Sarah Mayhew Craddock on the Ruskin School of Art Degree Show

Unlike the private, closed book nature of most examination processes art students must take a very public show-and-tell approach to their graduation process. Could there be a more nerve-wracking time of year then than the art graduate degree show?

This year 23 Ruskin School of Art finalists are preparing to open the doors to the Green Shed in Osney Mead (OX2 0ES) revealing their degree show, which opens to the public on June 20 and continues until June 22.

Marking the end of their undergraduate careers and the beginning of their careers as practicing artists, three graduating students told me about their creative practice and career aspirations.

The daughter of aid workers, Rebecca Ajulu-Bushell – aka Chay – grew up between Oxford and East Africa. “I have moved around all of my life. It has become part of my identity,” she explained. “This has influenced my practice in that I am constantly looking at the ways in which digital media links the collective.”

Chay is producing a new film installation for the show. She said: “We have a tendency to see our own position as uniquely troubled. Mass media sees the fusing together of all of ‘our struggles’. I attempt to subvert the nostalgic clichés that have embedded themselves within a generation of instant gratification. My practice hopes to question all this ‘mixed-up-ness’.”

And upon graduating, will she continue to question it? “I hope to return to Kenya in September to make documentaries and to use these to work with NGOs to combat governmental corruption.”

Working in much more tangible media, Amy Thellusson describes her practice: “Working with foam, plaster, polyurethane, wax, feathers and found objects, I try to tease out the vanity and self-consciousness that is passed from artist to artwork in the act of creating a sculpture.”

Looking to pass on her passion for fine art to the next generation whilst at the same time developing her career as an artist, Thellusson explains her ambitions upon graduating.

“My practice is sculptural and has evolved out of an enjoyment of forms, colours and material processes.

“After I graduate from the Ruskin I hope to investigate becoming an artist in residence in a school – a role which would allow me both teaching experience as well as the opportunity to continue my practice.”

With a glint in her eye, Sophie Bernac describes her creative practice, or her “pseudo-scientific experiments”, as being analogous to poaching.

“I set visual traps and make poetic pranks in public and communal spaces. The narrative [of my work] could be told through the spatial arrangement of objects in a gallery space, audio pieces, videos or photographs uploaded online with little or no commentary.”

It is highly conceptual and she acknowledges: “It is difficult to commercialise, so after I graduate, I would like to participate in artist-in-residence programmes.”

Wherever these artists and creative minds end up, they are about to present intellectually challenging, reflective work. They’ve taken the time to distil their experiences and find an appropriate media with which to describe it to the viewer. That in itself will be fascinating.

The Ruskin Finalists Degree Show is tomorrow from 6-10pm at the Green Shed, Osney Mead Oxford until June 22, from noon-6pm.