Students Make an Exhibition of Themselves

By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent

Thirteen art students given a grant and sponsorship of 1,600 pounds to put on an exhibition spent the money on a week’s holiday on the Costa del Sol and returned home claiming that the trip was conceptual art. Two sponsors, including the Leeds University students’ union, which gave a grant of 1,126 pounds, said they had been misled by the students. They claimed that the stunt gave art a bad name and demanded their money back.

But the 13 students said their holiday – when they swam, sunbathed and visited nightclubs – was designed “to challenge people’s perception of art” and to make people discuss whether there was any limit to what could be described as art. One of the students, Emma Robertson, said: “This is leisure as art. It is art and it was an exhibition. People have very set ideas about what art is and we are interested in the media reaction because we want people to discuss what art is.”

About 60 lecturers, local artists and fellow students invited to the first-night party for the exhibition

enigmatically titled Going Places – were surprised when they entered a gallery empty except for a large bowl of sangria, the sound of flamenco music and a drama student dressed as an air hostess with a megaphone.

As they stood around, uncertain what would happen next, they were ushered on to a double-decker bus, driven to Leeds-Bradford airport and left in a bar overlooking the arrivals area. A short time later, they saw the entire troupe of laughing, sun-tanned third-year students – who had used the money to buy 185 pound flight-and-accommodation packages – march through the Customs armed with souvenirs. The two groups met, the stunt was explained and they all adjoined to the bar again, running up a bill of 180 pounds. They spent a couple of hours discussing the meaning of art before they were bussed back to Leeds city centre.

Myles Dutton, who runs the Dixon Bate art shop in Leeds, was one of several commercial sponsors who gave more than 400 pounds for what they thought was a conventional exhibition. He said: “I gave 50 pounds. It’s not a lot but I feel I have been duped and I want my money back.”

A university spokesman declined to condemn the students and said: “It should be noted that on that little more than 1,000 pounds they managed to spend a week in Spain, hire a space for the exhibition, hire the double-decker bus and keep a tab behind the bar at the airport. They got a lot out of it.”

The Daily Telegraph

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