Reviews

Hazel East is an artist that grew up in East Yorkshire, she is known for her eye-catching work. I have personally collaborated with Hazel, as she is my Arts Emergency mentor and helped me to design a map for a book I am producing. Her work relates to, and has inspired mine because a lot of my work is about or based on the city of London. The exhibition ‘Mind the map’ was appropriately held at the Barbican Library near the old city wall and her prints depicted some of the brutalist architecture there. 

 

She’s showing her unique way of describing the city in this exhibition. Using a mixture of techniques from digital to handcrafted, most of her work is based on architecture with an abstract twist. She also works using the design of maps, turning them into brightly coloured murals. There are loads of iconic London buildings in this exhibition like the British Library and also a map of the underground. 

 

Some of the pieces exaggerate the shapes using all sorts of different lines which are not always symmetrical, but you can recognise the structure of the buildings in real life. A lot of them are stylised but you could say she has broken them down into a more stylised form. Some of the lines in her drawings may seem accidental but I believe they were drawn with deliberate care. 

 

Her lines are brightly coloured and really grab the spectators attention. From my perspective her work uses lots of different geometric shapes and angles and a variety of different colours, lines and patterns which bring her work to life. 

 

Something which really fascinated me about this exhibition is that most of the city buildings can seem dull and boring, but with lots of colour and passion they can seem extraordinary.

 

I noticed on one of the paintings was the British Library logo and she has also labelled the different boroughs of London alongside her maps or aerial views of them. Her fonts look like they have been delicately drawn by hand, making them graceful and it’s very appealing. She is clearly showing love and warmth for the city. The overall mood is very bright and cheerful.

 

Some of the architecture, such as the Tower of London has been around for centuries, but she has taken a modern approach to depicting them. She wants to use buildings that are both ancient and modern in her work so that viewers, old and young, can get a grasp of Londons life and history.