Collect Connect: Snowsfields

Showing posts with label Snowsfields. Show all posts

Saturday, 24 February 2018

Year 2035 - Bethany Murray - #smallworldfutures

Bethany Murray, Snowsfields, London, UK, #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.

Today we discover the Small World Future of.... Bethany Murray
The year is 2035....

The Point

He wandered the earth for a few weeks after The Great Comeback. He met up with old mates, his parents, his disciples. Well, eleven of them, anyway. Everyone who met him felt calmer, surer. Everyone felt a little less angry. He seemed, for a while, like a bit of a force for good. A mate of mine - a PA to Pontius Pilate - said even The Prefect spoke well of him.

We weren’t all so impressed though. Some of us wondered why he didn’t do more. He could have done anything he wanted - anything. He could’ve made a real difference. But no. He had A Cunning Plan, apparently. And one afternoon - forty days after - he gathered a few of us together on a hill and we watched him Ascend. Just like that. That grief-stricken night, he called me and I followed him Upstairs: what else could I do? I was a little flattered, to be honest. And a little scared. And a little ecstatic. He was so, so lonely. Always had been. I think the sharp, dark anomie he’d always carried with him like a sack of rocks finally got to him. What do you do after you’re Resurrected? After you’ve made your point? After you’ve made The Point? I knew what I’d done, what we’d all done. That too helped me make the decision to join him.

Time nodded past us. Years, decades, centuries. We sat, the two of us, in his father’s place and talked and sang and watched what was happening down there and reminisced. I apologised. I apologised so much.

Together, we watched acts of kindness, of sweetness. We watched The Inquisition. We watched games of Scrabble and stand-up comedy. We watched The Holocaust. We watched love-making and cheese-eating. We watched The Trump War. And then, one day - October, 2035 - He announced he was going to go back. He asked me if I wanted to go with him. But it felt wrong. ‘I’d rather not,’ I said.

I watched him. I watched him Descend and announce Himself. Some laughed when they met him. After a week or so wandering, chatting and sunbathing in The Secular State Of Israel, he took The SpaceHopper, for some reason, to The Free And Proud Kingdom Of England (c) (TM). And people there told him to go back to where he came from.

And then he went to Greater Russia - to Moscow and to Krakow and to Ljubljana - and to the Beneath-The-Wall Southern States - to Texas and to Louisiana and to Mexico. He spoke to people, performed miracles, started delivering speeches, sermons - in ShopMalls, on the MindWeb and in Insert.

I think I saw what was happening before he did. They were interpreting. They were twisting. They were skewing his words. All dully predictable, of course. They started to wrench his words to fit their ideas, their hates, their desires. Some said He was the reincarnation of The Great Boris. Some that he was the new Martin Luther King. A group in France said that he was Johnny Hallyday.

He stuck with the stuff that had always (sort of) worked: be kind, be nice. But I watched him getting older, tireder. He did a lot of bathing of sinners, men and women, boys and girls, and he was soon ‘exposed’ as a sex pest (#Christperv). They started a campaign to have him banned from universities.

I wondered for a while if I should - if I could - go Downstairs and help. But I knew that what was happening was all part - consciously or unconsciously - of his plan. One night - after an expose on BBC MindWeb’s ‘CrushACeleb’- he spoke to me from a motel room in Carolina. ‘Too much. Time to die,’ was all he said. In Aramaic. And I watched him open a bottle of whiskey and I watched him open a bottle of pills and I watched him die a second human death and I watched them bury him, bury him as one of them. I cried. I cried for days.

There was no Ascension this time. I gradually realised he knew all of this would happen, knew the message this time would be so much more powerful without the party tricks. And I decided then: I needed to go down there. I knew what I had to do.

I think you do too.

Kevin Acott

Bethany Murray

You can find Bethany Murray's Small World Future between two concrete bollards where Weston Street meets St Thomas Street (London Bridge) at #unsettledgallery No.1. If you can find it then you can take it home, or perhaps you will leave it for someone else to discover.

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/

Kevin Acott is a London-based model, cult singer and poet. He divides his creative time between writing, photography and collaborative projects. His stories and poems can be found on the websites Sad Paradise, Londonist, Smoke: A London Peculiar and Ink, Sweat And Tears. In 2017 he dedicated six months to travelling and writing. Starting in North Carolina (USA) he eventually ended his adventures in Limoux, France. Along the way Acott spent a month as writer-in-residence in Qaqortoq (Greenland) where he wrote several short stories. He has released several books with publisher Sampson Low and is currently working toward a one-man show at this year's Crouch End Festival in June 2018.

www.kevinacott.com

Tuesday, 20 February 2018

Year 5046 - Ann Kopka - Small World Futures

Ann Kopka #unsettledgallery No.8

Ann Kopka

You can find Ann Kopka's Small World Future at the back of the Greenwood Theatre on Snowsfields, #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.

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/

Natalie Low enjoys putting words on paper and believes that everyone has a book of some sort inside them. She lives in Twickenham, UK with her rather charming family. She has published two chapbooks Dementia (2015) and recently School Run (2017).

Saturday, 17 February 2018

Year 2048/9 - Alan Carlyon Smith - #smallworldfutures

Alan Carlyon Smith, #unsettledgallery no.4

Alan Carlyon Smith

You can find Alan Carlyon Smith's Small World Future behind a wire fence on Snowsfields, London Bridge, next to #unsettledgallery No.4. If you can find it then you can take it home, or perhaps you will leave it for someone else to discover.

Alan Carlyon Smith is an artist and curator currently working from his studio in Wimbledon. He has curated a number of exhibitions at the Shaw Gallery in Croydon, including The Jade Event, Art Jazzed Up and Ballet Russes. The latter involved the London Russian Ballet School performing in the Mitre Theatre. Smith enjoys exhibiting his art in the public domain and regularly contributes work to the Art of Caring at the Rose Theatre (Kingston), St George's Hospital (Tooting) and St Pancras Hospital. In 2015 his work was included in the 70th Anniversary of Korean Liberation International Art Exhibition in Seoul. As a studio artist he works in a range of mediums and has been shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery.
www.wimbledonartstudios.co.uk/alan-carlyon-smith/

Kevin Acott is a London-based model, cult singer and poet. He divides his creative time between writing, photography and collaborative projects. His stories and poems can be found on the websites Sad Paradise, Londonist, Smoke: A London Peculiar and Ink, Sweat And Tears. In 2017 he dedicated six months to travelling and writing. Starting in North Carolina (USA) he eventually ended his adventures in Limoux, France. Along the way Acott spent a month as writer-in-residence in Qaqortoq (Greenland) where he wrote several short stories. He has released several books with publisher Sampson Low and is currently working toward a one-man show at this year's Crouch End Festival in June 2018.
www.kevinacott.com

Wednesday, 14 February 2018

Year 2306 - Dean Reddick - Small World Futures

Dean Reddick, #unsettledgallery No.4

Dean Reddick

Today we discover the Small World Future of.... Dean Reddick

Song collector
Year 2306

Unsurprisingly I came across this song on the east coast. There are many versions, some relating to Holbeach, Burnham and Yarmouth. Some people sing "pray" instead of "stand" in the chorus, or even "praying" instead of "waiting" which is clearly illogical. A melancholy melody, mothers sing it to their babes minus the last verse and I even watched a teenaged girl singing it to her spotty beau. Bizarrely the song has also been adopted by children as a skipping game, with the emphasis on shouting "Clang! Clang! Clang!" to imitate the dead bells as they come back to life, and zombie walking.

Chorus: All rang the bells at Romney shore
In vain above the ocean's roar,
And now we stand here, waiting for
The Romney bells to ring once more.

Verse: My dead love lies upon the beach.
There was no better man than he.
Now all my hopes sink out of reach:
I watch his warmth and colour leach
Into the sands of New Romney.

Chorus: All rang the bells etc

Verse: My dead ma comes to me in dreams,
Her image floating in the sea
Immortalised in gifs and memes.
But still no peace for her it seems
Beyond the sands of New Romney

Chorus: All rang the bells etc

Verse: My dead nan's voice comes on the phone
Each week she used to speak to me,
“Love, death is cold, I hate to moan,
But I am chilled unto the bone
Upon the sands of New Romney.”

Chorus: All rang the bells etc

Verse: My dead child took my last belief.
No more a mother, no more me,
But barren as a blasted reef.
Truly lonely, only grief
Upon the sands at New Romney.

Chorus

Natalie Low

Dean Reddick

You can find Dean Reddick's Small World Future on top of the orange dispenser on Snowsfields, London Bridge, UK, #unsettledgallery No.4. If you can find it then you can take it home, or perhaps you will leave it for someone else to discover.

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.

Natalie Low enjoys putting words on paper and believes that everyone has a book of some sort inside them. She lives in Twickenham, UK with her rather charming family. She has published two chapbooks Dementia (2015) and recently School Run (2017).

Monday, 12 February 2018

Year 5,000,000,000 AD - Jenny Meehan - Small World Futures

Jenny Meehan, #unsettledgallery No.8

Jenny Meehan

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

Jenny Meehan grew up in Teddington (Middlesex) and achieved a BA Hons Degree in Literature at Kingston University before studying for a Post Graduate Certificate in Education at Roehampton University. As an artist Meehan takes a process led approach, creating art that is informed by her research activities, her outlook on life, and personal experiences. Her visual art is intimately connected with her writing and poetry, and the relationship between these two strands of her creativity is a lively and interesting one. She is particularly interested in the relationships between creativity, spirituality and health and wellbeing, and uses both Christian contemplative practices and participation in regular psychoanalysis to inform the direction and development of her artistic practice.
http://www.jamartlondon.com/
https://jennymeehan.wordpress.com/

Natalie Low enjoys putting words on paper and believes that everyone has a book of some sort inside them. She lives in Twickenham, UK with her rather charming family. She has published two chapbooks Dementia (2015) and recently School Run (2017).

Friday, 2 February 2018

Year 2561 - Natalie Low - #smallworldfutures

Natalie Low

The year is 2561.....

Humans Become Fish

We have learned to breathe underwater,
traded our salt-choked lungs for gills,
At first, it was difficult, many died.
But slowly, we trained ourselves
to become elemental,
Our filament fingers,
scraping the seaweed
from foamed faces,
Became fine-feathered fins.
Last of all to go, was the legs,
We were loath to lose them,
but one day, after years of
running along the bottom
of the ocean, we found
we could fly.
We flicked our new-grown tails,
somersaulted bubbles and swam,
Our pellucid eyes bulging,
Mouths an open question,
And made our homes
among the reeds and coral.
Lately, we have lost
all power of speech,
but find ourselves able
instinctively to feel
the shoal’s clamour,
Our sleek armoury
of scales
Streamlined
to the flow.

by Rebecca Lowe

You can find Natalie Low's Small World Future behind the Greenwood Theatre on Snowsfields, London at #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.

Natalie Low is a creative knitter, stitcher and quilter. Her small future world uses a mixture of natural and manmade materials that intertwine into an fluid growth. She lives in Twickenham, UK with her rather charming family. She has published two chapbooks Dementia (2015) and recently School Run (2017).

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/