Natalie Low (with Ed Arantus) - 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.

Today is our penultimate artwork from the Pink Tardis Gallery and we bring you a knitted sculpture by artist Natalie Low. Natalie's mysterious planet-like mobile slowly rotates to reveal it's two sides with motifs reminiscent of growth and clouds.

Our writer today is the conceptual artist Ed Arantus who provides the words to accompany Natalie's artwork.

Natalie Low

Black Sun 

I realised I would never know until I turned out the light

The faintest idea in the bulb afterglow

When it wants to die, where does the Sun go

 

Appreciating what was good after it had gone

I regret your faint memory on flickering eye

Dead or alive, where do our dreams fly

 

Before it was lost in that frail waking haze,

I knew that I saw you, and then I forgot

Lights on, lights off, the haves and have nots

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).

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

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/

Bryan Benge (with Natalie Low) - Flight Exhibition

 

Bryan Benge

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.

Today, as we hang on the fulcrum of the Equinox, a moment of balance between night and day we have Bryan's four-winged syringe-plane to contend with. What strange dosage or titration might result?

 

Today's words are provided by Natalie Low

FEAR OF FLYING

As a child, there were two explanations for flight,
And the first, the best one was magic.

Pixie dust, fairies, broomsticks and carpets.

Proof from butterflies and fireflies. Magic.

As I became convinced of my own omnipotence,

I developed a second theory: power.

Girl power, firepower, willpower. I knew

If I ran fast enough, eventually I would take off.

And that’s how those early planes looked:

Wheeling around, gradually leaving the ground.

Made of elastic bands, toothpicks and leftovers,

But bird-like and easier to believe in.

Now I know landing is just controlled crashing.

It doesn’t help. Up in the clouds in this metal box,

There’s no logic. I’m back to magic to console:

I’m riding the back of a giant steel butterfly,
Counting and crossing rituals to keep us all up.

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Bryan Benge  explores the digital art medium, his work draws upon autobiography, family history and cultural icons from his past to explore visual memory and re-positioning of the past. Walter Benjamin observes in a Berlin Childhood , around 1900 “Memory is not an instrument for surveying the past but its theater.” https://www.bryanbenge.co.uk/

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

Chris Brown (with Natalie Low)- 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.

Chris Brown

Today we feature Collect Connect stalwart Chris Brown. Chris' mini sculpture hangs from a metal chain with its own legend and a Moment Mori nestled under an astronaut. Perhaps a reminder of the dangers of flights of fancy or of the necessity of flight in the face of real danger.

The words for Chris' sculpture are provided by long time and much loved Collect Connect contributor Natalie Low.

FRANZ REICHELT

Pre-soar, one thing -

Do you ever know?

That plumb line could

Signal up or down.

We think we fly

Till we hit the ground.

In dreams afloat,

I paddle through air,

And wake to see

You there on the brink.

Doubt hides on the

Dark side of your face.

Do you recall

When you glance behind?

Chris Brown is an artist, art therapist, publisher, educator and editor. He lives high up in the sky on the edge of the City of London.

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

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

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/

Bryan Benge (with Natalie Low) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Bryan Benge

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. 

Bryan Benge

They live among us! We are surrounded by Bryan Benge's art invasion. Bryan has been among us here at CollectConnect since the start of our public art adventure. Today his small art army leave their calling cards on the streets of the UK, watch out, they have arrived! Natalie Low is keeping tabs on their movements, read her story below.

Bryan Benge

Our first missions were to save the pollinators, the clothed and naked snails, and the soft pink serpents. 

At night, the Master prayed and murmured to the silver-framed lithograph of his cloaked hero. 

He mused and philosophised with us. Once he explained the significance of the wine glass made of wood: “A glass made of wood may still be a glass.”

The robot twins (non-identical) and I would have followed Master anywhere. 

But by the last mission, to claim the red tower, he had grown troubled and quiet. No matter how many we saved, the monster-birds would always snatch them up in their mouths and into the sky. Our dwellings were repeatedly demolished by the walking giants, each demolition squashing his heart as well.

We scaled the red tower, with the support of our flotsam flotilla, although I could not plant our flag in its impenetrable shiny surface.

“The tower is ours, Master,” I cried.

But he was looking away from me, and I could not see his face.  “How many more red towers are there? How vast is this world?”

Our night of triumph was instead subdued and despondent.

I lay my head in his lap, curling my tail around his hand.

“You are too good for this world, Master.”

He shook his head. “I am too small for this world.”

“Your ambitions are great.”

“My ambitions are too great for my size.”

The next morning he had gone, the dew of his footprints already disappearing under the warmth of the blue day.

We continue our work, moving paper boulders to the side of the road, claiming new towers and righting inverted bugs.

But in truth our leaderless band of ill-assorts is heartsore and weary, our spirit decapitated. Without the Master, we have grown inch-high and inconsequential.

Each night I howl to the moon: Where are you, Master? 

Master, under you we were mile-high heroes with noble purpose! Return so we can continue our endeavours and change the world! 

Come back, Master! We will be waiting!

Natalie Low

Bryan Benge

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Bryan Benge explores the digital art medium, his work draws upon autobiography, family history and cultural icons from his past to explore visual memory and re-positioning of the past. Walter Benjamin observes in a Berlin Childhood , around 1900 “Memory is not an instrument for surveying the past but its theater.”

https://www.bryanbenge.co.uk/

Natalie Low is a creative knitter, stitcher and quilter. She lives in London, UK with her charming family. She has published two chapbooks Dementia (2015) and recently School Run (2017).

Bryan Benge

Bryan Benge

Bryan Benge

Bryan Benge

Stella Tripp 2 (with Natalie Low) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

 

Stella Tripp

Welcome to Sets, Series and Ensembles, an exhibition of art in public places. Accompanying each public art placement is a 'First Response' for you to read here on the website. As artists and writers we are constantly collecting ideas, objects, themes, and sentiments. We are often searching for the connections and narratives that help us understand both our lives and our art. 

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

Stella Tripp

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

Natalie Low

Stella Tripp

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Born in Taunton, Somerset, Stella Tripp travelled to her current home in Devon, a very long way round. After a few years in Israel, Stella returned to Taunton to do a foundation course; then on to Portsmouth (BA Hons Fine Art); a few years in London; three in the USA (MA Fine Art; MFA) and a year in Cornwall, before settling in Exeter. Stella works in a wide variety of media, crossing boundaries between drawing, painting and sculpture.
www.stellatripp.co.uk

Natalie Low is a creative knitter, stitcher and quilter. She lives in London, UK with her charming family. She has published two chapbooks Dementia (2015) and recently School Run (2017).

Chris Brown - Translocation 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.

Chris Brown's wandering cowboy waits at a bus stop in Hampton Hill, he doesn't dream of the American frontier but of travelling to Kirkwall, the home of the finest ginger ale in Scotland. Natalie Low composes a ditty for our rhinestone hero, or should it be for our bovine hero. Read it below, or if you are in good voice, sing it out loud.

Chris Brown

First Responder: Natalie Low

(There are cowboy versions of  ‘My bonny lies over the ocean‘. Here is a boycow version.)

My Boycow lies under the peat gley,
My Boycow lies far from the sea,
My Boycow lies under the peat gley,
Oh, rescue my Boycow from me.

[Chorus]

Rescue, rescue,
Oh, rescue my Boycow from me, from me.
Rescue, rescue,
Oh, rescue my Boycow from me.

Oh, dig the ground under the peat gley,
Oh, dig the ground far from the sea,
Oh, dig the ground under the peat gley,
And rescue my Boycow from me.

[Repeat Chorus]

Today as I walk by the kirk wall,
To hide in the standing stones near,
Today as I walk by the kirk wall,
I wish that my Boycow was here.

[Repeat chorus]

They're digging the ground in the peat gley,
They're digging away from the sea,
They're digging the ground in the peat gley,
To rescue my Boycow from me.

[Repeat Chorus]

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Chris Brown is an artist, author, editor and art therapist living amongst skyscrapers and regularly exploring the wilder landscapes of the United Kingdom.

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).

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).

Carolyn Kruger - 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.

Our first artwork comes from Carolyn Kruger, a piece of her jigsaw dangles down, inviting Totteridge walkers to complete it. Or perhaps the passers-by like that it's incomplete. A gentle reminder of something they must remember, or something lost, that needs to found.

Carolyn Kruger

 

First Responder: Natalie Low

Missing piece, an incomplete

Missing peace, beat no retreat

Missing peas, pulse ate in beat

(Words are sweet and neat)

Missing Peke, a lack of dog,

Missing peak, high level fog,

Missing peek, nil eyes agog,

(Words as analogues) 

Missing pee, a urine freeze 

Missing peat, spare that bog please

Missing pizza, zero cheese

(Words please, seize and tease)

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

Carolyn Kruger

Carolyn is an art psychotherapist and communications designer. For many years, the focus of her work has been supporting people from migrant and refugee backgrounds. She currently lives in Berlin, Germany.

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).

Alertism - Julia Rose Lewis

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.

And breathe! Today we take a pause to consider a message that unfolds more slowly than some we've read during the exhibition, and we're appreciating it, after 10 days of being on full alert here at CollectConnect HQ. Julia Rose Lewis asks us to be alert, to awaken our senses, to be aware of the environment around us. We have had the pleasure of exhibiting Julia's artwork before at the Art of Caring and her subject matter for Alertism is one of our favourites too, trees. Julia's First Responder is Natalie Low, who sent out her own alert earlier in the exhibition. Read them both below.

First Responder: Natalie Low

yes okay 

i will do what i think you are asking me to

go out from the house and into the dark

stand barefoot in the grass

feel your face, tear-tracked and memory-stained

regard the new stars

and wait until i hear

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Julia Rose Lewis is a writer and academic. Her research draws on her background in the natural sciences, philosophy of science, and medicine in order to create experimental and hybrid works. She is interested in digital and face-to-face collaborative projects. She has written or performed with poets, scientists, and chefs in Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. She has published two full length collections, Phenomenology of the Feral (KFS Press) and Strays (co-author James Miller, HVTN Press). As well as a number of excellent chapbooks and pamphlets.

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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).

Alertism - Natalie Low

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.

Natalie Low has many strings to her bow, embracing many of the strange and wonderful artistic formats that CollectConnect has thrown her way. A highlight of her street art career so far would be her delicate crocheted sculpture for the Small World Futures exhibition in 2018. Here are her words accompanied by a response from Ana Pascual Veraart. Thank you Ana.

Natalie Low

First Responder: Ana Pascual Veraart

The copy leans towards a positive, calming message. It does promote hopefulness and caution, but does not deliver substantial guidance, which during a state of alert is not only helpful to individuals, but necessary.
Specific instructions and guidance aid individuals in a sense of control and purpose. The alert stage is the optimum time to reinforce needed behavior in preparation for emergencies.
For example, “Stock up on things you think are important.” should be more specific and expanded with examples. Alerts may cause people to panic.  Having a quick list of examples helps prompt thinking.
Well done on addressing state of mind and delivering ways to calm, center, and focus.

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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).

Ana Pascual Veraart brings a fresh perspective to this exhibition from the other side of the Atlantic. The most recent Test Alert in the United States was just a few days ago on the 3rd October 2023. The test was organised by Federal Emergency Management Agency and  assessed two alert systems: the emergency alert system (EAS), which plays on TV and radio, and the wireless emergency alert (WEA).

Amilia Graham - groving / Acts of Resistance

Amilia Graham's cast silicone End of Body marks the junction between Northgate Street and Mustow Street. Two writers, Natalie Low and Phil Barrett, have responded to the piece.

Road-Fever
 
I must down to the motorway, to lie on the tarmac stretch
With the willowherb and the groundsel weed and the pinky-purple vetch.
And all I ask is another night with the sound of the engines baying
And the lights’ smear and the horns’ blare and the radios playing.
 
I must down to the roads again, to walk the crazing lines,
And all I ask is to resurrect and stand the fallen signs:
Yellow diamonds, circles of blue and red triangles,
Now-Delphic marks lying beneath ivy’s strangle.
 
I must down to the roads again, to sit in the rusting wrecks,
And long again for the window’s rush of air upon my neck.
And all I ask is the slap of speed, and the road fast disappearing,
And my hands on the wheel as I overtake, and my destination nearing.

​Natalie Low

Stating the bleedin' obvious

That’s a nice car.
That’s a nice car.

That’s an ice car!

Not mini people
know that –
Broom, Broom!

It’s a shadow,
it’s a shadow,

it’s shadow

more substantial
than it is itself.

Can it survive the heat
of Britain in the 21stcentury?
The heat
of a hot summer’s day? –
a nice car like that?

It’s very dinky.
Just right for a drinky?
Just right for a nice drinky
Is it ice for a nice drinky?
Nice for an ice drinky?

I’ll drink to that!

Is it ice
for a reason?
Or ice
for the season?

It’s not ice,
it’s resin.
It’s not nice
it’s resin.

And no longer British
but German –
not British!
that’s germane.

Is it just another thing
that’s melting away?
No longer British –
even by name?

Is it no longer British?
That’s a shame.

It’s like the ghost of itself,
as we are like the ghosts
of what we’ve been.

I’ll drink to that!

​Phil Barrett

Amilia Graham is interested in the way capitalism informs relationships between humans and nature. She works across all different mediums, but is primarily drawn to time-based practices such as writing and film. Her research draws from psychoanalysis, film theory, feminism and Marxism. She has completed a foundation in art and design at Central St Martins and will soon begin a degree in fine art and history of art at Goldsmiths. See www.amiliagraham.uk and Twitter @AmiliaGraham

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 is a regular contributor to CollectConnect exhibitions, both as a writer and artist/maker.

​Phill Barrett taught art for 27 years, then retired to his home county of Norfolk where he concentrates on writing. He teaches creative writing, in schools and libraries across North Norfolk. He has won prizes and commendations in national competitions, and has been published in anthologies including In Protest: 150 poems for Human Rights (2013), Word Aid Anthologies Did I Tell You? (2010), and Not Only The Dark (2011), the Ink, Sweat and Tears webzine, and Poems in the Waiting Room in 2016 and 2019. In January 2017 he published a book of poems, Writing Me, about growing-up. ​​

Simon Brewster - groving / Acts of Resistance

This Sunday an angel (?) alighted in a cool spot at the cathedral in Bury St Edmunds - with temperatures reaching 30 degrees who can blame him. Simon Brewster's miniature sculpture has elicited two quite different responses from writers Natalie Low and Phil Barrett. 

The dissenters’ prayer
Lord,
Let me remember, first, that you desire us to question and it is never wrong to disagree.
You are not pleased when we meekly accept and choke on our doubts.
You are pleased when we examine all sides in coolness and rationality.
To be the advocatus diaboli, to question truth and lies with equal fervour, is honourable and essential.
Fear must never stop me challenging what is wrong, or questioning what is unclear.
Let me embrace my part in squabbles and stand-offs, however big or small.
It may be my fate as a dissenter to be hanged or feted,
And I may grieve that the strongest argument is not always the one best supported by the facts.
Give me the strength to hold to the higher purpose of finding a more robust, universal truth.
I may feel out of step, but everyone in step on a bridge will destroy it, and themselves.
Let me keep a part of difference in my heart, and remember that you put it there.
Amen

Natalie Low


Icarus on Liquorice
 
Here am I, 
sitting on top of the world, 
sitting on top
of a coal black, oil black world.
 
I guess I could just wing it –
an Icarus on Liquorice –
after all it takes all sorts
to make a world.
 
I’ve grown wings,
graceful, natural,
like curved and curling 
feathers or leaves,
of starched fabric.
 
Unlike Icarus 
they weren’t 
cobbled together
from paper, wax and string –
(cobbled 
the unfortunate word).
 
I’ve got purpose, a mission,
sitting here waiting, ready 
to be born again.
 
Not a mid-life crisis;
but a new present; 
like a butterfly, 
this is my moment 
to become
the me I know I am.

But I’m not taking any chances
as I sit here, 
an angel of my own making.
 
I’m my own idea of myself,
sensibly attired –
perhaps I have already become
what I am.
 
Waiting here on this
black cloud, a tub
of liquorice, perhaps a little smug –
I feel comfortable 
about this flying thing.
 
I’ve got all the gear, 
(Oh God, am I   
turning into 
a ventriloquist’s dummy?)
bought from a Biggles 
and Ginger outfitters, 
via correspondence, 
of course.
 
Kept ever since 
in the dressing-up box 
I call a wardrobe 
under the bed,
waiting all these years 
for the right moment 
for an outing. Well, 
I’m well and truly ‘outed’ now, 
flying by the seat of my pants,
but carefully.

Yet these wings 
are the result of
inspiration 
not perspiration –
part organic, part mission – 
to give a gentle dusting 
to the ceiling of the world.

Phil Barrett

Simon Brewster has an MA in Fine Art from Central St Martins College of Art & Design. He exhibits widely, including solo shows at W3 Gallery, Exposure Gallery, Pitzhanger Manor and the Royal Institute in London. This year he has exhibited in Thought Atlas and Cabinet at Espacio Gallery in London. See www.simonbrewsterart.com and Instagram simonbrewster99

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 is a regular contributor to CollectConnect exhibitions, both as a writer and artist/maker. See Instagram nat.low

Phil Barrett ​