Searching for Zoe

MuseumMan, Top Floor, 48 Rodney Street, L1 5AA
From 20th August 2005 - closing date TBC

Reviewed by Colin Serjent

In a fascinating exhibition, Museum MAN offers you the opportunity to see thousands of postcards collected by Zoe Freeman on her extensive travels over the past 30 years to many towns and cities throughout Britain and Europe.

Given the sheer volume of cards on view there is inevitably a very diverse range of subject matter included. Some are very artistic; some twee and cutesy; some capturing a straightforward image of an aspect of a location, for example, an historical building, landscape or seaside resort; and some humourous in their content.

As well as a selection of hundreds on cards displayed on a corridor wall at the Rodney Street venue, there are also 15 large albums packed full of cards laid out on a table in an adjoining room.

In some ways the cards reflect various aspects of British culture and the way styles and tastes have changed here since the 1970s. One American visitor to the exhibtion, unaccustomed to 'the British way of life' was overwhelmed by the cultural diversity of many locations, as represented in these cards, housed in such a relatively small island compared to the USA.