WSA student Charlotte Connelly reflects on her BENCH public art commission

Charlotte working on her bench

Charlotte Connelly, first year BA Graphic Arts student at Winchester School of Art, has written about her experience contributing to the BENCH series of public art commissions from Solent Showcase Gallery and GO! Southampton. 16 benches from the pedestrianised high street of Southampton have been transformed into works of art by local artists – one of which was Charlotte!

Read on to hear all about how her design made it from paper to park bench.

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Fidelma O’Riordan reflects: How to Live

In another reflective piece, Fidelma Oā€™Riordan ā€“ Creative Apprentice at John Hansard Gallery ā€“ shares her thoughts on How to Live by David Blandy.

How to Live (2020) is one of two digital works by artist David Blandy, specially commissioned by John Hansard Gallery to reflect on the uncertain times we currently find ourselves in. The work was first shown as part of the gallery’s online programme in June 2020 and you can still watch it here.

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Introducing Fiona Sunderland, Student Insights Coordinator with the Arts team

Fiona has enjoyed finding ways to keep busy during lockdown!


What is your role at Arts at University of Southampton? 

Iā€™ll be working as ā€œArts, Culture and Student Insights Coordinatorā€ which is a fancy title I came up with to look cool on LinkedIn. In reality, it means Iā€™ll be working closely with Louise Coysh and Jen Harris in the Universityā€™s Arts and Culture team, alongside our venues John Hansard Gallery and Turner Sims, to look at how we can develop the student experience around the Universityā€™s arts and culture offer. This involves supporting the student voice in the Heart of Campus project and city-wide cultural development. Iā€™ll be particularly focused on making sure we have extensive student consultation and input! 

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🎥 WATCH: Larry Achiampong interviewed by Arts at University of Southampton

Student Arts Ambassador Kate Briggs-Price interviewed artist Larry Achiampong in January 2020, during his solo exhibition When the Sky Falls at John Hansard Gallery, 25 January – 14 March 2020.

Larry and Kate chat about all things – from working across different mediums and taking artistic inspiration from popular culture, to class, race, privilege and the environment (and how they are all connected).

John Hansard Gallery is part of University of Southampton and is funded by Arts Council England. Larry Achiampong is represented by Copperfield Gallery, London.

With thanks to Larry Achiampong and John Hansard Gallery.

Video by Kate Briggs-Price.

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Review: Heist at NST City (or Our First Dance Show Experience!)

By Thea Hartman and Kate Briggs-Price

To our shame and huge excitement and curiosity, the opening night of ZoieLogic Dance Theatreā€™s Heist was the first time either of us had seen a dance-only production. And on top of that, whilst between us we have a few yearsā€™ worth of mostly amateur dance experience, we know nothing about contemporary dancing, which was the showā€™s predominant style. In a nutshell, we went to the opening night of this show with absolutely no expectations and completely ready to see contemporary dance with fresh eyes.

And that is exactly what happened. As ZoieLogic Dance Theatre Artistic Director Zoie Golding expertly put it (she created the show after all), Heist mixes ā€œthe adventure of Mission Impossible, the gaming of Crystal Maze, and a little bit of the heart of The Gooniesā€ ā€“ an emotionally dynamic, cleverly woven, action-packed show bursting with the most graceful moves which kept us on the edge of our seats throughout.

One of the most striking aspects of Heist was in the way it established the tone so promptly and accurately from the very first minute with the help of soundtrack and a villain with robotic moves, deeply unsettling facial expressions and Matrix-like costume. We like to think that we donā€™t get scared easily, but we definitely found ourselves huddling close into each other as the villain slowly approached our end of the stage. This almost instant characterization was also instilled into the four ā€˜goodā€™ guys ā€“ despite there being absolutely no words spoken for the entire duration of the show, we quickly got a real sense of the dynamic between the characters in the first act, as their movements started to organize themselves into patterns and motifs to show their quirks and mannerisms, their teamwork and their willingness to do whatever it takes to escape the prison.

Interestingly, the storyline was quite minimalistic. Whilst the general plotlines were conveyed by the charactersā€™ interaction with the set, the soundtrack and the dancersā€™ movements and facial expressions, the lack of words brought with itself a lack of specificity which Heist turned on its head into a vagueness encouraging audience engagement. We did not know exactly why the four men were imprisoned, or what they tried to set free at the end of it, but when we talked about it after coming out of the show we both thought it had something to do with identity. Whether or not thatā€™s what it actually was about is a different question.

The great thing about the show is that none of this guesswork actually matters: you donā€™t get brownie points for identifying one specific metaphor the author wanted to convey. The focus was simply on how the incredibly skilful and graceful movements affected the audienceā€™s emotions (and trust us, they did). The plot was merely shaped by some classic heist film tropes (e.g. the chase scene), and the fantastically adaptable set which enhanced the experience of the show by being as fluid as the dancersā€™ movements; the essence was all in the relationship between movements and emotion. As the dancers were climbing the prisonā€™s walls showing some real parkour skills, we waited anxiously for them to fall. As they supported each other through their feeblest sequences of choreography we felt feeble with them. As they were running from the villain through the set which became a maze we were rooting for them to get away.

For us, that was the essence of Heist. It did not matter that we knew close to nothing about contemporary dance. It only mattered that we opened our eyes and hearts to see and feel this show, and we left NST City all the richer for it.

Watch the trailer for Heist below, and catch ZoieLogic Dance Theatreā€™s next show @zoielogic or at www.zoielogic.co.uk.