Alertism - Stanimir Dimitrov

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

It's the final day of the Alertism exhibition and we hope you feel fully alerted! Thank you to everyone who has taken part (artists, writers and First Responders). We finish the exhibition with a new writer (to us), Stanimir Dimitrov, a bright spark in the world of poetry and creative writing. He echoes a sentiment that we at Collectconnect hold in very high respect, to stay connected to each other. Sometimes it's that simple. Dean Reddick sends us his response below. 

Stanimir Dimitrov

First Responder: Dean Reddick

Dean Reddick

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Stanimir Dimitrov is a graduate of Creative and Professional Writing (incl. Foundation) at Kingston University London. He has performed live at the National Gallery, London and published his brilliant debut pamphlet, man/ia, in 2022.

Dean Reddick is a legend, art therapist by day, highly original sculptor and conceptual artist by night. He likes drawing trees, birds and sharing ideas with his fellow CollectConnect artists.
https://deanreddick.blogspot.com/

Alertism - Alban Low

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

We have a tempting proposition for you today on the Alertism exhibition. CollectConnect co-founder Alban Low asks you to push the button, but just once only. Can you resist? And what would happen if you pushed it twice. The First Responder who has to exert self control is writer Katerina Koulouri. Read her response below.

Alban Low

First Responder: Katerina Koulouri

Clear instructions
In capitals
I could ignore the urge
Follow the instructions
Keep this somewhere safe
Only use it in case of emergency
Only once

    Some other me is tempted to do the opposite and will probably go ahead
    at some point very soon and will press the red button a few times because
    what’s the point of pushing it only once anyway. I’ll wait to see what happens.
    Could it be flooding, an earthquake, a fire? Did I just escape some certain
    death and should be grateful?

Or, I could just store it in a box
Store the box in the cupboard with all the other boxes
Postcards and other mementos
Forget about it, like all the other
Postcards and mementos
After all, it’s only a red button next to some clear instructions
What matters is that someone thought of me

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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 is currently artist-in-residence at Twickfolk and presents the Jazzlondlive radio show on Brooklands Radio.
http://albanlow.co.uk/

Katerina Koulouri is a poet and translator living in London. She was born in Athens, Greece and lived in France for 5 years where she studied Oenology and Modern French Literature. Katerina also holds an MA in Creative Writing (poetry) from Kingston University, London. Poetry, wine and childrens’ books are her passions. She recently published her debut pamphlet, INVITATION TO ELSEWHERE .

Alertism - Bryan Benge

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

As we near Halloween the dark nights are full of surprises, orange ghouls and ghostly premonitions. True to form, Bryan Benge's artwork gives us everything we fear. The co-founder of CollectConnect, Bryan's work often reaches beyond home shores, from the Reichstag in Germany to the Ewha University in Seoul, he has an eye for the international landscape. Here he sends out a worldwide alert, beware the Bogeyman! For such a big global threat Bryan has been given 2 First Responders, Sophie Darling and Dan Clarke. Read their responses below.

Bryan Benge

First Responder: Sophie Darling
Fear, sadness… eternal panic at what already happened and what’s to come. How do we understand what is danger, what is panic, and according to who? Do these people care about me? I doubt it

First Responder: Dan Clarke
A sense of foreboding dread at the thought of his potential second term, and what that would mean not only terms of his destructive policies, but in terms of the current thinking of US voters

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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/

Dan Clarke and Sophie Darling are a creative force, their current work includes fashion, design, photography, DJing, music production, radio show presenting and art, plenty of art.

Alertism - Paul March

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

A new name to us here at CollectConnect, but we're really pleased to welcome him to the Alertism exhibition. Paul March is our artist, a mystery, just like the people who send government alerts. Do we ever know the people who are behind an alert, could it be an unauthorised sender? We will forever remember the rogue civil service tweet in 2020, when an unknown employee posted “Arrogant And Offensive. Can you imagine having to work with these truth twisters?” just after Boris Johnson's press conference. Paul's First Responder is Anglo-Brazilian artist Ed Arantus. Rio de Janeiro uses a Siren Alert System that includes a Master Control Station that has the ability to control 180 High-Powered Speaker Stations across the city. Read Ed's response below.

Paul March

First Responder: Ed Arantus

I had one chance to wake them from this world
Running blind, just to stay still
It is a kindness to stop them all

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Paul March retired from lecturing in 2017 where he worked on, HE and FE, he is still involved in education supporting students. He has decided not to return to lecturing as he finds the education system today has lost it way from its true purpose, so he spends most of his time involved in his own art projects.
On leaving school he studied engineering; he later joined the army as a mechanical engineer rising to the rank of corporal in charge of a workshop. His interest in teaching started during this time, having to train other soldiers in engineering. He became an instructor in the army and later in civilian life in sailing, canoeing, climbing, and other outdoor pursuits.
He went back to college in later life to study Art and Design, gaining a BA (hons) and later a MA. His latest endeavour is a PhD on the link between science and art focusing on artist and scientist thought processes.
For the past 24 years he has been involved in most areas of art and design. He has had several exhibitions around the country and a virtual exhibition in Italy.
He is a big advocate of cross discipline teaching, which shows in his work where he combines art, science and engineering, including past professions and hobbies. He has been part of the push towards changing the area of STEM to become STEAM adding art to science, technology, engineering and maths.

“Equations are to science,
what abstraction is to art”.
Paul March 2023

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

Alertism - Stella Tripp

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

Often alerts come in the form of a visual warning, a code that needs to be deciphered. In an increasingly overloaded visual landscape we are bombarded with signals via phones, road signs, and packaging. Which do we act upon first? Do we need to make a decision quickly? Here, artist Stella Tripp sends a triptych of images, the challenge for our First Responder is to unravel the mystery behind them. Jessie G Vaughan is our brave responder, she really puts herself on the line by opening the alert live on camera! Thank you to both artist and First Responder for adding a new and unexpected interplay for the exhibition.

Stella Tripp

First Responder: Jessie G Vaughan

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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

Jessie G Vaughan has been with us at CollectConnect since our first street art exhibition in 2010, Fab Fridge. When we exhibited mini magnetic artworks on the streets of Bath. She followed this up quickly with Freezchester, a magnetic exhibition in the Arndale Centre in Manchester. An excellent printmaker and artist in her own right, we look forward to exhibiting more Jessie G Vaughan artworks in the future.

Alertism - Melanie Honebone

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

We love working with such a broad array of artists, but the first name often on our team sheet will be that of Melanie Honebone. An artist willing to embrace all aspects of the creative game, from painting to sculpture, often with a conceptual edge. The artist formally known as Ezra has been exhibiting with us since Rarities in 2011. When she took a train from Swansea to St Leonards-on-Sea to attend the opening of the exhibition on Hastings Pier. She really does go the extra mile! Melanie's First Responder is an artist who is very much in the Honebone mould, comfortable across the artistic disciplines, it's our co-founder Dean Reddick. He has provided a multi-media response, see it below (we have also included a transcript of the words underneath).

Melanie Honebone

First Responder: Dean Reddick

Dean Reddick

We were already partially decontextualised when they arrived before breakfast half falling through the door
Local pressure was high they were already mostly gone 

Who else knew who else could respond what were we to do
We tried diagnostics references were off the scale legends appeared and disappeared several versions manifested faded blurred reinstated 

Mapping led to further disorientation boundaries bled away islands formed static interfered everywhere

 

Melanie Honebone Now Panic Melanie Honebone Panic Melanie Now Honebone Panic Now Melanie Now 

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Melanie Honebone is a Wales-based fine artist. She often works in series, providing visual responses to external stimuli such as literature, science, and music. Melanie openly describes herself as a ‘renegade arts experimentalist’ and is happy dabbling in anything that pushes her work to the limit and broadens her own potential. In her spare time she produces music videos and photography for Stone Letter Media, is attempting to learn Welsh, and likes to stroke cats.

https://melaniehonebone.wordpress.com/

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

Alertism - Mark Carr

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

Mark Carr is one of those artists who seems comfortable making work at any scale, in any media, and is willing to tackle any concept we throw his way. One of the themes that runs through his work is a willingness to embrace both written and visual language. This is his eighth exhibition with CollectConnect. His first combined words and mixed media when he became a sushi laureate for the Jawspring exhibition in 2014. The exhibition celebrated World Poetry Day, and typically Mark chose to cast light on a subject that is often brushed under the carpet, mental health. Mark's First Responder is also a polymath (like himself), read the response of writer, artist and filmmaker Francesca Albini below.

Mark Carr

First Responder: Francesca Albini

I wondered if the alarm was for me. If I was a pawn or a node. If the alarm was for them out there or for us. If there is such a thing as us. Am I rescued or targeted? Who belongs? An ominous sense of having to trust the invisible, a spiral screaming a sterile safety.

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Mark Carr is a multimedia artist from North East England who says that since he was a child, he has always felt a need to be creative and produce art. In 1984 he graduated with a degree in Fine Art, which he took to Master’s level in 1994. Mark’s inspiration is taken from the world around him and the interactions he sees between people as they express their deepest emotions.
https://armchairanarchist.wixsite.com/mark-carr

Francesca Albini was born in Venice, and raised in Florence and Genoa. She was always surrounded by art and books, and grew up with a love and need for culture and cultural enterprises. She lives on the South Coast of England where she works as a freelance literary translator and artist. She is often involved in interesting, fun projects, for the promotion of art and culture. She was also a sushi laureate for the Jawspring exhibition in 2014.
https://www.francescaalbini.com/

Alertism - Julia Rose Lewis

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

And breathe! Today we take a pause to consider a message that unfolds more slowly than some we've read during the exhibition, and we're appreciating it, after 10 days of being on full alert here at CollectConnect HQ. Julia Rose Lewis asks us to be alert, to awaken our senses, to be aware of the environment around us. We have had the pleasure of exhibiting Julia's artwork before at the Art of Caring and her subject matter for Alertism is one of our favourites too, trees. Julia's First Responder is Natalie Low, who sent out her own alert earlier in the exhibition. Read them both below.

First Responder: Natalie Low

yes okay 

i will do what i think you are asking me to

go out from the house and into the dark

stand barefoot in the grass

feel your face, tear-tracked and memory-stained

regard the new stars

and wait until i hear

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Julia Rose Lewis is a writer and academic. Her research draws on her background in the natural sciences, philosophy of science, and medicine in order to create experimental and hybrid works. She is interested in digital and face-to-face collaborative projects. She has written or performed with poets, scientists, and chefs in Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. She has published two full length collections, Phenomenology of the Feral (KFS Press) and Strays (co-author James Miller, HVTN Press). As well as a number of excellent chapbooks and pamphlets.

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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 School Run (2017).

Alertism - María Celina Val

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

María Celina Val is one of those exciting creative minds that we have been eager to work with since she first performed at the European Poetry Festival in 2020 and subsequently for Saatchi Lates, at the Saatchi Gallery. It was a defining year for María Celina, with the release of two excellent publications Children draw fivelfold stars, and Myth & Metamorphosis (Penteract Press). Here she gives us a glimpse of a world where communication is both art and constellation. Our First Responder is Terence Collie, the jazz pianist, composer and creative force in his own right. Read his thoughts below.

Maria Celina Val - Starlike Thoughts

First Responder: Terence Collie

Confusion 

Inversions

What is happening?

Patterns but no pattern 

Precision in the randomness

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Maria Celina is an artist, architect, visual poet, contemporary dancer and performer who explores how language shapes and creates atmospheres, worlds and realities through the typographic effect of fonts made of geometric figures and abstractions.

Maria intertwines art, typography design, space, geometry, language, dance and architecture, when creating compositions with her letters.

She investigates letters as particles, atoms, symbols, glyphs, and/or as objects. Letters as events that embody potential movement or contain energy. Letters as mass, air, music and/or sound that are meant to be listened with the eyes and that could be related to kinetic art and cosmic energies, interweaving notions of energy, matter and language.
https://mariacelinaval.com/home

Terence Collie is a musician, composer and educator and also a director of Mood Indigo Events, a jazz promoter/agency. He has just released his new quartet album 384,400. The album features roaring virtuoso Italian saxophonist Roberto Manzin, the hard swinging UK based American drummer Ted Carrasco and British bass player and Guildhall graduate with impeccable time and feel, Nick Lenner-Webster.

Check out the album preview here

Alertism - Lucy Furlong

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

Lucy Furlong has been a long time collaborator on CollectConnect projects. She contributed to the memorable eMotion installation at the Tate Modern, and more recently was a writer for the Urban Tree Festival's Sentinel Trees. Nature and walking both play an important role in her work. Lucy released a second edition of her Amniotic City map in 2022, learn more about it here. Our First Responder is Vicki Kaye. Lucy and Vicki have shared a stage before at various poetry events (Writers Kingston event #52 / European Poetry Festival / Óvinir: The Enemies Project) and feature in the anthology FRACTURED LIGHT (ISBN 978-1-915505-09-5).

First Responder: Vicki Kaye

Is kindness an act of revolution?
kindness
with 'gentle indifference'
that word -  gentle 

gentle

so soft yet powerful
in the hands of a warrior
so full of feeling that implies
minding caring
judgement is hard-wired
and hard to resist

there is a revolution to be fought

What is the value of inner peace?

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The writing journey of Lucy Furlong has taken her from signing a record deal aged 19, as a singer and lyricist in a band, to a stint in corporate communications working on in-house publications in the 1990s and early 2000s. She attained a degree in creative writing and journalism at Kingston University, and then a MFA in creative writing, specialising in poetry, alongside a Post Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCLTHE). Lucy has published and performed poetry for over a decade, and her work is taught as part of the Open University MA in Creative Writing.

Vicki Kaye is an experimental artist/writer. Having a BA (Hons) in Drawing and Applied Art and an MA in Fine Art, she has had work shown in numerous exhibitions and her visual poetry has appeared recently in Periodicities Journal, and Beir Bua Journal. She is a member of the Space Place Practice artists’ research hub and Spike Island Associates.

Alertism - Martin Wakefield

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

We step into the audio-visual Alertism world of the brilliant avant-garde poet and filmmaker Martin Wakefield today. Martin is well known in poetry circles for his highly original performances, at events such as the European Poetry Festival and Poem Brut. A natural collaborator, a highlight of recent performances includes his double act with Patrick Cosgrove at a celebration of the Sampson Low press in 2021 (view it here). Martin's First Responder is singer, writer and artist Carole Bulewski, a fellow Sampson Low author. Read Carole's response below

You can also view the film on youtube at https://youtu.be/eEsIncUoohk

 First Responder: Carole Bulewski

First impression. From Victor Hugo's poem La Conscience (The Conscience): L'oeil était dans la tombe et regardait Cain (The eye was in the tomb and kept looking at Cain)

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Martin Wakefield is a poet from London. He has published books and pamphlets with Hesterglock Press (Jungle Gym / Poems You Can't Colour In), Steel Incisors (Handsfree with Bob Modem) and Sampson Low (Emptpy Poems).

Born and raised in the south of France, Carole Bulewski moved to the UK at the end of the second Millennium, eventually settling down in London after a few years in the South West of England, a place that has inspired her many a supernatural story since – writing first in her native French, but now almost exclusively in the English language. In her writing, she explores how the supernatural can creep into the most mundane of situations. Carole is a member of urban baroque group Firefay.

Alertism - Dean Reddick

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

Dean Reddick is one of the founding members of CollectConnect, a keen birdwatcher and sculptor of our feathered friends. His avian related public art exhibitions include ConnectConnect's 24 hour-a-day art trail sensation Hidebird. For the 2012 exhibition he built a bird hide on a suburban Walthamstow street, but with the birds inhabiting the inside of the hide, and us humans on the outside. Dean's First Responder is Jo Lansdown, see her response below. One of the themes of Jo's response has emerged in other submissions too. The idea that if we are constantly on full alert then a further escalation can result in a different outcome (than anticipated). 

First Responder: Jo Lansdown

Thing is I can’t respond. I’m on full alert already all of the time and have been for months. My head is saying have you (me) got any space to respond? and then it’s asking is this another ‘attack’? Will just the simple act (well it used to be simple) of reading something, allowing it to penetrate a little way into my being, and then feeling my way into my various responses add to the maelstrom that’s in my head (and body) right now? And can I allow that to happen? And the answer is that I can’t.

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Dean Reddick has also created a sculpture to go alongside his words. The First Responder, Jo Lansdown, didn't view this before she sent us her response, but we wanted to share this with you now.

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

Jo Lansdown has contributed to two CollectConnect exhibitions before. In 2016 her words were included on a Relationship Map that was exhibited at Middlesex University for Mental Health Awareness Week. In the same year, sent a postcard to her future self as part of the exhibition of the same name. She received her postcard in November 2021 (hopefully it didn't get lost in the post).

Alertism - Ann Kopka

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

Ann Kopka was the poster artist for the 2019 Art of Caring exhibition and her visual themes always provide a graphic twist to CollectConnect exhibitions. Her submission for Alertism is no different. Here Ann represents the visual signals of semaphore using the hand-held flags method, but it can also be employed using rods, disks, paddles, or occasionally bare or gloved hands. I would think semaphore with paddles would be useful in this emergency. Our First Responder today is Robin Hutchinson, director of the Community Brain, and Honorary Freeman of Royal Borough of Kingston.

Ann Kopka

First Responder: Robin Hutchinson

“Not waving, but drowning”

Alertism - Natalie Low

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

Natalie Low has many strings to her bow, embracing many of the strange and wonderful artistic formats that CollectConnect has thrown her way. A highlight of her street art career so far would be her delicate crocheted sculpture for the Small World Futures exhibition in 2018. Here are her words accompanied by a response from Ana Pascual Veraart. Thank you Ana.

Natalie Low

First Responder: Ana Pascual Veraart

The copy leans towards a positive, calming message. It does promote hopefulness and caution, but does not deliver substantial guidance, which during a state of alert is not only helpful to individuals, but necessary.
Specific instructions and guidance aid individuals in a sense of control and purpose. The alert stage is the optimum time to reinforce needed behavior in preparation for emergencies.
For example, “Stock up on things you think are important.” should be more specific and expanded with examples. Alerts may cause people to panic.  Having a quick list of examples helps prompt thinking.
Well done on addressing state of mind and delivering ways to calm, center, and focus.

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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).

Ana Pascual Veraart brings a fresh perspective to this exhibition from the other side of the Atlantic. The most recent Test Alert in the United States was just a few days ago on the 3rd October 2023. The test was organised by Federal Emergency Management Agency and  assessed two alert systems: the emergency alert system (EAS), which plays on TV and radio, and the wireless emergency alert (WEA).

Alertism - Kezia Reddick

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

Kezia Reddick is our artist of the day today. She has been exhibiting with us since 2010, taking part in many of our magnetic art shows, when CollectConnect first hit the streets. She is currently an art student with a very bright future. Our First Responder is Coral Chambers, read her response under Kezia's image.

Kezia Reddick

First Responder: Coral Chambers

My 1st reaction was.......aw bless him ( the little rat) he's trying to understand the images on the mobile - They changed rapidly when I saw the newspaper above him. I  thought someone is going to hit him with it !  This triggered thoughts of anger. Thoughts of  speciesium, the way people treat animals based on their species, how if he was a puppy the reaction would be different. Then I saw the images on the phone he is looking at.  This made me think how little we think about our actions  and how they affect the animals that are just trying to live their lives and survive. So the image sparked initially, joy, that quickly turned to deep sadness.

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Keziah Reddick is an artist who works across a range of media. She has a particular interest in telling stories through her art. She has a passion for stories from ancient civilisations.

Alertism - SJ Fowler

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

Our second alert comes from poet and artist SJ Fowler.
With all the written pieces for this exhibition we asked writers to submit works no longer than 55 words (the same length as the government alert sent on the 23rd April). The written alerts were sent electronically/digitally to the First Responders. The response below SJ Fowler's work comes from Dutch writer Arlette Hovinga.

First Responder: Arlette Hovinga

We are all in this together but our safety is in our numbers 

Remember to always have hope - the thing with feathers

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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/

Arlette Hovinga is an award-winning publicist, marketing/media director, and a professional member of The Recording Academy. She organizes press tours for festivals around the world and designs marketing and press campaigns for artists and labels. She has worked with The Four Tops, The Temptations, Earth Beat Agency, Matt Bianco, Manu Delago, and many others and has written for JazzForum and Jazz in Europe. arlettehovinga.com/

Alertism - Susie Mendelsson

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

We start the exhibition with the work of Susie Mendelsson, who creates artworks using wood paper wire and recycled materials to create her darkly humorous sculptures. Susie's First Responder is Ginny Reddick.

Susie Mendelsson 

First Responder: Ginny Reddick

It's OK in here 

you know.

Sunshine yellow

Inside and out.

And if I hold my head

Just so

I don't need to know

Too quiet dawns

Or swift goodbyes.

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Susan Mendelsson was born at Hackney, London and educated at the Manchester Metropolitan University, gaining a B.A. (hons.) in Graphic Design. She then took a Teaching Diploma in Art from at University of Haifa, Israel and an M.A. in Fine Art from Coventry University. A figurative artist who has been influenced by the German expressionists as well as medieval art and works mainly in paint and mixed media. In her Suffolk studio she creates the most amazing 3D figures and characters often made from found objects. https://susiemendelsson.co.uk/

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.

Alertism 2023

 

Alertism

At CollectConnect we asked a group of writers and artists to create work on the theme of Alert. 

On Sunday 23rd April at 3pm the UK government sent a nationwide Emergency Alert test message to all those people with a mobile device. Emergency Alerts is a new government service that warns you if there is a danger to life nearby (e.g. flooding, fire, and terrorist attacks). In an emergency, mobile phone masts broadcast an alert in the affected area, and give advice about how to stay safe.

How does being 'Alerted' affect the individual and the group?
What happens to our bodies when we are Alerted?
What happens to our minds when we are Alerted?
What are the political reasons for Alerting people?
Who chooses what dangers we should be Alerted to?
What dangers are we not Alerted to?
What Alert would you send? 

During October 2023 we sent these artistic and literary alerts to a group of First Responders, who recorded their responses. We will be posting both the original artworks or writing alongside their the responses here on www.collectconnect.blogspot.com and on our Facebook and Twitter pages. 

Artists
Susie Mendelsson
María Celina Val
Ann Kopka
Kezia Reddick
Stella Tripp
SJ Fowler
Bryan Benge
Stanimir Dimitrov
Martin Wakefield
Dean Reddick
Natalie Low
Lucy Furlong
Mark Carr
Paul March
Melanie Honebone
Alban Low
Julia Rose Lewis

First Responders
Ginny Reddick
Terence Collie
Robin Hutchinson
Coral Chambers
Jessie G Vaughan
Arlette Hovinga
Sophie Darling
Dan Clarke
Carole Bulewski
Jo Lansdown
Ana Pascual Veraart
Vicki Kaye
Francesca Albini
Ed Arantus
Dean Reddick
Katerina Koulouri
Natalie Low