Stella Tripp (with Katerina Koulouri) - Flight Exhibition

Stella Tripp

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 is Mother's Day here in the UK, the perfect day to celebrate the arrival of new creative work into the world. We welcome long time collaborator and Collect Connect exhibitor Stella Tripp, here is the first of two beautiful new works she has made for the Flight exhibition. Ringlets drip down from an empty caul, a cloudburst whose shape and form suggest new meanings every time it turns in the sky. 

Our writer today is Katerina Koulouri, read her response below.

your paperwhites keep gliding across

if I were to die one day
this view would be a comfort
the first memory of a newborn
trying to make sense of the sudden light 

                    fragility is spelled with a p
                    for porcelain for porous 

this ceiling now observed
upside-down
with feet hanging as if grasping for air
            the soft kind, transparent and light
this ceiling could only be white 

your paperwhites, flying shadows
hand in hand with beautiful
weeds
born from wounds
cloud spells and irises 

hanging in the air
invisible and alive
a crib mobile and a skull
remind me I was missing you
could it be that one of my first glimpses
was what you saw last?

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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

Katerina Koulouri is a poet and translator from Athens, Greece. She lived in France for 5 years where she studied Oenology and Modern French Literature, and is an MA graduate in Creative Writing (poetry) from Kingston University, London. Poetry, wine and childrens’ books are her passions. She published her debut pamphlet, INVITATION TO ELSEWHERE in 2023.

Alison Stirling (with Diya Sengupta) - Flight Exhibition

 

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.

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.

Oscar Newcombe (with Ginny Reddick) - Flight exhibition

Oscar Newcombe

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.

We launch the Flight exhibition with a new CollectConnect artist, Oscar Newcombe. His rotating wooden panel reflects the duality of Dagenham's history. On one side we look up to the skies to see Hardy Amies' costume design for 2001: A Space Odyssey. On the flipside we look down to discover the Dagenham Idol, a Bronze Age wooden statue found in marshland on the north bank of the River Thames in 1922. It is an artwork of aspirations and dreams, fitting for a young artist with a bright future ahead of him.

Our writer today is Ginny Reddick, read her response below.

Oscar Newcombe

There you are,

You went so far,

Now there’s miles in your eyes, and a moon.

Look at you,

The one who flew,

Who heard star songs and orbital tunes.

What did you say?

I missed that, come again,

To the birdsong, the green and the blue.

Do you remember Major Tom

Who strayed too far and stayed too long?

Come back to the green and the blue.

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Oscar Newcombe is a multidisciplined artist who will be studying on the Foundation course at Kingston School of Art (Kingston University) in 2026.

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.

 

Flight exhibition - Pink Tardis Gallery, Dagenham Heathway

 

CollectConnect artists are exhibiting a selection of mobiles at the Pink Tardis Community Gallery in Dagenham Heathway during March and April 2026. The theme, Flight, reflects Dagenham's history of early aviation. In the early 1900s the Royal Aeronautical Society established a test facility for prototypes and experimental flying machines near Dagenham Dock. Several machines were built at Dagenham, including a quadruplane designed by Baden Baden-Powell, brother of Robert, the scouting founder.

In recent years Dagenham has become one of the most diverse boroughs in London, with more than 70 different languages spoken within its boundaries. This flourishing diversity is a result of increased migration over the past two decades. It is an excellent representation of CollectConnect artists who draw upon their rich and varied experiences, backgrounds, cultures and nationalities to display their work here during March and April 2026.

The mobiles hang in the Pink Tardis Gallery, Heathway Shopping Centre, Dagenham. Open Monday to Saturday 8:30am – 8:00pm and Sunday 10:00am – 4:00pm. 

Artists include Francesca Albini, Eskild Beck, Dean Reddick, Alban Low, Bryan Benge, Oscar Newcombe, Melanie Honebone, Stella Tripp, Chris Brown, Alison Stirling and Natalie Low.

During March and April we will be publishing written responses inspired by the artwork here on the website and on Facebook. This includes creative writing from Dom O'Reilly, Bella Weerasinghe, Katerina Koulouri, Simon Tyrrell, Keziah Reddick, Natalie Low, Ed Arantus, Jack Low, Diya Sengupta, Dean Reddick, and Ginny Reddick.

Stella Tripp

A special thank you to Katja Rosenberg of Art Catcher for giving us this opportunity.

Katja Rosenberg, Alban Low and Dean Reddick