I arrived at Elm Bank really early, and Heather Sears allowed me to access the room to stage my work. Heather was intrigued by my sampler box, and asked to see the work. I showed the first couple, and she asked to photograph them. I suggested I stage them, and she could photograph them all together.
I staged my sketchbooks, and the samplers, and stashed all my detritus and posh shoes under the corner table. When Heather came down to Sparrow Room, she brought Rebekah Smith McGloin, the Director of the Doctoral College too. As soon as Rebekah saw my work, she asked whether I was going on to a PhD. I said I found the writing too difficult - my forte was the artwork. To which she replied a practice based PhD was only 15,000 words. While I'm not planning to go to a higher level, I found it considerably confidence-boosting, prior to my Viva, to be told this. Heather took some photos of me and my samplers (I must remember to contact Heather and give permission for her to use them for publicity if this helps the doctoral college).
I was waiting in the cafeteria, when I realised I had left my posh shoes in Sparrow Room, and the Viva panel had assembled. This meant I ended up wearing my trainers with my artist dress during my assessment! At least they were a matching petrel blue!
The panel chairman was an engineer (missed his name), along with Kollette Super, and David Vaughan. Imogen Racz, my Director of Studies, was present as observer.
I gave my presentation. I talked a bit about standpoint theory - probably rattled on a bit too much about it seeing some things from somewhere and it being partial, with examples from my workplace such as managing a payroll to see what happens with the embodied nature of performance related pay - but Kollette was nodding sagely!
They started by asking what my background was - which surprised me a bit. Apparently my background for an artist is unusual! I explained I had worked for London Underground - clerical and secretarial roles, followed by all the HR roles, with lots of employee relations. Then I decided to earn some serious money so started shift work - I explained more about standpoint being partial, with the example of night shift being worth more than days, and management consultants consolidating shift rates of pay to makes Payroll cheaper to run, without realising this led to some workers trying to wriggle out of their share of night shifts because a consolidated rate meant they did not lose money.
Kollette wanted to know how I got into art. I had always stitched, then did C&G Embroidery which led me to art - I needed to get the artwork right before going into stitch, and I discovered that I was a hand worker, not a machine operator. Then I was working part-time as I was a carer for my Father (with Alzheimers), and decided to start a part-time degree. Fairly quickly my Dad died; the university offered study abroad to Curtin University, Perth; and London Underground offered severance. It was because of my work at Curtin, that I achieved a 1st at University of Herts. I took a year out, then started at London Met. Great first year with Linden Reilly (David Vaughan said he knew her), then a financial crisis led to many highly experienced staff being sacked (Kollette and David rolled their eyes!) and the course became shambolic in the second year so I walked out (I thought this was an accurate but restrained description!). However when Linden found out, she recommended I apply to Coventry - and Jill had been the verifier at London Met, so knew my work. This information had both Kollette and David nodding sagely.
David asked whether as a retired member of London Underground staff, I still got free travel on the tube. Which I do, and quarter rate on Network Rail - £17.90 return every time I go to Coventry!
I said a bit about using sketchbooks as research - using my Status and Values sketchbooks as an example when I had gone up a blind alley. Status sketchbook actually was about my Mother's values not mine!!
Kollette asked what order the samplers were made in. This was the order they were displayed in - Mrs Konieczny; me; Aunt Joan; Gifti, Mavis and Sarpong; and Aunt Daisy. She asked what response they got - I said homemaking women liked Aunt Joan, social campaigners liked Gifti, Mavis and Sarpong, and artist/embroiderers liked Aunt Daisy. I said the samplers were selected for exhibitions, typically Women's History Month, and that selection was very important to me - it validated my work, more so than self-publicity. Kollette liked the colours of Gifti, Mavis and Sarpong, and I said these were the colours of the Ghanaian flag. I added that it was very important to me that the samplers inspired discussion and triggered memory of viewers' (in)significant women. David said he had overheard conversations about these other women at the exhibition. Hurrah! My work was effective in triggering memory!
They asked whether I wished I had done an art degree earlier. I answered honestly that the Underground had paid me a good living, with a good pension and that, with my family history, I would live until I was 90, giving 40 years to be an artist! Also friends who are artists have lived in poverty all their working lives.
Kollette and David observed that I enjoyed talking about my work. This surprised me a bit, but most of my jobs have involved a lot of talking to staff and customers, and talking is one of my much practiced skills. They made the interview much easier than I had anticipated.
Kollette told me I had passed with minor amendments. (I was relieved more than joyful!) The amendments would be about how I need to clarify the attributes of my inspiring artists, and how my work is influenced by them. The panel were confused by when I was writing about those artists and my own work. And there were a few typos. I said I had spotted 'moths' instead of 'months'. Also there were some missing spaces between words.
I came out, feeling like an exhausted, hyper-active hamster!
