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Hi, my name is Paul Stafford, I'm director of the Foundation
Course at Kingston University. I want to show you something,
I want to show you a folder of a student of ours on the
course at the moment and the reason I want to show you
the folder is I want to show you how a student gets on this
Foundation course, the kind of work that gets someone on
a course and the kind of work we expect to see in a folder
prior to student interview. I'll come to the sketchbooks
in a minute, but these formed part of her application
when she applied to us last year before she came on the course.
So this is her entire portfolio that came to us last January,
like all the rest of the students that applied to our Foundation
course, I'll come to these in a minute, but I just want
to go through the folder itself. I think firstly it opens
really nicely. I don't know what these objects are
first of all, but I quite like it, it's quite a colourful page,
I think it's quite an interesting page, it's kind of
arresting as you open, the portfolio, so that's a good
tactic in my view to get the perspective member of staff
looking at the folder, working in a way, it's arresting
as you open. Over the page, we go through some
3D work, obviously these are made from latex,
seemingly she's been on the floor of some forest somewhere,
hasn't she? There's bits of acorns, bits and pieces
of wood around here, I quite like it, it goes well
with the piece of work here, the photograph of
some of these objects, good use of materials,
I think I'm interested, it's a good way start the folder
of work, I think she's telling us what's going on here,
which is kind of interesting. She's been down to the
Thames embankment, I think she must have done one of
our short courses, because last year one of our
staff took people down to the Thames embankment,
picking up all sorts of things that were found, in fact
near Tate Modern, on the shore front there on the Thames.
So I like that, nice use of photography, I quite like the
documentation of the objects she's found, some nice
things, bits of metal, bits of bone and stuff and all
of a sudden she's doing I think, she's started to draw them
so that's quite good, you know evidence of some kind
of drawing skill in here, looking at the objects themselves,
telling us what's been going on. I quite like this,
a photograph of, a drawing of a dog, reminds me
of those Hockney drawings, you know of his dog,
and I like that, bit of personal work in the folder,
drawing of my Lurcher and brown Indian ink, telling us
what's going on, I like it, a bit of personal inflection
of the work you would say. She goes on to show us a
silk painting of a rotting goat, a bit of a boring
drawing I think you might say, but showing us a range
of materials again, so that's kind of interesting for us to see.
She must have connected back to her forest project here,
because here she's in the forest, pen and ink studies,
near Chiswick, it must be where she lives, so ok, she's
gone back to the first project, she's been to the forest floor again,
she uses a range of materials, they're not the best
drawings in the world I don't think, but they're ok,
she's then taken her drawings to print making,
which is quite good, I think using photography as well.
So again, a range of different materials, that's good
for us to see. More printmaking, looking at cliffs
in Cornwall she tells us down here, so again,
more evidence of a range of approaches, so that's quite
nice to see. Again, more printmaking work, working
with colour on top of prints, expanding her range of
work to do with that forest project, so that
underlines the fact that she can do things, she carries on
with the project, I quite like that. She's done a collage
of a typical still life you might say, it looks like a sheep skull,
bits and pieces knocking around, it's ok, it's not a
fantastic drawing, I don't think, but again it pursues
the point she's trying a range of materials you might say.
Similarly here, collage, it's not fantastic is it?
It's kind of why in my view this folder is 7 / 7.5, the folder
starts of well I think, it's starting to reach a mid-ground
now it's getting a bit dull, actually the drawings not
fantastic, it's alright, showing a range of materials.
Obviously they've told her to put some life drawing in here,
it's not great life drawing is it? You have to say,
when you look at the next life drawing it's actually
incorrect, if I was working with the student on this drawing,
I'd be saying to the student, actually, what's happening
behind this hand? Because if I take the logic of these lines
and where they would progress to with that hand away,
that line in some way, comes down here, this line
comes in here and so this model has a great
big hole in his body here, you know, it's hidden by this hand.
So it's not actually a great drawing, at this point in this folder
I'm getting a bit bored with it really, it's starting to
dip down, I'm starting to lose interest, I'm looking at
technical deviancy, because it's not a great drawing
and she's only got two life drawings in here, so if
someone said to put life drawings in, these must have been
her best two, so I'm kind of thinking, actually it's not
good enough to be called for interview, and remember,
this is a student that's got 3 A's at A level, who's
retrospecting school was saying that she's the best thing
since sliced bread, so in my view now, at this point of the folder
it's about 5 / 5.5 / 6, 6 maximum, so it's not going to be
called for interview if 7 / 7.5 is the kind of threshold you would say.
Over we go, photographs, ok they're nice photographs, but
everyone can pick up a digital camera, can't they?
The whole world can develop and print digi film, so
it's interesting I guess, but it's not stunning I don't think, is it?
We go over to this page, I quite like this page, that must
be her dog again, I quite like, it reminds me of that drawing
earlier on, so clever placement in the folder, in a sense.
That must be the Eiffel Tower, mustn't it? Looking from
underneath, I like that bit of composition actually, it's my
favourite photograph. She's been to some interesting places,
so that's kind of interesting to see. She's actually got quite
a good eye for composition, I mean look at this, look at this,
I'm starting to get re-engaged with the folder again really.
We go on, she starts to make pieces of sculpture, but I don't think
they're pieces of sculpture really, I think they're pieces
of Architecture and in here she talks about spheres,
light, types of different material, she's talking like
a sculptor, but in my view, there's much more in here
to do with, really, interior design with architecture,
and look at this, look at this photograph here, and look
at this photograph here, you know, photograph of the Eiffel Tower,
she's looking at very, very similar things, it appears to have some kind of
interest in structure per say, so I'm starting to get
re-engaged with this folder again now really,
I like these objects, I don't think they're sculptor,
I think they're something else. We go on...
she starts to play around a bit more, and look what she
starts to talk about, habitation, natural materials used
for dwelling, spheres made from whirls of wire or willow,
she's talking herself a bit about natural materials,
talking about habitation, talking about these not being
pieces of sculptor, more about a space, a space to live,
it's more architectural, in a sense, than it is to do
with sculptor, I'm thinking at this point, maybe she's got
maths as some kind of background, but her A level regime
hasn't got Maths in it, it wouldn't surprise me at all
if this student wasn't wanting to do something to do with
interior design or architecture as her next career progression.
Similar project, she's taken the project into different
materials now, she's looking at Leonardo DaVinci,
what a great thing to say, she looks for a context to her work,
and here she is playing about with that same kind of interior
space thing, there are those that would think these
are bits of sculptor, but they're not in my view,
they're bits of interior design, they're bits of architecture,
because I think that's what she's interested in doing.
What a beautiful page of photographs, going right back
to her forest project, lovely use of these little acorns,
that she's found in the forest floor. Beautiful pieces of
jewellery, real simple thing to do, what a beautiful page
and I'm really right engaged with this folder again now,
from being a bit bored in the middle looking at those
life drawings which weren't, in my view, incorrect, well they
were incorrect, to a place now where she's using great
materials, she's using back to her forest project in a really
interesting way and I'm back engaged, I'm thinking to myself,
oh fine, fine, this is interesting, here we are look,
she must have looked at Anish Kapoor, mustn't she?
The Indian sculptor we know, who had that great piece
of work in the Tate Modern, she must have looked at him
because look at the pigmentation, very different to this
kind of natural work she's doing earlier, you know his
work, Indian sculptor is lots of high in pigments, cadmium reds,
yellows, bright blues, the whole time, looking back
to his culture and here she is using the same kinds of things,
so what a nice range of practice. On we go to
the final sheet of work... and look what she's doing here,
we've talked before about architecture, maybe her love of Maths,
and look what she says down here, collaborative acrylic canvas painting
on the theme of physics, so tying back to what must have
been her GCSE regime, back to that and producing this
great big lovely paintings, producing the set designs
for her school play, showing where her interests lie
and so for me at an endgame, I think what a great
and interesting folder at the end, it really picks up.
It's really well put together and from the initial stage of being
interesting, to that mid-stage of being really a bit
dull with technical problems to an endgame to where I think fine,
the girl's a very interesting student. I go for secondary information,
I go to the sketchbooks just to conver that she's got her
own ideas. These are the two sent from school and
so I look for confirmation and I flick through them,
takes me two minutes, I'm seeing back to a project,
I'm seeing a girl, look at, this is a photograph of the Eiffel Tower again,
deconstruct the way the tower was usually viewed, how interesting,
back to the notion of architecture again. She's writing,
she's looking, she's writing all the time in these sketchbooks,
look at this, terrific, terrific, looking at other artists for
context of her work, talking, talking, talking,
telling us about her world, telling us the things she's interested in,
and the other sketchbook is the same as that, look at it,
full of ideas, ideas, ideas, people that she likes,
people she's debating, and I think fine, get the girl on board,
get the girl in for interview, get the girl into Kingston
and so we saw her obviously and she's now a student on our course,
I work with her myself actually, she's very interesting,
because she did a project for me which was all about
architecture, it was all about 3D design, it's all about
interior space and that's what she's chosen to do next term.
She never thought that when she came, she thought she
was a fine artist, you know, and she's not that at all,
this girls a designer, a designer per say,
and that's been proven through the whole first stage
of this foundation course and I think that's a really good example
that a students work, to get onto this course,
7 / 7.5, not the best folder of work in the world
you would say, but not the worst either, a very bright,
very intelligent, very good and able student.