'Multiples, Series & Repetitions', the current show at the Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard, was potentially a great challenge for artists to produce related pieces. Some merely repeated the same thing and others produced wonderful variations on a theme.

Eleven small eight-inch Bronze sculptures by Julie Hastings-Smith litter the exhibit with their playfulness providing a delightful contrast to the hanging work. The five 'Attitudes of Eve' sculptures capture women: with hands on hips, by tilt of head and even perkiness of breasts.

Also delightful are Suzie Lowe's ceramic carafes. They were slightly smushed into irregular but pleasing forms. Each piece glows with an incredible finish identifiable by its name: 'Pewter', 'Copper' and 'Ebony'. Snake-like coils add accents to the carafes along with skewers, beads, pennants and wire coils.

Kok Wan Lee's 'Blooming' series is orgasmic. These ink images are bright and abstract, yet viscerally recognisable as gardens which jump - no, leap - into the eyes. It is like watching this exciting artist bloom as images seemly continue to move, despite the substantial white mattes and black frames trying to contain them.

In contrast, the coloured pencil drawings of flowers by Emma Mitchell, one of the featured artists, seem to contain a delicate loneliness and isolation. The peach blossoms are suspended on large white space with white mattes and frames.

She says, "there is a delicacy about them, yes, but I think the initial perception of delicacy belies the strength and character of the actual form. People are timid about making plants look strong". Strong yes, but these also have a child-like vulnerability. The roses especially seem to be trying to overpower the stronger coloured mattes.

The work of Julia Coash, the other featured artist, is as different as can be. Although inspired initially by flowers and vines they are stripped down to basic essence. It is so abstract the inspiration is buried deep within. "What do you think it is?" asks Ms Coash. "I use a found object that triggers a response. I try to present them in a way that explores their poetic associations. A rose can look like a billowing sail, or a crescent moon."

When it comes down to it what does it matter what it looks like to her? In most of the pieces swirling movement pushes the viewer around the canvas, usually upward. Except the vines which hold the viewer in a more disturbing way.

Christopher Astwood's black and white photographs, however, are totally concrete. They contain the intensity and angst of youth, whether in a profile or simply shoes below a bowed head or a cup in hands.

The three pieces in Von Rica Dickenson's 'Upscale' series are unsatisfying given the wonderful work she has produced lately. The forms are the same with the familiar cones, upward movement and textures but the colours depart from her usual earth tones. They are not even shocking or provoking however and merely mediocre at best.

Vaughn Evans' two abstract acrylics are the kind to get lost in, the colours are bright colours with turquoise predominating and wonderful use of white space. It seems they are maps to somewhere, perhaps magical.

"A small boy, seemingly asleep, the back of his head is blown off," is a newspaper quote, from the start of the war on Iraq, explaining Vivian Stella-Phillips three small oil and eggshell paintings. She says she was thinking of the children while eating eggs. "Looking at the shells, it gave me the idea of the head. I thought it was similar to broken bones." The backgrounds, in variations of blood red, seem calm but in each piece the eggshells stand out strikingly in a different way.

'Not Stonehenge' are two mixed media pieces by Angela Gentleman. They're inspired by Bermuda stonewalls and are variations of brown paint on canvas and aluminium foil.

Difficult to interpret are Caroline Troncossi's sixteen 'Creating Spaces' oil on gesso and watercolour paper pieces. They are mostly orange and yellow and seem thin and more like watercolours. They are suspended on clear glass, which becomes the matte also and the wooden frames seem heavy in contrast.

'Multiples, Series & Repetitions', continues at the Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard until May 16th, 2003.

DENISE DEMOURA