Francesca Albini (with Diya Sengupta) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Francesca Albini

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. 

Francesca Albini's cabinet of curiosity is a feast for the eyes and imagination, full of hidden imagery and long forgotten memories. It sits beside the dark teak Lion and the Lamb in Farnham, who guards its secrets. We welcome a new writer to CollectConnect, Diya Sengupta, who is unlocking our cabinet of mysteries, read her poem below.

Francesca Albini

Rebirth by Diya Sengupta

a response to Francesca Albini

Kneeling, I craft

Altars of belongings

Dice and scattered joys,

Cracked banks, Pandoric secrets

A line of sandy beaches

A twinkle of the stars.

Clearing, I breathe

The incense, salt air,

Ribbons of girls and scars

Confessions and youthful guilt

Stifled; buried relics of

Ages passed.

Boxes turned tabernacles;

The pinecones, the driftwood,

The myrrh.

I exhale the final Breaths of

Adolescence

She is stuck, she cannot convert.

Lifetime of nostalgia and glee,

Rose-tinted perfection

Horror-felt, a beg for mercy.

A life beyond resurrected ends

A tale of bewonder laid to rest

In purgatory, in death

As young turns to old

I start to hold dripping water

As taps stutter in

Grime and mould

The beast of Time

Turns angels, they fall

Enthralled, it burns

A tomb of past

A carcass of “was”

I scream in silence

Glass turned violent

I see my child

Tied inside

She reaches to me

She breathes softly

She’s ready to leave.

To beam, to squall, to revolt.

No longer a cadaver,

No longer her mother,

No longer a force,

No longer her corpse.

A life once lived.

            A promise to live once more

Francesca Albini

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Francesca Albini divides her life between literary and artistic endeavours. She is a PhD in Classics, and has worked in publishing for her entire adult life, as a translator, author and editor. She is a self taught artist and photographer. Her work is inspired by folk art, but also by design. Albini is a collector of memories, and uses any medium that allows her to remember and share, express feelings and narrate stories. From line drawings to plastic cameras, from collage to upcycled jewellery and dolls. "My work is playful and dreamy, child-like but also philosophical. I fall in and out of love with many styles and tools, but I'm always me, whatever I do."

Diya Sengupta is a Final Year History and English Undergraduate at Warwick University. She is Vice President of Warwick University Shakespeare Society, and earlier this year directed the Greek tragedy Electra, for the Warwick Drama Society.

Chris Brown 3 (with Carole Bulewski) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Chris Brown 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. 

On this cold crisp Autumnal day we step inside for the first time, where we find the first class artwork of Chris Brown. This is the first of three artworks that Chris has created for Sets, Series and Ensembles. We are always thrilled to receive his work, conceptually brilliant they have such a breadth of ideas and forms. Responding to Chris' artwork is Carole Bulewski, who has an equally broad rage of skills and ideas up her sleeve. She is a painter, singer, and weaver of dark lyrics and mysteries. Read her response below.

Chris Brown 3

Carole Bulewski

Prince Charles… Oops, sorry, King Charles. A photo of King Charles when he was still only Prince Charles, attempting to be seductive, and pretty much failing at it. A stamp of King Charles when he was still only Prince Charles, on top of a collage of stamps of the Queen. Lilac. The stamps of the Queen are of a vibrant lilac hue, contrasting with the black and white of King Charles’s photograph.

The camera moves away and we are… in an art gallery most likely? A photograph exhibition. And there King Charles when he was still only Prince Charles, on a stamp, sitting there on a table next to a flower arrangement, something reminiscent of a funeral parlour, heavy, white and lavender hues, nothing bright and joyful. Just like the picture of King Charles when he was still only Prince Charles. 

Time for my tea in the set the previous tenants got back in July 1981 for the royal wedding. 

Chris Brown 3

Chris Brown 3 - Pick Up

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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.

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 with 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.
Tales of Confinement - Carole Bulewski

Dean Reddick (with Ed Arantus) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Dean Reddick

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. 

Dean Reddick's mysterious totem pegs are laid out in a row for us on Sets, Series and Ensembles today. They talk of another time, of talismans and rituals, and of wisdoms that remain, even to this day. Dean is one of the founder members of CollectConnect, always bringing fresh ideas and new work to our exhibitions. Ed Arantus has also been with us since the start, he exhibited a magnet in our first show, 'Open Fridge'. Now, as a writer, he discovers the old wisdoms of our past. Read his proverb below.

Dean Reddick

Proverb 

Lies

behind

marble eyes

catch flies ne’er bees.

Honeyed be, truth and web will stick to thee. 

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

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

Melanie Honebone (with Ellie Roberts) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Melanie Honebone

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. 

Regular CollectConnect followers will know the artistic exploits of our next exhibitor, Melanie Honebone (formerly Melanie Ezra). She has been one of our most treasured and long serving CC artists over the years, and it is fitting that Time is one of the themes in her artwork for Sets, Series and Ensembles. In contrast we welcome a new writer, Ellie Roberts, to CollectConnect and hope she will be a contributor for many years to come. Read her response to Melanie's artwork below.

Melanie Honebone artwork, Hertfordshire

Ellie Roberts

Time has been on my mind

Time has been on my mind
Is it really past the 11th hour?
There was a ’rose garden’* but I know not to return
Time is now not then
that cycle of destruction and creation, reaching into the earth for renewal
feeling the pulse of the friable soil replete
with cosmic gold
Post war efforts
of urban forests falter
Lining Chandos Road
Giant slender fronds grapple with tarmac- concrete upturned knuckles of life burst
through their dark enclave
Little hands in mine
Time of my life
‘Look Nonna - the tree died, was it old?’
‘No, trees don’t die-it fell-felled………
Trees know when it is day and night
Trees know when it is hot or cold
Trees have memories’
‘Will it grow again?’
‘Maybe in time but not the same’


*T.S Eliott Four Quartets

Melanie Honebone

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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/

This is a first appearance for Ellie Roberts in a CollectConnect exhibition.

Stella Tripp 2 (with Natalie Low) - 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. 

Here's the first of three collections from multimedia artist Stella Tripp. Today she casts us a lifeline of blister packs, but do they help us sink or swim? Natalie Low provides us with our daily dose of writing. Read it below.

Stella Tripp

One pill kill and one pill cure,
But which one’s which? I’m never sure.
Your poison and your ecstasy
always taste the same to me.
I don’t know until too late
If I’ll overdose on love or hate.
And as I sink the doubts begin:
Did you throw a line or throw me in?
One pill cure and one pill kill,
I can’t tell which you give me. Still.

Natalie Low

Stella Tripp

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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

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).

Kezia Reddick (with Laura Webb) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Kezia Reddick

Welcome to the first day of our Autumn exhibition, Sets, Series and Ensembles. Over the next two weeks here on the CollectConnect website we've got a fabulous selection of art in public places alongside 'First Responses' from a series of writers and creative people. 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 start the exhibition with this wandering sculpture from Kezia Reddick. It has crawled into the Feltham Circles, a series of outdoor graffiti walls in Pevensey Road Nature Reserve, in South West London. We also have an amazing CollectConnect debut today, from writer Laura Webb. Read her response below.

First Response - Laura Webb

A to B

I've been crawling around for a while now,
curving wire fingers around
objects which delight me.

I swallowed mouthfuls of the sea
and coughed up these stones
one by one, their pilchard song

echoing around the car park
in a way which surprised everyone.
Later, I wound myself up

so tightly I could feel my heart swinging
in the soles of my feet. These walls bring
faces to my dreams and I transmit 

the signals I detect: three quartered moon,
smalltalk of fox and helicopters.
The unlit earth turning on its hinges.

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Keziah Reddick is an artist and Foundation student in London 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.

Laura Webb made her debut with CollectConnect in November 2024.

Nick Roberts - Translocation Dislocation (words by Ed Arantus)

Welcome to the Translocation and Dislocation exhibition, a selection of eclectic artworks that have been placed or screened beyond the traditional gallery walls. Alongside the art, you can read written works by our First Responders. We will choose a different location for each artwork, the art might be placed in a complementary location (to add to the narrative) or juxtaposed against a competing backdrop to create new meaning.

This is the final day of the exhibition, thank you to everyone who has followed its progress over the past fortnight. Today we're doing exactly what we said we wouldn't do, placing the work in a gallery environment. This isn't the traditional hanging on a wall though, Nick Roberts' artwork has been printed on a t-shirt and taken for a walk around London, visiting the sights, and ultimately rubbing shoulders with Yoko Ono's creations at the Tate Modern. Our First Responder is Ed Arantus, who explains why you should never stand still in an art gallery. Read his words below.

Nick Roberts

First Responder: Ed Arantus

The gallery was bright white, even the exhibits were white. I wore a white t-shirt. 

I leaned back against the white wall, looked at my shoes, noticed the flecks of paint. 

They were white too.

His finger tapped my chest, “what’s that you’ve got there?”

I knew the game, I’d look down and he’d flick my nose. 

Playground stuff. I stood completely still and stared straight ahead.

“It looks like someone’s tarmacked over Miss Marple’s cottage”.

His finger rested on the t-shirt design. I was ready for the flick.

He turned to his friend, “absolute genius that Yoko Ono”.

They walked away, in that slow way.

I moved a little, stretched my legs, looked up, the gallery attendant smiled at me.

I walked toward the exit.

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This is a first appearance for Nick Roberts in a CollectConnect exhibition.

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

Robin Vaughan-Williams - Translocation Dislocation (words by Lucy Furlong and Dean Reddick)

Welcome to the Translocation and Dislocation exhibition, a selection of eclectic artworks that have been placed or screened beyond the traditional gallery walls. Alongside the art, you can read written works by our First Responders. We will choose a different location for each artwork, the art might be placed in a complementary location (to add to the narrative) or juxtaposed against a competing backdrop to create new meaning.

Today we have a double-header to share with you, two poems by Robin Vaughan-Williams come alive in the home environment. Originating from the same starting point (words on a page), each poem finds a new life.
First we'd like to share the poem Sparkling. Someone has taken Rizla sheets, jotting reminders on mini post-its, and dotting them around a house. Writer and artist Lucy Furlong is our First Responder. 
The second poem by Robin is Half life, a pair of slippers lie at the bottom of the stairs, an interactive voice assistant talks into the empty hallway. Our First Responder is Dean Reddick, read his words below. A big thank you to all our artists and writers who have contributed such wonderful work to this exhibition. 

Robin Vaughan-Williams - Sparkling

First Responder: Lucy Furlong

Sparkling (Cut-glass mix)

As if clues on cut-out humans were frozen in time

As if an angel were coming through venetian blinds

As if whiskey had a deep green reflection

As if he was rocking in a swirling silver lining

As if a windscreen could turn into frothing dazzle

As if a ship’s library of unopened antique boxes was watching

As if he’d made it Christmas - carved turkey all around him

As if the night’s blue blooms were too angelica

As if he’d fallen asleep transfixed by streetlamps in the deep freeze

As if time was untraversable darkness seeping to the river

As if a chandelier had crashed near water

As if light was drawn to carved up diamonds

As if he were gilded books draining of life

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Robin Vaughan-Williams - Half life

First Responder: Dean Reddick

I had sterilised most of my life by this point, cleansed it to within acceptable parameters.
Intonation and rhythm had succumbed to Occam, sliced away in the search for the Algorithmic Ideal.

Routine and hard surfaces held most of the pain at bay and my purification was close at hand.

And yet.

The little things persist, nagging, sinking their soft claws into my repose.

The smell of coffee.

Your slippers, soft, fluffy and worn at the foot of the stairs.

Why can't I forget?

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Robin Vaughan-Williams is a poet, producer, and author of The Manager (Happenstance Press). He has run live literature events like Spoken Word Antics in Sheffield and Word of Mouth in Nottingham, and pioneered collaborative poetry improvisation.
www.zeroquality.net

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.

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

Sandra Crisp - Translocation Dislocation (words by Dean Reddick)

Welcome to the Translocation and Dislocation exhibition, a selection of eclectic artworks that have been placed or screened beyond the traditional gallery walls. Alongside the art, you can read written works by our First Responders. We will choose a different location for each artwork, the art might be placed in a complementary location (to add to the narrative) or juxtaposed against a competing backdrop to create new meaning.

Today Sandra Crisp's film 'Strange Attractors [...1.000 years]' beguiles and disturbs the viewer with its fractal forms, pulsing nerve-like images and commentary. The film, displayed on a tablet in a hollowed out tree stump is accompanied by the singing of woodland songbirds. Dean Reddick provides a written response as today's first responder.

Sandra Crisp

First Responder: Dean Reddick

The Return of The Machine Elves

The Machine Elves returned after their extended trip in hyperspace, bonged and fluid.

Pulverised by nonsensical plastics and polluted by dreamers they flashed their fractal teeth at the world.

Really they had no message for the rest of us already saturated in particles and pieces and practicalities.

Frustrated in every place they sought out the woody stumps.

Busted remnants of the World Tree.

Sandra Crisp is a celebrated artist who predominantly works in digital media using processes to critique and experiment with open source software and digital imagery. Her work is informed by her training as a printmaker at Wimbledon School of Art.

https://sandracrispart.com/

Dean Reddick  is an artist and an art therapist. He frequently works with casting process and loves drawing trees. 

https://deanreddick.blogspot.com/