VESPIARY: Savage & Rising | SouthSeaEyes at The Corner Collective
Exhibition: 2–5 May 2025 | Private View: Thursday 1 May, 6–9pm
The Corner Collective, 150–152 Albert Road, Southsea
This May, I present VESPIARY: Savage & Rising, my first solo exhibition, held at The Corner Collective in Southsea.
This exhibition marks my first solo themed exhibition, bringing together new linocut and drypoint prints, all carved, incised and hand-pulled in Southsea. The work draws from mythological frameworks that continue to live today— told through storytelling, scholarly translations, and contemporary retellings.
Key influences include the translations of Emily Wilson, the lectures of Professor Elizabeth Vandiver, and the narrative work of Natalie Haynes. Yes, I am a fangirl of these minds. I’ve lived where the voices and texts of these authors, whose works of translating the works of Homer’s Iliad and Odysseus play on loop in my eyes, ears, and the matter in-between – since last year.
The work brought together my exploration of linocut & drypoint printmaking, experimental approaches with clay forms, and the continual conversation I hold with classical mythology. VESPIARY rises as a response to the growing instability we see worldwide: the erosion of rights, the oppression of womenfolk across all identities—cis, trans, non-binary —and the urgent need to reclaim inner sovereignty.
The presence on display —deities, consciousness, rebels—are not mere archetypes to emulate. They are embodiments of strength in contradiction. Fierce and maternal. Ferocious and divine. They ask us to remember that we were never powerless.
The Vespiary confronts. A celebration of feminine energy at the core.
This is mythmaking for the present era.
One where womenfolk—survivors, workers, cis, trans, non-binary, single mothers, warriors—hold the centre.
Through hand-carved linocut prints, I have returned to figures such as Athena Promachos, Persephone, and Hekate—not to mythologise them as unreachable ideals, but to translate their stories into tangible memory. These deities carry strategies of survival, endurance, and resistance – all still vital today.
The images are either cut on battleship grey lino blocks, etched on perspex surfaces and printed by hand using traditional techniques. The act of repetition becomes a practice of memory—layered, physical, enduring.
Whilst I approach these subjects with a sense of gravitas, recognising the weight they carry – woven through is the aim to keep these stories alive for younger generations: to ensure that classical mythology does not drift into abstraction, but continues to speak with relevance and strength.
At the centre stands Athena Promachos—the first block carved. Promachos: the one who leads from the front. In 5th century BCE Athens, she stood in bronze on the Acropolis—spear lifted, visible from the sea – her statue was allegedly 11 metres tall. Her figure announced presence, protection, and precision. A stabilising force. Easy to imagine this, living so near the Portsmouth Historic Dockyards and the Royal Navy. In both Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, she walks beside Odysseus. The strategist. The unseen Edge (specific reference to Odysseus not being able to see her but can hear her voice …as opposed to U2’s prominent guitarist The Edge – though maybe why not. Either / or maybe?). Athena is The one who guides Odysseus’ return. In this body of work, she holds first position. Fully present, first-carved, first-printed. Every piece extends from her.
As if kismet – and some of you might have read this in my earlier email – The Return, a film by Uberto Passolini starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche was released in UK on 11 April 2025, when the ink on Athena’s linocut reduction print was sufficiently dry enough for me to take to the framers. Obviously unplanned, and I take this as a woven thread of destiny, a fortuitous alignment – a signpost that this moment is ripe with meaning.
Recalling last year’s Portsmouth Open Studios Event (POSE), I view this exhibition as one of a wider moment across the city. I am mindful of the work of fellow artists such as Ebun Sodipo, whose exhibition Traces of the Non-Existent will open at Aspex Gallery, The Vulcan Building, Gunwharf Quays, on the same evening. I have contacted Aspex (Kirstie/Ricardo/Linsey) to ensure we create cohesive communication across our exhibitions. Community and collective visibility matter deeply to me as an artist. I see art not as isolated events, but as a body: a living, breathing whole, formed of many hands, many stories.
Blockprinting at The VESPIARY
On Sunday 4 May, from 12–3pm, I will open the space for a bring-your-own-paper Family-friendly blockprinting session. Using my hand-carved blocks, visitors of all ages will be able to create their own prints, touching directly the craft and symbolism that has shaped the exhibition. This session is designed to invite families and younger audiences into the mythologies which form our deeper foundations—to keep the stories breathing. Free with subscription to https://southseaeyes.me.
For more information, to future-reserve your editions, to RSVP for the blockprinting session, or to stay connected:
Website: https://southseaeyes.me
Instagram: @southseaeyes
Your myth-carving printmaker,
Nusye
VESPIARY: Savage & Rising
runs from 2–5 May, 12–4pm each day, with the Private View on 1 May from 6–9pm.
Venue: The Corner Collective, 152 Albert Road, Southsea, Hampshire, UK.
Thanks for your esponse
I’ll just subscribe, thanks
That is so powerful, informative and beautiful. And I needed to read that, thank you.qw
On multiple levels – thank you, dear friend 🖤
Thank you Ma’am, so much love and hugs to you