Dean Reddick - Mr Net

Treehouse, Dean Reddick by Euston Station

Welcome to the Dwell exhibition and book. For a whole month we will be taking each artist's page and transforming it into a 3 dimensional dwelling. Each one of these small sculptures will be exhibited in public on the London streets.

Dean Reddick - Treehouse

The first four days have seen our dwellings beside the water, either the Thames or the Regents Canal. Today we're heading inland to find a place for Dean Reddick's miniature hideaways. Dean is the driving force behind the Dwell project and is also a well respected artist and art therapist. Until recently he was an Associate Lecturer at Goldsmith's College where he helped organise the 'Defining Art Therapy for the 21st Century' Conference in 2013. The event tag line was 'Finding a voice, making a mark' and it this ethos that runs through his personal practice and his projects for CollectConnect.

Hidebird E17 Arts Trail

Dean Reddick has been exhibiting with us for many years and with myself for even longer. His name is carved into Walthamstow folklore (where he works and lives with his family) because of his legendary Hidebird exhibition. Nearly every year he erects a bird hide in his front garden. The hide is inhabited by artist's bird sculptures and we as spotters and twitchers are relegated to the outside space. This is typical of Dean's work, his sense of place in the community and his playful attitude for Nature and Art.

Dean Reddick

There are two Dean Reddick dwells in the book, Shelter One and Treehouse. Today we find the latter in a real tree, not just a paper one, near Euston Station. One of the reoccurring themes of the dwell project has been not just the physical space for dwelling but that for the mind to inhabit, a place to dream. Treehouse is another of these, it harks back to our childhoods and the treasured memories we still nurture inside us. For who could refuse the chance to build a treehouse once again, to escape and play in the skies.

Shelter One, Dean Reddick, British Library

Despite a brief sojourn in Coventry to complete his Art degree Dean Reddick is a Londoner and has lived here all his life. He supports Arsenal and is proud of the capital's culture and history. This exhibition is very close to his heart. His second constructed net is located outside the British Library, Euston Road and is called Shelter. Dean explains a little more about the project and why shelter might be relevant at this moment in society.

"Dwelling seems to me to be a fundamental state for people animals and plants. There is the concrete dwelling, a place such as a home, a nest, a den. There is the idea of dwelling on something, to think and mull over, which suggests that the mind is a place where thoughts and ideas can rest, at least for a while. For me, the idea of dwelling implies a private space or state of mind even though a dwelling might be shared. Finally I hope that Dwell also makes us aware of the social economic and political aspects of dwelling; dispossession, homelessness, war, asylum and refugees, habitat destruction and the emotional states where we cannot dwell but must endlessly move so that we become strangers in our own bodies."

Dwell Book
Sampson Low Ltd

Its wonderful to see Shelter One beside our national library for it is here that all CollectConnect books are preserved for future generations as well as The Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales and the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.

Don't forget to have a look at the next Collect Connect project, 'The Art of Caring' exhibition at The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames. The theme is Caring/Care and it is FREE to enter.

To buy the Dwell Book for £6 then follow this LINK.

AL.

Catherine Wynne-Paton - Raft at Sea



Catherine Wynne-Paton - Raft at Sea

Welcome to the Dwell exhibition and book. For a whole month we will be taking each artist's page and transforming it into a 3 dimensional dwelling. Each one of these small sculptures will be exhibited in public on the London streets.

Today we are cast adrift with Catherine's Raft at Sea.

Catherine has recently graduated from Hereford College of Art and we are very pleased to welcome her back for her second Collect Connect exhibition.

courtesy of http://www.wynnepaton.co.uk/

Catherine's work 'explores the gap between random and meaningful, centred on text, seeking to locate the liminal place when meaningful becomes random'.(http://www.wynnepaton.co.uk/)

 This image, taken from Catherine's web site, suggests something on the verge of being recognised, either a representation on the way to becoming seen or a form that is disintegrating or dissolving. I find this visual tension appealing.


Raft at sea is likewise a very appealing piece of work. I particularly like the simplicity of the net. The detail here shows the net for the logs for the raft. It is hard to imagine from the flat net how the neat little raft comes about until one has a go at building it.

Here we can sea Raft at Sea on the Regents Canal at Kings Cross.
This area of London has undergone massive redevelopment recently including the canal area and both Kings Cross and St Pancras International railway stations.
The raft proved to be surprisingly buoyant and floated quite happily in the somewhat murky canal water before eventually becoming waterlogged and needing rescuing!

Don't forget to have a look at the next Collect Connect project, 'The Art of Caring' exhibition at The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames. The theme is Caring/Care and it is FREE to enter.

To buy the Dwell Book for £6 then follow this LINK.



Catherine Wynne-Paton - Raft at Sea

Bryan Benge - Cityscape



Bryan Benge Cityscape

Welcome to the Dwell exhibition and book. For a whole month we will be taking each artist's page and transforming it into a 3 dimensional dwelling. Each one of these small sculptures will be exhibited in public on the London streets.
 



London Bridge

Our third sculpture, 'Cityscape' is by Bryan Benge.  He has been an exhibiting artist since the 1970's and is a regular exhibitor with Collect Connect as well as organising Collect Connect exhibitions (The Future Bound). Bryan is a member of The London Group and a Lecturer of Art and Design. One of the great pleasures of being involved with Collect Connect is working alongside Bryan.

Bryan is currently working on 'Episodic Schemata', a series of surreal images in which space and form are somehow twisted together to create disconcerting feelings of vertigo and where narratives never quite come into focus.

Cityscape gives us the possibility of reinventing the capital's famous skyline. Why not have Big Ben East of London Bridge and have the Bridge itself spanning Bermondsey rather than straddling Old Father Thames?
 



The Shard

We photographed Cityscape in front of the grandiose glass spike 'The Shard' by architect Renzo Piano. One wonders how Bryan's reimagined skyline would look against the backdrop of one of London's famous Parks or a busy shopping street on a Saturday afternoon?   DR


Don't forget to have a look at the next Collect Connect project, 'The Art of Caring' exhibition at The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames. The theme is Caring/Care and it is FREE to enter.

To buy the Dwell Book for £6 then follow this LINK.



Beth Davis-Hofbauer - Castle in the sky

Beth Davis-Hofbauer - Castle in the sky

Welcome to the Dwell exhibition and book. For a whole month we will be taking each artist's page and transforming it into a 3 dimensional dwelling. Each one of these small sculptures will be exhibited in public on the London streets.

Beth Davis-Hofbauer's page in
the Dwell book

Today we have the dwell of Beth Davis-Hofbauer who is a disabled artist living on the south coast of England. As well as an artist she is a photographer, dreamer, drinker of tea and mead, and hater of elitism. Her work explores notions of environment and identity through photography & mixed media. Beth's experience of illness and her son’s autism is often reflected in her practice. She utilises various media in her projects but photography underpins much of her work: its mediated form of reality a metaphor for her own experience of being in a wheelchair.

Beth Davis-Hofbauer is admired and cherished by us here at CollectConnect for her broad range of skills, ideas, and the opportunities she provides for artists with the burgeoning Fareham Art Trail. The philosophy of this trail is to provide a platform for artists and the public who traditionally find it difficult to access the art world. Last year she organised a magnetic art event where artists submitted original works which were printed onto magnetic substrate; along with their details and QR codes linking to a page with their statement.  These were exhibited on Fareham's podium and were picked up and taken home for free by visitors. Her personal philosophy is equally compelling......



Courtesy of http://farehamarttrail.com/

"Artists are no longer tied to a particular genre or ideology. We can exist in multiple spaces and utilise different backgrounds to create wonderful new work that continues to hold a mirror up to society, questioning it in the process."

Beth Davis-Hofbauer's dwelling for the exhibition is the Castle in the Sky and emphasises her credentials as a dreamer, which she considers her raison d'etre as much as her art. We placed her castle alongside the River Thames by London Bridge and within striking distance of the tallest building in Europe. For me it represents a David and Goliath battle with The Shard towering over our defiant dwelling. Beth Davis-Hofbauer helps me realise that a dream has no limits, whether big or small it can be indulged in and achieved.

AL.

Castle in the sky (detail)

Don't forget to have a look at the next Collect Connect project, 'The Art of Caring' exhibition at The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames. The theme is Caring/Care and it is FREE to enter.

To buy the Dwell Book for £6 then follow this LINK.

g perceived notions. At present my artistic practice is focused around ideas of Environmentalism, identity and the interplay between spirituality, memory and mythologies (not Classical mythology but widely held assumptions and links to Structuralism). I draw inspiration from a number of different sources and like to explore this through my work. Theoretically I am drawn to the ideas of Roland Barthes, Ferdinand de Saussure, Jean Baudrillard, Guy Debord, Theodore Adorno, Abraham Maslow and John Berger among others. Artistically I have long been influenced by those who bridge the gap between photography and art, high and low culture and who combine artistic methods. In particular the works of Barbara Kruger, Gilbert and George, Jenny Holzer, Vik Muniz and Gerhard Richter. My interest in organic forms and convergence greatly influences my practice, so that my work can involve elements of photography, textiles, traditional handicrafts, painting (watercolour and acrylic), ink, digital art, collage, found objects, acetates and other mixed media. However I tend to favour photographic expression which I then choose to corrupt. The process I go through as an artist is important to my finished work. Primarily I start with an image, be it a photograph or a mental image, and then I explore where I can go with it. Fluidity is key to my work and I rely on a host of saved objects, images, texture boards, inspiration boards, art journals and sketches to influence my ideas. I like to borrow from my past work and re-contextualise it (this is particularly true of my digital illustrations) creating new pieces in the process. I believe that art in contemporary society has moved on quicker than art theory. Artists are no longer tied to a particular genre or ideology. We can exist in multiple spaces and utilise different backgrounds to create wonderful new work that continues to hold a mirror up to society, questioning it in the process

Alban Low - Scrunchy Shed

The first day of February and London shivers in the grip of winter, an appropriate time for us to launch the Dwell Exhibition and to be thankful for our dwellings; retreats from the freezing sleet, wind and rain.

A big thank you to the artists who have sent in their 'nets' to be part of the Dwell Book and the Dwell Exhibition. We have 30 nets to present, taking us through February and into March 2015.
We will make good use of the experiences from 'Cardboard City' as we release each paper sculpture onto the streets of the city.

Alban Low

We are excited to start The Dwell Exhibition with Alban's 'Scrunchy Shed'

Alban is the founder member and driving force behind Collect Connect so it is fitting that his 'net' opens the show.
Alban is an artist with huge amounts of energy and generosity, setting up
exhibitions around the capital, the country and the world and inviting people to join in.
He is a film maker, book publisher, magnet artist, postcard artist, and works with musicians to create album covers and much much more.
On a personal note I have known Alban since we studied together at Hounslow Borough College on an Art and Design Foundation Course some 25 years ago.  Alban has always brought conceptual intelligence and technical quality to his art practice and these twin tenets continue to serve him excellently in his ever evolving work as an artist.

Scrunchy Shed

'Scrunchy Shed', seen here at Dark House Walk, defies the usual planar quality of a net. Alban instructs the maker to 'scrunch' the shed which results in the rectangular shed becoming deformed, twisted and creased-making the overall sculpture appear aged and weathered. One can imagine the shed standing through many icy winters and baking summers. The textured quality of the net is further enhanced by the detailed black and white drawing on the surface of the paper.
'Scrunchy Shed' reminds me of allotments and of gardens, of scruffy, dark spaces filled with spiders and old gardening tools, spools of twine and dust from the earth.

In today's post we can see Scrunchy Shed on the North Bank of the Thames just beyond London Bridge on the grounds of the Old Billingsgate Market. Perhaps in years gone by sheds stood here by the Thames as part of the great fish market that was  Billinsgate Market.




Dark House Walk

Tomorrow we will be hearing from the man himself as Alban exhibits the second Dwell Net.

Don't forget to have a look at the next Collect Connect project, 'The Art of Caring' exhibition at The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames. The theme is Caring/Care and it is FREE to enter.

To buy the Dwell Book for £6 then follow this LINK.

DR

Dwell book published by Sampson Low Ltd

The latest publication from CollectConnect artists is being released in February 2015 by Sampson Low Ltd. London based artist and art therapist Dean Reddick has brought together artists from around the world to publish a book of 30 practical Nets. Each black and white page is easy to photocopy and ready for all ages to build themselves. The Nets are graded with completion times and building tips. A magical book about 2D plans with the potential to become 3D dwellings that can be adapted and coloured by the reader.

Dwell: A book of Nets
Published February 2015
ISBN 978-1-910578-00-1
64 pages A4 Softback
Author – Various Artists
SLB0008

Click on the BUY NOW button below to buy
Dwell: A book of Nets for £6 (UK addresses only +£1.60 Postage and Packing)

Authors
Alban Low Scrunchy Shed
Beth Davis Hofbauer Castle in the Sky
Bryan Benge City Scape
Catherine Wynne-Paton Raft at Sea
Dean Reddick Shelter One and TreeHouse
Eleanor Bedlow Container
Ella Klenner & Fausto House by the Wild Sea
Eve Allsop Home
Gavin Blackhurst 46 Malbet Park
Helen Hunt Thoreau’s Room
Holly Daniels Fairy Dwelling
Jane Hellings Shipping Container
Jay Snelling Pyramid
Jessamy Low Ocelot Villa
J Masson Abri
Keziah Reddick Dream dwelling
Kim Reddick Crates
Lisa Howes Flat Pack
Malc Dow Escape Dwelling
Melanie Ezra Caer Hecsagon
Mike Russell Negated Obstacle
Natalie Low Dwellow Submarine
Nick Gammons Castle
Rajaa Khalife Paixao Confessions of an artist
Sabatin Bascoban The Caravan
Sara Lerota Table as a place..
Steve DT The Sistene Chapel
Stuart Simler Trojan Horse
Tamara Jelaca Little house in Prairie

Art of Caring Exhibition Opportunity

Get involved in this exciting open art exhibition at The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames. The theme is Caring/Care and it is FREE to enter. If you would like to submit your artwork then follow the guidelines below.

Where do I send my images?

Send up to 3 Jpegs/photos of your work to collectconnect4@gmail.com

before Tuesday 31st March 2015 (Midnight).

The images should be approximately postcard size - A6 (10.5 x 14.8cm)

Include your name, title of the image/work and your website address if you have one.

The Theme

Your art/photo should respond to the theme of Caring/Care.

 

Feeling or showing care and compassion. Relating to professional social or medical care. To be troubled or concerned; be affected emotionally. To have regard, affection, or consideration. To have a desire or taste. To provide physical needs, help, or comfort. To agree or like (to do something).

 

Or your interpretation of the theme.......

The Rose Theatre, Kingston

The Exhibition

We will print two copies of your artwork as an A6 postcard. One for the exhibition and one to send to you. Your name and title will appear beside your image.
 

The exhibition will be at The Rose Theatre, 24-26 High Street, Kingston-upon-Thames, KT1 1HL. Open from the 12th-16th May 2015 (10am to 6pm) in the circle gallery space.
 

The exhibition will also be part of an exciting day that celebrates nursing around the world, with poetry, live music and drawing, expert speakers on the challenges of modern nursing on Friday 15th May.

A panel of artists and Kingston University Nursing Society members will be selecting 10-20 of their favourite images. These will be printed at an A3 size and framed.

Will my work be selected?
Yes.
We have a 'First come-First served' policy, this sometimes means we close before the deadline. We currently have funding for 250 artworks.

 

Keep it Simple

Send your images to collectconnect4@gmail.com and be part of the exhibition!

 

Visit our Submit page to find out more.

Alban

Dwell artwork at the printers

Its taken longer than we thought but the dwell book is now finished and out of our hands for a few days. The artwork rests on the printing press of our publishers Sampson Low Ltd so it's just a waiting game. The final list of artists can be found below and on our designated Artist's page. Thank you to Dean Reddick for his idea and hard work in reaching this milestone.

The Dwell book cover art

From the 1st February keep an eye out for the dwellings on the streets of London. We'll be placing one a day in interesting places throughout the capital. Then posting information about the artists and creators here on the CollectConnect website, facebook page and twitter.

Artists and their nets.....

3. Alban Low - Scrunchy Shed
5. Beth Davis - Hofbauer Castle in the Sky
7. Bryan Benge - City Scape
9. Catherine Wynne-Paton - Raft at Sea
11. Dean Reddick - Shelter One
13. Dean Reddick - TreeHouse
15. Eleanor Bedlow - Container
17. Ella & Fausto - House by the Wild Sea
19. Eve Allsop - Home
21. Gavin Blackhurst - 46 Malbet Park
23. Helen Hunt - Thoreau’s Room
25. Holly Daniels - Fairy Dwelling
27. Jane Hellings - Shipping Container
29. Jay Snelling - Pyramid
31. Jessamy Low - Ocelot Villa
33. J Masson - Abri
35. Keziah Reddick - Dream dwelling
37. Kim Reddick - Crates
39. Lisa Howes - Flat Pack
41. Malc Dow - Escape Dwelling
43. Melanie Ezra - Caer Hecsagon
45. Mike Russell - Negated Obstacle
47. Natalie Low - Dwellow Submarine
49. Nick Gammons - Castle
51. Rajaa Khalife Paixao - Confessions of an artist
53. Sabatin Bascoban - The Caravan
55. Sara Lerota - Table as a place..
57. Steve DT - The Sistene Chapel
59. Stuart Simler - Trojan Horse
61. Tamara Jelaca - Little house in Prairie

Building the Dwell nets

Dean Reddick builds the Dwellow Submarine

The big build has started in earnest for the Dwell exhibition and book. Last weekend we tested the nets by transforming them from their 2D state into glorious 3 dimensions. We're still waiting for 3 pages to be revised before we can send the book to the printers. We'll then start placing our Dwellings around London and photographing them in their new homes. We hope to start releasing these photos and writing about each artist in early February.
AL

Left to right
Bryan Benge, Mike Russell, Sabatin Bascoban and Natalie Low