91Èȱ¬

In last night's final episode of 91Èȱ¬ Two's School Of Saatchi, Eugenie Scrase was revealed as the artist selected by Charles Saatchi to have her artwork shown at his exhibition Newspeak: British Art Now at The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

In the programme, the six artists were given their final, and most important, project – to put on a "one night only" group show at Saatchi's world-famous gallery in West London.

They were given three weeks to create the artwork and organise the event. At the show, Saatchi's original selection panel – artist Tracey Emin, critic and broadcaster Matthew Collings, art collector Frank Cohen and Barbican curator Kate Bush – reassembled to help him make his decision.

They were hugely impressed by the standard of work on display but could select just one artist's work and Saatchi felt Eugenie's Trunkated Trunk was the absolutely most outstanding piece amongst them.

Twenty-year-old Eugenie, the youngest of all those taking part, is currently studying Fine Art Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art. Her art is inspired by the strangeness of things and her sculptures and installations are often formed out of curious found objects.

Having been given the brief, Eugenie was already working on a piece for the show. But, whilst walking in East London, she came across a section of tree trunk which had fallen and become impaled on a fence when the tree was been cut down. After a bit of detective work, she found out the fence was on land belonging to a housing association and managed to persuade them to let her remove this section.

Talking about Trunkated Trunk, Tracey Emin said: "I would like to have been with her the day she walked past that and thought 'mmm, yeah, that's right, that's my work, that's what I'll get'. And then whoever it was at the council who she said, 'can I take this piece of fence away please because I'm in this Saatchi thing and I need it for my artwork'. Genius idea, and the confidence to do that. Some artists could see that but they'd never have the confidence to go ahead and do it."

Rebecca Wilson, who works alongside Saatchi at his gallery and featured in the series, commented: "Charles thought it was a completely bold, brave move on her part. Some of the most exciting work in contemporary art is not necessarily made by the artist, but it's the ideas that come from the artist and it was Eugenie's idea and it was a brilliant one."

Her artwork Trunkated Trunk has been in place at The Hermitage since Saatchi's exhibition launched there in October, but now her name will be revealed alongside it. As well as having her work appear on the world stage, Eugenie has also been given the additional opportunity of a free studio space for three years by Charles Saatchi and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Speaking about the whole experience, Eugenie said: "I'm so grateful for Charles Saatchi providing such a great opportunity, gallery space in Russia and studio space. It's mind-blowing. I'm really, really happy."

Saatchi felt, though, that another of the artist's, Matt Clark, had produced consistently fantastic work throughout the 10 weeks and so has asked him to create a new piece of work which will go on display at the exhibition when it comes to London next year. And, as Eugenie is still at art school for another year, she has given Matt the use of her studio space during that time.

Having just completed their one night show at Saatchi's West London gallery, Matt Clark said: "In just a few months time I'm going to be in another show here. That, I think, sums up everything for me. Me and my kind of dream of working as a full-time artist is becoming more and more real each day it seems."

If you missed the last episode of the series, catch up on bbc.co.uk/iplayer.

KA