Honorary degrees for artists Noble and Webster
The internationally-acclaimed collaborative artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster will be awarded with honorary degrees from Nottingham Trent University on Saturday. The pair, who met while studying fine art at the university in the 1980s, will receive their Doctor of Art (DArt) certificates during the graduation ceremony at Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall.
Noble and Webster’s remarkable and provocative creations – which involve converting the debris of modern society into challenging forms and sculptures – have been dubbed both art and anti-art. Some of their notable pieces are made from piles of seemingly abstract rubbish collected from London streets, which cast representational images onto the wall behind when light is projected onto it.
Their first solo show in London in 1996, titled British Rubbish, was followed by exhibitions across Europe and in the United States. Their work stands in permanent collections of modern art across the world, from Copenhagen to New York, London to Iran and South Korea. The couple’s distinctly punkish artistic partnership as young British radicals is widely regarded as an important step in opening up new routes, followed by other individual artists who have made their names through shock and sensation.
Noble and Webster will collect their honorary degrees along with distinguished poet, author and journalist, Peter Porter, who will receive a Doctor of Letters; swimming coach Bill Furniss, who will be given a Doctor of Science; and pioneering community safety and crime prevention specialist, John Burrows, who receives a Doctor of Social Sciences.
