Artist Hannah Campion's first curated show of installation, drawing and painting takes flight from Newcastle's Quayside, as Tamzin Lewis discovers.

HELICOPTERS, the broadcaster and journalist Andrew Marr writes in his book My Trade, are guaranteed to enliven any TV news package. They are equally appealing to cinema, and definitely a more exhilarating flying experience than easyJet.

There is just something about the whizzy blades, deafening engines and element of danger which makes helicopters fascinating to those outside the forces.

Choosing helicopter as an exhibition title seems like a happy twist of fate for artist Hannah Campion. She had organised the finest details of the first group exhibition which she had curated, but hadn’t decided on a title.

Agonising over the name, she hit upon the punchy helicopter, which fitted the nature of wide ranging work by six artists dealing with journeys, location and exploration.

Hannah explains: "I came up with a lot of names for the exhibition, but nothing was working or felt quite right. I initially wanted something which was almost unrelated to the show. Last year I entitled a painting helicopter and suddenly realised it was perfect for the show.

"In a sideways, almost accidental way it is very related as there is an aerial feel to some of the work."

Helicopter features work by artists Lesley Hicks and Simon Parish of Gateshead, Puerto Rican Héctor Arce-Espasas, German Jorn Ebner and Miranda Whall, who is based in Wales.

There is also new work by Hannah, influenced by a two-month residency last year in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Hannah, 28, of Middlesbrough, says: "I have been lucky enough to be mentored by the artists Danny Rolph and William Tillyer and was encouraged to curate a show.

"I felt it had to be the right project at the right time in a brilliant space, and fortunately everything worked for this exhibition." She says: "What I have found really interesting is the correlation between the works, even though the artists work in very different ways. There are relationships between big installations and small paintings in this very architectural space.

"All the artists investigate themselves and a sense of place, whether in painting, drawing or mark making."

The exhibition is in a big office space in St Ann’s Quay, (the big block of flats on Newcastle Quayside near the Gateshead Millennium Bridge) and has been organised in partnership with Newcastle’s Vane gallery. Hannah says: "St Ann’s Quay is enormous. When I was hanging the show I would leave a screwdriver by the window on one wall and then realise I needed it about 25,000 metres away in the other corner!"

"There are some very delicate works on paper and I had to be so careful to hang them from bulldog clips. But I’ve had a lot of support and it has come together."

Helicopter is at St Ann’s Quay until May 31. It’s open on Saturday and Sunday only from 11am to 4pm.

For information go to www.hannahcampion.com