The first day of Into the Fold saw the fruits of an open discussion between Department 21, the construction of gigantic Word Sculptures by Philip Li and a talk with Brave New Alps about their Construction Site project. 

Philip Li is a recent graduate from Camberwell College of Arts (2009) and has been fusing together performance, sculpture, music, fashion, ceramics and styling into a live and uniquely styled vision. Li  recently completed an artist-in-residence position at Camberwell. He was asked by the Press to come and make Word Sculptures in the gallery space all day, and working with Sculpture, 3D and Photography students, they created gigantic letterforms out of card.

A discussion between Sophie Demay, Bethany Wells, Bianca Elzenbaumer and Robert Maslin of Department 21 took place in the Camberwell Space in the afternoon. Students, alumni, staff and the Press team were invited to talk through some of the reasoning’s behind the project.

Department 21 was, at the beginning, a temporary, physical space established by students as an experiment in interdisciplinary practice, in the vacant Painting studios of the Royal College of Art. It was a project where designers, artists and architects can meet, collaborate and share working space beyond the institutional boundaries of their own disciplines. Read more about Department 21 here.

Bianca Elzenbaumer from Brave New Alps came to talk about their Construction Site project. The Construction Site for Non-Affirmative Practice is a group of young Italian designers that came together in Autumn 2011 during thier collectivized artist’s residency at Careof, a non profit art space in Milan. Since then, the group has developed its own dynamics and together study and experiment with alternative criteria with which to act in the world and, in particular, the world of design.