Discover the ‘hidden’ talents of RCA staff

‘HiddenRCA has always been a really important opportunity for the RCA technical and support staff to express their creativity and skills’, explained Jonna Saarinen, Specialist Technical Instructor in Printed Textiles and a co-organiser of this year’s Hidden exhibition. 

‘Following an open-call for submissions, we were overwhelmed to receive over 80 applications. What followed were many long evenings spent at our beloved Art Bar planning, curating, and organising the exhibition. It’s been a fantastic way to connect with our peers and make new friends and connections from all the College’s campuses. We look forward to seeing you there!’ 

From workshop technicians to librarians, IT support technologists and security staff, together the work on display illustrates how the artistic practices of staff have been informed and shaped by working in the vibrant and creative atmosphere of the RCA alongside RCA students and alumni.

Check out some of the hidden talents that will be on display:

Ramona Guntert (Darkroom Technician) presents ‘growing within, growing between’,  a patchwork of layered photographs that are stitched together – like trying to heal a wound of the skin. 

Objects are found in nature and reinterpreted in the photographs. They imitate each other or mirror the next one and through that they create their own circular movement. It is like in the phenomena of camouflage where animals alter their appearance to different environments. The outside is produced from within the flesh, growing out and over the surface of the skin where through adaptation to external factors, the individuality gets lost. Within and between is becoming the outside.  

Clio Wallington (Lead Technical Instructor in Knitted Textiles) will be showing a dress made in collaboration with the Knit Design Centre at Stollgb Leicester. Clio wanted to showcase the possibilities of combining digital knit with traditional draping and linking techniques. As she feels there is great value in pushing the boundaries of innovation through technical knit programming and very traditional construction techniques. 

Tom Mason’s (Library Assistant) work is primarily based in painting, drawing, collage, and writing. For Hidden 2020 he will show a number of painted paper plates. These works exist both as paintings made on this chosen surface, and their upheld object-ness in being paper plates that have been painted upon. They are shown in groupings, recalling domestic displays at the same time they hang as autonomous artworks. Tom's paintings are built up over successive layers, additions and obliterations, slow-cooked or quick-conjured, and left to it when the thing appears that it can fly.

Alexander Glass (Raw Materials Store Assistant) presents sculpture in the form of video and installation that investigates the complex relationship between masculinity and desire through minimal and seductive objects. He graduated from MA Sculpture and juggles work at the RCA with developing his practice at his studio. 

Nicholas Dietrich (Technical Assistant in Media & AV Resources) presents graphic paintings built around fleeting moments caught from video. They are carefully constructed through specific processes that have been slowly developed over many years. The forms are boldly represented on graphic backgrounds, suggesting impossible spaces. Colour is carefully deployed, mainly to the background, the artist often choosing to represent the forms in grey tones.

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Private view: Wednesday 4 March, 6–9pm

Open to public: Saturday 7 – Sunday 8 March, 12–6pm