30th April - 5th June 2011
The Town Mill Art Gallery

About the Exhibition
A mill - a place of meetings, steeped in history, unearthed textures that suggest the unveiling of time - wheels of stone, embedded uneven oak beams, walls that silently hold references to the passing of time, implied memories. Water ebbing, a backdrop of rhythms of it falling against stone, turning the wheel sets in motion - an incessant stream coursing around the building complex.  A plaster form is cast, then folds, turns in on itself - its weight determines the momentum. It evolves slowly transforming. A series of paintings and drawings come into play and a dialogue is set between the two and three- dimensional.  An installation using plaster will be built in the gallery during the first period of the exhibition.  In the David West Gallery.

More Information
http://www.townmill.org.uk/pages/galleryexhibitions.htm

Carolyne Kardia opened her exhibition of patients' work from the Jules Thorn Day Hospital at City Hall, London, on Wednesday last week.  Last year after opening her sculpture and painting exhibition which featured a joint patient ceramic relief at St Pancras Hospital, Ken Livingstone was so impressed that he challenged the pottery group to bring their work to City Hall. Carolyne has been working throughout the summer to complete the ceramic sculpture installation. She has run the pottery group at the psychiatric day hospital since 1987 and has developed a method of working that encourages all of the patients with their varying previous experience, to work expressively with the clay.

"It is always so good to see what remarkable things people make when they are given the right space, continuity and the confidence to develop their ideas" says Carolyne. The work on the top of the structure depicts three women an African, an Asian and a Caucasian supporting each other in friendship. 21 patients have taken part in the exhibition and there are approx 50 different works on show.

Carolyne wanted the form of the exhibition to fit into the City Hall building, which is circular and is built to conserve energy and use sunlight. It was designed as a landmark building near Tower Bridge by  Foster and Partners who also designed the "Gherkin" across the river.

The exhibition is open to the public until 29th September  Mon-Fri and next weekend it is open as part of the Openhouse Architecture in the Flesh weekend in London. Ken Livingstone has invited the Julles Thorn Day Hospital back next year and would like the exhibition to be a regular event.

One of the patients (see the image on the left) was inspired by the Ben Okri poem that is inscribed on the wall inside the building - she said "Everyone is connected to each other but we are all different. It inspires  harmony and the dancing of souls, all the good things in life sun and music..."