Changing Spaces

Annie Strachan installed her sculptural work in the former Sweet shop, 10 Hobson Street.

She says about her work: ‘My scuptures deal with notions of semiotics in classical Hollywood cinema and post-war European Design. Each piece is an assemblage of varying motifs that utilizes imagery from the popular culture of these periods, in so doing questioning ideas fo representation, form, and reality.’

Annie gained her BA (Hons.) in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art & Design.

all photographs © Lou Dellow

38 Regent Street is currently hosting the exhibition
‘follow the fellow‘ containing works in different media by four international artists.

Elke Papp, a writer and performance artist who works with found objects; Geneviève Guétemme, a photographer and lecturer in art; Jessa Leff, an artist using drawing and collage; and Alison O’Neill, an artist and writer, whose work incorporates drawing, installation and video, are all exploring what it means to live in Cambridge on the fringes of University life, encouraging viewers to consider their own feelings about what brought them here or keeps them here.

Guy Haywood is a visual artist who inhabits the synaptic space between two places, engaged with exposing the potential for movement.
He is currently exhibiting in 75 Regent street. More of Guy’s work can be found on his website: www.guy-haywood.com

Painter Jo Ash is showing works from her series ‘Unconcious Knots’ in 75 Regent street. She works with Oil & Charcoal on canvas and the titles already give you a hint of what the paintings deal with: ‘Death at the Circus’, ‘Ego Monster’, ‘Fruits in the Fist of.’

Jo says about her work: ‘The subject of what is not known to us consciously has always interested me and how this ‘not knowing’ shapes and informs our being in the world. How we navigate our way through the world with such limited self knowledge combined with the images people have of us feels for me a very lonely experience. I am left with the inevitable questions; ‘How can I ever know myself?’ ‘What is the self?’
The space between what is consciously known to us and that which remains unconscious runs parallel with our known self and others’ subjective interpretation of us.
I have recently finished training as an Arts Psychotherapist and so some of these works which were created years ago have taken on a more known quality yet still embody unanswered questions in many ways.
Some of these pieces were approached spontaneously letting the medium have free expression upon the canvas, emerging within the moment, where others were a creation that stemmed from preconceived ideas.
I am keen to communicate a distinct distressed feel, a stripping away. Raw and naked. Unknown.’

Click on the thumbnails below to see close up’s of her work.

all photographs © Lou Dellow

In 38 Regent street, MA printmaking student Katy McDonald is showing large scale etchings from her series Growth and Process.

‘The work symbolizes this to me. The forms grow and, through the use of many layers, the image illustrates the print process, which fascinates me. It also represents my own growth as an individual as I became more independent through the mixture of different decisions as well as grow as an artist. Drawing the pattern helps me think through these decisions and relax. I enjoy hearing other’s thoughts and interpretation of my work as well as the images can mean something totally different to each and every individual.’

all photographs © Lou Dellow

Sarah Mancz’ digital print ‘Watching me’ is now on display in 48 Regent street. She says: ‘I am so intrigued by people that every piece of work I make talks about the people I meet and see. This piece is a collation between night and day. The capture of thoughts, feeling and body language in one moment on the street. This shop is the perfect place to show my work becuase if the people on the streets are my subject then the people on the street should see my work.’

Sarah is currently in her 3rd year at Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge School of Art on a BA Hons Fine Art Course.

Stella Pereira says about her work:

“This collection was first inspired by a recent trip to Mozambique where I was faced with a population that lives with a dearth of resources.
The children I painted played joyfully, regardless of tremendous scarcity. My paintings intend to shout out my subject’s hidden voices, though a deep analysis and a careful observation of expressions, emotions and behavior, influenced by culture and environment.
The intention is to offer the viewer an honest portrait that absorbs their attention and delivers a message.”

Having worked in Theatre, TV and Film trained puppeteer and puppet maker Linton Bocock is now exhibiting his sculptures in the former Sweet shop on Hobson street.

‘PLOP! My latest work; is a link in a chain of iconography that began sometime in the 1960s and continues to develop. the stance and the image that it forms have become laden with a complex web of meaning for a string of artists, each one loading it with information that seems to have some relevance of it’s own without destroying the form.’

all photographs © Lou Dellow

Painter Debbie Roe is showing her scenery of unsettling nostalgia in 48 Regent Street.

‘The themes of intrigue, the unexplained and the unknown have always played a key role in my practice. I am constantly drawn to imagery with the sense of ambiguity and atmosphere. My work focuses around paintings which evoke a silent, unsettling nostalgia.
This current work is based upon the imagery of a desolate council estate. This familiar spectacle is an environment that most people can relate to in some way. Something that we see all the time is often taken for granted, programmed into our subconscious and therefore not noticed after we have become accustomed to it. the scenes I paint are familiar, which in turn, forms a connection with the viewer. This enables the onlooker to relate to the image immediately. However, I try to create an underlying uneasiness which becomes apparent on closer inspection.’

To see more of Debbie’s work please visit her blog

all photographs © Lou Dellow

Painter and Colour Chemist Helen Latham just installed her powerful paintings in 75 Regent Street.

‘As an artist I have always been fascinated by the idea of creating atmosphere, using paint to transmit a feeling or a state of mind. My other near obsession involves the craftsmanship of oil painting, a medium that never stops surprising you and allows for continuous development and learning. My work is figurative but not photographic, often the figurative side is just a vehicle for the emotion or colour story I am interested in.
I am currently working on two themes ‘Poolside’ and ‘Landscape’. I keep them both alive and can work on one if the other hits a block!’

all photographs © Lou Dellow