BFAP Magazine 2023 - Flipbook - Page 6
In Conversation
Yvonne Feng [YF], Third year lead tutor,
University of Brighton
Abigail Downey [AD], Co-editor of BFAP
Magazine, Third year Fine Art Painting
Student
Em Walker [EW], Third year Fine Art Painting
Student
During this conversation, which was recorded
at the beginning of April 2023, Yvonne Feng
speaks with two third year Fine Art Painting
students, Abigail Downey and Em Walker,
about a selection of topics relating to their
time at university. This discussion centres
around how the pandemic impacted making
work as well as common and collective
themes explored across the year group.
Thank you both for approaching me about
doing this in conversation. I’m excited to get your
perspectives on the last three years and to discuss the work
produced by your year group. I was thinking we could
start by talking about the origins of the magazine. So, Abi,
why did you and Eli chose the format of a magazine to
showcase students’, and soon to be graduates’, work?
Abigail Downey I’ve been obsessed with magazines ever
since I can remember, and I’ve always wanted to make one
of my own. At the end of second year, I made and curated
a magazine consisting of all my work and references,
titled Home. Eli bought a copy and approached me a
while after to ask if I would be up for co-producing a bimonthly art review magazine to highlight local talent and
Brighton-based exhibitions. Initially I thought it sounded
like a lot of work, considering we were just about to
begin third year, so I said no but offered the option of
making a magazine for the degree show which would
replace the general ‘exhibition catalogue’. Eli loved the
idea, so we met up at the start of third year and hatched
a plan, made a BFAP Magazine guide and sent it out to
students. We wanted to make a publication that we felt
truly highlighted how incredible our year group is; the
standard of work that has been produced these past few
years has blown us away. We hope readers enjoy reading
BFAP Magazine as much as we’ve enjoyed organising it
and putting it together.
YF I’m excited to read it in its final form and to see
the culmination of your year group’s hard work. Talking
about student initiatives, Em, could you tell us more
Yvonne Feng
BFAP
6
about the art reading group you and Imogen have been
organising this year?
Em Walker Yes! It’s been very exciting. Imogen
Fowkes and I felt that the crits had become a bit of an
echo chamber, and we were thinking of ways to break
that. Each week we have a short piece of writing which is
hopefully accessible, easy to read and enjoyable too. It’s
been a bit of a challenge to find texts about art that fit into
all those criteria, but we’ve moved it more towards being
workshop focused. We draw with attendees which has
been great because both mine and Imogen’s work really
thinks about expanding different forms of art, especially
with drawing. This way of working has been successful
and we’re hoping to carry it on after we graduate. It’s
helped me to become more well-versed in art. And we
want it to be an equal space, we ask the people who come
for their opinions and suggestions for potential texts that
they would like to discuss. Of course, it’s still quite hard
to navigate because we’re in the context of university
and maybe people are still finding their feet with regards
to talking confidently about art. But we hope our reading
group offers a warm environment to gain that confidence
and to not be afraid to get things ‘wrong’, there is no
such thing as ‘wrong’. It’s a space for open conversation,
exploration, and reflection and we’ve started to build a
little community which is so lovely.
YF That’s amazing. It’s great that you’re using a
reading group to extend your knowledge and in doing
so create community. I think it’s important to talk about
the pandemic and lockdown as it must have been a very
turbulent time to join the course, and I suspect has had
a long-lasting impact to the way you approach making
work. What was it like for you both? It must have been a
unique experience for your year group.
EW It’s hard to put myself in that space again. I
remember being angry, but I think I was just angsty
throughout lockdown and I used that as my fuel for
making art and still do to a certain degree. How about
you, Abi?
AD It was strange for me because I’d already done a
year at Brighton studying Fashion Design with Business
Studies. Joining the Fine Art Painting course during the
pandemic wasn’t new in terms of experiencing university
whilst in lockdown, however, it was a completely new
experience regarding making work without a designated
studio. We had no access to university facilities,
so I moved home instead of staying in university
accommodation. Fortunately, I found that working from
home benefitted my artistic practice in a lot of ways. I was
very under-confident in my earlier years so to make work
in private granted me the freedom to be more playful and
experimental with material without comparing myself
to others. I uncovered core themes that I still explore in
my work now such as gender and sexuality, private and
public, and subject and object. I don’t know where my
work would be right now if I didn’t have those first few
months of solitude.
2023