Love Tokens and Bad Pennies – Collect Connect Exhibition, and the joy of 'found' art

Stella Tripp's artwork, waiting to be found

There’s something about the idea of scattering little pieces of art in random locations that appeals to my inner child. I’ve always loved the idea of discovery – of venturing forth and finding new adventures. Perhaps that’s partly why I adore visiting charity shops. It’s that sense that you never quite know what you will find. Another person’s cast-off might yet turn out to be the beginnings of a new adventure. I shall never forget the excitement, for instance, of finding a hand-printed Victorian book of love poems, languishing in a pile of postcards at my local Oxfam shop. But it’s not just shop-bought treasures. All small things have the capacity to thrill me. I’m a nightmare to go on a walk with because I can never resist picking up a heart-shaped leaf or a beautifully polished pebble.


There’s something of this thrill of discovery in Alban Low and Dean Reddick’s creative exhibitions. I say ‘exhibition’ but, really, that word seems wholly inadequate. Imagine an exhibition with no walls, whose gallery is the wide-open spaces, and whose visitors are anyone who happens to walk past.

Each of the small artworks in ‘Collect Connect’ are placed in public spaces, where passers-by can connect and interact with them. There are no rules; no money changes hands. Only adventures to be shared and enjoyed.


In keeping with the month of Valentine’s Day, the theme of the latest exhibition is Love tokens and Bad Pennies. This is explained on the Collect Connect blog:

“Does love endure forever? Does a bad penny always turns up?

Both the Love Token and the Bad Penny are part of the currency of life, two sides of the same coin. These everyday objects are defaced or distinguished to help us remember those who we hold dear and those who we would rather forget.”

Artwork by Alban Low at #unsettledgallery No.10

Artworks from 17 artists will appear placed in or beside fountains and sacred waterways in London during each day of February. Accompanying the artworks are new written works by a poets or authors, which appear on the CollectConnect blog.

https://collectconnect.blogspot.com/
https://collectconnect.blogspot.com/

This is where I come in. I volunteered to write responses to three of the artworks because it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. I love the idea of ‘found’ art. I also relish the creative challenge of responding to somebody else’s art and, in doing so, finding new creative forms of expression. My selection was based purely on emotional response. Those artworks that seemed to stimulate words or ideas were the ones I chose to write about. In fact, the poems (and one short prose piece) wrote themselves. I’d come up with a vague idea and often find that, once I started writing, the words ran away from me and took on ideas of their own. So a story that was meant to be about first love quickly became a study in dangerous obsession. And a poem about the interconnectedness of things turned into a sort of folk riddle. I like the fact that the three pieces I wrote are each completely different in character, each identifying a different form of love. That wasn’t intentional; it just happened, as these things so often do.

Anyway, I hope you’ll take a look at the blog https://collectconnect.blogspot.com/ and if you happen to be anywhere near London, specially around Walthamstow/ Twickenham area, see if you can spot one of the artworks. Who knows, it may take you on creative adventures of your own…

Winter Solstice – the Longest Night

‘Rage, rage against the dying of the light’.

Of course, in his famous poem Dylan Thomas wasn’t speaking about the dark nights of winter but about death, but, in fact, the two aren’t so far removed. Winter represents the literal and metaphorical dying of the world around us. We watch as leaves wither and fall from the trees, catch our breath as the cold, darker nights draw in, and find ourselves longing for the sweet, light relief of spring.

At Christmastime, signs of our rebellion against darkness are all around us. We seek consolation in the commercial frenzy of present-buying, festoon our homes in coloured lights and overindulge in food and alcohol and late-night partying. We kid ourselves that if we do these things, the dark will go away. But it isn’t banished, merely temporarily displaced. For many, Christmas is a time to gather together with friends and family. For others, it’s a lonely time – a reminder of those whose absence leaves a gaping hole in our lives.

For Christians, of course, Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus. It’s a time of incarnation – the coming of God into the world in the form of a tiny, helpless baby. So the time of darkness and death becomes, paradoxically, a time of light and birth. ‘The people of Darkness,’ says the prophet Isaiah, ‘have seen a great Light’.

There is much darkness is our world at the moment – but also much light. The newspaper headlines scream a world of hatred and division. But while getting in the last-minute shopping today, I saw an elderly couple kiss one another tenderly on the lips, then tease one another gently like new lovers, which perhaps they were. I saw a kind lady chatting to the beggar outside Tesco for a long time and asking him what he’d like her to buy for him and his dog when she went shopping. I stood and watched for a long time as the gulls circled in the sky above me, tucking their wings into the perfect streamlined ‘V’ to ride out the currents. All of these things gave me joy. These things convince me that there is still love and light and hope in the world.

‘in him was life, and the life was the light of humanity. The Light shines in the Darkness, and the Darkness has not overcome it.’ – John 1:1-5

In the days before electric lighting, our ancient forebears would while out the long winter nights huddled around candles and open fires, sharing stories to pass the time. 

Like the winter trees, we shed the leaves of our smiles for a while, to travel down deep to the roots, from whence all inspiration flows. Rather than fighting the darkness, we can learn to embrace this time of quiet and soulful reflection, which prepares us for the busy time ahead when we are ready and shoot and branch our nascent ideas into the world.

Blessed Solstice, Merry Midwinter, Happy Christmas. May you find the source of the Light that lies deep within you. May you nurture it and keep it safe that, like the candle shining in the darkness, when the time is right and the world ready to receive it, it may shine its brightness for all to see.

Image: https://pixabay.com/en/solstice-winter-december-snow-1436685/ public domain picture, CCO creative commons.