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PERSPECTIVES
Claire Doherty,
director, Situations
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“I’m not shopping when visiting degree shows – I’m not
looking for a needle in a haystack. Rather, the pleasure is that
I’m going with my eyes open.”
Claire Doherty, director of Bristol-based public art producers
Situations, has a degree shows hit list that includes the Slade,
Central St Martins, the RCA, Glasgow School of Art and UWE
(University of the West of England). “I tend to start by looking
at tutors and lecturers and where they are – I’ll always follow
Phyllida Barlow!”
Doherty’s focus on art in the public realm means that she
approaches students’ work in a very particular way. She is
interested in artists who demonstrate an awareness of context
and how their work communicates with an audience.
“In degree shows, artists are vying for attention amongst their
peers, but in the public realm art is vying for attention with
absolutely everything else around it – so it’s actually harder.
The question is, what is the artwork’s significance, what is its
value in a given context, how is the artist communicating
what they want to say It may be that an artist’s visual
language is quite conventional, but what I’ll be doing as a
curator is looking for the potential for work to resonate
outside of the gallery.”
Doherty describes what you see in degree shows as “the tip
of the iceberg”; she is always looking for what lies beneath.
“The degree show is this ultimate moment of display that is
really tough for a student. Essentially, they have to articulate
everything they’ve learnt and also their potential, and for most
artists it’s really the luck of the draw whether it happens for
them at that particular time. So I’m always aware that what
you’re trying to do is be generous as a viewer and to think what
lies behind this moment in their artistic maturing.”
Doherty believes there is still a lot that needs to be done when
it comes to preparing students for the possibilities of working
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