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From: Grad Category: Art Date: 01 August 2009 Time: 04:31 PM Review: In a lecture for graduates at the Royal College of Art there was an interesting discussion between Sarah Thornton and Ryan Gander (there were others too - Hans U.O and Barry Schwabsky). Ryan Gander was incredibly condescending, these artists don't seem to realise that things have changed a great deal since they studied. MA students are clued up on how the art world works, they know just how to suck up to the right people (everyone clustered around him afterwards in the bar), they are constantly putting on their own shows in dingy spaces while flying off to venice for a show with new (dubious) gallery spaces. They religiously attend openings, make sure they are seen and put in the time to make the connections. Anyway an argument developed where Ryan Gander told the graduates not to listen or think about the art world as written about by Sarah Thornton - (ignoring the elephant in the room), though his cv makes it quite clear that he has got where he is today by jumping through the right hoops, appealing to the right audience, and certainly not sitting in his garret making work for him self. Sarah Thornton was endlessly aggressive and hardly let him put a word in edge ways which didn't really matter. It seems she thinks that every one forgets her interviewing them, in this instance Richard Wentworth who was vocal and in the audience. The lecture was uninspiring and showed just how out of touch the speakers were with the graduates of today.