| The Space Between
Space Between is an ambitious public art project commissioned by the Towner Art
Gallery in partnership with local schools and artists from the artist collective SpRoUt.
It forms part of a series of innovative initiatives to raise awareness of the Towner’s
relocation to the Eastbourne Cultural Centre and provide opportunities for the local
community to be engaged within the building process.
The title of the project makes reference to both the unknown space behind the
hoardings, not yet a finished building and the current status of the Towner Art
Gallery, closed to the public since 2006 and due to reopen within the Eastbourne
Cultural Centre in spring 2008. SpRoUt artists collective have been commissioned to
develop a series of independent, related interventions for this project. The public
programme commenced on the 14th July and continues throughout August
culminating in a public launch event on Saturday 18th August 2007 at 3pm.
Ongoing Space Between Public Programme:
At the new Cultural Centre site unless otherwise stated
From 28th Jul - ‘Light Music’ hoarding intervention by Amy Cunningham
From 30th Jul - ‘The Visible and the Invisible’ Screened nightly at Smythe and
Barrie, Terminus Road, Eastbourne
From 18th Aug - ‘Right of Entry’ hoarding intervention by Hayley Skipper
The public launch will coincide with Airbourne, Eastbourne's 4 day air show, along
with other related events including children's workshops which will focus directly on
the hoardings project and an artists' networking event hosted by the Blue Monkey
Group.
Information about works:
On 14th Jul - ‘How to begin’ a tour and
guided walk commencing at the Towner
Art Gallery and continuing over the 1.3
miles to the site of the new Cultural
Centre was devised and led by Hannah
Chiswell
An ‘exhibition tour’ of the closed Towner
Gallery on High Street passes through
the empty spaces that housed the
Towner’s collection. With the artwork
now in storage the walk traced a line
through the space and considered the
tangible remains left by the gallery’s
inhabitation. Conjuring up some of
landscapes within the Towner’s
collection, the walk carried these
memories and traces, and continued to
the site of the new gallery next to the
Congress Theatre. After the event a
series of recorded traces of the walk will
take place on the hoarding. These
traces both document and re-present or
transform the walk.
‘Light Music’ by Amy Cunningham
‘Light music’ muses upon the architecture of pleasure
synonymous with the 1930’s, a point at which there
was a brave and utopian look ahead and from which
an enduring aesthetic vision of the future was made.
Using the translucent,
coloured ‘jelly mould’
shapes which house
the ‘Compton’ and
‘Wurlitzer’ cinema
theatre organs from
this period; an illusion
of space is created.
There is an attempt to
play upon the very
hopes and questions
raised by moving from
an old space to a new
space, including the
visual and emotional
response to
architecture. It is a
vision of what is not
quite in the future, not
quite in the past.
‘The Visible and the Invisible’ by Samuel Dowd
A cinematic non-event that documents the
construction of a ‘set’ within the empty
space of the new cultural centre, this work
draws on the language of seaside
‘illuminations’, choreographed
action and the shifting structural
geometries of the building-site.
The installation and resulting
video work - intermittently visible,
address the potential perception
and movement of the spectator
through an as yet unfinished
space. The hoarding serves as a
barrier between these works and
their audience, frustrating the
artwork-as-spectacle in order to
prompt an imaginative leap into a
present and future in-between.
‘Right of Entry’ by Hayley Skipper
A partial removal of the hoarding - this text based intervention directly addresses the
notion of the ‘Space Between’. Ambiguous in its tone - an ask, a call, an instruction or
possibly a demand. This work speaks to the potential future interactions between the
new site and its audience; between audiences and the architecture, the collection
and programmes; and the viewer and the work of art. The intervention responds to
aspects of the architectural reorganisation of the institution and its function in the
town, as well as referencing pop lyrics or a potentially spiritual phrase or request.
Further information about Space Between programme:
The first part of the Space Between took place earlier in 2007 and engaged over 130
school children in a series of artist-led workshops which took place both within local
schools and the Cultural Centre construction site itself. These workshops explored
ideas of space and architecture through play, creativity and performance. SpRoUt
artists worked with children from Ocklynge Junior School, St Johns Meads C of E
Primary, Bourne County Primary and Cavendish Secondary School and explored
ideas of learning, creativity and architecture. Following the workshops children from
all schools were invited to a special review day in which they could share and reflect
upon their experiences with other participating schools.
The second part of the project launched on July 14th with two unique events led by
artists Hannah Chiswell and Samuel Dowd. The first of these involved a unique
procession starting at the site of the old Towner Gallery in Manor Gardens and
finishing at the site of the new building adjacent to the Congress Theatre. The
second event, later in the day, is a cinematic installation created by Samuel Dowd
viewable from the front of the Congress Theatre as night fell.
“The Space Between is a fantastic example of an arts project that breaks down
barriers within the community, enabling pupils from four schools in Eastbourne to
take part in workshops inside a new building before it is finished, helping to reveal the
processes that go on behind the hoardings of a construction site.” Quote from
Councillor
Artists
Hannah Chiswell
Amy Cunnningham
Samuel Dowd
Hayley SkippeR
Towner Gallery
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