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From: degree show reviews Category: Art Date: 07 June 2009 Time: 07:25 AM Review: This year they have mixed up fine art (not put the painting MA, print etc in their own space). This should be a good thing, sweeping away archaic divisions blah blah. Unfortunately it detracts from the usually effortful and dispiriting attempts to catch some gallerists eye with some finicky oil painting, now every piece in the show looks like it was made by a printmaking student, defined here as someone not sure of their medium and therefore really going for the spectacularly meretricious, ( Look at me! I made my grandmother out of matchsticks and my pubic hair) school of art. At least when you had the dull groany sections of antiquated attempts at pop art, there was a certain pleasure in seeing the deparmental ethos, and being able to compare one photographer with another or one heavy handed attempt at painting with another. Now the flagship MA in the entire solar system looks like the st martians BA. I suggest they just do away with the whole thing and have an MA video art. Funnily enough, for the whole stupidity of painting courses, they actually help students by focusing them on one area, giving them competition and comparison, and letting them forget about what material to use and get on with making something halfway trying to be good. It doesnt really matter what you use, just what you do with it, most MA students never get to the latter part of that formula.