Chemicality - Albedium and Inspiration

Today we are returning to 'Chemicality' a slow burning Collect Connect project where we are gathering  elements to create Period Tables and make exciting new discoveries.

Here is our first Chemicality Experiment.....

Experiment - What are the results of mixing Albedium (Ab) with Inspiration (0!)? 

Date: 17 March 2025 

Location: Wallside Chimney, St Giles, Cripplegate, London Wall, London 

Experimenters: Alban Low and Dean Reddick
Apologies: Bryan Benge who was on a field trip 

Aim
A simple aim of locating the elements Albedium and Inspiration and then mixing them together and recording the results.

Method
We found a location where we suspected the two elements would be present. Inspiration, originally discovered by Lesley Cartwright 'Can be found in the most unlikely places but must be used immediately as it tends to dissipate if left unattended' 

Albedium, discovered by Deborah Westmancoat is 'detected at the point where dark, unformed chaos begins to manifest into light, order and form' 

Alban identified an ancient crumbling and shadowy chimney next to a green pond and very quickly found a piece of Albedium. The Albedium had the appearance of solidified smoke and was dark and sooty in colour and wispy in texture. It had little mass.

The Inspiration was found when Alban glanced at the pond through some bushes. The light playing on the water though short lived led us to taking a sample of the water which we immediately added to the Albedium.

Results
The Albedium and the Inspiration formed a small dark pellet-like participate which initially floated in the liquid Inspiration but then sank to the bottom of the test tube. Initial observations suggested that the participate was stable. However on observations at 1 day and 1 week it was discovered that the participate had dissolved into the Albedium Inspiration mixture.

Conclusions
Both Albedium and Inspiration were easy to find as suggested by their Abundance. The two elements reacted and the resultant compound was unstable suggesting that the compound itself was in a state of change over a time of one week. Both Albedium and Inspiration have a temporal quality at Standard Temperature (Evolving and Effervescent) and might explain the dynamic quality of the compound they formed. Further experimentation is required to isolate this new temporal quality found in the compound.

Alban Low and Dean Reddick

The Bastion 12 experiment (Observations of Alban Low)
The Experiment
Just behind the Barber's Physic Garden we found the blackened chimney of the St. Giles Cripplegate City Wall Tower, otherwise known at Bastion 12. As a novice apprentice I got my hands dirty, while Dean took charge of the test tubes and mixing. As I disturbed the ancient soot and cinders in the chimney, a wisp of Albedium escaped, it was feathery and flighty, caught on the chill wind that whistled around the Barbican complex. The Inspiration was easy to find but hard to catch, the dancing light on the Barbican lake gave us a clue, and Dean knelt beside the shallows and scooped some in liquid form. 

We gave the two elements in the test tube a gentle shake, not long after we spotted a small dark pellet. 

The Result
The way that the Albedium (a dark, unformed chaotic element that transforms into a lighter, ordered form) changed made me think that this must be an Answer (to a question). A pill compound that you swallow and it gives you the answer to any problem. I wasn't brave enough to try. Now I know that the new compound disappeared in a few days, makes me think that the problem was only temporary. And just as the problem dissipates so does our compound. 
Future experiments with the Compound

I would like to create the Answer pellet again and see if we can discover the question that it will solve.
Alban Low (March 2025)

Natalie Low (with Dean Reddick) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Natalie Low

Welcome to Sets, Series and Ensembles, an exhibition of art in public places. Accompanying each public art placement is a 'First Response' for you to read here on the website. As artists and writers we are constantly collecting ideas, objects, themes, and sentiments. We are often searching for the connections and narratives that help us understand both our lives and our art.

Our final set, series and ensemble comes from Natalie Low whose playful art works and beautifully crafted words always light up Collect Connect exhibitions. Today, Natalie's subverted family card game sits patiently in a park waiting to be opened. We wonder what sort of hand might be dealt with this pack! Dean Reddick writes a response.

Natalie Low

Natalie Low

Happy Families

 

The Doctors in the long coats measured the families of the past

And put them in little boxes, neatly measured and labelled.

The Doctors in the sharp suits made paper tools

To measure the new families and sort the typical from the othered.

 

The boxes were left in common shelters and at mundane collection points.

 

But the families were not still and docile.

They reinvented themselves from the inside to suit the needs of the world at large.

They shoved their diagnosis into new shapes and swapped their roles.

They made fun and played happy silly games.

Natalie Low

Natalie Low is a creative knitter, stitcher and quilter. She lives in London, UK with her charming family. She has published two chapbooks Dementia (2015) and recently School Run (2017).

Dean Reddick is an artist and an art therapist. He frequently works with casting processes and loves drawing trees. 
https://deanreddick.blogspot.com/

Chris Brown 1 (with Kim Reddick) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Chris Brown

Welcome to Sets, Series and Ensembles, an exhibition of art in public places. Accompanying each public art placement is a 'First Response' for you to read here on the website. As artists and writers we are constantly collecting ideas, objects, themes, and sentiments. We are often searching for the connections and narratives that help us understand both our lives and our art. 

It's our penultimate day on the Sets, Series and Ensembles exhibition and it's a familiar face who is back, full of originality and thought provoking art. Chris Brown's artefact looks like it has been liberated from the British Museum, but we find it on a small bridge over a culvert. It's the third of Chris Brown's work for the exhibition and each time a new writer has responded. Today it's the turn of Kim Reddick, who last joined us for the Sentinel Trees exhibition in 2020. Read his response below.

Chris Brown

Pitted iron who holds to history,

Twisted and dulled, beyond its use

It sits on display, held gently

Elevated,

Curated,

Fragile.

It asks of the stands,

"Why am I here, to be held aloft,

I have long since lost my purpose,

My edge is dull, my end blunt,

My metal rusted and thin."

The stands reply,

"We lift you up,

We keep you safe,

Because we can,

Because you were

Useful,

Crafted,

Loved.

Chris Brown

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Chris Brown is an artist, author, editor and art therapist living amongst skyscrapers and regularly exploring the wilder landscapes of the United Kingdom.

Kim Reddick exhibited in the first ever CollectConnect exhibition, Open Fridge. A highlight of his CollectConnect participation was his contribution to Dwell: A book of Nets (published in 2015).

Stella Tripp 3 (with Ed Arantus) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Stella Tripp 3

Welcome to Sets, Series and Ensembles, an exhibition of art in public places. Accompanying each public art placement is a 'First Response' for you to read here on the website. As artists and writers we are constantly collecting ideas, objects, themes, and sentiments. We are often searching for the connections and narratives that help us understand both our lives and our art. 

We're nearing the end of our exhibition (two more to go), and we've really enjoyed the trilogies presented by both Stella Tripp and Chris Brown. Today we have the third of Stella Tripp's artworks. We are always delighted by the range of work that Stella sends us, and the rich ideas that her art inspires. It is Ed Arantus who takes a walk on the darker side of these themes, read his words below. 

Stella Tripp 3

Pit
Ed Arantus

I stepped to the edge freely, though not so freely as to present myself into apparent danger, they had dug the great pit in the churchyard of our parish, St Mary’s.
A terrible pit it was, and I could not resist my curiosity to peer inside. As near as I may judge, there was about forty in number. Atop the pale and wrapped figures lay on many, a trinket. Sixteen at the time I first looked. It was said they were made by the hand of the kind and kin. I saw the bauble of the Digger and the Dikeman, the Horsehair Dealer and the Feather Wife, the canes of the Nightwalker and Gynour. The sickness was long a-coming to our people, yet, when it did come, there was no family spared, no land nearby where it raged with such violence as ours.

Stella Tripp 3

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Born in Taunton, Somerset, Stella Tripp travelled to her current home in Devon, a very long way round. After a few years in Israel, Stella returned to Taunton to do a foundation course; then on to Portsmouth (BA Hons Fine Art); a few years in London; three in the USA (MA Fine Art; MFA) and a year in Cornwall, before settling in Exeter. Stella works in a wide variety of media, crossing boundaries between drawing, painting and sculpture.

www.stellatripp.co.uk

Ed Arantus is a conceptual artist and writer. He published his first work in the Censored Zine in 2010 and has exhibited his work ever since at venues like the Contemporary Arts Research Unit in Oxford and the Museum of Futures in Surbiton.

https://edarantus.blogspot.com

Stella Tripp 3

Chris Brown 2 (with Jack Low) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Chris Brown 2

Welcome to Sets, Series and Ensembles, an exhibition of art in public places. Accompanying each public art placement is a 'First Response' for you to read here on the website. As artists and writers we are constantly collecting ideas, objects, themes, and sentiments. We are often searching for the connections and narratives that help us understand both our lives and our art.  

Love is the answer today, and it is our very own creative cupid Chris Brown, who has fired his artistic arrow into the Pevensey Road Nature Reserve in Hanworth. Responding to Chris' artwork is erudite Eros and creative all-rounder Jack Low. Read his response below.

Chris Brown 2

“Baby on board”
reflects in the glass
of the first class carriage,
Displaying over empty seats,
yet the destination 
is filled with open arms 

Armed with cannons
Castles crumble
as if nobody took their first steps within
memories are forgotten
like empty bottles
buried like a mothers touch
And still resurrected years later
within a wooden toy soldiers
brushed off with a promise to cherish 

Cherished unto a fault
The land is torn apart
By the blistering and caring heat
Enacted by a minority
Whilst people rise
And placards are thrown high,
what it means to be human 

Human spirit cries out like tears
shed infront of strangers
and splinters like glass  

I take away the equation
But the love Remains

Jack Low

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Chris Brown is an artist, author, editor and art therapist living amongst skyscrapers and regularly exploring the wilder landscapes of the United Kingdom.

Jack Low is a Brighton based writer. He published his debut poetry pamphlet, aesthetics of a dropout, in 2019. He currently leads a poetry group in Camden.

Alban Low (with Dean Reddick) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Alban Low

Welcome to Sets, Series and Ensembles, an exhibition of art in public places. Accompanying each public art placement is a 'First Response' for you to read here on the website. As artists and writers we are constantly collecting ideas, objects, themes, and sentiments. We are often searching for the connections and narratives that help us understand both our lives and our art.  

Alban Low

I met Alban 35 years ago when we were both studying on an Art and Design Foundation course in Hounslow, London and I am taking the opportunity of writing todays post to say a big thank you to Alban from Bryan, myself and everyone involved with Collect Connect for his amazing energy, generosity and creativity. 

Todays set of painted pebble people comes from Alban Low and the little faces have made their way to all sorts of places. Dean Reddick provides a rhyme.

Alban Low

Alban Low

Alban Low and Henry Moore

Alban Low

The Dream Of Knuckle Number Five

 

Five Yeller knuckle-heads

Sleeping in their stony beds

Goofy teeth and google eyes

Took the world by surprise

 

Nelly-Knuckle liked to chuckle

Knuckle Lily was loud and silly

Knuckle-me-pink liked a drink

Barny Knuckle was fond of trouble

 

Knuckles number Four to One

Went out in the Yeller sun

Goofy teeth and google eyes

Took the world by surprise

 

Laughing Nelly was first to go

All the way to Walthamstow

Knuckle Lily, being silly,

Went as far as New York City

 

Knuckles number three and four

Followed their sisters out the door

Goofy teeth and google eyes

Took the world by surprise

 

Knuckle-me-pink, what a bum

Ended in a beer drum

Barny Knuckle, for a lark

Claimed a place in modern art

 

But what of Knuckle number Five

Where did they go? Did they survive?

Goofy teeth and google eyes

Took the world by surprise

 

Knuckle Five was never found

Though rumour is they went to ground

Planted in earthy borders

To dream about her son and daughters

Alban Low

Alban Low is an artist and illustrator, working in a signature graphic style for album covers and specialising in impromptu portraits of jazz musicians. He currently presents Directorrific! the radio show for directory lovers.

http://albanlow.com/

Dean Reddick is an artist and an art therapist. He frequently works with casting processes and loves drawing trees. 
https://deanreddick.blogspot.com/

Bryan Benge (with Natalie Low) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Bryan Benge

Welcome to Sets, Series and Ensembles, an exhibition of art in public places. Accompanying each public art placement is a 'First Response' for you to read here on the website. As artists and writers we are constantly collecting ideas, objects, themes, and sentiments. We are often searching for the connections and narratives that help us understand both our lives and our art. 

Bryan Benge

They live among us! We are surrounded by Bryan Benge's art invasion. Bryan has been among us here at CollectConnect since the start of our public art adventure. Today his small art army leave their calling cards on the streets of the UK, watch out, they have arrived! Natalie Low is keeping tabs on their movements, read her story below.

Bryan Benge

Our first missions were to save the pollinators, the clothed and naked snails, and the soft pink serpents. 

At night, the Master prayed and murmured to the silver-framed lithograph of his cloaked hero. 

He mused and philosophised with us. Once he explained the significance of the wine glass made of wood: “A glass made of wood may still be a glass.”

The robot twins (non-identical) and I would have followed Master anywhere. 

But by the last mission, to claim the red tower, he had grown troubled and quiet. No matter how many we saved, the monster-birds would always snatch them up in their mouths and into the sky. Our dwellings were repeatedly demolished by the walking giants, each demolition squashing his heart as well.

We scaled the red tower, with the support of our flotsam flotilla, although I could not plant our flag in its impenetrable shiny surface.

“The tower is ours, Master,” I cried.

But he was looking away from me, and I could not see his face.  “How many more red towers are there? How vast is this world?”

Our night of triumph was instead subdued and despondent.

I lay my head in his lap, curling my tail around his hand.

“You are too good for this world, Master.”

He shook his head. “I am too small for this world.”

“Your ambitions are great.”

“My ambitions are too great for my size.”

The next morning he had gone, the dew of his footprints already disappearing under the warmth of the blue day.

We continue our work, moving paper boulders to the side of the road, claiming new towers and righting inverted bugs.

But in truth our leaderless band of ill-assorts is heartsore and weary, our spirit decapitated. Without the Master, we have grown inch-high and inconsequential.

Each night I howl to the moon: Where are you, Master? 

Master, under you we were mile-high heroes with noble purpose! Return so we can continue our endeavours and change the world! 

Come back, Master! We will be waiting!

Natalie Low

Bryan Benge

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Bryan Benge explores the digital art medium, his work draws upon autobiography, family history and cultural icons from his past to explore visual memory and re-positioning of the past. Walter Benjamin observes in a Berlin Childhood , around 1900 “Memory is not an instrument for surveying the past but its theater.”

https://www.bryanbenge.co.uk/

Natalie Low is a creative knitter, stitcher and quilter. She lives in London, UK with her charming family. She has published two chapbooks Dementia (2015) and recently School Run (2017).

Bryan Benge

Bryan Benge

Bryan Benge

Bryan Benge

Stella Tripp (with Dean Reddick) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

 

Stella Tripp

Welcome to Sets, Series and Ensembles, an exhibition of art in public places. Accompanying each public art placement is a 'First Response' for you to read here on the website. As artists and writers we are constantly collecting ideas, objects, themes, and sentiments. We are often searching for the connections and narratives that help us understand both our lives and our art. 

Stella Tripp's packets hang over a murky river, a lure or an offering to whatever lies in the waters below. Look closely at the packets and see what has been prescribed. Stella is a regular and long standing exhibitor with us and we are delighted, as ever, to bring you her art. Our first responder this morning is Dean Reddick who adds his words.

Stella Tripp

The River Goddesses 

The Algorithmic Idiot Machine lurched into action

Blister-packing our fragile skeletons and sweet memories

Attempting to codify our subtle differences, our blushes and spirals.

 

Confined in plastic and separated we slowly dried out and hardened.

 

We sang our discontent, each in our bubble, our complaint against uniformity.

And from outside, from the River, the Goddesses heard us and took pity on our desiccation.

Born in Taunton, Somerset, Stella Tripp travelled to her current home in Devon, a very long way round. After a few years in Israel, Stella returned to Taunton to do a foundation course; then on to Portsmouth (BA Hons Fine Art); a few years in London; three in the USA (MA Fine Art; MFA) and a year in Cornwall, before settling in Exeter. Stella works in a wide variety of media, crossing boundaries between drawing, painting and sculpture.
www.stellatripp.co.uk

Dean Reddick is an artist and art therapist. He likes to work with casting processes and has a passion for drawing and growing trees.  https://deanreddick.blogspot.com/ 

S J Fowler (with Ginny Reddick) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

S J Fowler

Welcome to Sets, Series and Ensembles, an exhibition of art in public places. Accompanying each public art placement is a 'First Response' for you to read here on the website. As artists and writers we are constantly collecting ideas, objects, themes, and sentiments. We are often searching for the connections and narratives that help us understand both our lives and our art. 

S J Fowler's clutch of cuddly critters are on the loose! Two Collect Connect regulars join forces this morning to deal with the fluffy little creatures. The five soft toys were last seen in a procession along the edge of a pond. Each one has a fading message written on their bellies. Ginny Reddick finds the words to help us make sense of this latest ensemble.

S J Fowler

Still Waters

Here we go

Orderly

Slow.

 

No one could know

The hashed out

Harsh half meaning.

Un-whole ideas

and broken portmanteau.

The lonely fragments

Underneath.

 

So come together.

Run deep.

 

Here we go.

Orderly.

Slow.

S J Fowler

SJ Fowler a poet, writer and performer working in the literary, modernist and avant-garde traditions. He has published ten collections of poetry, over twenty publications of limited edition poetry, art and collaborative works and been commissioned by Tate Modern, BBC Radio 3, The British Council, Tate Britain, Liverpool Biennial and Wellcome Collection amongst others for texts, performances and installations. www.stevenjfowler.com/

Ginny Reddick is a writer and educator. She was one of the artists who exhibited at the first ever CollectConnect exhibition, Open Fridge, in March 2010. She has curated numerous CC projects including the Walthamstow street art favourite HideBird.