A new exhibition is opening tomorrow at the Apthorp Gallery at artsdepot entitled Blue Suede Shoes by a group of artists who go by the collective name Gumbo.

“Using the well known phrase ‘Blue Suede shoes’ as a starting point, these artists played a game of ‘pass it on’  to produce a sequence of new illustrations that will be on display in the gallery. Through a series of word changes the story twists and turns to take you on a surreal journey into the imagination; thus ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ become ‘Blue Suede Dinosaur’, transforming somehow into ‘Blue dinosaur soup’, and so on and so forth…”

Amongst the talented illustrators in the group is Harriet Russell, who is certainly not a stranger to playing with words and pictures. She is the author of the delightful book Envelopes: A Puzzling Journey Through Royal Mail which saw her test the good-humour, the determination (and arguably the patience) of the admirable postie who successfully managed to deliver her cryptically-adressed postcards.

Whoever said art had to be all high-and-mighty and you can’t have some light-hearted fun with it?

The Blue Suede Shoes exhibition will run from Friday 4 March to Sunday 1May and you can find more news and work about the group of illustrators at the Gumbo blog.

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity & Online Marketing Manager