Art of Caring Success

photo: Bill Mudge

This year's International Nurses' Day didn't last a mere 24 hours, in fact those of us in Kingston-upon-Thames thought all those health professionals and carers deserved at least a week of appreciation and celebration.


John Sutherland. Photo: Bill Mudge

We started on 12th May 2015 (International Nurses' Day), which is Florence Nightingale's Birthday with the Private View of The Art of Caring at the Rose Theatre. It was a wonderful night and many of the 133 artists came from far and wide to see the 252 artworks on the walls of the Circle gallery space.

photo: Bill Mudge

A special mention must go to Ella Penn and partner Liam who brought our poster boy Jack to the party. It was Ella's photograph of her son which graced the publicity for our event. Thanks to all that helped hang the exhibition on the 11th May including Bryan Benge, Kevin Acott, Nikki Yun, John Sutherland, Harvey Wells, Rajaa Khalife and our photographer for the whole week Bill Mudge.

Dr Julia Gale and Harvey Wells. Photo: Bill Mudge

The exhibition wouldn't have been possible without the support of Kingston University who funded the exhibition and the refreshments at the Private View. Especially Harvey Wells and Dr Julia Gale, Head of School of Nursing / Associate Dean (Quality) at Kingston University and St George's, University of London (FHSCE) who gave a rousing speech at the Private View.

Art Jazzed Up. Photo: EZZIDIN ALWAN

The exhibition was part of a inspirational event on Friday 15th May called Nursing's Got Talent which was a celebration of Nurse's and Nursing. The day included talks, book recitals, drama and plays, poetry and live art & music. Alban Low represented CollectConnect with a live drawing performance in the 400 seat main auditorium with his Art Jazzed Up project. While jazz musicians, Duncan Eagles (sax), Max Luthert (bass), Bill Mudge (keys) and Chris Nickolls (drums) played 3 original compositions Alban drew on 3 large paper canvases.

We had a very positive response from the public about The Art of Caring exhibition and we would like to say thank you to all the artists to help make it such a success. There are more photos to view here, just follow the link - https://picasaweb.google.com/103519518631561147857/ArtOfCaringExhibition02?noredirect=1
The Photos of the Private View and exhibition set up are courtesy of Bill Mudge. The photos of Nursing's Got Talent are courtesy of EZZIDIN ALWAN.

The future is a positive one for the Art of Caring exhibition. We are currently talking to Camden & Islington NHS Trust about exhibiting in one of their galleries. Watch this space!

Our next exhibition at CollectConnect will be from Bryan Benge with a collaborative evolution art project.

Alban Low

Art of Caring Exhibition

We've had a fantastic response from artists all around the world on the theme of Care and Caring. The Art of Caring exhibition is proud to display 251 artworks from 133 artists at the Rose Theatre from 12th-16th May 2015.

Join us for the Private View on Tuesday 12th May from 4-6pm to help celebrate International Nurse's Day and launch this diverse exhibition. Come along to the circle gallery space to meet the artists and have a glass of wine. A panel from Kingston University Nursing Society (Nikki Yun, John Sutherland, Gurlal Jagdev and Daniel Waters) have also selected 15 images to print at a larger format alongside the 251 postcard sized artworks.

The exhibition is open daily from 10am-6pm at
Rose Theatre,
24-26 High Street,
Kingston upon Thames,
Surrey KT1 1HL

As part of our celebration of Nursing we have created a FREE event on Friday 15th May from 1.30-4.30 in the main auditorium where we'll be showcasing the best in literature, drama, music and art. All welcome, details can be found here - http://www.kingston.ac.uk/events/item/1588/15-may-2015-nursing039s-got-talent/

Art of Caring submission closed

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Art of Caring. We've now got the long process of logging in all the submissions, approx 250 and preparing them for the exhibition on the 12th May 2015.

On The Map exhibition

On The Map Exhibition

Welcome to the On The Map exhibition from CollectConnect artists. Earlier this year publisher Sampson Low Ltd commissioned 12 new maps from a group of exciting contemporary artists. Each map was designed to be printed as an A3 fold out sheet with 4 supporting pages on it's reverse side.



The Sunbury Dice Game
Alban Low and Harvey Wells

There is an inherent beauty in maps, like the Dwell book that proceeded this exhibition maps are a 2 dimensional rendering of a 3 dimensional form. They are often interpretations of the real world in a graphic light with motifs and lines that help us find anything from roads to windmills.

Artists are natural observers and organisers who like categorise through visual means. This map exhibition gives us the chance to see the world around us through the eyes of 14 artists from around the UK.

The artists were asked to consider 3 criteria.
Their map should be set in the real world, somewhere in the UK.
That it should include a route which could be walked.
The walking of the map shouldn't cost more than £10 (train fares, entrance to museums, lunch)

Sampson Low Ltd have printed them all in colour at an A5 (21x14.8cm) size with an A3 fold out map incorporated. They will be selling the maps at an affordable £2 (+ Postage and Packing) so that anyone can try one of these artist's walks or frame them on their wall.

The artists are -

Bill Mudge
Melanie Ezra and Rose Davies
Bryan Benge
Robert Good
Peter S Smith
Dean Reddick
Tahira Mandarino
Alban Low and Harvey Wells
Phillip Cribb
Stuart Simler
Jill Hedges
Glyn Walton

The exhibition runs from 14th April to 10th May 2015
Private View - 23rd April, 6.30-8.30pm
at
The Sunbury Embroidery Gallery
The Walled Garden, Thames Street
Sunbury-on-Thames, TW16 6AB
http://www.sunburyembroidery.co.uk/index.htm

All welcome. We hope you can find your way there.
If not, I'll draw you a map!

AL.

We would especially like to thank Robert Shaw, Barbara Robertson, Tahira Mandarino at the Sunbury Embroidery Gallery. Also Spelthorne Borough Council for their support of the exhibition.

Tamara Jelaca - Little House in Prairie



Tamara's Little House in Prairie

Welcome to the Dwell exhibition and book. For a whole month we will be taking each artist's page and transforming it into a 3 dimensional dwelling. Each one of these small sculptures will be exhibited in public on the London streets.

Noahs Arc Wheres my Dearest

Detail from Net

Our final Net, on the first day of March, comes from Tamara Jelača.
One of the most exciting aspects of Collect Connect is the contact we make with people all over the world. Today we have a wonderfully dynamic little sculpture from the Serbian Artist Tamara Jelača.
Tamara recently exhibited with us at the Fab Fridge Exhibition in Bath. A quick look at Tamara's recent group shows reveals that she is prolific and hard working artists with a specialism in embroidery.

Cloud

Tamara writes on her web site,
'Embroidery for me is a kind of meditation. The process is slow, the drawing is showing up slowly. I love the fact that I can touch and feel the line. Each line gives me enough time to think and discover what the process itself means to me. Oddly enough, at the same time my embroidery is fast. It is a picture of my thoughts that develops slowly on a piece of fabric. Each finished piece is for me the revelation and tangible moment of my personal history'(http://www.tamarajelaca.com/artist-statement/#)

We placed 'Little House in Prairie' along the canal path at Mile End on a windy day. The threads hanging from Tamara's cloud whipped around in the breeze, each thread tracing a contour in the air to make an ever changing drawing of the wind.

Don't forget to have a look at the next Collect Connect project, 'The Art of Caring' exhibition at The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames. The theme is Caring/Care and it is FREE to enter.

 

To buy the Dwell Book for £6 then follow this LINK

Stuart Simler - Trojan Horse

Stuart Simler  - Trojan Horse

Welcome to the Dwell exhibition and book. For a whole month we will be taking each artist's page and transforming it into a 3 dimensional dwelling. Each one of these small sculptures will be exhibited in public on the London streets.



Stuart Simler

Today we've got our very own Odysseus exhibiting his sculpture for the dwell exhibition. Stuart Simler's Trojan Horse even has its own address, No.7 St Michael's Alley, behind the Crosse Keys pub in the City of London. Stuart Simler is one of the founding members of our modest collective, and is a great believer and practitioner of our 'Art for all' philosophy. This isn't the only collaborative project he's a part of, Stuart is also integral to the Sunbury Working Artists group , including painters, potters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and textile artists who got together this time last year. Their flourishing creativity flows from their studios beside the river in Sunbury-upon-Thames.

Stuart Simler  - Trojan Horse

We are indebted to Stuart for his overall creativity and exciting 'can do' attitude at CollectConnect but even more so for this Dwell exhibition. Dean Reddick cites Stuart's excellent 'Cardboard City' exhibition along London's Southbank  as one of the influences on this public art trail of tiny dwellings. In fact both referenced the spiralling housing costs in London and further afield as themes in their exhibition introductions.

Kim Reddick

We've placed Stuart's Trojan Horse right in the middle of the City, not Troy of course but London's fortified financial district. Here in London we've been under more than a 10 year siege although not one with ancient Greeks camping outside our gates. The IRA activities of the 1980's have now given way to a new threat from further shores, and Police sentries permanently line the battlements of the capital's Square Mile. We had our fair share of unusual looks from tourists and Rozzers alike but we also had a secret weapon when placing Stuart Simler's dwelling on the streets. For who could suspect our cherubic helper Kim Reddick of any skullduggerous activity.

Don't forget to have a look at the next Collect Connect project, 'The Art of Caring' exhibition at The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames. The theme is Caring/Care and it is FREE to enter.

 

To buy the Dwell Book for £6 then follow this LINK

AL.

Steve DT - Sistene Chapel

Steve DT's Sistene Chapel near The Bank of England

Welcome to the Dwell exhibition and book. For a whole month we will be taking each artist's page and transforming it into a 3 dimensional dwelling. Each one of these small sculptures will be exhibited in public on the London streets.

 

Today we have Steve DT's Sistene Chapel.

Steve DT has been a regular exhibitor with Collect Connect- last showing with us on the streets of Bath for The Fab Fridge Exhibition.

Steve is a celebrated erotic artist.

'As an erotic photographer, I attempt to bring a fresh perspective layered with social content to familiar subjects. Part of the inspiration is derived from the sex industry and its many facets, the rest is intuitive.' http://www.worldphoto.org/profile/stevedt

 

Detail of Steve's net

For the Dwell exhibition Steve created the Sistene Chapel, 'a place to relax and contemplate' which is dedicated to St Raphael: the patron saint of love, lovers and happy meetings (Dwell page 57). Steve's net is the only one dedicated to the erotic nature of dwelling in the Dwell book and his title 'The Sistene Chapel' suggests that the erotic is worthy of praise and veneration.

  

We placed Steve's Chapel near to the Bank of England in the city of London an altogether different 'chapel' dedicated not to the pleasures of the flesh but perhaps to the worship of money. There is of course a clear link between money and the erotic with reference to the global sex industry and these are the charged areas that Steve explores through his art.

 

Don't forget to have a look at the next Collect Connect project, 'The Art of Caring' exhibition at The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames. The theme is Caring/Care and it is FREE to enter.

To buy the Dwell Book for £6 then follow this LINK

Sara Lerota - Table dwelling

Sara Lerota - Table as a place of infinite imagination

Welcome to the Dwell exhibition and book. For a whole month we will be taking each artist's page and transforming it into a 3 dimensional dwelling. Each one of these small sculptures will be exhibited in public on the London streets.

Sara Lerota

The concept behind today's dwelling is undoubtedly one of my favourites. For who wasn't once a child whose rampant imagination needed only the meagerest of props to visit other worlds. Sara Lerota's net titled 'Table as a place of infinite imagination' gives us this opportunity, however old we are. In fact the whole dwell book is a exercise in regression, it's been a while since I got out my coloured pencils, scissors and Pritt Stick on a wet weekend afternoon.

Sara Lerota is one of our most enthusiastic and longest serving artists here at CollectConnect. Despite committing herself to a regular job in recent months she always tries our unusual ideas and is willing to extend herself. In fact her table idea didn't come easy and it took some time for us to persuade her to publish it in the book.

Dean Reddick photographing
Sara Lerota's
Table dwelling

Sara is a well respected member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina art scene and came to international prominence for her detailed pencil art. She first exhibited with us back in 2011 during the Lightbite exhibition on the streets of Nottingham. Since then she has reached the hand of friendship to other artists around the world as well as many of our CollectConnect crew. Most recently we've seen her take on an administrative/curatorial role at the excellent Art:Language:Location festival in Cambridge, UK.

Dead Man's Hole

Our Table as a place of infinite imagination is placed underneath the fairytale Tower Bridge on a rainy day in London. It sits alongside the legendary Dead Man's Hole which is named because of the tidal currents of the adjacent River Thames where bodies ended up due to accident, suicide or convenient disposal. The corpses tended to congregate along this part of the riverbank, then fished out and stored in the mortuary before being removed for burial.

Don't forget to have a look at the next Collect Connect project, 'The Art of Caring' exhibition at The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames. The theme is Caring/Care and it is FREE to enter.

To buy the Dwell Book for £6 then follow this LINK

Sabatin Bascoban - Caravan

Sabatin Basocban's Caravan

 

Welcome to the Dwell exhibition and book. For a whole month we will be taking each artist's page and transforming it into a 3 dimensional dwelling. Each one of these small sculptures will be exhibited in public on the London streets.


This Wednesday morning we focus on Sabatin Bascoban's perfect caravan.
We were delighted to receive this net from Sabatin who has been a regular exhibitor with Collect Connect over the years.
 
Sabatin studied in Hannover and now teaches and has his art practice on the South coast of England at Southsea and Portsmouth. 
As a sculptor Sabatin writies that he is interested in the transformations that his art works undergo as they start off as functional objects and become, through the creative process, impractical or unusable. Fortunately for us his net stays true to its function of creating a tidy touring caravan. The caravan fits nicely with Sabatin's statement that,

'Travel and mobility are recurring motifs in my work. It is an exciting experience to, all of a sudden, wake up to a previously unknown life and live in a foreign surrounding with a different set of rules. There is even a chance that the traveller returns as a different person!' www.sabatin.co.uk/statement.html


Caravan detail of the net

We parked Sabatin's caravan in a flower bed in the City of London. The touring caravan conjures up memories of family holidays, many spent on the South coast of England. The caravan is also an important dwelling in it's own right for many people around the world such as Traveller and Gypsy communities as well itinerant workers.

 
 
Don't forget to have a look at the next Collect Connect project, 'The Art of Caring' exhibition at The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames. The theme is Caring/Care and it is FREE to enter.

To buy the Dwell Book for £6 then follow this LINK

DR.