on saturday jen, joel, harry and i decided to head into town for the afternoon as it was the end of half term and i was about to head off to india. after a scout through time out and the guardian guide we decided to head to the old truman brewery on brick lane to see free range.

each year in london the various art colleges have graduate shows that are open to the public. free range is one that is getting a good reputation with colleges from round the uk taking part and its focus on creatives and the fab part of london it is in. each week there is a new show for about 8 weeks and each week focuses on a different discipline. this week’s was design. we visited 4 different spaces with shows. as you’d expect a couple didn’t grab us but we enjoyed bournemouth university’s windowbox – computers featuring web design/computer games.

the outstanding show though was definitely goldsmith’s big fish little fish cardboard box, a show of design and eco design. it had some amazingly creative and inspiring pieces of work. one beautifully simple idea was moment of wonder by mireia tysoe – a project where houses in various cities were randomly selected and given a paper butterfly to make and then post on their door. the responses were recorded via a web site or text messages. these had been collated into a beautiful book and the butterflies were hung from the ceiling. the responses and instructions on making a butterfly are on the site.

i also loved kasia trilling’s dark and light project. it had this beautiful book for children who are afraid of the dark. when you look at the book you see nothing on the pages until you turn the lights off and turn a uv light on and then the story magically appears as you turn each page. the story is only discovered in the magic of the dark… waiting to slow down was a video piece by cate trotter of someone waiting at the bus stop getting frustrated but the process of having to wait was turned into play. reenchanting the city included a grass sofa and shopping trolley turned into a flower garden. a bath recycled into a chair was fun and greenknickers made me smile. there’s a lot of cynicism about contemporary art but if this show is anything to go by there is an indcredible amount of wonderfully creative artists out there dreaming and remaking the world. i want to go to goldsmiths and be creative for a few years!!!

a stop off at the big chill bar, a curry on brick lane and spotting a couple of banksys finished off a great day out. i will add the pics to the art photo album though i wish i’d taken more…