Art on film

Art & Design students from East Sussex College Lewes collaborate with artist David Blandy for an exciting new exhibition at Eastbourne’s Towner Gallery

The Edge of Forever video exhibition opened earlier this week (20 September) at the popular tourist venue.

The Towner Gallery describes the exhibition: “Blandy investigates connections between specific sites, personal histories and geopolitical events to reflect on our place in the world.”

The local landscape at Cuckmere Haven features, intertwined with Blandy’s grandfather’s experiences in Japanese Prisoner of War camps. The exhibition also features ‘Oil, Sinew and Bone’, which features film footage dating back to the 1930s, mostly in Eastbourne and South Downs locations.

The Towner Gallery describes this second new video work, saying it “charts the protracted revolution from the age of horsepower to the Atomic cold war era, reflecting on how humanity has now found itself on the brink of environmental collapse.”

The College collaboration comes in the form of an ‘outsized children's fantasy’ populating the ground floor studios of the gallery. The students, who are studying the Art & Design Extended Diploma at ESC Lewes have worked with Blandy to reimagine key scenes from the film, which have been enlarged and created out of cardboard, all rendered in the style of theatre flats.

James Dibiase, Fine Art course tutor at East Sussex College Lewes, says, “We are delighted to collaborate with David Blandy on this exhibition. For our students to have the opportunity to work with an internationally acclaimed artist in a gallery voted Art Fund Museum of the Year [2020], and present their work to the wider public, is just incredible. We are fortunate to develop relationships with venues such as The Towner to give students the experience helping to curate an exhibition. They have all worked so hard and should be proud of the outcome.”

Listen to artist David Blandy talk to BBC Radio Sussex about The Edge of Forever.

The Edge of Forever is on at The Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, until 2 October 2022. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-5pm, free admission.

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