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| Alison Stirling |
Welcome to the Flight Exhibition, a selection of artists’ mobiles celebrating Dagenham’s history of aviation and its transmigratory population. Eleven artists and eleven writers explore this multi-layered theme during March and April at the Pink Tardis Gallery, Heathway Shopping Centre, Dagenham.
Stare through the Pink Tardis window and marvel at these suspended sculptures, prototypes, and conceptual clouds. If you can't see the exhibition in person then don't worry, we'll be featuring all seventeen artworks here on the website. Every artwork has its very own dedicated writer, and we'll publish their responses here throughout March and April 2026.
Today we are pleased to bring you the work of Alison Stirling, a widely exhibited artist who is new to Collect Connect. Alison's postcard is a reminder of industrial infrastructure once familiar to London and other UK cities and towns but now increasingly the site for urban regeneration in the form of flats and retails outlets. The skeletal structure of the gasometer evokes a powerful stillness, enlivened by a brief flight of birds, perhaps starlings - those great urban dwellers.
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| Alison Stirling |
Our writer today is Diya Sengupta.
An etching
An
etching; I remove
And
rewrite, as the sun
hits the ground and
the sky turns to black.
These four words form a groove,
Ink splatters my hand,
A mark upon many,
No sense to relax.
I speak to a ghost;
A version you’re not,
Reaching out in the darkness,
I almost forgot your smile
Is not mine
To look
for in rooms.
Try as I might
I won’t send the letter,
Now it’s replaced
A stone in my pocket,
Permission to drown,
The flight could be minutes,
Consumed–your moments,
Eyes eager, they sharpen,
A lion or worse
Your fate moves as a predator
And mine hovers, a bird
Whose cage is unlatched,
The circular bell.
Jarring fragments turn and splinter,
One
reach to be heard.
An angel that’s struck me,
I lose both my breathing
And then comes the words,
A lady and a pen
A girl
with no voice.
An etching; it sits
and stays. Rewritten by time
Over many mornings
Where the sun turns high.
Marionette on display,
Who never sends the letter,
A friend and a foe
To some and then none
A cold statue
Becomes
one.
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Alison Stirling's work investigates the coexistence of nature and the built up environment; where urbanity encroaches on natures and vice versa in liminal or forgotten spaces. Her interest lies in subverting the genre of landscape painting as ‘scenic view’. She uses photography, collage and art historical references to reimagine landscape in its elemental form. Her paintings evoke a dreamlike quality of both trepidation and equanimity. Alison has exhibited her work internationally including: The Royal Academy of Arts Mall Galleries; Brunswick Art Gallery; Unit 1 Gallery, London. She is a featured Artist for Collective Arts Canada
https://www.alisonstirling.com/
Diya Sengupta is a Masters Graduate Student in English at the University of Oxford. She was Vice President of Warwick University Shakespeare Society, and in 2024 directed the Greek tragedy Electra, for the Warwick Drama Society. Diya is currently a junior editor of The Oxford Blue, Oxford University’s independent and cooperative newspaper.
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