Sunday, April 03, 2011

Untitled. Harriet Hoff, 2010

An intensely personal piece of work; the cropped down children's bunk bed addresses issues of deprivation, alienation and displacement.

Treasure. Kathryn Hood, 2010


Highlights of a beautiful and thought provoking presentation made in June 2010. Kathryn specialised in Graphic Design and was offered a place at LCC, University of the Arts, to study Graphic Product Innovation.

Peaking in Tongues. Hana Smale, 2009

Saturday, April 02, 2011

Rhonda Sargeant. Guinea Pig Shelter, 2010

Rhonda specialised in the increasingly popular Interior and Architectural Design programme within the Access course. Fully aware that design does not only apply to humans, she set about designing a Guinea Pig Shelter. Inital research, maquettes and drawings informed this plan, showing a seqential view of the shelter. A scaled down model, made from balsa wood (her first ever!) completed the project.

Friday, April 01, 2011

The Little Girl and the Wolf. Saki Watanabe, 2010

Taking the story of Little Red Riding Hood as inspiration, Saki wrote and illustrated her own fairy tale 'The Little Girl and the Wolf'. Her beautiful drawings were created in an original way. She watched Youtube clips of 1940s-50s  performances of the works of Shakespeare. When she found a character and pose that she liked, she paused the movie, took out her sketchbook and drew directly from the screen. She adjusted the drawings, added tone and texture and achieved a fabulous outcome
When Saki applied for university, both Chelsea and Middlesex felt that with what she had achieved on the Access course, she could skip the first year of their degree programme and go directly into the second year!

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Never Give In. Brigitte Mierau, 2010


Brigitte draws incredibly detailed images onto canvas. She does not use a pencil however - every line on the canvas is painstakingly embroidered by hand. This is typical of her work, a real achievement, especially as most of her work is large scale. She was accepted to study for a BA in drawing at Camberwell School of Art, University of the Arts.

Jerrince Forde-Ellick. Ruffled necklace, 2010.

Jerrinice joined the Access course to specialise in Fashion Accessories Design. This is a sheet from her portfolio showing initial concept sketches and finished product. She now studies at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts.

The Body Project. Ed Jenkins, 2009

Alice in Wonderland,. Michelle Urquhart, 2010

Michelle produced a set of drawings illustrating the story of 'Alice in Wonderland'. Bringing a new twist to the process, she dressed her daughter's doll as Alice and photographed her in a variety of settings. The images were worked into and combined with drawn backgrounds to produce an original set of illustrations.

Untitled (2). Harriet Hoff, 2010

Harriet recreated a performance she had filmed previously as part of an installation for her end of year show. The work addresses the idea of personal space and the female form. The performance was interactive; she became central to the piece allowing herself to become vulnerable to the audience. The work became the audience’s..

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Interior model, Kiani Kania 2008

Kiana was the first student from WMC to go on to study Interior and Architectural Design at degree level. This is now one of our most popular specialist options with significant numbers each year progressing to to study at Chelsea, LCC, Kingston, Middlesex and Westminster.

The Candle of Life. Jamie Hill, 2010

Jane Austin Trilogy, Sarah Fletcher 2010

Sarah decided to re-design a series of Jane Austin novels, aiming specifically at the Japanese market. In contrast to existing designs they are monochromatic rather than colour, photographic rather than painted and featured half life-size, Japanese dolls rather than humans! The cover is on the left as Japanese read from right to left.
Sarah was the first of our students to go on to study Games Art at university.

Fashion Portfolio, Louise Darwish 2010


Louise produced an extensive fashion portfolio based on a range of themes. The theme for work seen here is 'Fusion'. If you would like to see more, her portfolio can be found at:
Louise went on to study at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Tattoo. Lea Maltese 2009

As part of her practice, Leah decided to have a tattoo; the process was filmed for later use. In this insalation the seediness of a backstreet tattoo parlour is echoed through peeling wallpaper, dirty furnishings and dubious wiring. The film of Leah being tattooed is shown on an old TV; hanging above is a light box with an x-ray of her arm.

An Awareness of Familiarity. Natalie Thompson 2010


Natalie went on to study Print, Time-Based and Digital Media at Wimbledon College of Art, University of the Arts

Alphabet Furniture: Letter 'A'. Khushwant Kasba 2009


Kas was a London Taxi Driver by day and an Access student at night, specialising in Product design; his dream was to pursue this study at university. This piece of work is centred around the concept of taking letter forms and transforming them into furniture. These are two design sheets from his portfolio that demonstrate the progression from inspiration, source material and making, to final product. Kas now studies Product Design at Middlesex University.

The Enlightenment Show. Janice Timms, 2009

Janice's theatrical/performance background is evident in this exuberant sculpture. She acquired five substantial Victorian doors from a building site and used them as the basis of this free standing, five-sided sculpture. Each door explores a different, interconnected theme. Janice went on to study sculpture at Camberwell School of Art, University of the Arts

Girls, Girls, Girls! Viesha Tews, 2010

Viesha produced a range of illustrations around the theme of 1950s-60s girl bands and the sexploitation/music movies of the same period. Line drawings were scanned into the computer along with a collection of fabrics and textures. The disparate elements were carefully integrated to produce a great set of illustrations. Viesha extended her work to produce wallpaper and decorative hangings. She was commissioned to re-style the interior of a retro clothes shop as a result of this work, before going on to study illustration at degree level.

25 Years of Diaries and Journals. Jane Musgrove, 2009

In this highly personal site-specific installation Jane shreaded and joined together everything she had written over the past 25 years. The results were wound around large spools held on a central bar and allowed to cascade to the floor.

Moustache Madness, Nikki Mo Savage, 2007

Nikki produced a set of four boxed ceramic mugs with the theme of 'Moustache Madness'. The beautifully designed boxes, making full use of retro fonts and layout, feature individuals who possessed noteable moustaches - in this case, Salvador Dali. When the pround owner drinks from the mug they too posses Dali's 'tache. Others in the series include Stalin, Groucho Marx and Tom Sellick.

Iggy Pop Wallpaper, Annie Lorenzini 2009

Annie took classic images of Iggy Pop as the starting point for a range of wallpapers and surface designs; associated products include vases and plates. She later progressed to study Decorative Surface Design at degree level at LCC, University of the Arts

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Access end of year show 2008 - 2009


The person that filmed this had clearly had too much to drink as for the first 1 Min. 14 secs. he was holding the camera the wrong way round. He realised belatedly and the rest of the movie is fine

Friday, April 02, 2010

Mapme. Alison Jones, 2007

Self-portrait, map and digital manipulation.


Alison made the connection between street maps and the human cardio-vascular system. Using Photoshop, a scanned map was re-sized to fit on her back; It was then warped to replicate the shape of the body and feathered so the edges would integrate better with the flesh. Finally the opacity was reduced so integration would be even more complete. This is one of a series of images.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Glove Light. Gillian O'Malley, 2007


Disposable latex gloves, chicken wire, light fitting.


Jenny inflated dozens of rubber gloves and attached them to a chicken wire structure. She then connected this to a light fitting to create a lampshade that glows eerily when switched on. For her end of year show she created an installation with matching chairs, rug and wallpaper. Jenny went on to study product design at Central Saint Martins.

104 Shameful and Embarassing Incidents From My Life. Martin Wooley, 2007

Hand made book, wax, acetate, glass, wood and mould.


Martin made a book out of hand made paper. Into this he catalogued 104 embarrassing incidents, noting the time, place and date. These were so shameful that they could not be seen by anyone else and so he encased the book in wax. For further protection the book was the sealed in a glass-topped box. Tantalisingly, he records his methodology on a sheet of clear film that can be viewed through the glass without divulging specific events. He encouraged mould to grow on the wax.

Friday, February 05, 2010

Anorexia Top Trumps. Lee Crowley, 2007

Digitally created set of playing cards.


Lee chose to draw attention to Anorexia Nervosa, a serious topic, by using a trivial medium thereby emphasising its shock value. He produced his own set of 'Top Trumps' playing cards. In the real world these are commercially manufactured around the themes of cars, ships and airplanes; the aim is to trump your opponent with a card that has a higher value. Cards about cars for example would give numerical values for speed, petrol consumption, safety etc. Each of lee's cards features an anorexic model and he rates their highest weight, lowest weight, best binge, suicide attempts, number of psychoses and life expectancy. The back of each card shows the title, with a toilet bowl (vomiting) representing the letter 'O', diet pills and the anorexia food pyramid diagram.

Not Too Big, Not Too Small. 16. Naila Mahmud, 2007


Canvas, rocks, sand, biro, Lazertran. 5' x 3'
Naila discovered that stoning women to death for adultery is still practiced in rural communities in certain parts of the world. This plaintive work is in response to that. When a woman is convicted, the man is given 50 lashes; a hole is dug and the woman put into it so that only her head is visible above the ground. The whole village gathers around and hurls rocks at her head until she is dead. Sharia law says that the rocks cannot be too small or she will not die. They cannot be too big or she will die too quickly. They need to be just the right size to cause a long and agonising death. These chilling words have been transferred onto rocks using water-slip transfer paper and placed around a hole in the ground. Drawings of women who have met this fate have been made in ballpoint pen on rocks, also surrounding the hole. The photographs show a sample of the rocks and the entire installation.

Monday, January 04, 2010

Access exhibition 2007-2008


Edited video clips of Access end of year show 2007-2008
It's 13.5 minutes long so give it time to buffer

Friday, July 27, 2007

Urban Riot. Mike Wagner, 2006




Urban Riot boxed World Cup game, including football supporter and police figurines.
In the year England qualified for the European Football Championship in Germany Michael celebrated by creating 'Urban Riot', a professional looking board game. To play it you simply roll out the green fabric football pitch, choose to be either drunken and bloodied English football supporters or helmeted German riot police, and pit your wits against your opponent in a good natured orgy of violence. The figurines were painstakingly adapted from toy soldiers; the box was designed using Photoshop.

Know What is Real. Jenny Efstathiou, 2006


Computer generated placards, digital photography.
In this reflective piece of work Jenny initially created a pack of small cards, each one looking at something important and deeply personal. To move the work forward she enlarged the cards to poster size and went into central London to give them to other people to hold and be photographed. There happened to be an anti-war protest in Trafalgar Square giving her plenty of material to work with. This development gave the messages an entirely new context and visually there are interesting moments - look at the way the sunlight is framing the woman in red in the foreground.

Fight Me. Kate Theodore, 2006.


Acrylic on canvas
A typical canvas from Kate. Aggressive, chaotic, hints of Bacon and Basquiat but totally Kate.

Kill TB. Jessica Baldwin, 2006


Poster produced as part of a Tuberculosis awareness screening campaign.
Jess was tasked with seeing how young people could be targeted in the fight against Tuberculosis. Her solution was to have the headline wording on the poster read like a 'text' message. There are few posters that use this technique and it was especially eye-catching and appealing to teenagers. The white shape at the bottom of the poster is for institutions to write details of the latest screening. The poster was used successfully by NHS.

Sand Snake. Sarah Goddard 2006


Glazed ceramic
This is one of a series of snakes made by Sarah; they are life-size and life-like. This was achieved successfully due to her technique of embossing the still moist clay with real snakeskin prior to firing. Photographing each snake in its natural environment was effective and made the photographs as important as the finished ceramics.

Vanity. Triona Palmer, 2006.


Dressing table, Perspex, florescent light, picture frames, clock, digitally manipulated photographs.
Before joining the Access course Triona was a newsreader on 'News at Ten', a reporter and a published author. She brought this wealth of experience to the programme (as do others), which in many ways was reflected in her work. This particular installation explores memory, what is real and not real and the duality of personality. On closer inspection the photographs on the dressing table tell a very different story when the back of the frames are viewed in the mirror.

Rabbit. Teresa Carpenter, 2006




Novelty jelly mould, acrylic resin, dead rabbit.
Teresa bought a jelly mould in the shape of a bunny rabbit wearing a big bow tie. Into this she chopped two real rabbits and poured acrylic resin into the mould. When the resin had set the mould was discarded revealing pieces of dead animal floating yet set in the bunny rabbit shaped sculpture, challenging the way we view animals as pets and animals as meat.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Monet's Houses of Parliament and the Thames. Diana Kolleva 2006


Plastic bags, PVA glue, canvas
Diana took Monet's iconic painting of the Houses of Parliament as the starting point for this canvas. What appears from a distance to be thickly layered paint is, on closer inspection a spectrum of coloured plastic shopping bags, questioning assumptions of the materials we use for representative image making.

World Anorexia Championship Belt. Jess Hammond 2006


Leather, brass, resin, diamante, gold chain, gold paint.
Jess was looking at anorexia nervosa as a way of representing self-image. Her research led her to chat rooms where she found sufferers to be competitive about how much weight they had lost. This evoked feelings of competition and the conclusion that at the end of competitions you win something. In this case, rather like boxers or wrestlers, the prize is a champion's belt. The ‘Anorexia Nervosa Featherweight World Championship’ belt combines humour, irony and making skills. Jess is an example of how someone can bring skills from their previous existence (Her mother was a leather craft worker who taught her how to make belts and wristbands as a child) and combine these with newly acquired critical thinking skills to produce work that would have been unthinkable before joining the course.

Figure. Nerida Dawkin 2006


Clay
This unique piece by Nerida bridges the gap between fantasy and British mid-20th Century figurative representation in sculpture. She went on to Camberwell (University of the Arts) to study sculpture at degree level