Foundation Degree Fine Art students from City College Brighton and Hove have been digging deep into their creative imaginations for Paxton, the Brighton-based access control company employs over 160 staff and invests heavily in their local workforce of skilled experts, as well as training hundreds of installers up and down the country.
Paxton provided the students with a brief to produce artwork to be shown in their Brighton premises. Following site visits and presentations from the company, nine students developed proposals which were influenced by Paxton’s products, manufacturing processes and materials. Paxton were particularly keen for their circuit boards to be a key influence in the work produced. The students presented a diverse range of work to a panel of Paxton staff who, after long deliberation, chose art work by Alice Gough as the winning concept. Alice, a second year student, created a wall piece which was made from circuit boards cast in plaster. The panel was impressed by the fact that the casts, although derived from their own products, had the naturalistic look of fossils – in stark contrast to their modern, high technology surroundings. Alice will now have the opportunity to make two large panels which will be on permanent display at Paxton.
Paul Rawlinson, Joint Managing Director at Paxton, said: “All of the contenders produced high quality concepts that I’m confident would be suitable for various locations around our premises but the one that stood out in terms of a contrast to the clean, tidy, high-tech and organised environment that our engineers work in every day was Alice’s clay, fossil-like models of our circuit boards. Her idea was truly inspired.”
“It was quite daunting for the students to make a professional presentation to a senior panel that included Paxton’s Managing Director but they really communicated their ideas brilliantly”, said Chris Hill, Curriculum Team Leader for HE Arts Courses at City College. “It’s rare that students are given the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of the art commissioning process so for them to get high-level feedback on their work in a professional context was a great learning experience and one that will be invaluable to them in their future careers.”
Contact
www.paxton.co.uk
www.ccb.ac.uk
