Alfred Golding

Settling into university life

I joined the course in 2020 at the tail end of the Covid pandemic with an idea of what a Fine Art education looked like, though a little unsure of the details.

While a little intimidated by the scale of the college, and the limitations of that strange time, I endeavoured to get stuck in as quickly as possible. 

I could not have gotten luckier. The faculty, both tutors and technicians, worked literal magic to make that quarantined version of a BA more accessible, encouraging, and warm, than I had thought would be possible.

I didn't join the course straight out of school, I came when I was ready, and I think this had a big impact on what I learnt from the people around me.

An enriching experience

There's a real depth to the knowledge and experience you can draw from this degree. It isn't an exaggeration to say it has affected all areas of my life.

The skills I developed in workshops, the exposure to ideas in tutorials and seminars, not to mention the friends, have given me a confidence and direction I didn't know I was missing when I joined.

This is not, I think, a unique experience - many of the people in my community from Goldsmiths are still creating, are working professionally in any number of creative fields, and most importantly, still collaborating.

Creative practice

My degree show developed over the course of my final year through a number of processes and materials, culminating in a primary installation in Studio B with other works installed across two other sites (Laurie Grove Baths and Saint James Hatcham Church).

A thirty-foot corridor led to a trio of benches made from reclaimed wood. Around this space, atop the benches and shelves, were tactile wooden sculptures in different forms and species of wood that the visitor was encouraged to handle and interact.

From this vantage, the cavity of the wall became visible, with strip lights installed along its length contrasting the clean white exterior with the nature of the material in its raw state. All the materials used in this installation were either reclaimed building materials or given to me as gifts.

I also installed several photo etched finger plates on doors around the campus. The images engraved were my own photography, depicting landscape and nightlife work.

The final piece was a banister I made to as a replacement to a particularly warn down rail in the Laurie Grove Baths Large Pool fire exit. It is still there today.

Advice for future students

You need to show up every day, or as often as is literally possible within your life circumstances.

Go to workshops, go to your seminars, talk to the people in your studio and beyond. However, you might arrive, if you show up, and you give it your all, I'm sure you'll come out of it as enriched as I did.

Make anything at the beginning - my work at the end was not remotely connected to what did at the start, but it needed the whole course to get there.

Visit every workshop and talk to the technicians - they are extremely knowledgeable and can open your eyes to things you didn't even know existed. They took me very far.

Book as many tutorials as you can. It might be scary and exposing to talk about your work, but that’s why you're here. Once you've graduated, you'll be surprised how rare an opportunity it is to sit down and discuss your work like that.

Life after Goldsmiths

I currently work full time as an Art Handling Technician at the Tate Galleries in London. This basically involves the installation and management of the collection, putting up shows, and helping to maintain the wide variety of work we have.

It’s a brilliant team - the majority of whom are artists themselves - and gives me ample opportunity to look at and discuss works most of the public rarely, if ever, get to see.

I would highly recommend it as a prospective job for a graduate. Getting hands on experience in moving and installing artwork can be both incredibly rewarding in terms of skills and giving you an idea of quite how heavy a painting can be.

A diverse and green corner of London

I still live in South East London 6 years after moving here with no intention of leaving soon; it is an incredibly diverse and green part of the city.

I would encourage you to get a bike, wear a helmet, and learn how to ride it safely, and just head out to see what you can find.

If you're from the country and are missing some greenery, there are some lovely woods not too far away. Sydenham Hill is a personal favourite.