MA Fine Art: A look at 2021 graduate work
- Written byGrizelda Kitching
- Published date 28 January 2022
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We asked 3 2021 MA Fine Art graduates - Rosalie Wammes, Sara David and Ying Cai - to share their work.
Their final graduate projects document the range of work produced on our MA Fine Art course, with a mixture of digital, multi-sensory installation and sculptural work.
Rosalie Wammes
Rosalie Wammes came to the course from a background in performance and scenography. Her time studying at Chelsea allowed her to explore installation and sculpture with a focus on the viewer becoming the performer as they experience the work.
Rosalie shared her work, titled There will be Time.
Rosalie: My intuitive practice-led research is an examination of sensitivity, feminism, and world-building. Using materials like clay, metal, wax, light and sound I approach the cultural space as a sanctuary, where everyone and everything, organic or artificial, living or dead, is honoured equally.
For the installation There will be time I have been revisiting memories from my early childhood. Moments where I experienced ‘deep time’, moments that still stick with me. Like when I sat in silence in the garden next to my grandpa, both watching the fish swim in his pond or seeing a very bright light coming through the church-window while hearing my mum play the organ. I have decomposed certain elements and senses from these memories and created the installation There will be time with it.
Sound and music often play a role in my works, for this installation I started making ceramic flutes (ocarinas). It was my first time working with ceramics, I learned to hand build. I tried several glazing techniques but, in the end decided to use the burnishing technique.
The final installation resulted in a space that I transformed through sound and light. I made subtle adjustments to the space by making louvres of white painted cardboard to cover the windows, to manipulate how the light enters the room. The installation also included a recording of the handmade ceramic flutes, which was played through large burnished ceramic megaphones.
Sara David
Prior to the MA graduate show, Sara David had spent much of the year thinking about sites of practice. Working from home due to health reasons, Sara became proactive in rethinking alternative spaces where care and ideas of togetherness sustain outside of the institution.
Sara: Through this installation project, I drew upon the parallels between the rooftop I grew up celebrating every special occasion on in Delhi, and the Chelsea Canteen. Both spaces, although geographically apart, were once used as public sites by which people were able to congregate for food and social use. I reimagined the 2 sites as ‘othered’ sites that form part of a larger institution or property, which had community and care at their core.
Through conversations with the security staff around Chelsea, I came to know about the Canteen space as a public space, prior to COVID regulations coming into place. Visitors from outside the institution, such as Tate staff and the general public, were able to access the Chelsea Canteen for lunch service as the meals here were significantly cheaper than much of the area. I found it fascinating that this dynamic between a public and private space existed right within the college.
Lunch at the छत (छत - pronounced chhath meaning rooftop/terrace)
was a multi-sensory installation in collaboration with the Chelsea Canteen Team and my mother, Gina Aunty.
As part of the 1-day install, The Chelsea Canteen cooked a selection of celebratory recipes alongside Gina Aunty using a specially made menu of her recipes.
The site-specific installation included 9 hand-painted and custom-cut table runners on silk-sewn covers. Alongside these, every table featured copies of an 84-page hand-painted recipe book which I made in collaboration with Graphic Designer and friend, Moesha Parirenyatwa [LINK TO: https://moeshapari.myportfolio.com/home]. The book combined my mother's recipes, family photo archives which documented the छत gatherings together with my paintings.
Lunch at the Chhat, Sara David
Video documented by Morisha Moodley
Ying Cai
Ying Cai was keen to study here at Chelsea, finding the networking and opportunities exciting. Ying's project Novacene is a vision for future biology using digital media, using both analogue and digital images to explore her conscious and critical reflection on real biotechnology.
Ying: I was inspired by the impact of Heterotransplantation (a process to transplant a kidney between various species) on the development of synthetic biology, as well as the impact of synthetic biology on culture and the environment in the future. I paid attention to the study of new forms of life and intelligent biology.
Novacene, 2021 by Ying Cai
View work by more 2021 MA Fine Art graduates on the UAL Graduate Showcase
Find out more about MA Fine Art