SOPHIA CHRISTIE
Collaboration in Progress
Marion Phillini
Lewisham Arthouse
22-29 July 2016
In the Shadows of a Subterranean River
St Pancras Church Crypt Gallery
27-30 October 2016
Role: Joint concept, filming, edition and post production
Key Skills: Collaboration, editing, teamwork, working to a brief.
Working in collaboration with Marion Phillini, groups of MFA students were given the brief on 14th June to create a film which investigates the themes of privacy, intimacy, exclusion or voyeurism and responds to a single site.
The films were exhibited at Lewisham Art House on 22nd July where the winning film was announced.
My group’s film (Dan Curtis, Yuting Wang, Sophia Christie) was truly collaborative as we all contributed at each stage - the screenplay, filming and editing. We worked well together, discussing each element and spending a great deal of time on the editing. I am very grateful to Dan for teaching us a number of shortcuts when editing footage and audio.
The concept for the film ‘The Party’ was to film intimate pacifying behaviours which people were unaware of, such as scratching their neck. The method of editing provided glimpses of these intimate moments, which were further broken up by audio which was taken from a TED talk on Loneliness. Unsettling laughter runs throughout and the repetition of ‘waiting’ and ‘nothing’ keep the viewer in suspense.
The Party by Dan Curtis, Yuting Wang and Sophia Christie
Role: Marketing/Invigilation
Key Skills: Research, planning, working to a deadline, marketing and promotion, working in a specific site.
Strengths:
My role in the marketing team was to compile a mailing list to promote our exhibition at The Crypt. The mailing list was taken from the visitors’ book at our previous exhibitions, MFA alumni and UAL tutors.
As a team we worked well together, scheduling meetings throughout the summer holidays and collaborating on ideas for the show.
The exhibition was a great success due to the collaboration and hard work from the logistics, technical, curation, finance, marketing and invigilation teams. We had hundreds of visitors and I think that the success was due to excellent division of labour and teamwork.
Weaknesses:
As I was abroad the week before the exhibition, I don’t feel that I helped the marketing team in the crucial final stages e.g. printing and distributing leaflets.
I feel that our marketing would have been better if we had a permanent website which could be used as a platform to promote all of our exhibitions. It could have a short bio about each artist and links to current and future exhibitions in addition to a mailing list to keep subscribers updated.
Marketing and promotional visuals and photos from the PV
Events and exhibitions which have allowed me to develop my professional skills.
PROFESSIONAL SHOWCASE
Careers in the Visual Arts Evening
Kingston Grammar School
23 February 2017
Role: Artist, Teacher, Public Speaker
Key Skills: Public speaking, engaging with future art students, presentation,
self reflection and promotion.
I was invited to attend the Visual Arts Evening at Kingston Grammar School to speak about life as an artist and teacher and my experience on the MFA at Wimbledon College of Art. The evening was set up like a trade fair with each speaker given a stand with printed visuals and examples of their work.
The calibre of speakers was incredibly high, including sculptor Jonathan Kenworthy, architects and fashion designers; I felt very out of my depth to say the least.
Strengths:
Despite feeling daunted about the prospect of talking to the huge numbers of visitors, this was in fact my strength. I loved the informal atmosphere which allowed visitors to ask questions about my work and found myself talking for the entire evening.
Having images of my work and my website were great starting points for discussion. Visitors came from a variety of backgrounds: parents with an interest in the Arts; students considering foundation courses and art teachers from local schools.
I was able to discuss what I had learnt on my MFA and spoke passionately about how my work has become more experimental. A-level students commented on how excited this made them feel about pursuing further art education, while students from other local schools wanted to know more about the techniques I use.
The school had put together an excellent brochure with a short biography, website and contact details for each speaker, allowing visitors to see more of our work.
Weaknesses:
Although this was a successful evening, there is more that I could do to promote my art at future events. For example, printed business cards or selling small artworks at a nominal price.
Baxter Gallery Exhibitions
Kingston Grammar School
MFA Final Degree Show 2017
Wimbledon College of Art
15-24 June
Role: Gallery Manager
Key Skills: Organising exhibitions, curation, marketing, liaising with caretakers and artists, arranging private views and open days, invigilation.
I took over the running of our school gallery space in 2016 which coincided with starting the MFA course at Wimbledon College of Art. Since then I have coordinated four successful exhibitions of external artists’ work in addition to three internal exhibitions of students’ work. The exhibitions change every half term which means that they are always fresh and exciting for passers by on a busy main road.
The MFA has been an invaluable tool which has helped me in this role. I have invited students from Wimbledon to exhibit, used curation skills I have learnt on the course and gained a greater understanding of the needs of the artist.
Strengths:
I have learnt a lot throughout my time running the gallery. My biggest strength is liaising with the many different parties who are involved in putting together a successful exhibition. For each exhibition I liaise with the artist to find out what their needs are; book events into the school calendar; coordinate the installation and deinstallation with the caretakers; help to curate the exhibition; book catering and promote events. Obviously this requires a lot of organisation and time management to ensure that the gallery is ready for events and all parties are happy with the arrangements.
In addition to the logistics, I don’t mind getting stuck in. For example, I often serve drinks at events, clean up afterwards and even encourage passers by to come in to see the artwork by handing out flyers.
I am very pleased with the relationships I have built with local artists, university students and colleagues within school who have all been part of two successful years in the gallery. Our most successful exhibition was Lee Campbell’s where she sold five paintings and donated a proportion of the proceeds to Kingston Grammar School’s charitable fund.
Weaknesses:
I feel that I am now confident managing the gallery and therefore have plans to develop its use in the future. In order to do this I will need to develop a structure for exhibitions to ensure it attracts a variety of different artists. This will help me to promote the entire year of exhibitions in advance.
The gallery space is not open to the public on a daily basis, therefore it is necessary to ensure good quality information is placed in the windows.
Video credit: QianQian Cai
Role: Finance
Key Skills: Working to a deadline, research, planning, finance, budgeting, organisation, communication.
I have enjoyed taking on a new role for our degree show. With the additional deadlines for the final assessment it has been particularly important to be organised and manage budgets, funds and grants carefully.
Strengths:
I first opened a bank account and transferred our remaining funds. I created a new comprehensive Excel spreadsheet to manage our outgoing and incoming funds in the run up to the exhibition.
I applied for a grant from the Students' Union from their Student Initiative Fund which was successful; providing us with an extra £100 towards our event.
Three weeks prior to the degree show, I ensured that I had projected budgets from Marketing, Maps and Events teams. I then set about calculating our shortfall and seeking to redress the balance in funds.
This was a new and challenging role for me, however I feel that I managed the accounts well and liaised with different teams successfully so that I knew their predicted spending in advance.
Weaknesses:
I was given the responsibility to find additional sponsorship for the bar at the private view. I emailed a number of breweries and pubs, however I was not successful in securing any sponsorship or freebies. It appeared that the undergraduate courses had already targeted these breweries. I would have liked to have done more to secure sponsorship for our course.
Exploded As It Left
Harry Bland, Beth Hadfield and Jacob Seddon
17 Jan - 16 Feb 2016
Sad Culture
Matt Whitehead, George Jackson, Serica Bawden, Alex Harding
25 Feb - 11 Apr 2016
Under The Radar
Dockson Kaloki, Lindsay Terhorst North, Susana Bravo
12 Apr - 31 May 2016
Lee Campbell
2 - 31 March 2017
