DRUGS, capitalism and pornography are some of the subjects explored in an exhibition by art students at Darlington Arts Centre this week.

The work has been created by Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form students on the BTEC Foundation Course. The week-long exhibition ends tomorrow.

Laura Dover, of Tudhoe Village, has produced giant fashion photographs on the links between street-style and designer-label brands.

In her large photographs, fellow student Kate Ablett poses in charity shop clothes which have been customised by Laura.

"I like the way photographers such as Nick Knight and Mario Testino use lighting, colour and texture," she said.

The grainy images are printed from traditional negatives, while the sharper ones were taken on a digital camera.

A former Tudhoe Grange pupil, she will study fashion marketing at Northumbria University. John Galliano is her favourite designer.

Beccy Angus, of Melsonby, attended Richmond School and will study fine art at Kingston University.

She has gathered reminiscences from elderly people and made an installation based on memories. An old wooden box, containing bundles of letters, hand-written memoirs, faded union flags and handkerchiefs, is positioned on a side table, with the phrase, Imagine your life in a box suspended above it. It has a dreamy, delicate appearance - partly due to limited palette of brown and off-white objects.

"I've tried to capture emotion. I wanted to make something eye-catching without using bright colours," she explained.

She likes sculptor David Mach, who produced Darlington's brick train, and the ideas of Tracy Emin, although she is not so keen on her finished work.

"I like collages, photographs and found objects. I spend a lot of time in charity shops."

Kate Ablett, of Witton-le-Wear, wanted to question the glamourisation of drugs in popular culture and fashion. She has produced an elegant yet sinister hooded-costume in brown leather. It includes dozens of sharp needles.

"It has an aggressive look to reflect the negative side of the fashion world and heroin chic. The hood creates anonymity and the layers of leather symbolise the need to strip away layers, to reach the real meaning of things."

She said Seventies punk rock had influenced current fashion and her own designs. She particularly liked designers such as Alexander McQueen and Warren Noronha, whose sometimes sinister designs subverted traditional ideas of female beauty.

She models her designs in an accompanying video and will study fashion at Northumbria University.

Andrew Benson, of Murrayfield Way, Darlington, is on a moral and political crusade against big business. He lampoons advertisements and subverts corporate slogans, criticising what he sees as the United States' world domination.

"I buy a Canadian magazine called Adbusters, which reveals the shallowness behind brand images. I think bodies like the World Trade Organisation place the issue of free trade above human rights."

Naomi Klein's book, No Logo, was another influence. The representation of race, particularly the portrayal of white 'wealth' and black 'coolness' in fashion photography also interested him.

He will study graphics at Edinburgh College of Art.

Jayne Elwell, of Sedgefield, is exploring responses to sex and pornography. A former Ian Ramsey School pupil, her work incorporates life-size drawings of nude magazine models, a video projection of her friends' reactions to pornography, and a telephone kiosk pasted with sexual graffiti and prostitutes' calling cards.

"I'm interested in the shock factor, rather than making a particular statement. Initially, I wanted to use really graphic images, but that would have put an age restriction on the exhibition. Nobody has been horrified yet, even my mum and dad like the show."

She likes the work of Martin Parr and pop art. She will study fine art at Oxford Brooks University.