Pollen Collective

Curated by Vanessa Giorgo

5 –  30 May 2021

Private Views: 20 May & 27 May 6 – 8 pm – Booking strictly by appointment: Book Here

Artists Talk: Thurs 13 May, 5 pm. Free on Zoom: HERE

Participating Artists: Luke White, Julie Derbyshire, Rachna Garodia, Kate Lowe, Nazanin Moradi, Harriet Hoult, Isis Dove-Edwin, Leonora Lockhart, Amy Robson

A group of multidisciplinary artists from London-based Pollen Collective challenge the constraints of the past year to celebrate our intimate relationships to domestic and natural spaces through material innovation and collaboration.

Faced with the practical and existential fears, burdens and constraints of the past year, Pollen Collective artists have paradoxically produced an uplifting exhibition of handcrafted, enigmatic work.  The historic setting of One Paved Court echoes the show’s themes of domesticity, shelter, and community and showcases innovative, experimental work across a variety of media.

By utilising technological platforms, socially distant meetings and postal art chains, the artists have been able to make, share and collaborate in the true spirit of a collective.  Pollen Collective artists have worked together to weave poetry into delicate paper cloth, to create mixed-media collages, photographs, sculptures, paintings, and installations that interrogate concepts of confinement and isolation, as well as their diametric equivalents.  Unexpected elements from domestic and external environments are juxtaposed as tensions between captivity and freedom, inside and outside, and safety and vulnerability are revealed.

The exhibition includes an exciting collaborative art project which engages with the local Richmond community during lockdown.  A wide cross-section of the community – from school children to art students to seniors – has been invited to respond to a visual and word prompt provided by the Pollen Collective.  A selection of these works will be photographed and showcased at One Paved Court during the exhibition.

Born from a need to connect and collaborate, the POLLEN COLLECTIVE is made up of professional and emerging artists and writers. The artists have diverse practices including painting, textiles, print-making, sculpture, animation, video, collage, mixed media and photography. Pollen’s authors make works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Pollen’s members regularly collaborate, critique, lecture, teach, blog and exhibit.

Gallery walk through with curator Vanessa Giorgio, HERE.