"Free Range" Graduate Art, Design + Fashion Show

To quote from the catalogue:

"Free Range 2013 will take over The Old Truman Brewery for its annual seven week show of emerging British-based art and design talent, bringing a vast network of graduates to London's Brick Lane."

My interest lay in the Photo Week (in reality 4 days Friday - Monday only) and I visited on Monday 24th June 2013 which was the last day of the the second week. The venue, or at least the area where the photographs were on display was austere in the extreme with white washed walls and concrete floors. For large parts of the exhibition the lighting was such as to make viewing the images difficult and I found there was a tendency to move on quickly that was poor reward for the work and effort put into the display. Fortunately (or at times whether the sun was out or covered with cloud) other areas were adequately lit so appreciation and enjoyment was greater. I am surprised that so important a showing, from the individual's point of view, depended so much on chance. I certainly would think twice about exhibiting my work in such a space.

There were 13 colleges represented ranging from Foundation Courses to those awarding BA(Hons) and the quality varied accordingly. As one would expect the range was very wide and covered virtually all of the genres of photography although it was surprising to me how much was devoted to portrait and  the more traditional genres. There was of course the more adventurous student and some bordered on the bizarre. Overall I thought the standard was high but the work produced by the students of Edinburgh College seemed the best overall.

Subject matter varied as one would expect and one of the most striking was the work of one student who had taken photographs of people resident in a hospice. I wonder at the ethics of such a subject matter but as far as one could tell those who were photographed were pleased with the results but I could not help feeling that the intrusion into their lives, which were coming to an end in a known period, was a step too far.

Was the visit worthwhile from a personal point of view? I think the jury is out on this one but my initial reaction was that there were so many images to see and each student had a very limited number of images on show that it was impossible to get a sense of the quality and imagination of any one individual. There was no opportunity for the student to demonstrate a developing individual style and, perhaps unfairly, I got the sense of the controlling influence of the tutorial staff. This view was strengthened when talking to a couple of students who made clear their feelings of resentment at the attitude of their tutor who according to them wanted them to follow a different path to the one they would have personally chosen.