MA Lectures and Workshops

When I learnt that Grayson Perry was to lecture at Wilson Road, I half expected him to turn up as his female alter ego Claire... skipping down the hall way in a pink dress. But one of the Britain's most famous transvestite artist left his extraordinary outfits at home and presented some of his extraordinary pottery instead.

1996. I want to be an Artist

2000. Defenders of Childhood
Damien Hirst once said that if Perry hadn't been an artist, 'he'd be a serial killer'. Some of his pottery portrays child murder, brutalities of war, fetishists, kinky sex, blankness of fashion models etc. But as dark as some of these works may be, there are many others that show great deal of satire, light heartiness and most of all, freedom from our society's endless norms and constrains. He showed us some pics of him roller-skating dressed as Claire in the National Gallery. We all had a good laugh!


His entertaining interpretation of a motorbike trip around Bavaria, accompanied by his childhood teddy bear, Alan Measles, brought on some more laughs. 

It was fantastic to be in presence of such an inspiring artist. He made our cold Wednesday afternoon fun and certainly, memorable.


Sam Winston' workshop

Our class has recently been visited by Sam Winston, a typographic artist whose playful approach to language reminds me of Apollinaire's poetry. He presented one of his limited edition books 'The Dictionary Story' and other typographical works fusing different elements of children's fairy tales.

Sam gave us a chance to experiment with some typography in the second part of the workshop but ours did not look no where as ingenious as his!

Laura Mulvey in talks with Griselda Pollock - Chelsea College of Arts

Interesting discussion on Laura Mulvey's Riddle of the Sphinx. This examination of the impact of feminist film-making in retrospective, 30 years after it entered the cultural arena. Riddle of the Sphinx addresses the position of women in patriarchy through the prism of psychoanalysis.

Louise, the narrative's female protagonist, is represented through a fragmented use of imagery and dialogue, in an attempt to break down the conventional narrative structures of framing and filming used to objectify and fetishise women in mainstream cinema.

The film attempts to construct a new relationship between the viewer and the female subject, presenting her through multiple female voices and viewpoints.

As Mulvey suggested "What recurs overall is a constant return to woman, not indeed as a visual image, but as a subject of inquiry, a content which cannot be considered within the aesthetic lines laid down by traditional cinematic practice."