Croydon-born BA Fine Art graduate Jheni Arboine, who is of Jamaican heritage, spoke on behalf of the student body at graduation earlier this month. She thanked everyone from the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor and academics to the college canteen staff.Her work and final show focused on colour and abstract geometric art. In particular she praised the high quality of Chelsea library services including our Special Collections & Archives which are taken care of by Gustavo Grandal- Montero, the course leader of BA Fine Art Martin Newth, academics Dave Beech and Katrine Hjelde, Professor Sonia Boyce & Dr Dan Smith for all their wisdom and encouragement to continually critically analyse work.
Jheni also told the audience some of her other highlights of her time on BA Fine Art at Chelsea including interviewing Sean Scully and a student exchange trip to Spike Island in Bristol. Working with academics Jeff Dennis & Sue Ridge on a project with Hitachi Consulting and Frontier Economic and pitching ideas/being an ambassador for Chelsea as one of 10 students selected to go to Shanghai to exhibit work near the Museum of Contemporary Art, working with SIVA, the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts.
Jheni also got involved with Q-Art who keep the art crit going and through them Jenny made a publication with the V&A, resulting in a trip to Kazan, Russia, where Jenny was lead technician on putting in some work for French artist Laurent Mareschal.
She has now secured a place on Chelsea’s MA Fine Art for this October 2014. To fund her studies Jheni was successful in gaining a Vice Chancellor’s scholarship and also in pitching an idea to a local business with Chris Lewis and the trustees at Kupambana deciding to support her MA.
She will be looking at the semiotics of colour and felt privileged to be on the same stage as Chelsea alumnus Frank Bowling O.B.E RA as he had his honorary doctorate conferred on him.
