roADMAP: ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET?
9 May - 15 June 2025
Hidden wardrobe, Southampton
As part of our third major project ‘ZEST Roadmap’, ZEST have commissioned two of our artists, Jennifer Mon and Bryn Lloyd, to interpret themes of ‘Mapping’ in response to the future of the Collective, Old Northam Road, and the place of artists in the city.
‘Roadmap: Are we nearly there yet?’ is an exhibition speaking to the pressing matters impacting artistic and community spaces. It critically considers local and regional issues of gentrification, whilst advocating for the importance of playful encounters that art practice can activate to reimagine the creative and cultural significance of places like Old Northam Road.
This exhibition was a precursor to the ‘Roadmap’ showcase that took place along Old Northam Road two weeks later.
The ‘ZEST Roadmap’ project is a 1.5 year-long organisational development project dedicated to the future of ZEST, Old Northam Road, and creativity in the city. The project is providing opportunities to artists and local community members through artist-led workshops, mentoring opportunities, and exhibitions.
Passive Art
by Bryn Lloyd
Bryn Lloyd is a multidisciplinary artist working with sculpture, performance, and sound.
Recently Bryn’s work has focused on practising time-honoured artistic techniques and manipulating their outcomes through the introduction of external stimuli such as motors, bodily motion, and natural forces.
His pieces are familiar yet playfully and are in contrast to the traditional ideas of an artist's control and artisanship over their own work.
For Roadmap, ‘Passive Art’ attempts to illustrate the equilibrium between an artist’s work-life balance.
Using monoprint techniques, these drawings are created passively using the motion of Bryn’s car during his travels to and from work and other daily errands. The driving motion, speed, and road surface all contend with one another to manipulate a weighted ball-bearing inside a drawing box on paper over ink to create unpredictable outcomes, each unique to its journey.
The work exists as a conversation piece focusing on an artist's struggle to balance artistic endeavours and career progression in this contemporary fast-paced society.
Details of ‘Passive Art’
Antiques Live Here
by Jennifer Mon
Mon Studio is the creative playground of Jennifer Mon, a Southampton-based Portuguese collage artist and graphic designer. Through collage, she explores the intersections of personal identity, collective memory, and the emotional nuances of everyday life. Her work blends textured materials with graphic design elements to amplify narratives that are political, deeply personal, and rooted in care.
For Roadmap, Jennifer assembled elements of Old Northam Road, reflecting on the once-busy high street—now quiet and worn down. ‘Antiques Live Here’ is a large-scale analogue collage piece that explores the stillness and slow decay that settle in when spaces are left behind. The collage constructs a headdress—a crown of buildings, empty, abandoned, and repurposed, with locked gates—worn by a bust from a now-closed pub.
Every element is real, yet together they feel surreal.
Not forgotten—just waiting.
Antiques live here,
speaking to those who know how to listen.
Details of ‘Antiques Live Here’
