Belonging
Southampton’s Tiniest Art Gallery is excited to announce our next creative the performance poet Damian Kelly-Basher, with his poem Belonging.
Damian was invited to write a poem for our community project here at S.T.A.G
Damian Kelly-Basher
The Hampshire Poet Laureate 2024-2026
For me, this job is about working with organisations & community groups to invite more children and adults to share in the experience of “live literature”. That can be going to a Spoken Word open mic, hearing a talk/reading in a cafe or bookshop or joining in a community event combining poets, musicians and artists. It’s also about getting people to have fun with words and have a go at writing themselves. So, I’ll be sharing online resources and helpful tips as well as running talks and open- access workshops.
Insta: @damkellybash
The appointment of the Hampshire Poet takes place every two years and is jointly led by Winchester Poetry Festival and Hampshire Cultural Trust.
Surreal or Wot!
May -September 2024
Whether cutting up pieces from magazines or photographs to create a narrative or fantastical image. Collage also allows other mixed media materials to be applied to paper or even digital pictures cut and pasted from the web.
AI can also be seen as a way of producing a cacophony of parts to create a detailed image - The users choice of ‘key words’ inputed into a generative program can create new but random ideas.
For our open call, we invited you to create The Surreal through the use of collage.
Be it cutting and sticking by hand or generated on a computer.
Welcome to Gabrielle Plommer our selected artist.
Black/White Digital Print
A collage of self-developed black and white 35mm film.
Gabrielle is learning to develop her own film and has in their own words, created many "failures". This is an experimental work exploring the use of those failed photos in creation and embracing the flaws.
Instagram @gabrielleplommer
The Urban Landscape
December 2023 -March 2024
For our third call out at S.T.A.G its all things poetry. Our subject The Urban Landscape.
The observations of time in the urban landscape are a continual source of inspiration for all. To take a stroll, perch on a bench, to observe the passage of people, place and the bustle of life.
Layer Cake City
Miriam Coley
‘An early morning walk through a city. Past and present collide.’
@miriamcoleywriter
Image courtesy of Miriam Coley
PLAY
17th September 2023-November
For our 2nd Open Call we invited artists and creatives to put forward work on the theme of PLAY
Kristina Marosiova was our selected artist/creative. The selection panel taken from a local business owner, a resident in the community of Bedford Place & Polygon and an independent artist/creative.
Recently, Kristina transitioned from an analog camera to a digital one, she decided to use the opportunity to learn more about her new professional tool.
In the photograph a person is standing in the foreground using their creativity to play with light, the individual plays with a torch to create a heart-shape.
In the background, we can see a basketball court, (Mayflower Park) a representation of a space for physical play.
The photograph is a depiction of the importance of play in our lives.
It reminds us, that play is not just a fun activity, but an essential way for us to connect with our creative side, build relationships with others, and as the basketball court suggests, for us to stay physically active.
It helps to enrich our lives on many levels.
Connectivity
23rd June - September 2023
The first open call exhibition at S.T.A.G invited ideas relating to 'connectivity' in the broadest sense.
In our everyday lives we connect with people and place, whether in the natural world or through the things we make, the technologies we use. Ideas could relate to the natural world and our place in it. Or perhaps ideas relating to technologies of the past, present or future. Maybe think about how we connect with one another or to the many. It could be as literal or abstract as you like.
Selected work:
*Not Just Trash*
Litter Bugs Collection
The artist works under the name of Not Just Trash and as the given name implies, they use all sorts of non-perishable household waste in their work.
“Litter Bugs collection” is a conceptual reflection on our “out of sight, out of mind” modern living and highlights litter tipping. It is also a way to showcase the loss of valuable commodities when items are not properly recycled. All the insects exhibited in the frame are made from aluminium drinking cans found littered in Southampton’s streets, and the entomology's way of displaying the insects is to reflect on the diminishing insect population that could be replaced by our all-consuming rubbish, leaving too little space for wildlife.
Although this piece is visually pleasing, it has a very serious environmental message.