Simon Brewster - groving / Acts of Resistance

Simon Brewster's second artwork contrasts with another figurative sculpture in the vicinity of the cathedral, eliciting an intriguing response from Tim Welton.

​Jessica blinked her eyes and tried to waken her senses. It wasn’t that she found the services in the Citadel boring; on the contrary she mostly looked forward to the rambling stories read from the old brown leather book; but today she felt as if a fog was lying heavy in her head. The slow voice of the minister plodded on and showed no sign of being able to burn away the numbing haze, so Jessica resigned herself to drifting in the currents of the half-sung language; that strange vernacular that only the devout use. Ancient and arcane phrases, which sound familiar, but resist clear comprehension and so lend an impression of awe and solidity.

Today the congregation were being reminded of the story of the Sacrificial Council. One of the four cornerstones of the New Religion. She looked around the Citadel. There must be a statue or painting of it somewhere. There were in most Citadels. Her mother would have shuddered; she who never really appreciated the beauty of the five branched gibbet. She thought it was a gloomy image and she couldn’t understand why a religion could be based on something so ghoulish. Jessica understood. Every religion has a dark core, the acknowledgement and acceptance of which allows us to see the beauty in the world. She smiled at the memory of the countless times she had won that particular argument with her mother; and then frowned as she momentarily doubted whether the conviction was actually her own or whether it had been placed there during the long Citadel study classes.

Her eyes fell on the lower left chancel step. There it was. The statue with the blue core and copper branches and the disgraced Council in their traditional white hanging from the twining coil of the metal gallows tree.

She loved the name of the five council members. Tod, Rob, Slave, Bunter and Cray

But as she stared at the icon she was forced to blink her eyes again, although this time not to ward off her drowsiness but to check whether what she thought she saw was true. Why had she never noticed this before? She knew the tale by heart. How the five council members had taken the town to the brink of destruction;  how five men had used their power and position to plunder the copper from beneath the town for their own profit leaving the inhabitants broken and reeling; but also how five men, when confronted with their transgression, chose this unique and honourable form of mutual sacrifice to show penance to their wronged people.

She was sure that she had looked before at the small but perfect representation of the story, which now stood on the lower left chancel steps. But what she had never noticed was that here, one of the disgraced men had been replaced by a woman…

Tim Welton


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

Tim Welton is a theatre practitioner who, as an actor and director has worked on numerous productions including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Royal National Theatre) London Road (Royal National Theatre) Dancing at Lughnasa (Garrick Theatre) and Cabaret (Lyric and Savoy Theatre and National Tours).

He has written for theatre (Carnival UK) and online digital media (BBC Radio Jam) and is currently developing and writing new musical commissions with Three Pin Productions, the brainchild of West End Performer Ruthie Henshall and Musical Director Paul Schofield

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 ​

Groving Exhibition in Bury St Edmunds

This summer we're teaming up with Barbara Dougan at Grove Projects in Bury St Edmunds. Barbara  contributed to our Love Token's and Bad Pennies exhibition in the Spring of 2019 and she is growing the same format in the fertile arts ground of East Anglia from the 20th August to 5th September.

Groving is a new annual summer exhibition that explores aspects of Bury St Edmunds through specially commissioned works of art placed in public. People who come across the work can enjoy it, leave it for other people to see, or take it home. The theme this year is Acts of Resistance. Writers have been commissioned to write about the artworks, and the project will be documented on the Grove Project Blog and here at CollectConnect. 

Artists exhibiting are Alban Low, Alison Carlier, Amilia Graham, Bryan Benge, Chris Brown, Dean Reddick, Deborah Pipe, Eskild Beck, Jacquie Campbell, Julia Manheim, Sarah Sabin and Simon Brewster. They have made 17 new works of art - each less than 5cm x 5cm - which will be put out on the streets of Bury St Edmunds. The writers Astra Papachristodoulou, Amilia Graham, Ed Arantus, Kevin Acott, Lynda Turbet, Lynn Whitehead, Phil Barrett, Natalie Low, Sue Burge and Tim Welton are responding to the artworks. 

Simon Brewster - Love Tokens and Bad Pennies

Simon Brewster

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 - Simon Brewster / Words - Natalie Low

D. I. S. C. O.  A. L. L. E. G. O. R. Y.

I’m partying disco-style, funkin the floor,

Such good times and all of the people want more.

The man in the mirror is dancin real fine,

His hips are the devil’s, the smile is all mine.

No stopping me now on this soul train it seems,

For there on the floor is the girl of my dreams.

Blame my boogie wonderland, super sexy,

But it ain't no surprise when she gets down with me.

I’m groovin and grindin, I’m drivin her wild,

“You’re usin me up boy”, she says with a smile,

“Wearin my bell out, hot stuff, lovin best,

You’d love even better in this tank-top vest.”

On goes the vest and I’m so Daddy cool

As cool as you can be in lurex-rich wool

That chill’d jerky rhythm is something I’ve got

But the vest makes my heart and my body red hot.

My three-times-a-lady ain’t happy at that

And now she freak-styles me a super-brimmed hat.

But wearing this hat as I turn round the beat

Oops upside my head means I can’t see my feet.

My woman is taking me back to my roots

So now I am wearing some gold platform boots.

I feel mighty tall like a god in a cloud

But the heels leave me trippin and stumblin around.

She’s screaming at me to strut my funky stuff

But with vest, hat and boots on, the going is tough.

And there in the mirror now what do I see?

A fool that can’t dance and that don't look like me.

Simon Brewster's Penny in Wood Street

Simon's Penny sits atop a high wall next to the railway bridge outside Wood Street Station. Wood Street Station in Walthamstow is on the Chingford to Liverpool Street Line. The train line passes through Walthamstow Central and then across Hackney Marshes, Hackney Downs and Bethnal Green. The railway bridge outside Wood Street Station has its own mini eco system provided by the dark and damp conditions and the generous application of pigeon fertiliser.

Simon Brewster Since completing an Arts residency at Canary Wharf last year, Simon’s Fine Art practice has begun to make more overt references to political and environmental issues. The series of works made over the past year or two are small and intimate, yet aspire to evoke dark themes such as slavery, corporate capitalism and systems of power and control. Simon is interested in notions of Art as a commodity. He celebrates qualities such as impermanence and fragility and often uses found, appropriated or degraded raw materials.

https://www.simonbrewsterart.com/

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

Simon Brewster - Love Tokens and Bad Pennies

Simon Brewster-Love Token or 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 - Simon Brewster / Words -  Dean Reddick

Initially we thought they were little worms or maggots sticking up out of the penny. 

Thoughts of corruption and putrefaction swarmed our eager minds.
Then we noticed they were legs, marching round and round so that the penny slowly span on the spot, one revolution each century, or thereabouts.
The heads were on the flip side and lived upside-down their whole lives, unaware of the ceaseless marching of their lower bodies. 

We looked down at our legs which seemed quite still as the world span round. 

Simon Brewster

Simon's penny can be found on a beautiful cube of oak, part of the mini holland scheme in Walthamstow. The oak cube serves as a bench, an impromptu table and plinth and as part of controversial road calming measures aimed at increasing cycle use and deterring car use. 

Simon's art work on the oak block

 at the #unsettledgallery Walthamstow

Simon Brewster - 

Since completing an Arts residency at Canary Wharf last year, Simon’s Fine Art practice has begun to make more overt references to political and environmental issues.

The series of works made over the past year or two are small and intimate, yet aspire to evoke dark themes such as slavery, corporate capitalism and systems of power and control. 

Simon is interested in notions of Art as a commodity. He celebrates qualities such as impermanence and fragility and often uses found, appropriated or degraded raw materials.

https://www.simonbrewsterart.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 HERE.