Continuing with our Life at Chelsea blog series as we approach the MA Summer Show, opening 7 September, we talk to London based Rayvenn D’Clark, who is Black British-Caribbean (with heritage from Guyana, Jamaica & Spain), is currently studying MA Fine Art.
Rayvenn has had a long and fruitful journey through Foundation Diploma in Art & Design – CSM, UAL (2013-14), BA Fine Art – Chelsea UAL (2014-17) and MA Fine Art – Chelsea UAL (2017-18), from which Rayvenn will graduate this year.
Rayvenn tells us about her practice and life at Chelsea:
“My time at Chelsea has been an action-packed, often hectic but often joyous journey of exploration. I have learnt so much about myself as an individual and an artist.
I feel that my work has developed significantly throughout my time at Chelsea as I have been provided the time to formulate a series of research questions and critical influences that have contributed to an evolution of my studio practice. As I have grown in confidence, this has seen my work become more ambitions – in terms of size and scale – and travelling the world.
“For the degree show I am hoping to do something very different. As I primarily work in sculpture I want to really experiment with the material format of such objects, hopefully in the creation of a holographic object, utilising imagery from 3D objects that I have been manipulating for the last few months.
“I am greatly inspired by the individuals I have been working alongside. Inspired to take a risk and to see it though, whether it is successful or not. I have been looking at the ingenuity of the work of Marc Quinn (Alison Lapper Pregnant) in the different material format he has used to generate a large scale sculpture and I take some inspiration from this piece of work.
“I think to work in the studio is to constantly navigate the personal and critical interests of your classmates. To in many ways be inundated with the work and witness the process of others really has had a positive effect on my practice as it brings up valuable questions are my own working practice and the material distinctions that define my body of work.
“I have a really great run of eternal projects since engaging with my MA: being involved in serval international exhibitions, workshops/panels which have boosted my confidence in ways I never thought possible. This includes most recently my contribution to the 2018 Reconstructing Practice Conference: Towards an Antiracist Art + Design, Pasadena, CA, the 2018 UAL Attainment Conference, the How To Support Emerging Artists Through Buying Art, Panel Discussion at the Affordable Art Fair, and finally the Open Dialogues: Artists + Designers of Afro- Caribbean Descent event that took place in March.
“In addition, having the opportunity to conduct my own workshop as a part of the Widening Participation brief at Chelsea College of Arts. Likewise, having work published for Shades of Noir, and within Decolonise The Arts Curriculum – Perspectives on Higher Education zine.
My work has similarly been presented in over 20 events in over 3 different countries including the Affordable Art Fair 2018, Nasty Women Portugal and several Creative Debuts events, with some more exhibitions planned in the future.
“When I leave Chelsea the first thing I’d like to do is sleep, most definitely and probably catch up on Netflix. But in all seriousness, I have to secure a studio and to travel with my work, continue on from the amazing opportunities that have been afforded to me during my MA.
I am proud to be a Chelsea Student. I have most definitely matured as an artist and individual throughout my 5+ years at UAL and feel that I have made efforts to reconstruct the narrative in terms of black art and artists.
I have a few projects which I can’t mention yet, but I will working as an ‘Associate Artist’ with Fevered Sleep as well as participating in several workshops in and around the UK. But who knows that the future will bring…”
See more work on Rayvenn’s website
RayvennDClark in the Published Articles section of Shades of Noir website – Search by name
Visit our MA Summer Show
Read more about MA Fine Art