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Student Showcase Archive
Show RCA 2019

Chris Michael

Show RCA work

  • In Your Room

    In Your Room, 2019
    HD Video

  • Signing On Signing Off

    Signing On Signing Off, 2019
    HD video, sculpture

  • Astra

    Astra, 2018
    Riso print
    29 cm x 42 cm

Major project:

Feeling Kayfabe Baz

Stuck on the dole in a nondescript post-war new town with humble aspirations of entering the city under the cover of the darkness of night. An escape from the monotony. Venturing to the clubs and bars, only ever dreamed about; Blitz, Studio 54, the Batcave, etc., transformation and romance become inextricably linked. Dressing up – makeup, leather and chains — too queer for the burbs. 

Torn between working-class roots, and a proposed new life in the city, a platonic middle ground between the two is necessary, but the physical manifestation of this ‘middle ground’ is the M25 motorway surrounding the city. A vast concrete wall that divides people physically, culturally, politically, and economically. A break between the left and the right, leave and remain, working class and middle class, master and servant — spirits locked away in the tunnel under the motorway. A weird new world. 

Info

  • My ongoing research-led practice dives into pop-culture fandom, amateurism and our collective experiences of digital reproduction, embraced by a romanticism and desire for socially imbued welfare initiatives – fanaticism, transformation and longing; nostalgia, enchantment and trash.

  • Previous degrees

  • BA Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2013
  • Exhibitions

  • Dave Day, All Hallows' Church (former Blackwing Studios), London, 2019; Model and Countermodel (lecture series), Huckletree (facilitated by New Genres and the RCA), London, 2019; Foodstuff, White City Community Centre (facilitated by Design Without and the RCA), London, 2018; I’m Alone, But Not Lonely, Waterstones TCR (for Eeodo), London, 2016; Open Film 2016, Outpost, Norwich, 2016; M25 (screening), Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Penglais, 2016; Arcade Peckham (sound performance), South London Gallery, London, 2014; Film Screening, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2013; LAN Party, The Woodmill/CGP, London, 2013; 21st Century (screening), Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2012
  • Publications

  • Universal Credit Otaku, pub: Metafauna, 2019
  • Awards

  • Southwark Community Council Fund, 2013; RCA Fund Scholarship
  • Funding

  • RCA Fund Scholarship, 2017
Royal College of Art