REMET Art Prize 2025
Free, drop-in
We are pleased to exhibit the work of all seven finalists for the REMET Art Prize. The work will be on display in the Dorich House apartment form 1st May to 21st June. REMET’s annual Art Prize invites Kingston University’s undergraduate Fine Art Students to submit an initial proposal for a small bronze object, their only limitations being scale. The finalists used REMET’s specialist ceramic shell casting process to create their objects. All the works on display were fabricated and cast in the Kingston School of Art 3D workshops with the support of Guillermo (Will) Rodriguez Lopez and Jude Gao. Congratulations to all the finalists and to Michelle Xia this year’s winner. See descriptions for all the works below:
Leen Avache, Cycloptic
Cycloptic is a bronze sculpture that embodies society’s dangerous ignorance. A one-eyed creature, it reflects a world fixated on a narrow view, disconnected from the harsh realities of ongoing global tragedies, including genocide. “The eye perceives, the brain believes, and the mouth deceives.” These comedically exaggerated features—a tunnel-vision eye, a micro brain ready to escape, and a mouth spouting distorted realities—critique how information is manipulated and weaponised. Cycloptic symbolises a society that processes information blindly, relaying misleading messages without awareness and highlighting the urgent need for a more compassionate and reflective world.
Antonio Bourouphael, Catch of the Day
A haunting reminder of humanity’s entanglement with nature, this bronze sculpture depicts a gutted fish, its skeletal frame intertwined with strands of woven plastic. Suspended from a fishing rod, it appears freshly caught, yet its form speaks of a far more enduring capture. The cold permanence of bronze contrasts with the synthetic fragility of plastic, symbolising the irreversible mark of pollution on marine life. This piece reflects on the destructive beauty of human industry – what once sustained us now bears the weight of our waste, caught forever in a net of our own making.
Maria Jones, Different Peas, Same Pod
Understanding the properties that make us all unique is the key to family relationships. The attributes of each individual do not make them less or more. Instead they invite observation, reflection and empathy. By acknowledging and appreciating these differences, we create a deeper awareness of the bonds that unite us to embrace the beauty of diversity within the family unit. Each pea, born from the same pod, offers different material properties to reflect individual personalities: Bronze: Glamourous, Brash and Loud (encapsulated within). Marble: Polished, Cold, Hard and Unforgiving. Wood: Soft, Warm, Gentle and Scared. Consider and Contemplate – Food for Thought. Website: www.The5thP.Ltd (Officially Endorsed by The ‘Relate/Family Action’ Charity)
Louise Mariani-Mcintyre, Being a Cow
Playing with the notion of being and the constructs of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ character, the artist declares herself a cow in this self-portrait. By displacing an udder into a corporate heel, she creates a personal yet unnatural composition, exposing the absurdity of reducing oneself to external symbols and constructs. Instagram: @louise.mariani
Lukas Wigart, Repurposed Newspaper
The folded newspaper placed under a chair leg to prevent it from rocking demonstrates a subtle form of symbiosis between objects. The newspaper, often read for daily updates and fleeting moments, serves an essential role in stabilizing the chair by filling the gap between the uneven floor and the leg. The newspaper’s functionality is enhanced beyond its typical use, and by making it out of bronze it chooses to champion its newfound form.
Michelle Xia, Imaginary Friends and Days Past
The plate turns into a desktop, growing four long and thin legs, transforming into a small table that took me back to the old school days. It stood there quietly, with a label affixed bearing the name, the date and the candidate number. During each exam, I would sit there and drift off into thoughts, perhaps hoping that, by thinking hard enough, colourful alien friends might appear. They would surround me, take over my table, protect me, and absolve me. The moment it turns to bronze, everything time has taken or left behind transforms into something as solid and enduring as a trophy—unchanging, eternal, always present before me. Instagram: xia.michelle_
Xiufan (Benji) Xu, Sweet and Sour
The Oyster pail with the red pagoda, representative of the expansive diasporic Chinese takeaway industry, is seen more often on TV than in person. Culinary trade has been economically successful across “Chinese” migratory histories worldwide; incidentally, it is also a key target of prejudicial stereotypes and racial violence. In the UK, flavours tailored to local tastes are recognised neither as British or Chinese, being categorically alienated and consequently rendered as an invalidated culture- a cultural erasure that happens not only to delocalised cuisines, but to delocalised people too. The boundaries of “British-Chineseness” are pervasive, but dreams of cultural participation persist. Instagram: @benjisfart
