Tag Archives: City & Guilds

City & Guilds Foundation Show

Another milestone has arrived on the Greater Kennington cultural calendar (it’s a thing, trust us). City and Guilds of London Art School is having its annual show and we’re on the case. These artists are completing their Foundation year, so the work is less advanced than the much grander Degree Show (we’ll get on to that in a tic). The students are studying a more proscribed range of styles than their more advanced counterparts but are much more experimental (read, slightly mad but very interesting). The themes this year seem to be 1. Saving the planet 2. Dirt 3. Saving the planet through dirt 4. Rocks. If you want to impress your friends, bring them along and when they invariably ask ‘well, what DOES it mean’, try rolling your eyes and saying ‘it’s about IDENTITY’. Or make it newsworthy by saying ‘what’s wrong with you, it’s about THE PRICE OF EGGS’.

24 to 30 June brings the mighty (we’re talking huge) Degree Show in the main buildings of the college. It showcases a range of up and coming artists arranged in small rooms, so you can see a larger selection of their works. What we find most interesting is that you can see the work of historic wood and stone carvers in the back garden area. Also of interest are the upper floor areas dealing with conservation and restoration. And if you don’t care for something keep your trap shut as chances are the artist is behind you. And there is an even bigger MA show from 2 to 9 September.

`The Foundation show is open 18,19 and 20 May from 10 – 5 in the old telephone building in Kenning’s Way and is totally free. Of the three, we find this the most fun as you never know what you might encounter when you turn a corner. For example, an armchair sprouting grass (below) or fake children worshipping broken glass (also below).

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Getting Crafty @ City&Guilds

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Another high point on the Greater Kennington cultural calendar takes place this weekend and we’re here to tell you about it. City and Guilds in Kennington Park Road are taking part in London Craft week on Friday and Saturday and it looks as if they are hosting a number of free (and we love free) events and demonstrations.

Various studios around C&GLAS will be open exhibiting a range of crafts and showing how stuff is made. In the paper studio students and tutors will be on hand to show paper related demonstrations and discuss paper conservation. In the printmaking studio, the head of printmaking will be hosting several (sadly now booked) workshops but others will be on hand giving demonstrations of different kinds of printing such as intaglio. We’ve been in this studio, and it is a fascinating space. Outside, students will be giving demonstrations of wood and stone carving and you can even have a go at carving yourself! Apparently there is a carving competition among students as well. This sounds frighteningly dangerous, but somebody losing a half a finger could be interesting nevertheless.

The press release enticingly mentions a free talk and tasting event sponsored by Fabal Lager (we’ve never heard of them either) on Saturday afternoon which sounds fun. Indeed, we reached out to City and Guilds to see if they were having a launch event featuring free wine and canapés which might just influence our review. Their response was ‘no’, but we’ve picked up the pieces of our shattered dream and moved on with our lives.

No ticket is required for this event, just turn up.

City & Guilds MA Show

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The pinnacle of the Greater Kennington arts calendar is upon us again in the guise of the MA Show over at City and Guilds in Kennington Park Road. Now if you’re thinking ‘hang on, didn’t I just go to that’ then you’re thinking about the BA Show in August, so keep up. The MA show is a more mature and subdued affair, usually, so don’t expect any swing sets wrapped fur which talk to you. But nevertheless expect a few surprises.

The MA programme at C&G focuses on fine art and does not include other speciality areas such as carving, conservation or restoration. Most of the artists are on hand and are more than happy (we’re talking, almost dying) to talk about their work. An obvious theme this year was isolation and vulnerability, and this was expressed in various ways. One artist worked exclusively in parsley (yes, the herb) and another one we got chatting do expressed herself by making doll sized dioramas filled with dust. Another crafted his work by a very heavy reliance on table salt.

More traditional mediums are mostly used across the vast Georgian buildings of the school and it is easy to lose yourself as you wander about. A number of artists are working in sculpture and some pure drawing, but the majority of works are on canvas by use or oils, acrylics, or watercolour. Some interesting deviations are present, such as an artist who likes to depict 50’s ‘femme fatales’ in oil on Perspex (below). Some of the works are large format, others miniscule. The volume of work on show can be a bit overwhelming, but the impression is of a well curated and at times stunningly beautiful body of works.

The MA show is open daily (other than Monday) from 10 to 5 until Saturday, 23 October. Even if you don’t really care for art it is totally free and a fun way to whittle away a lunch break, even if you’re not the arty sort.

City and Guilds London Art School has a very long and fascinating connection to Greater Kennington. Before being in its present location it was in Vauxhall, with one its early patrons being the Doulton Pottery factory who used their students to embellish their works. With a strong contingent of female students, it also has links to the Suffragette movement in the early 20^th century. You can even but some of these works on Ebay!

Royal Doulton in Vauxhall

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We humans were not built to spend six hours a day on ‘Zoom’ calls (which we are thinking about renaming ‘Co-Vid’ calls) and if you’re working from home it is always good to take a brisk walking break. We recommend having a gander at one of the most striking buildings in our area, the former Royal Doulton Pottery building now known as ‘China Works’.

Royal Doulton was established in Vauxhall Walk but moved to the corner of Black Prince Road and Lambeth High Street where this Gothic wedding cake was erected in 1876. This building is a survivor of a vast Doulton complex which was in use until the 1950’s. The building is cast in red brick with polychromy and an array of terracotta highlights. It was intended as a living advertisement to show off the Doulton product.

This particular building was used as a museum and art school, and the relief above the door (called a ‘tympanum’, and aren’t we smart) depicts a group of people inspecting some terracotta pots, and a woman with a cat painting one. By the 1870’s Doulton was moving in a more decorative direction with the aid of Lambeth School of Art, which is now City & Guilds of London Art School in Kennington Park Road. It should be noted that almost all of the painting and decorating of the pots was undertaken by women, and was a rare and early example of a skilled craft which women could access.

The area around the Doulton Factory is about to undergo some very profound and very controversial changes. We don’t make judgements on planning issues on KR but judge for yourself. The building is, thank god, listed and currently occupied by one of those workspace outfits which recently have been popping up like head lice. So our gothic confection is going nowhere, but it might suffer the indignity of having a ‘Franco Manca’ stuck into it one day.

Kennington Park and its new Flower Garden

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It’s all change in Kennington Park at the moment, and this weekend was a big one thanks to the reopening of the flower garden after a £500k makeover. We bring you photos, with apologies to the woman who we inadvertently followed around:

The flower garden originally opened in 1931 and its layout has remained much the same since, including this water feature:

This new sundial was made from Welsh slate by Sam Flintham, a student of historic stone carving at Kennington’s own City & Guilds:

Get down there quick while the roses are still in season:

Elsewhere in the park, the Kennington Park Centre on Bob Marley’s old hang out, St Agnes Place, is newish and features an arts and community centre, a stay and play club, and an adventure playground. Also newish is the exercise equipment just north of the cafe, which is proving very popular.

Finally, one of the big concerns about Northern Line extension works in the park was that Bee Urban, those harvesters of the world’s tastiest honey, would have to be relocated. Well, they have been, and their new site next to the cafe looks mightily impressive:

Join the Friends of Kennington Park here – they made all this happen.

Inside City & Guilds of London Art School

Kennington Runoff presented itself at the Private View of the MA Fine Art Show tonight, a giddy high point in the Kennington art world calendar. If you’ve never been inside City and Guilds Art School, housed in a row of Georgian buildings along Kennington Park Road, the final shows are an excellent opportunity to poke around this labyrinthine space.

The show, titled Red Thread, runs from 12th-15th September, and is so-called because ‘in East Asian mythology the gods tie a red cord around the ankles of those that are destined to share the same fate – be it death, love or working on the 2103 MA Show at London’s City&Guilds Art School.’

The Kennington Runoff Prize goes to Mark Morgan, for tricking us more than once with his clever excavations. Special mention also goes to Jelena Bulajic and her mammoth-scale portraits. Go and see the show in person, because these photos don’t really do it justice.

Tarek Tuma:

Anja von Kalinowski:

Jelena Bulajic (this is impressively huge in real life):

Mark Morgan: