Oscar Newcombe (with Dean Reddick) - Flight exhibition

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.

As the Artemis II astronauts launch into the unknown world beyond Earth, today down here in Dagenham Oscar Newcombe's artwork provides its own spirit of adventure. Tentacled arms hold aloft three brass framed pictures, a cycle of forgotten lives rotating in the air. Luckily Dean Reddick is on hand with his report on these wonderous objects.

Field Report 005647-Flight Medals.

‘We found the medals in a flea market in the Human Sector on Sanctuary III.
The brass bezels were dulled with a slick, greasy patina but the faces were still bright and precise.
The designs are curious, etched and penned in a bygone era when spaceflight was still an adventure, calling to the brave or reckless to fling themselves outwards.
Our researches have turned up scant provenance for the decorations:
The blue creature in Medal I is of an unknown lifeform, probably aquatic and possibly from Old Earth’s prehistory.
The meaning of the disquieting face on Medal II is obscure. We have tentatively coined it, “The Face of Rook” with reference to an ancient wargame. Perhaps this honour was awarded for strategic prowess of defensive acumen?
The final Medal appears to be a reference to the Universal Spiritual Principal of Rebirth, represented by the Cauldron of Pair Dadeni. On what grounds it was awarded we do not yet know.’

The Medals will be archived in the CC Vault awaiting further analysis.

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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.

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

Natalie Low (with Dean Reddick) - Flight Exhibition

 

Natalie Low

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.

Hanging majestically and serenely in the Pink Tardis Gallery, amongst the mayhem of maniacal machinery, is Natalie Low's hand knitted sculpture. This bold bird reminds us that London is home to a wide variety and huge numbers of birds and that cities and nature are intimately entwined. Natalie shows us once again what a versatile and adept artist she is, turning her hand from writing to knitting for the first of two art works created for the exhibition.

Dean Reddick provides a haiku style poem for Natalie's mobile.

The well-hung goose, hung

Flightless, like a Kakapo

Bald, its quills for me

Natalie Low is a creative knitter, stitcher and quilter. She lives in London, UK with her charming family.  

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

Dean Reddick (with Bella Weerasinghe) - Flight exhibition

Dean Reddick

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.

The sculpture in the Pink Gallery today makes you think of so many different sayings and idioms, Tarred and feathered, or perhaps Holding out an olive branch. But we prefer On a wing and a prayer, a phrase originally associated with the British Royal Air Force during WW2. This powerful and evocative artwork is the creation of Dean Reddick, one of the founding members of CollectConnect.

Dean's sculpture has inspired a new piece of writing from Bella Weerasinghe, a new contributor to CollectConnect. 

flight: dreams of

you can run like thunder
your jaw can crush cars
but your back cannot be scratched
by your tiny, clawed arms

for there’s an itch you can’t quite reach
under rough and scaly skin
where your neck meets your spine
a peculiar prickling

it started when you ate a bird
ripping flesh from limb and wing
the taste impeccable, delectable
the texture; addicting

feathers fill your mouth
getting stuck between sharp teeth
flight fills your dreams at night
catching clouds in your sleep

you’ve been alone for so long
but you wish desperately for a flock
to swoop and soar and dive with,
not to roar, but to squawk

you mimic the migrating crowds
following the shadows they spit on the ground
more creatures join in the stampede
but you’re the fastest biped around

the light in the sky is blinding
hellfire burns your eyes
so, you miss the rough edge of the cliff
and finally, you can fly

you’ve won and you’re winning
willing the wings to sprout
and as feathers finally start to grow

the sun comes
crashing

down

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

Bella Weerasinghe is a poet, writer, and performer. She has recently performed her poetry at the National Gallery, Poetry Society and various spaces in Kingston upon Thames, where she was a student.
https://bellaiw.com/

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

Chemicality - Albedium and Inspiration

Today we are returning to 'Chemicality' a slow burning Collect Connect project where we are gathering  elements to create Period Tables and make exciting new discoveries.

Here is our first Chemicality Experiment.....

Experiment - What are the results of mixing Albedium (Ab) with Inspiration (0!)? 

Date: 17 March 2025 

Location: Wallside Chimney, St Giles, Cripplegate, London Wall, London 

Experimenters: Alban Low and Dean Reddick
Apologies: Bryan Benge who was on a field trip 

Aim
A simple aim of locating the elements Albedium and Inspiration and then mixing them together and recording the results.

Method
We found a location where we suspected the two elements would be present. Inspiration, originally discovered by Lesley Cartwright 'Can be found in the most unlikely places but must be used immediately as it tends to dissipate if left unattended' 

Albedium, discovered by Deborah Westmancoat is 'detected at the point where dark, unformed chaos begins to manifest into light, order and form' 

Alban identified an ancient crumbling and shadowy chimney next to a green pond and very quickly found a piece of Albedium. The Albedium had the appearance of solidified smoke and was dark and sooty in colour and wispy in texture. It had little mass.

The Inspiration was found when Alban glanced at the pond through some bushes. The light playing on the water though short lived led us to taking a sample of the water which we immediately added to the Albedium.

Results
The Albedium and the Inspiration formed a small dark pellet-like participate which initially floated in the liquid Inspiration but then sank to the bottom of the test tube. Initial observations suggested that the participate was stable. However on observations at 1 day and 1 week it was discovered that the participate had dissolved into the Albedium Inspiration mixture.

Conclusions
Both Albedium and Inspiration were easy to find as suggested by their Abundance. The two elements reacted and the resultant compound was unstable suggesting that the compound itself was in a state of change over a time of one week. Both Albedium and Inspiration have a temporal quality at Standard Temperature (Evolving and Effervescent) and might explain the dynamic quality of the compound they formed. Further experimentation is required to isolate this new temporal quality found in the compound.

Alban Low and Dean Reddick

The Bastion 12 experiment (Observations of Alban Low)
The Experiment
Just behind the Barber's Physic Garden we found the blackened chimney of the St. Giles Cripplegate City Wall Tower, otherwise known at Bastion 12. As a novice apprentice I got my hands dirty, while Dean took charge of the test tubes and mixing. As I disturbed the ancient soot and cinders in the chimney, a wisp of Albedium escaped, it was feathery and flighty, caught on the chill wind that whistled around the Barbican complex. The Inspiration was easy to find but hard to catch, the dancing light on the Barbican lake gave us a clue, and Dean knelt beside the shallows and scooped some in liquid form. 

We gave the two elements in the test tube a gentle shake, not long after we spotted a small dark pellet. 

The Result
The way that the Albedium (a dark, unformed chaotic element that transforms into a lighter, ordered form) changed made me think that this must be an Answer (to a question). A pill compound that you swallow and it gives you the answer to any problem. I wasn't brave enough to try. Now I know that the new compound disappeared in a few days, makes me think that the problem was only temporary. And just as the problem dissipates so does our compound. 
Future experiments with the Compound

I would like to create the Answer pellet again and see if we can discover the question that it will solve.
Alban Low (March 2025)

Natalie Low (with Dean Reddick) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Natalie Low

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.

Our final set, series and ensemble comes from Natalie Low whose playful art works and beautifully crafted words always light up Collect Connect exhibitions. Today, Natalie's subverted family card game sits patiently in a park waiting to be opened. We wonder what sort of hand might be dealt with this pack! Dean Reddick writes a response.

Natalie Low

Natalie Low

Happy Families

 

The Doctors in the long coats measured the families of the past

And put them in little boxes, neatly measured and labelled.

The Doctors in the sharp suits made paper tools

To measure the new families and sort the typical from the othered.

 

The boxes were left in common shelters and at mundane collection points.

 

But the families were not still and docile.

They reinvented themselves from the inside to suit the needs of the world at large.

They shoved their diagnosis into new shapes and swapped their roles.

They made fun and played happy silly games.

Natalie Low

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).

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

Alban Low (with Dean Reddick) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Alban Low

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.  

Alban Low

I met Alban 35 years ago when we were both studying on an Art and Design Foundation course in Hounslow, London and I am taking the opportunity of writing todays post to say a big thank you to Alban from Bryan, myself and everyone involved with Collect Connect for his amazing energy, generosity and creativity. 

Todays set of painted pebble people comes from Alban Low and the little faces have made their way to all sorts of places. Dean Reddick provides a rhyme.

Alban Low

Alban Low

Alban Low and Henry Moore

Alban Low

The Dream Of Knuckle Number Five

 

Five Yeller knuckle-heads

Sleeping in their stony beds

Goofy teeth and google eyes

Took the world by surprise

 

Nelly-Knuckle liked to chuckle

Knuckle Lily was loud and silly

Knuckle-me-pink liked a drink

Barny Knuckle was fond of trouble

 

Knuckles number Four to One

Went out in the Yeller sun

Goofy teeth and google eyes

Took the world by surprise

 

Laughing Nelly was first to go

All the way to Walthamstow

Knuckle Lily, being silly,

Went as far as New York City

 

Knuckles number three and four

Followed their sisters out the door

Goofy teeth and google eyes

Took the world by surprise

 

Knuckle-me-pink, what a bum

Ended in a beer drum

Barny Knuckle, for a lark

Claimed a place in modern art

 

But what of Knuckle number Five

Where did they go? Did they survive?

Goofy teeth and google eyes

Took the world by surprise

 

Knuckle Five was never found

Though rumour is they went to ground

Planted in earthy borders

To dream about her son and daughters

Alban Low

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 currently presents Directorrific! the radio show for directory lovers.

http://albanlow.com/

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

Stella Tripp (with Dean Reddick) - 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. 

Stella Tripp's packets hang over a murky river, a lure or an offering to whatever lies in the waters below. Look closely at the packets and see what has been prescribed. Stella is a regular and long standing exhibitor with us and we are delighted, as ever, to bring you her art. Our first responder this morning is Dean Reddick who adds his words.

Stella Tripp

The River Goddesses 

The Algorithmic Idiot Machine lurched into action

Blister-packing our fragile skeletons and sweet memories

Attempting to codify our subtle differences, our blushes and spirals.

 

Confined in plastic and separated we slowly dried out and hardened.

 

We sang our discontent, each in our bubble, our complaint against uniformity.

And from outside, from the River, the Goddesses heard us and took pity on our desiccation.

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

Dean Reddick is an artist and art therapist. He likes to work with casting processes and has a passion for drawing and growing trees.  https://deanreddick.blogspot.com/ 

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

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/

Dean Reddick - Translocation and Dislocation (words by Natalie Low)

Welcome to the Translocation and Dislocation exhibition, a selection of eclectic artworks that have been placed or screened beyond the tradition 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.

If you go down in the woods today you're sure of a big surprise! Dean Reddick's umbilical wires are left exposed in Polesden Lacey. Multi-coloured threads snake out of a tree, searching for a new ending or a new beginning. We'll let you decide. Our writer today is Natalie Low, read her response below.

Dean Reddick

First Responder: Natalie Low

You continue asking why
stones endure from fossil wood?
Under stress they petrify.

Such processes fortify,
having sucked what flesh they could.
You continue asking: why,

after organisms die,
when the breath is gone for good,
under stress they petrify?

I’m a glacier running dry,
not ablating as I should:
you continue asking why?

I am holding in a cry,
mineralised from pain withstood.
Under stress I petrify.

Even when I say goodbye,
emptying the spot you stood,
you continue asking why
under stress I petrify?

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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/

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).

Lucy Furlong - Translocation and 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 tradition 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.

Created by artist and poet Lucy Furlong, this Asemic Airways flight was first flown outside the British Library on a very wet day. Asemic writing is a wordless open semantic form of writing. With the non-specificity of asemic writing there comes a vacuum of meaning, which is left for the reader to fill in and interpret. First Responder Dean Reddick has recorded his own interpretation for us, read it below.

Lucy Furlong

First Responder: Dean Reddick

Dart

Flat to start with a rippled skin, a premonition and prayer for rain.
Then the folds, carefully administered with your tongue sticking out,
A small concentration crease on your brow.

Pristine and new, sharp nosed and eager, waiting
For the fuel of your arm to enter the air and let me go.
Briefly alight, slicing, gliding, falling.

The destination is wet, muddy and puddled.
All my hard edges gone soft and loose.
A single flight from here to there.

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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. 

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

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 - 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 - 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).

Impossipebbles in Slapton

We continue our art pebble trail through the lanes of South Devon with a visit to Slapton today.

We first encounter pebbles in childhood, selecting them, chucking them in the air, stacking them as piles, selecting colour, pattern.

Later in life we select again, look for the flat ones, the right weight ones, the ones that skim across the water, to disappear.

Humans selected Pebbles as tools, they are among the earliest known man-made artefacts, dating from the Palaeolithic period of human history.

Now they have been selected again, to make paintings, sculptures, repurposed images, placed and perhaps rediscovered by others, to hopefully beckon the minds eye, what, how, why.

Bryan Benge - Impossipebble 4 / Odin 2

In a niche in the old chancery college boundary wall, Slapton Village.  

Dean Reddick - Impossipebble 5

In a wall niche near the ruined Slapton village Tower. This was built in 1347 and formed the western end of the Chancery College founded by Sir Guy De Briene. It is conveniently near the Tower inn pub for thirsty art lovers.

  

Alban Low - Impossipebble 6

On the seat inside the Slapton Ley bus shelter

Impossipebble for 2020

Recently we've been trying out new ways of exhibiting in public spaces. We have had Alban's What If posters on the outside of a railway station, and then an exhibition of brass plaques on benches down Tolworth Broadway. Both of these are ongoing, and with only a handful of contributors to propel them along they'll develop over the coming weeks and months.

For the start of 2020 CollectConnect co-founder Bryan Benge has developed a new public art exhibition for us to try. He may well be inviting new participants or simply developing the idea amongst the CollectConnect diehards. He has written a little bit more about the Impossipebble project below, and you can see the first 3 pebbles are now out in public!

The name Pebbles is of English origin. 

Small stones; size of 2 to 64 millimetres based on the Krumbein phi scale of sedimentology. !!!

We encounter those at childhood selecting them, chucking them in the air, stacking them as piles, selecting colour, pattern.

Later in life we select again, look for the flat ones, the right weight ones, the ones that skim across the water, to disappear.

Humans selected Pebbles as tools, they are among the earliest known man-made artefacts, dating from the Palaeolithic period of human history.

Now they have been selected again, to make paintings, sculptures, repurposed images, placed and perhaps rediscovered by others, to hopefully beckon the minds eye, what, how, why.

I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with. 

Plato

Dean Reddick - Impossipebble 1

Location: All Saints Church, Merriott, Somerset.  

Bryan Benge - Impossipebble 2 / Odin 1 

Location: the circular tree bench in Stoke Fleming village  

Alban Low - Impossipebble 3

Slapton Sands D Day war memorial.  

and on the other side of the memorial was this poignant tribute