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Foundation Diploma in Art & Design: Meet our 2018 disruptors, innovators and makers

With our Degree Shows showcasing the freshest talent, we take a look at students from our Foundation Diploma in Art & Design programme who are a must-see at our shows this year – catch their work from 13 June to 16 June 2017.
<h5>Our <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/foundation-diploma-in-art-and-design-post-a-level" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Foundation Diploma in Art and Design</a> is an intensive, one-year programme of discovery, experimentation and exploration – where students work across a range of processes and materials, preparing them for further study in the creative arts.</h5>
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<p>The annual Degree Shows are our students’ opportunity to showcase the results of their time experimenting with their practice, as they carve their path toward becoming an artist, designer or maker.</p> <p>This year sees Foundation Diploma students branching out from the college campus and exhibiting their work at 'Re-Written' in the iconic Royal William Yard, by taking over the gallery space of <a href="http://www.oceanstudios.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ocean Studios</a>. Highlighting diverse work across a range of creative disciplines, from Photography to Fashion, Animation to Illustration, Fine Art to Film - and more.</p> <p>Below we’ve highlighted just a small selection of some of the excellent work on show – with five Foundation Diploma students to look out for. In no particular order…</p>
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<h3><strong>Rhianna Fisher</strong></h3> <p>Influenced by the changing environments around her, Rhianna takes inspiration from textures, surfaces, forms, colours and the way these can be transferred onto garments through patterns and techniques. Specialising in fashion and textiles on the Foundation course had allowed her to experiment with new techniques, problem solving and developing herself as a designer.</p> <p>“I have based my project on the concept of a voiceless culture, workers and producers that are caught in this relentless cycle of exploitation in hundreds of industries across the globe, afraid to speak out for fear of the consequence. This extravagant spectacle of colour inspired by the Peruvian culture aims to highlight the mounting issues weighing down millions of innocent workers that lack any representation and go unnoticed. Recycling coats and fabrics to build up the textures across the garment addresses waste issues surrounding the fashion industry making one of the most polluting.”</p>
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<h3><strong>Camilla Owen</strong></h3> <p>Camilla’s work is experimental with materials and themes, as she explores jewellery design and graphics inspired by the clean aesthetics of Swiss and Bauhaus styles.</p> <p>“I’m fascinated with the avant-garde, in particular the surrealist movement. My project is inspired by Peggy Guggenheim - an art patron, collector and proto-feminist who was heavily involved with the surrealists. Discovering that her 1943 exhibition ‘31 Women’ was the first ever all-female exhibition in America has been hugely influential to my project, by introducing themes of feminism and identity.</p> <p>“Since the exhibition, many of the female artists have been lost and forgotten, as they were overshadowed by their artist husbands and suppressed to the roles of ‘muse, model or mistress’. My outcomes aim to revive these artists’ lost identities through jewellery and image. I hope they will raise awareness of these female artists and provoke the viewers to question how and why they have been forgotten.”</p>
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<h3><strong>Charlotte Westphal</strong></h3> <p>Charlotte focuses on fashion and textile design for her exhibition piece, with a timely message on gender and identity.</p> <p>“The representation of gender as a broad spectrum, as something that is fluid and intangible, is core to my collection. Exploring to what extent gender is socially constructed and performed is central to the ethos of my project.</p> <p>“I was interested in how to create a new clothing language that breaks apart from the gender stereotypes and society’s rules; bringing a third or non-binary gender into the equation. The use of transparent and neutral materials suggests a transfusion between male and female clothing.”</p>
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<h3><strong>William Osborne</strong></h3> <p>Taking inspiration from current happenings, social and political, William Osborne’s work often takes on thought-provoking themes such as religion and gender roles. Following the exhibition of his performance piece at Tate Modern, his most recent practice explores the effects that the social construct of masculinity has on men through references to his father, whose opinions he finds are the most combatting to his own.</p> <p>“By coating my fathers suit in plaster and allowing it to harden on myself whilst videoing myself dancing, I intended to metaphorise the restriction masculinity has on men through eventual restriction to my own movement, and to display an underlying sense of fragility as the plaster cracked and fell away.”</p> <p>Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/willosborne_/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@willosborne_</a><br /><br /></p>
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<h3><strong>Romani Davies</strong></h3> <p>Romani has a fine art background but used her time on the Foundation Diploma programme to experiment and ultimately specialise in graphic design, resulting in a more illustrative and contemporary style. Taking inspiration from matters close to her, she has constructed and styled an interactive photo booth.</p> <p>“After a personal scare, I chose to try and raise awareness of Breast Cancer in young people. I thought that this topic was incredibly important to people just like me. For my final piece I ran a social media campaign, #knittedtitties, and an interactive photobooth named ‘The PhotoBoob’. I really wanted to promote awareness in a fun and innovative way, with an aim to break the stigma, embarrassment and fear often associated with the illness.”<br /><br />Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/knittedtitties/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@knittedtitties</a></p> <p><br /></p> <p><strong>View the work of all of our Foundation Diploma in Art &amp; Design students at 'Re-Written', the free exhibition takes place at Ocean Studios in the historic Royal William Yard from Wednesday 13 to Saturday 16 June 2018.</strong></p><ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/study/pre-degree" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Explore our full range of Foundation Diploma and Extended Diploma programmes</a></strong></li></ul>