I was delighted to be invited to select from this year’s RCA show. I have found it both interesting and frustrating to be limited by the computer screen, a window by which I am have experienced most of the world in 2020. We are all well versed in endlessly flicking through social media images of exhibitions and artwork to pass judgement on them before even entering the gallery space, but this process has made me ponder again on what it is that makes experiencing an artwork in person so important.
Having said this, it is clear that all the students have demonstrated so brilliantly how you can interpret the complexity of some of the work through a digital platform. This selection covers a lot of different schools and media. All of the artists selected were able to connect me to the particular materiality of their practice, despite not being in the presence of the work. There are great examples of artists that are also beginning to unpack the experiences, mental stresses and longings that we have all have been through on this global shared event.
Joe Hill
