Tracing our ‘Deep Connections’ at RCA2022

In our globalised, creative field there is often a desire to be distinct, to be different. In a world dominated by the ideology of individualism, how is a sense of community redefined? And how do our multifaceted identities – individual and communal – influence our experience of the world?

Over the past few years, and particularly during our graduating students' time at the RCA, how we interact with one another has warped almost beyond recognition. Students in this theme are recalibrating the notion of connectivity to manifest a new sense of closeness.

Emma Prempeh | MA Painting

Location: Battersea North, Painting Building, Ground floor

Emma Prempeh’s paintings evoke feelings of nostalgia and familiarity by depicting aspects of Caribbean-British culture through interiors and moods. The paintings are situated within an installation between fragments of West Indian influenced aesthetics including patterns, fabrics and beverages – all a representation of Prempeh’s Vincentian heritage.

Alice Kell | MA Visual Communication

Location: Battersea South, Studio Building, First Floor

Alice Kell’s practice focuses on using visual communication to nurture greater understanding and community around neurodiversity in educational spaces. Seeing illustration as a toolkit to enact positive social change, Kell blends modes of image making such as drawing, publication, animation and moving image with activity-based practices like workshops and community engagement. Kell has collaborated with museum and library the Wellcome Collection to address a lack of neurodivergent representation in the organisation, and worked with secondary school children across London to visualise their dyslexia in creative ways.

Fernanda Liberti | MA Photography

Location: Battersea North, Dyson & Woo Buildings, First floor

Fernanda Liberti’s photo series showcases the Tupinambá cape used by native Brazilians until the fifteenth century and recreated in 2020 by indigenous artist and activist Glicéria Tupinambá, using over 4,000 sustainably-collected bird feathers. Before this recreation there were only 11 Tupinambá capes left in the world – with all of them held in European museums and collections, a legacy of colonialism. Fernanda Liberti's documentation and celebration of the Tupinambá cape through photography offers proof of the bonds that connect us over time and space.

Collection: All Together Now

There’s power in the collective. Students in this collection are considering the power of social connections and the strength that comes through community. Image: The Hackers Space by Brad Mortlock (MA Architecture).

Event: Tradition and innovation in contemporary Textiles practice

11:15am, Saturday 25 June | Live stream panel via Instagram Live | @rcatextiles

Deeply rooted in the traditional crafts of weaving, knitting and stitch, textile practice continues to evolve, helping us tell contemporary stories. Join Albane Ceyrat and Lily Way as they probe and explore the relationships between heritage, innovation, consumption and production in relation to textile practice.