Pocket Number-18: Arches Studios, Captain’s Place

38033452_10100631638915217_5689867253768519680_n Arches Studios is situated beneath Southampton’s Central Bridge in Grade II listed Victorian arches which once housed a cattle market. The arches are now redeveloped to give studio space to local artists, potters, sculptors, printmakers, illustrators, craftsmen and filmmakers.

I visited on Sunday afternoon at the tail end of the annual Open Studios weekend, when residents 37977220_10100631638875297_7807182596214882304_n 38147568_10100631638880287_4760044917659533312_n open their studios to the curious. Although I had arrived too late to observe the tug-of-war between artists and curators (artists won), a meditation class was still happening in a marquee, Malaysian street food and craft beer were still being served and there was a glow-in-the-dark drawing wall available for creative output in neon.

I roamed the studios and have listed below in alphabetical order (of their first names), some of the residents whose card I grabbed, along with where you can find them online:

On arrival, I immediately found Nicola. She was about to leave for a food-shop but assured me that she’d be back later. I then found her studio space at the back of arch 10. Her artistic practice concerns communication and technology and systems and you can visit her work online, here: www.nicola-anderson.tumblr.com

38160637_10100631638785477_5615336922504232960_n When she returned, Nicola gave me the liberty to put on the montage anything interesting that I found 38217177_10100631638805437_201839612958605312_n around the area, so I collected grass and groundsel and an assortment of flora colonizing pavement cracks and wall fissures.