WIPE (Photography): SoAD students show resilience and creative adaptability.
So, the long lockdown is slowly easing but in-person talks and physical shows are still not going to be possible for a while yet. Not to be defeated in challenging times, our School of Architecture and Design lecture series and our Work In Progress digital exhibition are both proving very popular. The weekly Public Lectures curated by Professor Charles Holland and the Lunchtime Research Talks curated by Dr. Katy Beinart are attracting so many external participants that we have started to record them to make them more widely available.
Similarly, The Work in Progress Exhibition (WIPE) is receiving huge praise. Students from across our courses can share work with both peers and external audiences. The standard and breadth of this work showcases the many ways architecture and design students have responded to their new working environments and challenges brought about by the pandemic.
There are five WIPE categories, these were chosen to be inclusive for all courses and reflect the range of student work from across the school, very much in line with the awards that are usually given at the end of year show. Each category was then judged by a member of SoAD Technical Team. The categories are as follows:
Best photograph
Best model (3D prototype etc)
Best installation in a domestic setting
Best environmentally conscious project
Best drawing
Photography prize nominations: Claire Hoskin
1st prize went to Edmund Morgan (BA Architecture) “1:1 Perspective section tape drawing on my bedroom wall”
“Morgan’s photograph playfully and wittily records his project and is a self-portrait of its maker. Despite the scale and ambition of the drawing itself the image has a faintly surreal quality caused by the exterior appearing within the interior. The presence of the contrastingly bemused and relaxed subjects in the foreground adds to this and the humour of the image”
Edmund’s comments: “I would like to express my gratitude not only for receiving the prize, but for my tutors who submitted my work to the show and for the wonderful feedback given by the judges”
2nd Prize: Munna Shafie (Integrated Foundation Year) “Camera obscura” “Whether intentional or not, the photograph is a lesson in contrast, beyond the obvious contrast of light and tone. The image is captured digitally via a simple hand-made cardboard camera obscura. The softness of the image projected through the tracing paper is also in contrast to the heavy solid structures of the subject”
3rd Prize: Angela Cheung (BA Architecture) “Rock” “Cheung has resisted the temptation to photograph her entire object and has let photography do what it does so well – record detail and texture. Though this detail is explicitly allowed to speak, the succinct title of the piece (where no rock is actually visible) adds an ambiguous and enigmatic quality to the image”