Southend: Sombre tones for Christmas

The series of photographs currently on show until January 8 at Southend Library's own gallery don't seem to be hugely aware of the new millennium either, which makes you wonder if the time of year and the importance of the occasion may have just passed the organisers by.

Of course it could just be an artistic jab in the eye to all that hype - but I suspect the truth of the matter is that when this exhibition was planned back in the mists of time the significance of the dates was overlooked.

So, instead of a brave new look at the millennium to come, or a glance at Christmas past, present or future, Southend is treated to a series of photographs which celebrate little more than run-down council estates and a series of coloured lights.

You know the type, the kind of picture most people take when they are winding on the beginning of a reel of film - or accidently push the shutter as they jump onto the train as it's about to leave the station.

The strangest thing, to me anyway, about this exhibition is that the photographers - and the organisers for that matter - really must believe that people want to see pictures of scaffold-clad high-rise flats and unkempt land on the edge of urban sprawl.

Lesley Farrell of Focal Point Gallery said:"We chose the exhibition because of the time of year when we have the longest nights and are going through the shortest day.

"The library is open until 7pm, three hours after it becomes dark, so we thought that it would be nice to have night-time photographs.

"We wouldn't normally mark the seasons."

Now I realise that other people may disagree with my opinion, some of them quite strongly, and I respect their right to do so.

For them I will describe the thinking behind the art, as described by the artists themselves. The exhibition is of photographs which are all taken at night. As in later, presumably.

Hainsley Brown creates images of London council estates. The accompanying notes say that the pictures: "capture an often missed beauty, but are taken at a time of day when the areas are perceived at their most dangerous."

Dan Holsworth's images: "appear totally isolated and anonymous. They are like empty film sets onto which we project our own fears and anxieties."

Rut Blees Luxemburg has "moved to the edge of the city to empty corners and passageways which bear traces of unseen human activity, but where once more we are left to invent our own narrative."

In Neville Smith's images: "there is a sense of being on a journey looking out."

The leaflet that accompanies the exhibition states: "In all of the work there is both a beauty and a sense of the unknown, an uncertainty at what lies just beyond the picture plane. We feel as though we are both observing and being observed."

It could be that, or it could be a bit of art-world navel-gazing.

Of course the only way to know for sure is to pop along to the Focal Point Gallery, on the second floor of Southend library, Victoria Avenue and take a peep.

There is a comment book there to record all your own feelings about the work, whether they are more positive than mine or not.

Either way, Rut Blees Luxemburg will be giving a talk about her work at the library tomorrow at 7.15pm.

There will be a workshop on night photography on December 8 from 4.30pm-9.30pm led by Dan Holsworth Phone the library on 01702 to book a place at either event.

Later is at the Focal Point Gallery, Central Library, VIctoria Avenue, Southend until January 8.

The zany team from the Platform Theatre Company who performed Unexploded Knickers and When I was a Girl I Used to Scream and Shout this year, have cancelled their upcoming show of sketches and revue, that was due to start a six-evening run at the Railway Hotel, Clifftown Road, Southend on December 8.

The small company said other commitments within tight resources had led them to cancel.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.