Last Day - Love Tokens and Bad Pennies

Thank you to everyone who has supported our Love Tokens and Bad Pennies exhibition. From artists to writers, and not forgetting all of you who have been out looking for artworks and getting involved online. After placing artworks out on the streets for 30 days we reach the end of the exhibition. Today we are posting the final artworks, some have written pieces to accompany them and some exist on their own. We will try and write an update in the next few weeks, visiting some of the locations and see if the artworks still rest in the #unsettledgallery spaces.

The next exhibition is the Art of Caring at St George's Hospital in May (and then onto St Pancras Hospital in July). The deadline is 7th April 2019 so please send in your artwork (It's free to enter) and support the nurses, carers and the NHS. http://collectconnect.blogspot.com/p/submit.html

Tracy Boness - #unsettledgallery No.8, London Bridge

Art - Tracy Boness / Words -  Francesca Albini

Precious and frayed,

Tangled and free,

Caught in a net,

Sparkling diamonds,

Our love

Eternal

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Melanie Honebone

Art - Melanie Honebone / Words - Ed Arantus 

That knot in the pine brow

A cut near the front eye

The moon is high; from sides of the world where nightmares grow

You made all my fears and,

You held them in raptures

But there's no magic without death you said

You are a belief, short rotting

A prophecy dying on a dull mind

You can save your second coming,

I'm not the kind you need to pray for

Now I know where we went wrong

Growing green branches from dead wood

And I still swear that you can’t save me

Even when push, came to push, came to shove

Well you can swallow that sweet breath baby,

Until your death is the magic of love.

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Stella Tripp

Art - Stella Tripp / Words - Kevin Acott

One World

People have asked me what Nelson would think about Trump and all the hate swirling across the earth. Sometimes I tell them they should listen to The Three Great Alabama Icons by Drive-By Truckers. Sometimes I tell them Nina accused Nelson once of being 'no better than the rest of your people'. Sometimes I ask them why they really want to know.

The first and last interview I did with Nelson, he was drunk, drunker even than other people had led me to expect. We were in his room in some crappy hotel in Mile End and at one point he started talking about desire and Muddy Waters and - of all people - Bertrand Russell. He said Russell was convinced desire dictated everything we did, good and bad. To Nelson, Russell’s ‘desire’ wasn't about sex. He meant, instead, that even when we try to do good, it's because of desire: our desire to possess, to compete and overcome other people, to look good in the eyes of the world, to have power over ourselves, others, the whole world. To become, ultimately, God.

He told me all this and I listened and tried to follow and tried to make notes and then I watched him tip gently back onto the bed and start snoring.

So. We want the best for others because we want to become God. Nelson's 'Kissinger Blues' was, I'd always thought, simply about how there's something evil in each of us, a Kissinger, a Hitler, a Trump. But in that East End hotel, I suddenly realised it wasn't that straightforward: have a look at/listen to the YouTube video of Nelson playing it at Glastonbury in '75 and the extra, rambling verses and see what he does with the song he'd once vowed never to play again: he's saying (I think) that by pretending to have good motives for being good, rather than accepting the universality of desire, of egocentricity, we not only miss the point, we find ourselves unable to truly fight racism, hate, division. I could tell you I'm writing this purely because I want to convince you of the genius of Chopsticks Nelson and help preserve his memory. But I also want to accrue, to possess, I also want you to respect me and give me power and a way of being, however temporary, that makes me feel good. And - if we can both accept that – we can eventually find peace and love and the joy of singing a single, shared song. 

From the epilogue to 'Chopsticks Nelson: A Southern Life' by Kevin Acott (2019).

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Dean Reddick

Art - Dean Reddick /  Placement - Walthamstow

To see all the posts from this exhibition in one thread then click here - http://collectconnect.blogspot.com/search/label/Love%20Tokens%20and%20Bad%20Pennies

Francesca Albini - Love Tokens and Bad Pennies

Francesca Albini

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 - Francesca Albini / Words - Ed Arantus

Her beautiful silver skin,

the light a moon could spark off

I found her lying round

I fell in love with the way she shone

next time I see her I’ll make her mine

leave me broke

take my breath

away and keep it close

a dream of Penny

Francesca Albini

Francesca's artwork sits on a  brick wall at #unsettledgallery No.3 near London Bridge. The #unsettledgallery is a gallery which includes, railings and gates, as well as spaces between bricks, in gullies and beside drainpipes - basically anywhere an artwork can rest and be seen by the public. Placing original artworks in these everyday public spaces sharpens our appreciation of our environment and brings into focus the context of the art object.

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/

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/

Don't forget to submit to our next exhibition. The Art of Caring is accepting submission until the 7th

April 2019. More at http://collectconnect.blogspot.com/p/submit.html

Barbara Dougan - Love Tokens and Bad Pennies

Barbara Dougan Love Token

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 - Barbara Dougan / Words - Dean Reddick

MotherDaughter

28 Slides, magnified x1000.
28 views through a telescope to see into the past.

Close-up crumbs breed across the disc, each one a mote, vital, discarded.
Or spread across light-years, painting a galaxy.

Zoomed in, great chunks of toast that could not be managed.
Or asteroids tumbling, silently, forever.

Intimate, the eye close to the bacteria
and beyond reach black holes, coloured dwarfs, wait to go supernova.

Clear crystals of chemicals sparkle, star-like.
Spilt liquids are dust clouds, congealing with gravity.

Two crusts dance, touching and spinning.

28 days, one every morning.

A film created by Barbara Dougan accompanies this artwork

You can find Barbara's art work on a strange derelict box in Wood Street, Walthamstow. These broken remnants of street utilities can be found throughout our villages, towns and cities, hinting at some recent past but no longer functional.

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. 

Barbara's film, waiting to be collected in Walthamstow 

An interest in the environment informs Barbara Dougan's work, along with an ongoing exploration of constraint, change and adaptation. For two years she collaborated with choreographer Darren Ellis and dancer Hannah Kidd, leading to films Tea Break and Living Room, and a participatory work Unentitled: channel your angst in the Edwardian Cloakrooms in Bristol. Currently she is collaborating with fellow artist Henry Driver. They are artists-in-residence with Collusion, developing TEO for a showcase which will bring together all the innovative interdisciplinary work commissioned from artists. Work will be installed at Cambridge Leisure Park from 5 - 14 April 2019 with the public launch on 5 April. 

http://www.barbaradougan.com

Dean Reddick is an artist, an art therapist, occasional lecturer and editor on the Art Therapy Journal ATOL. He has a small studio space at his home in Walthamstow where he works on sculptures and drawings often based on his fascination with birds and trees.  

Don't forget to submit to our next exhibition. The Art of Caring is accepting submission until the 7th

April 2019. More at http://collectconnect.blogspot.com/p/submit.html

Bryan Benge - Love Tokens and Bad Pennies

Bryan Benge - #unsettledgallery in Walthamstow

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 - Bryan Benge / Words -  Natalie Low

If my heart was a badge, I’d pin it on my sleeve.

Not just through my sleeve, but through my arm-skin too.

Yap! It would hurt. And bleed too probably.

But that would be alright cos I’m doing it for YOU.

If my heart was a trolley token, I'd get out a double-size one,

And we'd never give that baby back.

Checkitout! I'd fill it up to the brim

With forever groceries and stuff for YOU

If my heart was a coin, I’d push it right in your slot,

And choose the best chocolate bar in the machine.

Ker-lunk! I’d reach right up inside if I had to,

And then I would unwrap it and give it to YOU.

If my heart was a button, I’d fasten it up tight,

(there”d be more than one) all the way up to your chin.

Uhuh-uhuh! But I'd undo the top one to let you breathe,

That's the kind of thing I do for YOU.

You don’t ask me to do these things.

I do them in SPITE of you not asking me to

And that’s love!

Bryan Benge

Bryan's Love Token rests gently on a wooden bench in Walthamstow. Perhaps it has slipped out of a pocket or a child has dropped it, has love been lost forever. Or are we looking at it the wrong way round, perhaps someone is going to be lucky enough to find love today. 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. 

Bryan Benge is a practising artist, currently exploring digital media in his Fine Art practice.
He has always been an exhibiting artist. In 1992 he became a Member of The London Group.
Bryan's first involvement with CollectConnect was at the Open Fridge Gallery 89 in March 2010. Since then he has enjoyed working alongside his colleagues Alban, Dean and Stuart.
The philosophy of CollectConnect sits alongside his belief that creativity and all its outcomes need to be encouraged and supported for all ages and backgrounds, that is without sanctions of selection or application of a personalised aesthetic.  To enable artists opportunities to exhibit their work, free from barriers and gatekeepers.
From all the CollectConnect collaborations the one that stands out most for Bryan was CollectConnect’s collaboration with the Foundation students at the University for the Creative Arts, Surrey (UCA). Bryan worked for 15 Years as a Senior Lecturer/Course Leader where he managed the Foundation course at UCA.
During 2013 the students produced artworks  which were reproduced in the Future Bound book. This gave these young students exposure for their artwork for the first time outside academia. To this day some of the students are in contact with his colleague Alban encouraged by that collective experience.
http://bryanbenge.co.uk

Natalie Low enjoys putting words on paper and believes that everyone has a book of some sort inside them. She has published two chapbooks, Dementia (2015) and School Run (2017). She also appears in this exhibition as an artist/maker.

Don't forget to submit to our next exhibition. The Art of Caring is accepting submission until the 7th

April 2019. More at http://collectconnect.blogspot.com/p/submit.html

Debbie Chessell - Love Tokens and Bad Pennies

Debbie Chessell

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 -  Debbie Chessell / Words - Dean Reddick

It is a heavy thing, this locket, this lock.
Guardian of a gate to the other end
but without a key.
Jewel crusty and gaudy gold on the up side
you can feel the heat seeping through.
I clench it in my fist like brass knuckles
ready to swing at the would be Angels
who declare what love is.
They blind themselves and forget.

Love is the fire which we all dance around.

Debbie Chessell's Token at the #unsettledgallery Dogend site

Debbie's artwork nestles in a flowerbed at the Dogend site in the #unsettledgallery which includes, railings and gates, as well as spaces between bricks, in gullies and beside drainpipes - basically anywhere an artwork can rest and be seen by the public. These spaces change and evolve on a daily basis although some artworks survive for a longer period of time. 

Debbie Chessell is an exciting new artist breaking onto the public art scene. As a Kingston University student she launched a non-profit campaign on confronting rape culture that brought together groups of artists, activists and designers in a series of workshops, art exhibitions and publications. She is currently collaborating with Kingston Council running a drawing and painting course for the Centre of Community Development, which focuses on outreach with Kingston residents especially those from ethnic minority backgrounds. Speaking about her burgeoning career so far, Debbie said: "I have loved drawing and painting since I was a small child. My artworks have been exhibited across the UK and feature in international collections including the Suzzallo Library in Washington USA and St George's Hospital in Wimbledon London." 

www.debbiechessell.com 

Dean Reddick is an artist, an art therapist, occasional lecturer and editor on the Art Therapy Journal ATOL. He has a small studio space at his home in Walthamstow where he works on sculptures and drawings often based on his fascination with birds and trees.  

Don't forget to submit to our next exhibition. The Art of Caring is accepting submission until the 7th April 2019. More at http://collectconnect.blogspot.com/p/submit.html

Dean Reddick - Love Tokens and Bad Pennies

Dean Reddick 

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 -  Dean Reddick / Words - Ed Arantus

A boy with a coin turned bad in his hands

With wagers and hopes of sweet magazines

Chose a bet that flipped on the turn of a wish

No luck to the bottom, the world cast adrift

A girl in the depths as poor as a bird

Who climbed up her so high only she truly knows

Which eyes are for crying, these games that you play

Leave this place flying, lets cast away

The boy crammed the coin straight into the slot

Tossing his luck in the swell of the sea

You might walk on water, you might live for spin

Three cherries, a melon, this bird’s on the wing

Dean Reddick

You can find Dean's flesh coin on a communications box in Wood Street, 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. There are at least 2 amusements arcades/gambling houses in Walthamstow. Cosmic Casino at 2 Central Parade, Hoe Street and the Admiral Casino at 196 High St.

Dean Reddick is an artist, an art therapist, occasional lecturer and editor on the Art Therapy Journal ATOL. He has a small studio space at his home in Walthamstow where he works on sculptures and drawings often based on his fascination with birds and trees.  

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/

Don't forget to submit to our next exhibition. The Art of Caring is accepting submission until the 7th

April 2019. More at http://collectconnect.blogspot.com/p/submit.html

Stella Tripp - Love Tokens and Bad Pennies

Stella Tripp - Choose Love

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 - Stella Tripp / Words - Chopsticks Nelson
Choose Love?

One of the first songs I ever recorded was called 'Choose Love'. Twenty-three people bought a copy. I wrote it in a rickety, cold, optimistic shack up in a forest outside Asheboro, NC, back in the days when the hippies sometimes seemed to have the answer, back before the rips and anguishes of 'Nam and the insanities of Altamont and the 'we fucking knew its' of Watergate. I had nothing up there, nothing except a guitar I could never keep in tune, memories of Carla and San Francisco and what might have been, a couple of bottles of Eagle Rare, and a few cans of tuna. I lasted three days - three days! - but I got the song out of it and (as you probably know) I got Nina out of it. Win some, lose some.

‘Choose Love’ is a four-chorder: Gmaj7 - Bb13 - Ebmaj9 - Ab13. It didn't start that way, but that guitar had a mind of its own and those chords keep the thing pretty much mine, keeps it well away from anyone else.

Choose Love

I watch the long-hairs dance

Watch them prance, baby,

I watch them play at opposing

And supposing

And proposing

We should choose love.

I watch the rich kids play

Watch them lay, baby

Watch them trying to fuck

And trying to suck

And trying their luck and telling us all

We should choose love

Chorus

Ain't going to choose love, darling,

Not when there's fights to fight

Ain't going to choose love, honey,

Not when there's still wrong and right

I watch the flowing skirts spin

Watch them try to win, baby

Watch them twirl and laugh

Trying to change our path

And trying to make us all

Choose a new kind of love

I watch the kids shout at cops, baby,

Watch them wonder why

The Man can't listen

The Man won't listen

To flowers and pot and dreams and hope

Or choose a new kind of love.

Chorus

Ain't going to choose love, darling,

Not when there's fights to fight

Ain't going to choose love, honey,

Not when there's still wrong and right

Introduction: Chopsticks Nelson, in a letter to the author (1978).

Lyrics and music reproduced by kind permission of Sandra Nelson.

Stella Tripp

You can find Stella Trip's artwork outside Colvins in Walthamstow. Colvins is a DIY, ironmonger, wood cutting, paint mixing shop with some of the most knowledgeable staff in the business. In 1949 Colvins Ltd in Wood Street, Walthamstow was set up by an eponymously named businessman but now the popular hardware store is shutting its doors for a final time as numerous high street pressures becomes to much. Here at CollectConnect have always enjoyed exhibiting in urban public places, the high street and the shopping centres. They are evolving and fluid sites that benefitfrom the vibrancy of art and people to make them come alive.

Born in Somerset, Stella Tripp trained locally before attending Camberwell school of Arts and Crafts where she went on to lecture part-time. At the beginning of the eighties Stella travelled to America, Illinois where she developed much of her over arching themes and work practices, such as the decision to stop using rectangular stretched canvases and instead building makeshift constructions to paint on. These better reflected her situation and state of mind. She wrote a thesis exploring the nature of art by comparing art from different cultures and was excited by the possibilities that surface when exploring the nature of art in the light of cultural and societal conditioning: "things don’t have to be as they are; anything goes; anything is possible". Stella is a regular contributor to Collect Connect projects and first exhibited with us at the Lite Bite exhibition in 2011.

www.stellatripp.co.uk/

John 'Chopsticks' Nelson 

John 'Chopsticks' Nelson (February 14th, 1926 – July 13th, 1979) was an American blues singer, guitarist, actor and composer. Notoriously reclusive and hostile to both media and fans alike, Nelson remained a little-known but passionately-followed figure in the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia for much of his life, before becoming more widely known with the release of 'They Call Me Chopsticks' in 1976. 

Originally a backing singer and session guitarist, he contributed to many albums by other musicians, including Sonny Boy Williamson, The Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters.

Over the course of his career, Nelson's music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension, culminating in the controversial 1974 triple album, 'God, Allah and Yahweh' and live shows that became a focus for attacks by the Ku Klux Klan. 

Nelson remains one of the most influential - if least understood - bluesmen in music history. He died in a hunting accident in West Virginia the day after his fourth album entered the Billboard charts at Number Two in July, 1979.
https://twitter.com/ChopsticksNels1

Don't forget to submit to our next exhibition. The Art of Caring is accepting submission until the 7th April 2019. More at http://collectconnect.blogspot.com/p/submit.html