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)

Lesley Cartwright - Translocation and Dislocation (words by Dom O'Reilly)

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.

The floating world of Lesley Cartwright has been caught in a bush beside a road, as the cars rush by the inhabitants of this gentle world wave back. It is a space that captures the imagination of passing passengers, a dreamcatcher for the modern motorist. The words below are from Dom O'Reilly.

Lesley Cartwright

First Responder: Dom O'Reilly

The Clangers had been happy inside their empty and isolated world until a Rover from Earth looking for Mars had broadcast ‘No music on a dead planet’ by the Soup Dragons to speak to the out there folk. 

As the Soup Dragon fed them, the Clangers saw this as a divine announcement. Well, they would have done had they known of divinity. They asked themselves what was ‘music’ and ‘dead’ for Clangers are immortal unless they unravel themselves. It is why they consume so much tea, for without it they are immoral.

They set off for Earth in search of music and death and the answers each would bring. Since they operate as a hive mind the Clangers felt at home when they landed in London and saw everyone linked by the same phone, tattoos, trainers and haircut. 

They saw people sitting down in unison to a song that spoke of individualism but provoked groupthink. They eagerly sought out where they could be absorbed into this collectivism.

Scuttering along guttering they had an epiphany, a moment of existential realisation, when they saw a young woman emerging from a building with bundles of wool, crocheting for the use of. 

They stared themselves, at the wool and back and forth. This must be the Creator, the one who made all Clangers. 

Following her back to her small, overpriced room in Bermondsey, they saw her bed covered in what looked like Clanger DNA, patch after patch of crocheted wool in the same pattern. 

The woman saw them and, being both originally minded and part of the cult of Taylor Swift she could understand the language and mentality of the Clangers. They found it was a giant bedspread in honour of Taylor Swift and, after hearing the young woman speak for three hours nonstop on being a Swifty, they knew this was where they belonged. 

In an act of mass rebirth, they unravelled themselves so they could become part of the bedspread. There, they would be joined with something bigger than themselves and yet still be as one.

All except one Clanger.

She had spotted the chance to be an individual and to offer hope and encouragement to those who felt the same. Bidding farewell to her fellow Clangers and the young woman, she left the gastrogentrification behind and found a simple tree in a quiet area. 

There she learned by observing. The birds taught her how to lay eggs. She gave sanctuary to an orange frog who had been lured from its home by a flood that quickly receded. She had a toy phone, to remind herself to avoid addiction to the real ones.

As with so many before her, she came to London and integrated without needing to assimilate. 

She sees herself as a ‘Reverse Rover’ – sending a signal to attract to Earth those in out there land who want to be individuals. 

-----------------------------------

Lesley Cartwright made her name in the commercial graphic field and music photography until she developed MS and now creates magic artworks from her Billericay studio. She is a multitalented artist who is not bound by genre nor convention. Cartwright has been exhibiting with CollectConnect since the Cardboard City exhibition in 2013. https://twitter.com/ley9

As a journalist Dom O'Reilly reported from 26 countries from Afghanistan to Serbia covering everything from Olympics to revolutions. He wrote for newspapers which included The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Toronto Globe & Mail, Glasgow Herald and Sunday Herald and The Scotsman and Sunday on Sunday. Dom is currently exploring new avenues for his creativity, we are hoping he'll be a regular contributor to the CollectConnect exhibitions.

Lesley Cartwright - Love Tokens and Bad Pennies

Lesley Cartwright

Does love endure forever? Does a bad penny always turn up? During this Valentine month the artists and writers from CollectConnect explore this flip-sided theme with an exhibition of 32 miniature sculptures. These objects are placed in public places (#unsettledgallery), helping us to remember those who we hold dear - or cast off those who we would rather forget. Every day throughout February we will be featuring one of these tokens/pennies on this website. A writer will also use the art as inspiration to create something new and fresh.

Artist - Lesley Cartwright  / Words - Ginny Reddick

Pass On
Old heart, pass on,
Grandfather, Father,
Son,
broken,
pass on
unbroken, pass on
divided and melted, pass on, pass on
sickened, pass on
lessened, pass on
mended and filled and pass on, pass it on. You can borrow its beat Until it's time to pass on. If we're lucky, Grandfather, Father, Son.

Lesley Cartwright's Love Token on a communication box in Walthamstow

Lesley's Love Token lays on this battered box in a quiet residential road in Walthamstow. Waltham Forest is currently the London Borough of Culture and many parts of the Borough are undergoing extensive change with rapid housing development and large scale gentrification. 

Lesley Cartwright was born in Liverpool but later moved to Essex to run a Hostel for homeless teenagers. She made her name in the commercial graphic field and music photography until she developed MS and now paints portraits from her Billericay studio. Cartwright is a multitalented artist who is not bound by genre nor convention. Cartwright has been exhibiting with CollectConnect since the Cardboard City exhibition in 2013.ttps://twitter.com/ley9

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. Although there has been a 9 year hiatus between that exhibition and this one she has curated numerous CC projects including the Walthamstow street art favourite HideBird.

Lesley Cartwright - Love Tokens and Bad Pennies

Lesley Cartwright Bad Penny

Does love endure forever? Does a bad penny always turn up? During this Valentine month the artists and writers from CollectConnect explore this flip-sided theme with an exhibition of 32 miniature sculptures. These objects are placed in public places (#unsettledgallery), helping us to remember those who we hold dear - or cast off those who we would rather forget. Every day throughout February we will be featuring one of these tokens/pennies on this website. A writer will also use the art as inspiration to create something new and fresh.

Art - Lesley Cartwright / Words - Francesca Albini 

Fragile, ephemeral, trickster,
Shape-shifter,
With a hint of a smile
You tell me, 

It’s not all as it seems. 

Lesley Cartwright's Bad Penny at the

 #unsettledgallery Walthamstow

Lesley's Bad Penny sits on a plinth in Wood Street Plaza, which was revamped a few years ago to contain a series of water fountains for children to play in during the hot summer months and a bespoke adventure playground for the local children and young people. More recent developments have seen new flats built on the site, just one of the many building projects in the area. It remains to be seen whether the latest incarnation of the Wood Street Plaza will continue to provide a play space for children.

Lesley Cartwright was born in Liverpool but later moved to Essex to run a Hostel for homeless teenagers. She made her name in the commercial graphic field and music photography until she developed MS and now paints portraits from her Billericay studio. Cartwright is a multitalented artist who is not bound by genre nor convention. Cartwright has been exhibiting with CollectConnect since the Cardboard City exhibition in 2013.

https://twitter.com/ley9

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."
https://www.francescaalbini.com/

Small World Futures - Last Day

Thank you to everyone who has visited the Small World Futures exhibition on the streets or who has joined us online throughout February. The exhibition draws to a close today amongst the melting snow around London Bridge. Many of the mini sculptures have already been picked up but we'll try and visit all the locations in the #unsettledgallery over the next month to find if any still remain. You can see a full portfolio of the street placements HERE.

As this is the last day of the exhibition we're placing all the sculptures that we couldn't quite fit into the 28 days of February. That means no imagined worlds from the writers but some fantastic treasures to find around London Bridge. Thank you to Kevin Acott, Dean Reddick, Natalie Low, Rebecca Lowe, Ed Arantus and Alban Low for your diverse and evocative writing throughout the month.

#unsettledgallery locations

The artists have given us a real insight into what future worlds could look like. The project has been a genuine success and a joy to organise, it is one that we would like to develop in the future. The next chance to see these miniature dioramas is in Aabenraa, Denmark from the 3rd May until June 2018. Eskild Beck will be organising this Small World exhibition and we'll post up some images when the time comes.

Thank you finally to all the artists involved - Sara Lerota, Ann Kopka, Bryan Benge, Bethany Murray, Wayne Sleeth, Dean Reddick, Lesley Cartwright, Melanie Ezra, Natalie Low, Stella Tripp, Tracy Boness, Jill Hedges, Jenny Meehan, Francesca Albini, Alan Carlyon Smith and Alban Low.

Below are today's Small World Futures.......

Bethany Murray at unsettledgallery No.3

As an artist Bethany Murray takes seemingly empty space, juxtaposing it with physical matter in an attempt to make the intangible tangible. Through the use of cast space, poetry and found objects she attempt to describe a sense of ‘otherness’. Exploring the distinction between the known and unknown that is directly linked to her research of the ‘sacred’. These mere encounters with material and language sit in the hinterland between that which is considered earthly and the ethereal.

http://bethanymurray-artist.blogspot.co.uk/

Bethany Murray

You can find Bethany Murray's Small World Future where the pavement meets a brick wall on Melior Street (London Bridge) at #unsettledgallery No.3.

Dean Reddick - #unsettledgallery No.7

Dean Reddick is an artist, an art therapist and a lecturer. He uses a range of media and enjoys experimenting with casting processes using plaster, metal and resin to explore the tensions between organic and geometric forms, positive and negative space and the distortions that occur in producing casts. As an artist and art therapist Reddick has a keen interest in the role of art as a cultural phenomenon and as a container for inter-personal meaning. He enjoys working collaboratively and has been a regular exhibitor at Walthamstow's E17 Art Trail as well as exhibiting with CollectConnect. Recently he published Art Therapy in the Early Years: Therapeutic Interventions with Infants, Toddlers and Their Families (pub. 2016, Routledge) alongside co-editor Julia Meyerowitz-Katz.

Dean Reddick

You can find Dean Reddick's Small World Future at the bottom of a brick gully on Magdalen Street (London Bridge) at #unsettledgallery No.7.

Wayne Sleeth - #unsettledgallery No.8

In his mature work since moving to the Lorraine region of France in 2001, Wayne Sleeth reiterates and re-explores the source and schema of his more formative sensations; the big skies above the flat lands of both the Lincolnshire coast of his father and the polders of maternal Flanders, where he also spent his childhood. The Lorraine region for this confirmed European is not only geographically strategic, but offers an echo of that very play of horizontality and verticality where the artist draws freely on “l’espace” as he knows and feels it, as far as the canvas edge…

http://www.waynesleeth.com/

Wayne Sleeth

You can find Wayne Sleeth's Small World Future behind a pick pillar at the back of the Greenwood Theatre on Snowsfields (London Bridge) at #unsettledgallery No.8.

Lesley Cartwright - #unsettledgallery No.1

Lesley Cartwright was born in Liverpool but later moved to Essex to run a Hostel for homeless teenagers. She made her name in the commercial graphic field and music photography until she developed MS and now paints portraits from her Billericay studio. Cartwright is a multitalented artist who is not bound by genre nor convention. The work you see here is an extension of a fabulous Pokémon Go project where she knitted small versions of Pokémon characters and left them in public places for collectors to find. Cartwright has been exhibiting with CollectConnect since the Cardboard City exhibition in 2013.
https://twitter.com/ley9

Lesley Cartwright

You can find Lesley Cartwright's Small World Future between two concrete bollards where Weston Street meets St Thomas Street (London Bridge) at #unsettledgallery No.1.

Ann Kopka - #unsettledgallery No.4

Ann Kopka studied Fine Art at Central St Martins College of Art and Design and the City Lit. She has studied The Practices and Debates of Modern Art and graduated with a First Class Honours degree from The Open University. She has also studied Museum Curating at Tate Modern. Kopka has exhibited in London, the UK and USA. Her work is held in private collections in France, Spain, UK, Australia and Australia. Her experimental work engages with the research, process and transformation of discarded everyday ephemera and disposable objects of little or no intrinsic value. Through the concept of ‘making something out of nothing’ Kopka seeks to draw attention to the throwaway nature of consumer society and question our perception of its value systems.
http://www.artcontemporary.co.uk/

Ann Kopka

You can find Ann Kopka's Small World Future inside the orange dispenser on Snowsfields (London Bridge) at #unsettledgallery No.4.

Melanie Ezra - #unsettledgallery No.1

Melanie Ezra is a Wales-based fine artist who works using her own original photographs to create beautiful and intricate collages. She often works in series, providing visual responses to external stimuli such as literature, science, and music. She considers herself a specialist in the deconstruction of time and the extension of the moment. Recent works have evolved her practice to include three dimensional mixed media art forms based on dolls, mannequins, and the human form. The theme is always deconstruction and reconstruction, whether this is through a photograph or through her mixed-media works. Ezra 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.
https://melanieezra.com/

Melanie Ezra

You can find Melanie Ezra's Small World Future sandwiched between a corrugated wall along Weston Street where it meets St Thomas Street (London Bridge) at #unsettledgallery No.1.

Goodbye everyone, and see you in the future.

Don't forget to send us your images for the Art of Caring exhibition (deadline 6th April) - More details HERE.

Year 2083 - Lesley Cartwright - #unsettledgallery

Lesley Cartwright, #unsettledgallery No.2

Small World Futures is a collection of 38 miniature sculptures depicting what life could look like in years to come. Each of these small artworks will be placed in public spaces (#unsettledgallery) around London Bridge. Every day throughout February we will be featuring one of these worlds here on the website. A writer will also use the world as inspiration to create something new and fresh, their words describing the shape of a new world.

Today we discover the Small World Future of....Lesley Cartwright
The year is 2083.....

It's a Charlie World! He keeps lookin' at me.
It's Charlie's World! It ain't easy him seeing me.
If I was him, I'd hate me too.
He watching me in park bay like it's 82!
I'd hate him but he's making me the news,
I'll shank you CAT!
That night in 82 the parking lot was stacked,
I grabbed my Shade and got my eyes stamped black.
I could barely walk around 'cos the city is pack.
I walked to the mezz and lit off some black spats - BAP! BAP! BAP!
Dead cats, tired of gettin' spied on by mean cats.
I'd hate to be a wrong kid, but now you seen my tru-light?
I know you have, 'cos your eyes are ticking like a hitbomb!
My head lit more than Tom Tom!
These scenes, I run these.
I need the hide 'n shout "Stop looking at me Dummy!"

Ed Arantus

Lesley Cartwright

You can find Lesley Cartwright's Small World Future at #unsettledgallery No.2, beside a downpipe on Melior Street and next to the Horseshoe Inn. If you can find it then you can take it home, or perhaps you will leave it for someone else to discover.

Lesley Cartwright was born in Liverpool but later moved to Essex to run a Hostel for homeless teenagers. She made her name in the commercial graphic field and music photography until she developed MS and now paints portraits from her Billericay studio. Cartwright is a multitalented artist who is not bound by genre nor convention. The work you see here is an extension of a fabulous Pokémon Go project where she knitted small versions of Pokémon characters and left them in public places for collectors to find. Cartwright has been exhibiting with CollectConnect since the Cardboard City exhibition in 2013.
https://twitter.com/ley9

Ed Arantus is no stranger to art and writing, he first published his work in the Censored Zine (July 2010) and has exhibited his work ever since at venues like the Contemporary Arts Research Unit in Oxford (2014). Last year he exhibited his poem 'Google If' at the Museum of Futures as part of the Enemies Project.
http://edarantus.blogspot.co.uk/

Year 3015 - Lesley Cartwright - Small World Futures

Lesley Cartwright, #unsettledgallery No.8

Small World Futures is a collection of 38 miniature sculptures depicting what life could look like in years to come. Each of these small artworks will be placed in public spaces (#unsettledgallery) around London Bridge. Every day throughout February we will be featuring one of these worlds here on the website. A writer will also use the world as inspiration to create something new and fresh, their words describing the shape of a new world.

Lesley Cartwright, #unsettledgallery No.8

Today we discover the Small World Future of....Lesley Cartwright
The year is 3015.....

Stitched

After the Revolution was put down
They unpicked us,
Unravelled our stitches
between taut fingers,
Their scissor tongues
snapping –
One by one
the threads that bound us
Fell to our feet, unwound,
Severed tangle of loose ends,
dangling the prize
Of Freedom.

Click. Clack.
We come back
Fighting,
Stitch by stitch
and row by row,
Rebuild our silvered spires,
stabbing in the static
throb of rain,
Through every hole
we glimpse the starlight,
Knotting our walls,
Higher and higher –
Our hearts needles,
Our resolution sharp.

Rebecca Lowe

Lesley Cartwright

You can find Lesley Cartwright's Small World Future behind the Greenwood Theatre on Snowsfields, London Bridge, #unsettledgallery No.8. If you can find it then you can take it home, or perhaps you will leave it for someone else to discover.

Lesley Cartwright was born in Liverpool but later moved to Essex to run a Hostel for homeless teenagers. She made her name in the commercial graphic field and music photography until she developed MS and now paints portraits from her Billericay studio. Cartwright is a multitalented artist who is not bound by genre nor convention. The work you see here is an extension of a fabulous Pokémon Go project where she knitted small versions of Pokémon characters and left them in public places for collectors to find. Cartwright has been exhibiting with CollectConnect since the Cardboard City exhibition in 2013.

https://twitter.com/ley9

Rebecca Lowe

Rebecca Lowe is a Wales-based writer, editor and performance poet. She has been featured on BBC Radio 4's Poetry Workshop, and her work has appeared in anthologies including Bristol Poetry Can, Red Poets, Blackheath Countercultural Review, and Three Drops from a Cauldron, an anthology of poetry based on folklore and myth. She also plays hammered dulcimer and zither, which she sometimes incorporates into her performances.

http://www.writerscafe.org/BeckyLowe
http://swanmedia.wix.com/copywriter-cv
https://dizzysheep.livejournal.com/

Melanie Ezra & Lesley Cartwright - Bridging the gap

Lesley Cartwright

Today the artworks from the Cardboard City exhibition are hidden away, the first from Lesley Cartwright (above) is under the arches of Cannon St Bridge, beside the legendary Clink Prison. Our second offering is snuggled down in a phone box atop Southwark Bridge where Swansea Superblogger, Melanie Ezra, is calling collect.

Calling Melanie Ezra

Although Ezra has been exhibiting with us for a relatively short time she has made a noticeable impact on our artistic landscape. Never one to let geography get in the way, she can often be found traversing from her home in Wales to the south east of England, all in the name of Art.

Melanie Ezra
Open

At heart she is a photo-artist and printmaker who works using collage by deconstructing her own original, previously unpublished, photographs. Her collages and prints challenge ideas on truth and memory, and ultimately question the veracity of the nature of the way we record Time.



Melanie Ezra - Blind Eye

Even though Ezra's work has been exhibited around the world in these few short years it is on her own doorstep where her enthusiasm is most keenly felt. We have seen the benefit recently with more and more Swansea artists participating in our exhibitions. She understands our ethos at CollectConnect, recently she responded to our exhibition brief with a piece on her blog,

"Art should not be elitist and exclusive. This exhibition is about restoring an imbalance and giving the right of inclusivity to anybody and everybody who wants it. These little artworks in their throwaway homes will be there for everybody regardless of the glittering chaos that takes place around them in the build up to Christmas."

Lesley Cartwright - Cardboard City

Lesley Cartwright is a new artist in our ranks but one I'm really happy to get acquainted with. She was born in Liverpool but later moved to Essex to run a Hostel for homeless teenagers. She made her name in the commercial graphic field and music photography until she developed MS and now paints portraits from her Billericay studio.

Cartwright has had first hand experience, unlike many of us, as she was homeless with a small child in her twenties. Her lifeline was a live-in job at the aforementioned hostel so she feels a resonance with the exhibition's theme of 'Together Alone'. Lets hope she will be a regular contributor to our exhibitions and that she'll never be cast adrift again, at least not artistically.

AL.