Jessamy Low - The Ocelot Villa

Jessamy Low - The Ocelot Villa

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.

Jessamy Low

Today we have an artist who has been with us on our Public Art journey since the start. Since then Jessamy Low has seen her witty and charming drawings exhibited on seafronts, in shopping centres and most recently on a model sushi for the Jawspring exhibition at the Village Hall Gallery, Wimbledon in 2014.

She is a real renaissance girl with a double handful of talents and interests. The one that rests most often in her mitts is a red hard ball with a seam running around its equator. Cricket is her passion and she sees sport as her future, she would like to be either a professional cricketer or a physiotherapist one day. Jessamy's aspirations have already been buoyed with a hat-trick at Lords on her personal honours board. She represents her state school side, borough team and even her county, Middlesex.

Jessamy Low has given us a glimpse into a world much more sedentary. Her dwelling 'The Ocelot Villa' is inspired by the computer game Minecraft. The game is a chance to build and explore a simulated world for Jessamy, who side steps the usual shoot'em up antics for a more architectural approach. This net references the tradition of building pigeon houses in France during the last millennia. She spends her summer holidays in France with her grandparents, George and Sally, who have such a Pigeonnier in their garden. This is dilapidated almost beyond repair, but I fancy if it was rebuilt then it could be a home for Jessamy Low's ocelots.

Dean & Kim Reddick
building 'The Ocelot Villa'

In the meantime the current Ocelot Villa of Jessamy Low has been built beside the oldest chophouse in London, Simpson's Tavern, down Ball Court Alley. An apt location for a young cricketer who is ready to catch  us out with her tenacity and skill.

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.

Jay Snelling - Pyramid

Pyramid

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's paper sculpture comes from Jay Snelling in the form of this neat square-based pyramid.
Jay first exhibited with Collect Connect in the Fab Fridge show at the Bath Festival last year.
Jay is 'a teacher and a doodler' and now we can say Jay is a sculptor too!

Jay's net was placed on a tree alongside the Regents canal on the way to Victoria Park.
Each side of the pyramid has a different image on it and I chose to photograph the pyramid with the starry side  to the fore. The different images on each face of Jay's pyramid remind me of the idea that four of the five regular space filling solids (also known as the platonic solids) namely the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, and icosahedron are associated with the four elements, respectively fire, earth, air and water. (The fifth solid, the dodecahedron will be featured in later posts). Jay's pyramid is half an octahedron whilst the tetrahedron is a four sided pyramid made up of four triangular faces.
'Pyramid' is a fun net to construct and you can colour each side in however you like.


.

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.

Jane Hellings - Shipping Container House

Jane Hellings - Shipping Container House

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.

Jane Hellings
Courtesy of Cambridge News
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/

Today we've got Jane Helling's shipping container house to share with you for the dwell exhibition. Jane is a Cambridge based artist who loves collecting, in fact such is her desire for accumulated kitsch that a journalist recently commented "she is no random hoarder: Jane’s home is a living, breathing and ever-evolving work of art." Perhaps the Dwell container is where Jane and her belongings are most comfortably housed and gives us a clue that this artist is on the move, artistically and conceptually, if not geographically.

Jane Hellings - Bycicling Chiken Band

Post Foundation and Degree studies Jane initially discovered a talent as a portraitist, working in small scale chalky oils. While living in London she was artist-in-residence at the Whitechapel Gallery and also did outreach work for the Royal Academy. Since then she has completed an MA at Anglia Ruskin and now her work incorporates photographs of domestic objects, cut out and turned into 3D pieces. Jane's work in the community is what excites us most at CollectConnect, her Bycicling Chiken Band at Romsey Art Festival reveals a wit and a determination to get art on the streets.

Page 27 Dwell Book
Jane Hellings

We find Jane Helling's Shipping Containers located beside a new development near Camley Street Nature Reserve in London. There's plenty toing and froing here, not just from people moving in and out of appartments and houses but also Kings Cross Station that is but a stones through away.

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.

Holly Daniels - Fairy Dwelling




Holly Daniels Fairy Dwelling

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.

Our twelfth Dwell sculpture, 'Fairy Dwelling' comes from Holly Daniels. Holly has previously exhibited with Collect Connect in the Freed Book in 2013. Holly's story for The Freed Book is titled, 'Have I got News For You' and presents a satirical narrative. Holly continued in a similar vein with 'Warnings & Ransoms' for the Patternotion Book also 2013. For this publication Holly wrote,



Have I got News For You (Detail)

"I know that the cartoons I produce won't change anyone's political opinion; at best a cartoon enlightens and provokes debate, at worst events have moved on by the time of publication and the cartoon makes little sense at all. From my own perspective, these cartoons are my way of trying to reclaim a little bit of control in a world in which democratic choice is limited and power is put into the hands of the few who aren't necessarily concerned for the many...." (Holly Daniels, Patternotion 2013).

One can't help but be reminded of the recent extremities that satirical cartoons can provoke in today's world.

 

For the Dwell book Holly has provided us with something quite different. Fairy Dwelling is a delicate paper sculpture complete with a tiny swing and window.

I love how the tiny swing makes the dwelling seem large enough to live inside, a clever use of size and scale in keeping with our belief in the diminutive size of fairies.



Fairy Dwelling near the Thames

Holly's photo (above) shows Fairy Dwelling made out of patterned and textured paper and we can see how carefully made this sculpture is (it takes a steady hand to make Holly's sculpture as well as we see here).
 

We  placed Fairy Dwelling on the North bank of The Thames near London Bridge. We found this richly coloured and textured industrial remnant on which to put the sculpture - perhaps a Dwelling for an industrial fairy or two!
 

We were also enjoying playing with the swing like quality of the crane compared to the miniscule swing in Holly's Dwelling.
 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



Helen Hunt - Thoreau's Room

Helen Hunt - Thoreau's Room
At the Mile End climbing wall,  next to Regents canal, London

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.

Henry David Thoreau's cabin

Today on the London streets we have a little piece of Massachusetts on the streets of London. Artist Helen Hunt has brought a replica of Henry David Thoreau's cabin to our attention with her fabulous net from the Dwell book. Hunt has been exhibiting with us since our south coast magnet exhibition on the gates of the pier in St Leonards and Hastings. She has a growing reputation on the wider UK scene for her delicate painted moths on the pages and covers of antiquarian books.

Wood-tiger by Helen Hunt
Courtesy of http://www.helenhunt.co.uk/

Hunt's art is inspired by the changes that the seasons bring to the natural world and this is evident in her net for the dwell project. It is inspired by Henry D. Thoreau’s hut at Walden where he lived simply,  surrounded by nature and wrote many beautiful pieces on what he observed in this place. His hut was a rudimentary dwelling (noun) itself but the act of observing, pondering and writing on Nature could also be considered to be dwelling(verb).

She was keen to combine a quote from Thoreau’s writing done while living at Walden with many visual references to the animals and plantlife that were around him. Helen Hunt's dwelling gives you the sense that Thoreau was completely immersed in his surroundings and that Nature worked its way into interior space as much as he went out in search of it. On the outside of the built net we can see this quote from Thoreau journal (3rd January 1853), "I have a room all to myself; it is nature."

Page 23 Dwell Book
Helen Hunt

Here Helen Hunt presents us with something to dwell over in our minds, Walden is one of the most challenging books for us all in the 21st century because it rocks the very foundation of our consumerism. When I read it in my formative years I was shocked by the fact that you could own but one pair of trousers for all your adult life. I tried and failed with my pantaloon experiment but you'll not with this net which received an Average difficulty rating from the book's author Dean Reddick.

"I have enjoyed working in this way and am satisfied with the end result. The real proof of the pudding will be to see whether people are able to follow my instructions and make ‘Thoreau’s Room’ - and most importantly, whether they enjoy doing so!"
Helen Hunt (2015)

Well that's a challenge to you, time to get making! Maybe afterwards you'll take Thoreau's room back into it's natural habitat. We placed ours beside the climbing wall in Mile End, next to Regent's Canal, London.

Regent's Canal at Mile End, London

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.

Gavin Blackhurst - 46 Malbet Park

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.

46 Malbet Park

Today we have Gavin's pristine sculpture, 46 Malbet Park. This is the first time that Gavin has exhibited with Collect Connect and we extend a very warm welcome to him.
Gavin's is the most precise net that we have in the Dwell book and his instructions are equally clear. This photo of the completed net was sent to us by Gavin, we challenge you to make the net as carefully as this!

As Gavin is new to Collect Connect we do not know a lot about him. However we like to have a guess and we wonder if Gavin is an architect. I have had a look at google maps and Gavin's net is accurate enough for me to reckon I can see the house in Malbet Park, Edinburgh. This makes 46 Malbet Park unique to Dwell as it is the only accurate model of an actual house in the book.

In this photo we can see 46 Malbet Park nestled in a metal grill opposite the Monument in the City of London. The Monument remembers the Great Fire of London in 1666 and, like so much of post-fire London, is designed by Christopher Wren (and Robert Hooke the natural philosopher).
Gavin's sculpture brings a little bit of the Scottish Capital Edinburgh onto the streets of London and reminds me of how ubiquitous dwelling is. It also reminds me of how many people the Great Fire of London must have made homeless.

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

Eve Allsop - Home

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.



Eve Allsop, Home beside the Banana Bridge, Mile End, London

 

Today we have Eve Allsop's Home dwelling on the streets of London. Our exhibition is in its 8th day now and has been featured in Artists Newsletter as one of the highlights for the coming week, so we better not let them down.

'Somewhere Between My Fingertips and the
 End of the World I Hover'  - Eve Allsop

Eve Allsop has been exhibiting with us since the Brighton Open in 2011 where she immediately piqued our interest with her idiosyncratic brand of non-conformist creativity. I will never forget seeing the bound figure in 'Somewhere Between My Fingertips and the End of the World I Hover' with someone else's photo glued to the face and wearing a t-shirt with '+1 Add as friend'. It chilled me with the thought of warping personas and losing one's own identity.

Eve Allsop's net is the only one in the book and exhibition to reference an online haven or dwelling. It is a clever play on the ubiquitous HOME link that we see on every website or blog, yet I have never thought of that HOME as a real home until now. We increasingly gather 'friends' around us but we may never have met them in the real world. This net gives us the opportunity to bring them out of ephemeral internet and give them a moment of permanency in the real breathing world.

Eve Allsop

I think Allsop has captured several interesting themes here and these are reflected in her also wider work as an artist. Her practice is a study of cyberculture and the evolving function of the self portrait. She is interested in the way communities and identities manifest themselves online, as if rejecting tangible reality for a limitless, digital utopia. An internet profile is an extension of one’s public persona, and can be seen as a comforting realm of self-importance.

Eve explains more, "I explore ideas of anxiety, obsession, fantasy, revolt, incoherent narrative, and cyberspace as physical territory. Hyperbolically echoing the aesthetics of social networking and amateur photography, my work addresses the inescapable banality of daily life and the conflicting notions of freedom and enslavement that come with virtual escapism."

Home is placed at the Green Bridge in Mile End or as the locals affectionately call it, the banana bridge, due to its yellow underside.

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.

Ella Klenner and Fausto - House by the Wild 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.



Ella Klenner and Fausto - House by the Wild Sea

Today's Dwelling is Ella Klenner and Fausto's House by the Wild Sea. Ella first exhibited with Collect Connect in The HideBird Magnet Show as part of the E17 Arts Trail in 2012. Ella lives and has an art practice in the German town of Bad Oldesloe in the north of Germany.


House by the wild sea by
Ella Klenner and Fausto

Ella's art works cover a wide range. For example the whimsical and beautifully elegant House by the Wild Sea to the eerie and atmospheric Allien below and her beautiful nature studies of woodpeckers and foxes. It is great to have Ella join us for the Dwell Project.

Allien

We note that House by the Wild Sea is by Ella and Fausto but we remain uncertain of who Fausto is. The partnership has worked well for Dwell giving us a net which is deceptively simple and a finished piece which is dynamic, potent and evocative.

We placed Ella and Fausto's House on one of the many stairs leading down to the River Thames. This particular staircase is on the North Bank near Tower Bridge. The river water was sloshing and slapping against the worn stone steps, chucking up globs of frothy, murky water. We placed the small, frail seeming paper structure on a step and waited for the river to claim it. The little house survived a few splashes before being swamped.




One of the things I am enjoying about the Dwell project is the sense of fragility and freedom that comes with placing paper structures in the city. There is an uneasy relationship between the lightness of the paper and the indurate environment of London. House by the Wild Sea provokes similar feelings in me; the plain little house with its garden fence stands alone against the backdrop of the vast sea and the house is all the more precious because of its vulnerability.

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

Eleanor Bedlow - Container Dwell

Container by Eleanor Bedlow

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.

Eleanor Bedlow at work

We keep up our theme today for all things East London, from Dean Reddick in Walthamstow to Eleanor Bedlow in nearby Leytonstone. Both are active and well known artists in their respective communities but Bedlow's journey didn't start in the capital city. She grew up in Kagawa Japan before moving to London at the age of 11. She gained a degree in Fine Art from Falmouth College of Arts in 2005 before studying observational drawing at the Prince’s Drawing School in 2008.

Lift - Eleanor Bedlow

She first came to our attention when she exhibited the brilliant 'The Lift' along the seafront at the Brighton Open in 2011. We welcomed her back into the fold last year for FAB Fridge in 2014 but in between she has filled her working life with many exhibitions, curating and experiencing foreign cultures. Although Eleanor Bedlow is best known for her imagined worlds it was the real world experiences that caught my eye during her 2 month teaching residency at the International Institute of Fine Arts in Modinagar, India.

Page 15 Dwell: A book of nets
Eleanor Bedlow

We were all really chuffed she chose to publish a net with us for the Dwell project because her work has a sensitivity to her surroundings and how the memories of these places stay with us. Her dwelling is unique to the book as it requires no glue or sticky tape, just good old engineering and plenty of skill. Although it looks simple it is one of only 7 nets in the book that has received a COMPLEX rating from Dean. For me it reminds me of the open wooden structures we find in gardens and public parks. It's floor is crazy paved and I imagine a miniature band striking up a tune whilst families play on scorched grass and over-excited dogs dig under rose bushes.

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.