from / now / on
Xhibit 2023 at Dray Walk Gallery, Dray Walk, Brick Lane, London E1 6QL
For Arts SU part of University of the Arts, London (UAL)

Peer Sessions were invited to facilitate a crit for UAL students exhibiting in the group show Xhibit 2022, selected by a panel of industry professionals. We discussed the work of two of the exhibiting artists, Adam Cole and Amy Louise Powell.

Adam Cole showed Endless Kiss, a 13 min film on a perfect loop that showed kissing couples morphing into one another. The participants identified that the kisses were all taken from Hollywood films, and looked like they were from a pre-digital ere. This was reflected by the old analogue monitor, and the 4:5 format. Themes of representation and reality, through image manipulation came up, alongside questions of the heteronormative depictions of the couples on screen.

Amy Louise Powell showed a painting Fifteen love, framed in lime green, with a perspex strip covering part of its lower portion. It featured three young female protagonists absorbed in playing some kind of ball game. The conversation initially focussed on the formal qualities of the painting, the skillful execution and the classical compositional devices apparent in the portrait orientation, including rule of thirds and triangles. The discussion then moved on to consider the sources of the imagery, and its narrative content, and historical/social context, all of which were ambiguous.