RCA 'The Great Exhibition' Show 2007

Client: Royal College of Art
Quick turnaround for Design Week magazine story
Brief: Pre-show opening – Photographs of outdoor tent structure,
student graduating work, atmosphere, people.
Final: for the back cover of Design Week

The Opening Show on Thursday 14th June (6-9 pm) clocked 10, 000 visitors. 9pm closing time and there was still a queue outside the tent.

A summer wheeze
Source: Magazine
Publication date: 13 June 2007
Byline: Fiona Sibley

Anyone strolling through London's Kensington Gardens this week who sees a curious shed on the horizon, take note: it's not Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen's Serpentine Pavilion making an early landing, but the Royal College of Art's sneaky attempt to get in first with a summer degree show extravaganza. Increasingly, colleges are making a splash with a big event outside their perimeters, yet few can boast their own temporary structure in a Royal Park. Work by graduating design students has been curated by Claire Catterall, and the pavilion itself has been conceived by architect Gerrard O'Connell. It's a nod to Prince Albert's Great Exhibition of 1851, to which the RCA's foundation in 1857 can be traced back. Fittingly then, the pavilion doorway frames a neat view of the heavingly hideous memorial to the visionary prince, to which students probably owe some hare-brained inspiration for overdue crits. Obviously, we can't blame the college for space constraints, but it's amusing that the fine art students have been left to languish in the RCA's indoor galleries, while design gets to play out in the park. So, if you can't face treading the weary corridors of your alma mater to discover the latest in emerging talent, this year the grass looks truly greener.

The Great Exhibition 2007 runs from 15-28 June, at the Royal College of Art and opposite in Kensington Gardens, London SW7.

front cover of 14th June 2007 issue

back cover of 14th June 2007 issue

*All photos on the Design Week back cover (except 1st top left image) are taken by yours truly.

Below, a selection of the other photos to give you a flavour of the atmos on the day. Enjoy!

front of outdoor tent

ceramic gully with hidden screw-ins.

plasma in a tank, luckily it was not water-filled.

pendant bulbs on a light rod.

the van de Graaf glassblown effect.

salt and pepper embottled in crackled ceramic.

one of the design platforms.

jewellery guest and frayling.

the pixel gang.

heli cab - fab for a settee.

belle amongst towering snakes.

knitting is cool.

marrying scientific images and textiles.

life over and under ground.

ice skates, then you can skate all summer no prob!

hubble bubble.

pretty crowded.

sundial man, the idea is to find the precise spot
correlating space and time.

try explaining your contraption to a bunch of prospectors.

atomiser to balance mood swings,
based on your browsing experience.

textiles galore.

couple checking out the hand bags, man bags included.

design platform 6.

painstaking process of wax stalagmites as a chandelier.

sense of beauty - the perfect flower for the vases.

2-sided hammock stretched vertically.
can be a sofa or useful for footie practice.

my favourite people picture.