended I study filmmaking and since then I’ve been ridiculously passionate about it.

What or who inspires you? Do you have subjects you return to?

I love director Pedro Almodóvar, who’s known as the Spanish Hitchcock.  He’s the director of The Skin I Live In and Bad Education.  I don’t see many similarities between his films and my films but I like his work, he’s very melodramatic and his films involve lots of mystery and romance and all his sets are really colourful which is what I really like.

I like to use different nationalities, races and ages in my films. I never specify what work or social status people have or how rich or poor they were.  This way you get just what you get from it.

How do you approach making a film?

I tend to work quite visually, I think of a particular shot, a particular mood and I question why it is that I chose those colors or settings etc, and then I work form there and expand it on a theory base.

I had a crew for the BFI film, they were all people on my course.  The studio at university was open so everything was shot here over summer.  I had auditions here too so I spent the whole summer in university! I auditioned around 30 people. 

What Next?

I want to work in feature films eventually . I do a lot of experimental work because of my course but I think I its good to start of that way and then go into narrative.  I’d eventually like to work into the British film industry.

How have you found moving from Tokyo to London?

The different culture was a shock to me because Japanese people are very polite and helpful, its part of  our culture to be very polite in every situation, even in McDonalds they’re so polite. And here it’s very casual and its hard to get used to.

What do you want people to take away from your films?

I always want to portray that things are different from different points of view.  I always want to show something from a different angle, I want people to walk away being more open-minded.

Click here to watch Gillian’s winning  film To Look Through a Clear Mist.

By Isabel Hayman-Brown

These Hands Are Models-Martin Westwood Exhibition at Stanley Picker Gallery 

Tucked behind Knights Park campus, Stanley Picker Gallery is currently playing host to a new exhibition of ceramic works by Tate-exhibited artist Martin Westwood.

Previously a painter, Westwood has used his first solo exhibition to showcase ceramic pieces he has produced during an 18-month stint at Kingston University undertaking PHD research.

Having previously studied in Rome and Holland, Westwood returned to England to work alongside Kingston students in the university’s 3D workshops where he constructed the clay creations featured in These Hands Are Models.

Ideas surrounding currency and politics of finance provide the conceptual framework for the show along with explorations into the three dimensional manifestations of printing processes.

 Small, brightly coloured totems huddle together in clusters and sturdy casts sit alone elsewhere on the gallery floor, all of which were made using rudimentary print processes; the organising of formless material using a “master” mould.

This exhibition circulates around ideas of mass-production and individuality and provides a juxtaposition between the mass-produced and the crafted, the personal and the removed, the corporate and the earthly.  

These side-by-side comparisons are reflected in the displaying of the rudimentary materials on the slick , walnut-veneered, smoked-glass plinths.

These Hands Are Models is showing at the Stanley Picker Gallery until November 26 and is free entry.

By Isabel Hayman-Brown

Kingston Design students exhibit Wacky Creations at London Design Festival

Kingston University design students gave new meaning to the phrase ‘wash and go’ when they showcased a rickshaw-shower and washing machine-cum-arcade game at London Design Festival.

Lee-Wei Chen left critics in a spin with Real Play, an arcade game with an inbuilt washing machine that uses gamer zapping skills to power the washing cycle, livening up doing the laundry.

Meanwhile, Lee-Wei’s classmate Chen Ying Gao displayed her rickshaw-shower invention, a shower cubicle fixed to the back of a bicycle, designed to relive the cramped living spaces of China’s migrant workers.

The Kingston MA students exhibited their wacky works alongside 180 other budding designers at Tent London last week, one of the most high-profile events at London Design Festival.

Tent attracted 20,000 visitors and marked the 10th birthday of the Kingston MA Curating Contemporary Design course, which runs in conjunction with the Design Museum.

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