ARU students’ stories captured by exhibition at Grand Arcade
Distinctive work by nine MA fine art students at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) has gone on display at the Grand Arcade in Cambridge.
Titled ‘Altered’, the exhibition, located in Unit 47 on the first floor of the centre, showcases each artist’s own personal journey in their creative practice.
The artworks incorporate a variety of media, including drawing, collage, paint, print, photography, natural inks, textiles and ceramics – and even a shopping trolley turns up in one piece.
The exhibition opened from 19 to 21 April and reopened yesterday (Thursday, 25 April) until Sunday (28 April), from 11am until 5pm. It covers topics including identity, body image, family life and transformation.
‘Altered’ also refers to the personal stories of many of the students whose work is on display.
Dr Veronique Chance, course leader, said the exhibition has been “really good, in terms of attracting people”, noting that on one of the days, more than 75 people came.
“The title refers to both the ways in which they feel their work and they themselves are being transformed through the course,” continued Dr Chance, who is an artist herself.
“They’ve come from so many diverse backgrounds – some quite difficult backgrounds.
“There’s quite a lot of mature students on the course who’ve come from previous career paths, or who have raised families and have come back in to pick up and consolidate their work again.
“So I think they very much see the course as an opportunity to alter, to transform their work. And ‘Altered’ is quite a good word to use because it’s so ambiguous as well.
“They’ve all got such diverse contexts that they’re referring to in their work.
“It’s not necessarily easy to put it together in a show – they’ve done really well, I think, to do that.”
Dr Chance adds that the age range of the artists whose work is on display is from “early 20s to mid-50s and 60s”.
“I’m a big believer in lifelong education,” she said.
The Cambridge Independent went along to visit as they installed the exhibition, which is free to enter.