Cheryl Nelson Costumes

As this is an arts degree, artist research is an essential part of the course, and during the Extended BA we spent a great deal of time studying artists and their work.

I struggled with conceptual art. I looked at countless artists, but a few stood out, either because of the emotions they stirred in me or because I genuinely wondered if they were con artists. I honestly couldn’t decide whether I admired them or despised them for what seemed like such blatant arrogance.

Eventually I realised that if I wanted to understand conceptual art, reading about it wasn’t enough. I needed to recreate it. My thinking was simple: perhaps I could force understanding through making. It was a case of “fake it until you make it.”

Works such as Martin Creed’s Work No. 88 drove me mad. What art could there possibly be in a crumpled piece of paper? To me, the art seemed to lie less in the object itself and more in the confidence of displaying it as art. The presentation, and perhaps the sheer chutzpah of doing so, became part of the work.

This isn’t the kind of art I naturally gravitate towards, so I approached my own version with my tongue firmly in my cheek. It appealed perfectly to my sense of humour: taking something completely mundane and elevating it to the status of art. After many false starts, I eventually produced a piece I was genuinely proud of, The Three Malteasers, inspired by Martin Creed’s Work No. 88. Whether I finally understood conceptual art is still open to debate, but I certainly understood the process a little better.