Degree Shows: London

On Saturday 16 June, Rule and myself ventured to London with hopes of something exciting from either Goldsmiths or the RCA.

The Fine Art/Art History Degree Show at Goldsmiths was delightfully well executed, barring a few disappointments as I'm learning to be the norm whilst these kinds of shows reveal very little about the development of artists or their work. I was relieved to find that Chris Baker's paintings were wonderfully impressive, having previously been disheartened to hear the phrase 'geometric forms'. As discussed with Rule, I think my definition of 'geometric' in this sense may be confused with 'regular'. In essence, I feared the use of masking tape.

Previous wonderings had questioned whether the course of Fine Art with Art History would distract from practical workings whilst theoretical modules took place. However, the combination of practical and theory is present in all Fine Art single Degrees, in some form. The combination at Goldsmiths, I presume, may be slightly more cohesive and useful in providing context for the process of creating work, and I only presume because it seems to translate well to the final show.

The quality of painting exhibited for the Fine-Art-on-its-own Degree show was distressingly terrible. Or it may have been trendy, and therefore 'awesome', but I found it to be disgusting. Rule suggested that Luc Tuymans could be to blame. I'm not inclined to disagree.

Meanwhile, other forms of work were noteworthy, including a particularly delightful use of camera obscura using the vistas from the top of the 'squirly metal building'. Being so put off by the quality of painting in general, I neglected to note the artist's name and really didn't pay much attention to the rest of the show. Rule later assured me that Matthew Lake's shed construction with video and someone else's re-edited version of 'Vertigo' were of a fine calibre.

Lunch was had on the East London line between New Cross Gate and Canada Water, and included a cheese/bacon slice from Sainsbury's, later polished off with a Cornflake Cluster.

Oddly, I'd not been to the RCA before Saturday, so it was a fine treat. Tainted by the disaster of Goldsmith's Fine Art, our mindsets were somewhat negative and it wasn't until later that we realised that some of the work was particularly superb. Rule noted this realisation on the train home, whilst I have only just considered it.

James Ryan's paintings were sufficiently irregular and sombre for my liking, suggesting a landscape slipping into industry, or something similar, and were slightly reminiscent of Callum Innes's work. Simon Cunningham's 'Duck/Rabbit' stands out as a particular highlight, alongside Adam James's decision to condense a passage from the bible, using Microsoft Word's Auto Summarise feature, to two pages of the word 'Lord' repeated incessantly, and Thomas Smith's video of singing pilots. All three artists engender a comic yet gravely sincere and, I suppose, satirical atmosphere. These may well be my favourite qualities to find in an exhibition because they're genuine. There is nothing that is pure; just combinations of factors. In other words, Relational Aesthetics.