Police Patrol This Area

'Police Patrol This Area'
Paul Conneally
Loughborough Railway Station
November 26 2016

Pink Onesie Convo

Pink Onesie Convo - Paul Conneally, New Parks, Leicester 2016

Today I spotted three different people wearing onesies and a woman in a dressing gown around the Aikman Avenue shops in New Parks. It's an interesting cultural shift in what's acceptable or not to leave the house in - maybe it's better - a more relaxed approach to indoor outdoor home not home distinctions. Each to their own - live and let live! Mind you I don't think it's a style I'll be sporting in public anytime soon - the world's not ready for that yet!

sweeping leaves
too many starlings
to count up

Little Onion

Bertie at The Blue Army Craft Group

Bertie at The Blue Army Craft Group, New Parks, Leicester, UK

I was at the Blue Army Craft Group meeting to talk through and invite the members to take part in a new sound art piece with I-mitri CounterAction and Soft Touch Arts.

The group is pretty much self-organising and they work together on crochet, knitting and other craft and making skills. Many of the group, including Bertie, have worked with me on other works and projects such as Involuntary Painting New Parks : New York alongside my collaborator and friend New York artist Millree Hughes. They are a great bunch!

Paul Conneally
New Parks, Leicester
November 2016

Marta Oliviera-Child - Head Chef at the Bom Bom Patisserie

Marta Oliviera-Child is the head chef and co-owner of the Bom Bom Patisserie in Loughborough, Leicestershire, right in the heart of England.

Bom Bom Patisserie has been operating a few years but only opened the café part of the business in May 2016. It has proved to be a tasty, stylish and instant hit.

Marta comes from Brazil where her mother runs a restaurant. She came to Loughborough in 2006, like so many young people do, to study at Loughborough University. She always had a dream to open a patisserie and luckily for the people of Loughborough she has and what a patisserie it is!

after the pastry
the cream
on the end of her nose

Little Onion

Find out more about Marta and the Bom Bom Patisserie by visiting its website and hey, even better, the patisserie itself!

Photograph and text: Paul Conneally

Hartleys Coffee and Sandwich Bar, Nottingham 'from the hip' Paul Conneally 2016

Hartleys Coffee and Sandwich Bar, Hockley, Nottingham

From the ongoing series 'from the hip' - photographs taken 'from the hip'.

Paul Conneally

Nottingham

Oct. 23 2016

ホッチキス HOTCHKISS - EMMA'S DELL (Deep Thought Mix) - Video & Lyrics

a small stream 

running with a young man’s speed

the sound of water

through budding groves

she weaves between 
still traffic

sirens wail 
building to building

in the confusion a leafless ash-tree

in the coffee-shop dirt under her nails

alive to the world 

a song bird vying with a waterfall

neon signs

flick on and off

sidewalk daisies

swapping stories

a single cottage

on the distant mountain

bright green hawthorn

talking to shepherds

in the confusion a leafless ash-tree

in the coffee-shop dirt under her nails

alive to the world 

a song bird vying with a waterfall

Lyrics: Paul Conneally

Music: Shuntaro Netsu and Paul Conneally

Mural of Buddhist monk celebrating Leicester City Football Club

One of a series of murals across Leicester that celebrate the success of Leicester City Football Club's winning of the English Premier League in 2016.

This shows just the central section of the mural which off The Newarke near De Montfort University which depicts symbols and images associated with Thailand where Leicester City's owners come from.

Paul Conneally
October 2016
Leicester

Nottingham Contemporary Text Art Signage

This mirror written signage is right outside the Nottingham Contemporary and in front of the Pitcher and Piano, a church turned into a bar.

Paul Conneally
Nottingham
October 2016

I-mitri CounterAction - Dub Warrior

I-mitri CounterAction at Soft Touch Arts, Leicester

I'm so blessed to work with so many talented and generous people and today I started work on a new project with the wonderful artist musician I-mitri CounterAction.

I will keep you all informed of developments as the work takes shape.

Paul Conneally
Leicester
October 2016

Balancing An Apple On Your Head Race - Loughborough University

Participants in the 'Balancing An Apple On Your Head Run' at the artist led Fruit Routes Apple Olympics at Loughborough University.

Fruit Routes was conceived by artist and environmental activist Anne-Marie Culhane.

Photograph: Paul Conneally - Loughborough - October 2017

The Loughborough University Fruit Routes Apple Olympics 2016

Participants in the artist led Fruit Route Apple Olympics at Loughborough University wear not numbers but the names of fruit tree varieties that are planted on the Loughborough Fruit Route and associated orchards across the university campus.

Events in the Apple Olympics included the '1km or so' run, apple not shot putting, balancing an apple on your head race and the egg and apple race.

Fruit Routes is an ongoing work conceived and led by artist and environmental activist Anne-Marie Culhane.

Photograph: Paul Conneally 2016

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Competitors In The Fruit Routes Balancing An Apple On Your Head Race2016

Competitors in the artist led Fruit Routes Apple Olympics balancing an apple on your head race. Each competitor wears not a number but the name of a fruit tree species planted during the Fruit Routes work on Loughbohemia (some call it Loughborough) University Campus.

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Other events were the '1km Or So Fruit Routes Run' where the aim was for all competitors to cross the finishing line together and not shot but 'apple putting' not forgetting of course the children's 'Apple And Spoon Race'.

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Fruit Routes is conceived and planned by my long time collaborator artist activist Anne-Marie Culhane with and for the wonderful Loughborough University Sustainability Team and it's a pleasure to work on and have be associated with it as artist and poet year on year since its start.

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Paul Conneally
Loughbohemia
October 2016
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CANDY VAN

'CANDY VAN'
Paul Conneally
Leicester, 2016

'Prophylactic' - Paul Conneally - Cannes - 2016

'PROPHYLACTIC'
Paul Conneally
Cannes 2016

You can find 'PROHYLACTIC' a found splacist artwork by Paul Conneally in the old port of Cannes:

Giving With Benefits: Just Who Owns The National Lottery?

Gambling is firmly entrenched within British society. The National Lottery is perhaps the most accessible form of gambling with tickets on sale in almost every small grocery or news shop along with the biggest supermarkets.
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The lottery, with its huge prizes and a percentage of profits going to charitable and sporting projects perhaps feels to many as though it's not gambling at all, just a way of supporting that might result in a windfall. A kind of 'giving with benefits'.
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Let's not pull the wool over our own eyes. The National Lottery along with its associated scratch cards is gambling and for some it forms an addiction that ruins family finances and life. This is a problem that affects poorer families and communities disproportionately as it is in these communities that most scratch cards and lottery tickets are bought.
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The government uses the lottery to subsidise some services that have seen cuts through the various funds such as the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the sports funding. One can get the impression that it is in fact a national duty to buy lottery products if only to make sure that our haul of Olympic and Paralympic gold medals is maintained and in fact increased.
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The lottery is operated but not now owned by Camelot. Camelot is in fact now owned by a Canadian pension company. Annual accounts from Camelot showed that gross ticket sales secured an enormous £7.2 billion in 2015, up from £6.7 billion in the previous year. They reported a profit of around £72 million. Whilst profits go up year on year the chances of winning have actually fallen with tickets doubling in price from £1 to £2 but prize money not doing the same. In addition to the reported Camelot profits millions are also paid over to its parent company, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, rather than being handed on to good causes.
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It is improbable that lottery culture will demise anytime soon but bringing it into public ownership rather than private ownership would see more of the profits of our gambling fixation remaining within the public realm. As for online gambling companies with their emphasis on football betting and wall to wall advertising well that's another story.

Paul Conneally
September
2016

Photograph: Filbert Street Grocery, Leicester, Paul Conneally 2016
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INVIGILATOR : MALVERN - Paul Conneally and Nikki Pugh

INVIGILATOR : MALVERN was the 6th splacist intervention in the ongoing INVIGILATOR series by artists Paul Conneally and Nikki Pugh. It was commissioned by MECA in 2009 and has informed and continues to inform the practice of Conneally and Pugh, separately and together.

Both artists continue to explore space place and time via what some call psychogeography but they refer to as 'splacist' methodologies.

INVIGILATOR forms part Conneally's overarching Walk To Work series of interventions, works and exhibitions.

"THE GALLERY OF THE STREET IS OPEN" - Paul Conneally
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OXFORD CIRCUS STATION

OXFORD CIRCUS STATION

The hustle and bustle of London's Oxford Street just before the rush hour. When it's excitingly busy without hemming your body and mind in too much.

The Evening Standard newspaper, I was going to say vendor but they are handed out for free now, sat half on half off the tube station entrance. Shall I pick one up here or outside the mainline station? I'll wait till later.

a blast of warm air
from the underground station
Marilyn Monroe

Little Onion
September
2016

Photograph: Paul Conneally 2016

Brian Allen - Plumber and Master Vegetable Grower

Brian Allen - plumber and master vegetable grower!

We've returned back to Loughborough from Dronfield two weeks running laden with fantastic produce, green beans, rhubarb, cabbage, courgettes... Thanks Brian and Jane Allen!

Paul Conneally
Dronfield Woodhouse
September 2016

Chilled

Chilled
Paul Conneally
Lifestyle Express
Leicester 2016

Tender is the Night - The Old Bull's Head - Woodhouse Eaves

Tender is the Night
The Old Bull's Head
Woodhouse Eaves

The Old Bull's Head is in the almost alpine looking village of Woodhouse Eaves just outside the Leicestershire market town of Loughborough. It has been completely refurbished from what was a traditional fuggy old pub to a modern gastro pub with a light and airy interior.

The food is a mixture of traditional and modern classics from light bites and pizzas to fresh fish and roast meats.

It's a big restaurant but advance booking is advised particularly at the weekends.

Sunday evening
the family decamps
to a pub roast 

Little Onion
September 2016

Photograph: Paul Conneally