Art students get their first taste of life in the public eye

Art students put up sculptures in the National Fine Art Degree Fair at the Islington Design Centre, writes Esther Oxford. Several thousand students from 40 art colleges nationwide have come to London to display their work. The exhibition runs from today until 31 July. Wacky exhibits include some wax knickers, flying eggs and some life sized cows. A 'breathing waterbed, a column of suspended feathers and a walk-under 9ft-high Alice In Wonderland table will also be there to surprise and entertain. Most items can be bought, with prices ranging from pounds 50 to pounds 5,000. Steve Wood, 42, has come from Coventry University and is enjoying his first prestigious event.

'I try not to get too excited, but getting noticed is never far away from my mind, he said.

Mr Wood's exhibit is a three foot high true-to-life sculpture of a table, with a box on it

and a piece of cloth lying across the lid. The price is pounds 350.

Not everyone is thrilled by the exhibition however. Jake Miller, 28, from the Royal Academy, London, wishes he had not agreed to exhibit. 'The space is awful and the lighting is terrible.

(Photograph omitted)