I think the biggest problem was probably getting things to stick.’ This, according to Jacob Byfield, was the greatest challenge in setting up Exhibition 004, Worcester’s student-run,  student-led art exhibition. Byfield, the event’s Press Officer, is not speaking metaphorically; the display, comprised of work from artists sourced from both the University and nearby Art Conservatories, is only up for a week—anything more permanent than Blu-Tak is strictly verboten. 

The exhibit itself functions with the sort of effortless fluency that implies a great deal of hard work. Its set-up is professional enough that the actual transience of the showcase is almost unnerving. Laid out in Worcester’s Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre, the exhibit itself reads like a study in impermanence, or eclecticism; meticulously crafted dresses sit next to interactive television sets, which sit next to delicately drawn portraits of vaginas. The vaginas have, in turn, been tacked up next to a (not transient) portrait of Sultan Nazrih Shah. The exhibit launched with one of its artists, (Rowan Briggs Smith) improvisationally painting in tandem with the warbling of an (also improvising) cellist (Matthew Wakefield), one of several performance art pieces of the evening. 

All this is to say, 004 refashions its college-imposed temporariness into a stylish artistic conceit, harnessing its brevity into a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it brilliance. It’s a bit serious and a bit silly and a lot worth seeing; as far as adhesives go, the not-sticking seems to be the point. ∎

Words by Evie Power.