Artist Talks at the CollectConnect Retrospective

We launched the CollectConnect Retrospective with an opening party last week at Kensington and Chelsea College gallery where artists of all ages joined together to celebrate 6 years of inclusive art. With 25 exhibitions, 1200 artists and a whole gallery full of artworks it was a major effort to prepare this exhibition, and we hope the artists and visitors enjoyed both the art and meeting each other. The nature of our exhibitions and projects mean that many artists never meet each other, they are merely artworks and reputations in cyberspace. There were many London artists in attendance, Sharon Read and Jill Hedges endured the long trek from Northampton but Eskild Beck once again came the furthest from his hometown of Aabenraa in Denmark.

Catherine Wynne-Paton visited the gallery before the opening party to record some footage of the exhibition and to interview Alban, Bryan and Dean about the CollectConnect project. You can find a brief snippet of their conversation here - https://vimeo.com/194180116

Chapbooks

The exhibition isn't over yet!
Join us on Tuesday 6th Dec from 5.30 - 8pm at Kensington and Chelsea College Gallery (Hortensia Rd, London, SW10 0QS) for an evening of Artists Talks. Bryan Benge, Stuart Simler, Alban Low and Dean Reddick will be talking about the CollectConnect projects and their adventures in public art. There will also be an introduction about how to publish a chapbook and readings from published authors Kevin Acott, Peter S Smith, Carmel Blackie, Maartens Lourens (Poetry WTF?!), Lucy Furlong and Stella Tripp.

Look forward to seeing you.

Catherine Wynne-Paton - Raft at Sea



Catherine Wynne-Paton - Raft at Sea

Welcome to the Dwell exhibition and book. For a whole month we will be taking each artist's page and transforming it into a 3 dimensional dwelling. Each one of these small sculptures will be exhibited in public on the London streets.

Today we are cast adrift with Catherine's Raft at Sea.

Catherine has recently graduated from Hereford College of Art and we are very pleased to welcome her back for her second Collect Connect exhibition.

courtesy of http://www.wynnepaton.co.uk/

Catherine's work 'explores the gap between random and meaningful, centred on text, seeking to locate the liminal place when meaningful becomes random'.(http://www.wynnepaton.co.uk/)

 This image, taken from Catherine's web site, suggests something on the verge of being recognised, either a representation on the way to becoming seen or a form that is disintegrating or dissolving. I find this visual tension appealing.


Raft at sea is likewise a very appealing piece of work. I particularly like the simplicity of the net. The detail here shows the net for the logs for the raft. It is hard to imagine from the flat net how the neat little raft comes about until one has a go at building it.

Here we can sea Raft at Sea on the Regents Canal at Kings Cross.
This area of London has undergone massive redevelopment recently including the canal area and both Kings Cross and St Pancras International railway stations.
The raft proved to be surprisingly buoyant and floated quite happily in the somewhat murky canal water before eventually becoming waterlogged and needing rescuing!

Don't forget to have a look at the next Collect Connect project, 'The Art of Caring' exhibition at The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames. The theme is Caring/Care and it is FREE to enter.

To buy the Dwell Book for £6 then follow this LINK.



Catherine Wynne-Paton - Raft at Sea

Dwell artwork at the printers

Its taken longer than we thought but the dwell book is now finished and out of our hands for a few days. The artwork rests on the printing press of our publishers Sampson Low Ltd so it's just a waiting game. The final list of artists can be found below and on our designated Artist's page. Thank you to Dean Reddick for his idea and hard work in reaching this milestone.

The Dwell book cover art

From the 1st February keep an eye out for the dwellings on the streets of London. We'll be placing one a day in interesting places throughout the capital. Then posting information about the artists and creators here on the CollectConnect website, facebook page and twitter.

Artists and their nets.....

3. Alban Low - Scrunchy Shed
5. Beth Davis - Hofbauer Castle in the Sky
7. Bryan Benge - City Scape
9. Catherine Wynne-Paton - Raft at Sea
11. Dean Reddick - Shelter One
13. Dean Reddick - TreeHouse
15. Eleanor Bedlow - Container
17. Ella & Fausto - House by the Wild Sea
19. Eve Allsop - Home
21. Gavin Blackhurst - 46 Malbet Park
23. Helen Hunt - Thoreau’s Room
25. Holly Daniels - Fairy Dwelling
27. Jane Hellings - Shipping Container
29. Jay Snelling - Pyramid
31. Jessamy Low - Ocelot Villa
33. J Masson - Abri
35. Keziah Reddick - Dream dwelling
37. Kim Reddick - Crates
39. Lisa Howes - Flat Pack
41. Malc Dow - Escape Dwelling
43. Melanie Ezra - Caer Hecsagon
45. Mike Russell - Negated Obstacle
47. Natalie Low - Dwellow Submarine
49. Nick Gammons - Castle
51. Rajaa Khalife Paixao - Confessions of an artist
53. Sabatin Bascoban - The Caravan
55. Sara Lerota - Table as a place..
57. Steve DT - The Sistene Chapel
59. Stuart Simler - Trojan Horse
61. Tamara Jelaca - Little house in Prairie