Being a working-class creative

In this episode, Benji Jeffrey chats to Christoph Jones and Melanie King from the Working Class Collective (WCC).

The WCC is a student-run society, founded by Jennifer McMillan and Cristoph Jones in 2020 with an aim to uplift and provide solidarity for working-class students at the RCA.

The WCC acknowledges and celebrates the varied lives and experiences of working-class people through talks, events, exhibitions and social gatherings, and has produced two triumphant summer shows.

At the time of recording, Melanie King is the Interim Chair.

Listen as Benji, Christoph and Melanie discuss:

• The formation and growth of the society

• What it means to be ‘working class’, intersectionality and cultural identity

• How being working class influences artistic practice

About the guests

Christoph Jones

Christoph Jones is an award-winning conceptual artist based in London. He graduated from the RCA with an MA Contemporary Art Practice in 2023. During his time as a student, he co-founded the RCA Working Class Collective with Jennifer McMillan. His practice encompasses a diverse range of mediums, including 3D digital design, video essays, painting, sculpture, performance, installation, and speculative fiction writing. With a focus on recontextualization, aesthetic abstraction and geographic relocation, his current work explores the transformative power of these processes on ostensibly axiomatic ideological, political and social concepts.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_christophjones/

Website: https://www.christophjones.com/

Melanie King

Melanie King is a working class artist and curator, originally from Manchester, and is now based in Kent, UK. She is a practice-based PhD Candidate in the School of Arts & Humanities at the Royal College of Art. Melanie is co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective. She is also a Lecturer In Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University. She is represented by the Land Art Agency.

Instagram: https://www.melaniek.co.uk/research 

Website: https://www.instagram.com/melaniekatking/

Learn more about the Working Class Collective

Instagram: @RCAWCC

X (Twitter): @RCAWCC

Website: https://www.rcasu.org.uk/organisation/6281/ 

Mentioned in the episode

• Jacob Talkowski @jacobtalkowski

• Zofia Skoroszewska @zofiaskoro

• RCA2022 & RCA2023 curated collections:

• RCA2022

• RCA2023

• Working Class Artist Network Collective Instagram

• Article: ‘Impostor syndrome’ is a pseudo-medical name for a class problem, Nathalie Olah

• Book: Chavs by Owen Jones

• Book: Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber