Text and images by Frederic Anderson,

MFA Fine Art, Wimbledon College of Arts

This  Pop Up Common Room took the form of a series of three informal crit sessions held at the Griffin Gallery this spring. The sessions were organised by Engine Chat Chat in collaboration with the UAL Postgraduate Community, and hosted by the Griffin Gallery.

Selected by Postgraduate Community, twelve artists from across UAL were invited to take part in the sessions after having submitted an application. One of the most important aspects of the event, and one of the main strengths of the Postgraduate Community as a whole, was that it brought together current students and recent graduates. It also created a vibrant mix of different disciplines – sculpture, expanded painting, photography, participatory art, research projects, auto-destructive art. This diversity of career stage, perspective and discipline was one of the event’s unique points of interest. Having outside opinions pitched from a broad base of different points of view, created a vibrant arena for the contextualisation and criticism of the works presented.

image: Sinéid Codd – Goldscape 3, 2016. archival digital print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag (MA Visual Arts Printmaking, Camberwell College of the Arts)

Images and Text by

Kristina Ezhova, MA Fashion Journalism at Central Saint Martins

A picture is worth a thousand words. Now imagine having millions of still images at your disposal. On April 27^th, UAL postgraduate students had an incredible opportunity to visit the Getty Images Archives in East London. We were guided by Matthew Butson, who has overseen the archive at Getty Images for over a decade and has been with the archive for 32 years.

Text and images by Noemi Gunea,

MA Performance Design and Practice, Central Saint Martins 

image: Out of Water, Edinburgh Fringe

 ‘We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. ‘ ~Albert Einstein

Sustainability is a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely. The word has been used a lot in connection with the environment to point to a practice that, as the Norwegian Brundtland Commission puts it, “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

Sustainability in the arts can be seen from two perspectives: theme or practice. Many performance artists and theatre companies tackle themes of sustainability, such as ecological issues, political activism, economical inequality.

image credit: Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Pat Naldi – AER Resident 2016

The Art for the Environment International Artist Residency Programme (AER) was launched in 2015 by member of the UAL Research Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF) and UAL Chair of Art and the Environment Professor Lucy Orta and coordinated by CSF Associate Curator Camilla Palestra.

We can announce that Gonçalo Birra  –  MA Fine Art 2016 Alumni, Chelsea College of Arts has been selected for this years’ AER 2017 Residency at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) seeks to provide a centre of international, national and regional importance for the production, exhibition and appreciation of modern and contemporary sculpture.
The revelatory nature of YSP opens up possibilities and encourages exploration of the relationship between art and nature, stimulating engagement and adventure in the surroundings.
This residency takes place within the grounds of YSP, giving privileged out-of-hours access to respond to the park’s diverse natural environment, as well as a unique opportunity to create work that can engage with the YSP visitors in new ways.