Royal College of Art – celebrating 175 years of art and design in this year’s biggest graduate show to date

The year 2012 is a momentous year for London. First the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations rocked the city, a few weeks ago a lightshow celebrated the Shard building opening and staked its claim to the skyline as the tallest building in the European Union and now the metropolis waits with bated breath for the Olympics to shuttle through at whirlwind speed.

Interestingly, this year’s annual summer show at London’s Royal College of Art chose to set itself apart from the 2012-related events such as the Olympics and the Jubillee by making the conscious design to brand the exhibition with a logo that reads 175 Royal College of Art rather than 2012 Royal College of Art.

The 175 in the logo refers to the traditional postgraduate art institution’s summer show including work by the greatest number of graduating students in the College’s 175-year history. Show RCA 2012 is to take place simultaneously in six buildings across the College’s two campuses in Battersea and Kensington.

GoSee was there to take a closer look and even attended the bombastic traditional private graduation ceremony held next door at the impressive Royal Albert Hall. Besides announcing the names and disciplines of all graduating students, honours were made to such art and design heavyweights as German artist Thomas Demand and British designer Thomas Heatherwick, who also happens to have redesigned the iconic London Routemaster bus in time for the London Olympics and is the subject of a retrospective at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Last year’s show attracted over 40,000 visitors – a vast number, which we are sure was topped this year. The crowds were truly bustling at this unique opportunity to experience the very best of emerging contemporary art and design practice.

GoSee viewed the high quality creative work of almost 500 art and design postgraduate students from more than 40 countries. We interviewed a small selection of our favourites from disciplines including Painting, Photography, Womenswear, Menswear and History of Design, which we are pleased to present in a series in our London newsletter special to coincide with the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics.



10 RCA Graduate Interviews 2012

Carlo Volpi , Menswear MA

Trine Hav Christensen, Womenswear MA

Fatma Bucak, Photography MA

Daniel Pollitt, Menswear MA

Alexander Lamb , Menswear MA

Isabelle Held, History of Design MA

Simon Foxall, Painting MA

Nathan Tom Pass, Textile MA

Hal Watts, Innovation Design Engineering MA

Michael Warren, Product Design MA