The fragile beauty of a clear shattered walking cane manufactured by Victoria Cox in ‘Exoskeleton or Fragile Mobility’ is close to the start of Obsessions; a showcase for Art students at Oxford Brookes University.  Helen McCutcheon’s ‘In Memoriam’ theme is applied to a series of 12 large colour photographs detailing deceased insects, dry and breaking down.  The soft tick tock noise of audio tape running through several machines plays ‘Music for art galleries’ devised by Tom Milnes.  This lively exhibition full of exciting ideas includes performance art and some work showing the direct inspiration of life as a student.  John David McCauley’s ‘March/April Interventions’ are micro details of snapshots taken from everyday life such as the number of people passing his window in the time it takes to type a paragraph.  Painting is well represented as a medium.  A shot of bold, dramatic, passion is injected in Karrine Powell’s red hot ‘Cut, Stain, Release’ large canvas.  Nicolette Hollindale’s ‘Fragment’ painting offers a dark, dirty and industrial feeling.  ‘St John Street’ by Laura Degenhardt shows a dynamic cityscape with contemporary impressionist overtones.  

 

The 67 pieces of work are all well spaced in the gallery and a small room does justice to the delicate details of the elegant nostalgic photographs in ‘Lacuna’ by Charlotte Turton.

In Josephine Rutherfoord’s ‘I grandi dolori sono muti’ installation, the sketches of slightly incomplete circles fascinates.  The tiny gap that is missing in each perfect circle is mind altering.  ‘Clockwork’ lets you stand in a closet space mounted with a cornucopia of clocks all set at different times, ticking out of synch.  It is a strangely calming experience as time passes by in Jessica Hoad’s installation.  Lauren O’Day addresses the everyday activity of walking in the style of ‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide To’.  The show has many opportunities for viewer participation not least walking along the lines O’Day lays out for us on the gallery floor.  However the gem is near the entrance of the gallery.  Look out for a manned booth ‘The Secrets Agency’ by Lucy Phillips.  Here you can reveal a secret or offer to be a secret keeper for others.  Irresistible!