Art and design students showcase postgraduate projects across the capital

Posted Friday 7 September 2012

Cypriot Tasia Lofitou (Communication Design) draws on the heritage of her home village.

Work by Kingston University art and design students is popping up all over London - from Brompton to Peckham and from the South Bank to the Canal Museum at King's Cross.

Aficionados of the creative arts should keep their eyes peeled for unexpected displays by MA fine artists, product designers and curators. They may even be lucky enough to stumble across exhibits by students studying for MAs in communication design, film and television design, surveying and fashion.

The shows aim to highlight the value of a postgraduate qualification. "Our courses provide the space and time to pursue the question not the answer," Kingston University's course leader for MA Communication Design Ian Noble said. "The purpose of MA research is to achieve a better understanding of what is possible, effective and appropriate."

Kuan-Ting Liao from Taiwan (Design: Product + Space) envisages upcycling copper wire Kingston University's postgraduate courses also have a vocational focus. "At a time when the broadcasting industry is very hard to break into, our graduates have secured some enviable jobs," course leader for production design for film and television Teresa Lawler said. "We have four former students working with Simon Jago, who designed the sets for the BBC and Channel 4 newsrooms, one is art director for Downton Abbey, one manages a large team on the Big Brother set and another was action prop buyer on Batman - The Dark Knight Rises and worked on Ridley Scott's Prometheus."

Kingston University is staging seven separate MA shows this year:

Fine artists are exhibiting at the Hannah Barry Gallery, Unit 9i, 133 Copeland Road, London SE15 3SN, from 11am to 6pm between September 4 and 7. Their work includes paintings, photography, sculptures, and video and installation pieces.
On Friday September 7 Kingston University surveying and planning students will be defending their dissertations in front of industry guests at RIBA (the Royal Institute of British Architects), 66 Portland Place, London W1B 1AD.
Students on the Curating Contemporary Design MA are staging a series of "super talks" at Tent London - one of the London Design Festival's biggest shows. The talks will take place each day from 20 to 23 September, between 1.45 and 3.45pm. Guest speakers, including architect Will Alsop, designer Jurgen Bey and advertising expert Ed Gillespie, will be introduced and interviewed by Kingston students and each session will end with a short debate.
Elsewhere, work by Kingston University's MA designers will go on public view during Vauxhall Fashion Scout, part of London Fashion Week. Their display is at Freemason's Hall, Great Queen Street, Covent Garden on Monday 17 September at 6.30 pm.
Product designers will be displaying their final projects at London's Southbank Centre from September 20 to 23. The students' ideas will form part of another major show, Designersblock 2012. The projects include Kuan Ting Liao's intricate patterns made using functioning copper wire.
Work by Kingston University's graphic designers, illustrators and animators will be collected in a book - entitled Really - which will be launched at London's Canal Museum between 6 and 9.30 pm on Thursday September 20. The book includes a powerful commentary on domestic violence by Pavlina Setta.
Finally back on home turf, the graduation show for Kingston's MA Production Design for Film and Television will be at Kingston University's Knights Park campus from on Friday September 21. The campus's project space will be open to the public from 22-27 September, 12-4 pm at weekends and 12-7 on weekdays.