Thursday, 12 June 2008

Bad news for Hallam

Last week saw the final degree show and currently running is the final master's degree show to be held at Sheffield Hallam's Psalter Lane campus. Once again, long-term educational investment has been sacrificed for short-term financial gain and the real losers - the future generations who will ultimately pay the price for our greed. So it was in the past, so it is now and so it evermore will be... - or so it seems. The 'new facilities' offered to the art students at City campus are all but a (comparative) joke and morale couldn't be much lower. The staff appear to be doing just about anything that they possibly can to highlight the positives involved however these are seemingly few and far between. In short, it feels like everyone is perceiving the beginning of the end for the 'art department' and exactly what will evolve after the fat cats have fed their pension funds remains contentious. I will be sure to write more about this whole issue as situations unfold but for now, here's the first of some slideshows that I've been working on offering my interpretation of various third year pieces. The pieces are not in any order and I think it will be obvious to anyone who cares to look, that some images have been 'worked on' more than others. Please accept them at their face value, that being my interpretation rather than my opinion of another's work. There will be more to follow in the next days.

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3 Comments:

Blogger paisley said...

damn it man.. you are back,, and i was clueless till just this morning!!! i have to scoot as i have to work,, but i will be here later and catch up.. thought of you often... glad to see you back!!!!!

16 June 2008 14:28 
Blogger stiltz said...

Hi darlin' - I've missed you too though I've never stopped reading your stuff of course - you're quite the star! I had to take a back seat for a while - big time split / 4 kids involved and all the bigots and hypocrites loving to involve themselves - I'm sure you know how it is and I thank God for true friends. I hope you're good and we write. Love.

16 June 2008 17:05 
Anonymous good mate said...

Throughout my course all I have received is a load of bureaucratic shit to do with money or lack of time from people. I never really minded as I personally believe if you wish to be creative or do something then I will try my best and so far this approach has not failed. To add a positive edge and the way I would approach the situation of moving would be to work with the situation in an oblivious way where I become my own institution or to just leave the institution and either go to another or just find a way to make work, i.e. web designing to fund my art projects or just working some shitty job as I'm now having to start to function. At the end of the day you are at university to gain knowledge and I think that the tutors are much better than most at other art colleges and no course is 100%. It is a shame that psalter lane is going but to be honest absolutely no students used the space to even half its true potential and everyone jsut wants stuff on a big plate where they have to do nothing. Make your own fucking plate I say and though it is a shame paying for it, at least it creates a space outside of the soul-destroying worlds of commerce. To be an artist is a highly political position in contemporary british society and most people at hallam don't take responsibility for that position. It is ace to see you feel repelled by the move and all the crappy bureaucracy that comes with it but any strong artist would be far from giving in as it is the spirit of their practice that no one can truly interfere with. It will soon become extremely boring to carry on discussing and kicking up against the university's decisions. The move was planned before I even started so it could possibly be a little too late to think you could make any difference. It is obvious that the big wigs and their slaves (the tutors) are all having a closed minded farce of a gang bang but so what! Just go down there and flag the world of artistic freedom and creative integrity. They may not like it but it's not supposed to be all safe and easy for everyone to deal with.

I'm not as bothered as I may sound and it is nice to see you are concerned, but as you said to me, "Don't take things too seriously and it is only yourself who really matters", or something along those lines. Just enjoy it as much as you can and if you can't fuck it off.

21 June 2008 10:54 

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