The spring and summer seasons at Hastings Contemporary promise to be the best yet both in terms of exhibitions and participatory activities. The gallery are thrilled that they have now been able to extend their half-price ticket offer to residents of the whole of the Rother area, with the aim of welcoming even more visitors. This spring they have ‘Eregata’, an exhibition of the work of the Ethiopian artist Elias Sime, and a special exhibition of works for sale, ‘A Hundred Portraits’ by long-time Hastings resident Quentin Blake.

Like much African art, the work of Elias Sime is, while internationally recognised, extremely patriotic. The colours of the Ethiopian flag are red, green, and yellow; Sime’s work is intentionally predominantly red and green. It is perhaps significant to any artistic output from Ethiopia that some evidence suggests that all humans originate from a place close to Addis Ababa (Sime’s home town) making all of us ultimately products of an ancient African diaspora. 

AN APPROACH TO CALM

Sime aims through his work to approach Eregata, a word that in ancient Amharic translates to ‘serene’. It is extraordinary then that to create this he has used a mass of electronic detritus – old keyboards, motherboards, electric wiring, casings – the ultimately disposable hardware enabling the worldwide clacking that we have now come to accept as the exchange of information. And his lovely, massive, tirelessly-worked creations do somehow approach serenity. 

Part of the effect is achieved through the jigsaw-like regularity, perhaps predictability, of most of the designs. Sime adopts a collaborative approach and works with a team of studio assistants. Why not, when the components themselves, possibly made in China, have passed through hundreds of hands and probably dozens of countries to get to where they are? Each assistant can, for example, work with similar components on a complex rectangle of identical size, but each rectangle is therefore unique. The colours and the textures suggest topography (some of the works are made up of bits of old maps), the colours of the living earth, the friction of progress against, you could say, eternity. 

In this work, then, artefacts beginning as raw materials end up as part of a calming, illustrative dialogue between the old and the new, the city and the earth, the nation and the globe. He isn’t the first or the last artist to use recycled materials to make sculpture, but the end results – the maps, the landscapes, the global environmental references in the sculptures coupled with arranged crowds of earthen ceramics, put him on a par with the best.

100 NEW PORTRAITS

Quentin Blake’s special exhibition consists of about 100 new portraits, all of which are original and all of which are for sale. At 91 he is still making art every day of his life and all of these, done in his unique, instantly-recognisable style, are new. As the patron of Hastings Contemporary he is supporting the gallery in its mission to bring world class art here for universal enjoyment.

Elias Sime – Eregata and Quentin Blake – A Hundred Portraits are on show at Hastings Contemporary from 16 March to 8 September 2024. 

Something wonderful has been happening through June at the The Dirty Old Gallery on West Street. Every Summer, since opening her gallery in 2018, Megan Donfrancesco has curated an open submission exhibition. This provides local artists, work-ing in a wide variety of styles, media and with a wide range of experience, an opportunity to have their work featured in an exhibition and raise funds for charity at the same time. Previous exhibitions have supported animal charities, with exhibitions around fun and silly themes such as Cats at the D.O.G. This year, Megan felt humans needed all the support we could offer, and the theme became obvious.

CREDIT: Sarah Milne

“I was looking in my diary to see when in June the opening would fall,” she says, “and my little calendar informed me of the Queen’s Jubilee. So naturally, I thought, ‘Can we make everyone a queen?’ I wanted people to think of their nans and partners. I wanted to see paintings of Sylvia Rivera and offer up a crown to those who needed it. And that’s exactly what we got!”

Among works portraying family members and partners, are paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations of famous people revered as queen: friends who claim their throne with their flamboyance and charisma, a dog who is the queen of the home, a dancer who is the queen in the moment she holds the stage; the feminine energy of the moon, nature and the sea, single mums, women who cope with or have overcome trauma, self-love and hope as the queen of all virtues. 

One of my own favourites is a clever little piece by eight-year-old Opal Blaze, exploring how sisters need each other to make the day as much as they need light and dark. I love art that makes me feel something and that’s certainly what I got from this exhibition. Each piece either amused or moved me. I was especially inspired by a painting called The Queen of my Dreams, a bold and sassy mixed media piece about becoming a queen through overcoming trauma. 

As Megan says: “It was the handful of works inspired by people’s grandmas. This last year I have lost three great aunts, all daughters from my Italian great grandmother who settled here during the second world war. My family has a strong matriarch, but now it’s my nan alone, without her sisters – including her twin. A painting by Sam Telford got me the most. It is a bold coloured acrylic painting of a discarded passport photo of his Gran. In his description, Sam described how, ‘for my 18th, she bought me the easel I still use today, and whenever I feel low or discouraged, I try to summon her voice. She will always be a queen in my life.” 

It was this last sentiment that particularly struck a chord with Megan, whose nan was her first art teacher!

Howie Whale, a volunteer at the gallery and lifeline, spent weeks putting his heart, blood sweat and tears into a beautiful piece about his grandmother, which resulted in a drawing of all three generations of women on his mother’s side. It’s a beautiful drawing! Howie was also brilliant at getting the word out to encourage artists to participate, especially those who have never thought to put art on the wall of
a gallery before. 

Blooming and emerging artists share the walls with some of Hastings’s great artists, including a new drawing, especially for the occasion, by Quentin Blake. This can be bought through a sealed bids auction running throughout the exhibition. Funds raised through the art on sale will be donated this year to Change Grow Live, a Sussex charity that offers physical and emotional assistance to all those who have experienced domestic abuse, including support for the LGBTQ+ community, helping them to realise their goals and be the best they can be. 

• Who’s Your Queen? can be seen at The Dirty Old Gallery, 31a West Street, TN34 3AN until 26 June. Bids for Quentin Blake’s original drawing also closes on 26 June.

Review by Mia L

Sir Quentin Blake’s new exhibition We Live in Worrying Times, currently on show at the Hastings Contemporary, is a marked departure from his usual body of work. It’s a visceral and mesmerising portrayal of the plight of humanity, one which feels eerily prophetic given the ongoing global health crisis.

Sir Quentin Blake with The Taxi Driver
PICTURE: Tom Thistlethwaite 

The Hastings Contemporary has, like so many art galleries, had to close its doors to visitors for the foreseeable future. They have thus responded by holding a series of ongoing virtual tours, which are conducted via telepresence robot – a collaboration between the gallery, the D4D Project, Accentuate and Bristol Robotics Lab.

Online tours are still a relatively new concept for me and whilst I don’t think they can replace the experience of viewing exhibitions in person, they certainly provide an interesting alternative, with the potential to open up the art world to a whole new audience.

Gallery Communication Manager, Will Barrett expertly guided me through my very own online tour of Quentin Blake’s We Live in Worrying Times, the focal point of which is a thirty-by-five foot wall mural called The Taxi Driver.

Selection from the Stone Head series

The story which forms the basis of Quentin Blake’s new show is wholly surreal and was inspired by a chance conversation with an anonymous taxi driver, who urged Blake to create his own version of Picasso’s Guernica, one which sought to highlight the struggles of the most vulnerable within society.

The Taxi Driver was completed in a single day on one continuous roll of paper and is an empathetic, yet disturbing depiction of human suffering.

The wall mural conveys a series of lone figures wandering across a barren landscape, as airplanes and drones fly overhead. Skeletal shells of burnt-out houses serve as a stark reminder of all those past and present, who have fallen victim to the horrors of war and conflict.

Selection from the On The Move Again series

Select characters are brought to the foreground of the painting and seem to bore a residual hole in one’s morality, their gaze somehow unavoidable. The speed and precedence Blake has placed on creating this work lends a welcome sense of urgency to its complex themes. His hurried brush strokes are impressionistic in tone and belie the confidence and sheer skill only an artist as esteemed as Blake could possess.

Almost concealed in the background of the mural, perched precariously on a cliff, is a solitary taxi – perhaps a purposeful nod to Blake’s initial fateful meeting.

The striking imagery continues as various entities progress ever onwards – almost pilgrim like – in search of somewhere, anywhere but the apocalyptic reality they have found themselves in.

Select characters are bought to the foreground of the painting and seem to bore a residual hole in one’s morality, their gaze somehow unavoidable

The silhouette of a child flying a kite offers the possibility of hope, but is duly overshadowed by a cluster of figures, huddled together in refuge below. Such contrasts exist somewhere between the imagined and the impossibly cruel reality of the human condition, with all its fragility and many flaws.

The Taxi Driver concludes with a corpse-like body protruding from undergrowth, as yet more ghost-like beings continue to journey on into the distance.

In addition to the mural, Sir Quentin has also created 178 drawings and paintings, all of which can be viewed via the Hastings Contemporary website. They include many more unnamed men, women and children, some of whom are continuing their perilous retreats across darkened landscapes, whilst others are captured portrait style, seemingly held captive in a series of sketches and sombre characterisations.

Sir Quentin Blake in action
PICTURE: Tom Thistlethwaite 

Perhaps my favourite part of We Live in Worrying Times is Blake’s selection of Stone Head images, featuring numerous decapitated skull like creatures, violently emblazoned against the foothills of some foreign land.

Sir Quentin Blake’s latest exhibition is a bold departure from his usual style and gives a voice to the overlooked and unheard. The universal motifs of family, love and loss are all evident here and show an artist, who at the considerable age of 87 is more relevant and influential than ever before.

• Quentin Blake: We Live in Worrying Times is running from the 7th May-27th September 2020. Please refer to the Hastings Contemporary website for further information on how to book a virtual tour for We Live in Worrying Times. You can view more of Sir Quentin Blake’s work via his official website, www.quentinblake.com

• Listen in to the HIP podcast with Sir Quentin here. 

Doors Closed, Exhibitions Open

As part of its efforts to reduce the spread of Coronavirus, HBC ordered that a number of businesses and attractions close, including museums and galleries. Hastings Contemporary has obeyed this closure, like everyone else, but is doing its best to continue providing access to artworks. Through what is reportedly the first time telepresence robot technology has been used in a gallery in the UK, Hastings Contemporary and Bristol Robotics Lab will provide audiences with remote access to the gallery’s exhibitions even while its doors remain closed.

PICTURE: Will Barrett

Robot-assisted tours of the current programme will allow would-be visitors stuck at home to be guided around the gallery by curators and the other members of the HC team. This technology may also allow local artist-educators to run interactive art lessons involving the gallery, using the same robot assistance to show children and students around exhibitions. 

Other plans to enable remote access to the gallery’s resources include: developing a new online hub of art and mindfulness resources, with a focus on entertaining or engaging the children of key workers; creating bespoke digital art lessons and creative learning activities for many of Hastings’ temporarily closed schools; and virtual 3D renderings of the gallery’s three postponed spring shows. The shows are: Victor Pasmore: Line & Space; Stephen Chambers: The Court of Redonda; and Quentin Blake: We Live In Worrying Times.

Liz Gilmore, Director of Hastings Contemporary said: “As we navigate through these testing times and manage the loss of important revenue streams, I’m thrilled to embrace such innovation and creativity […] next week I will be leading some virtual tours to bring to life the incredible exhibitions on offer, prioritising people who are most affected by the lockdown and are now having to self-isolate for a number of weeks […] Recordings of these tours will be made available to the public afterwards. In this way, over the months ahead, we hope to continue our exciting future calendar of contemporary art exhibitions, and our educational and community engagement programmes.”

Robot Technology as a Social Enabler

The ‘Double’ – the robot Hastings Contemporary will be using – is a two-wheeled videoconferencing platform that can guide an operator and up to five people through real time tours. It was created by Bristol Robotics as part of D4D, a national research project which states it “will investigate the evolving ways in which we as disabled and non-disabled people express, perform, experience and practice ‘community’.” D4D stands for “Dis/engagement, Dis/enfranchisement, Dis/parity and Dissent”. The Double’s use at Hastings Contemporary will help Bristol Robotics and D4D refine the use of telepresence technology to improve remote access to art, culture and community well beyond the end of Coronavirus. 

Praminda Caleb-Solly, Professor for Assistive Robotics and Intelligent Health Technologies at the Bristol Robotics Lab, UWE said, “I am absolutely thrilled to team up with Hastings Contemporary as part of our Arts and Humanities Research Council D4D project to provide people who are socially isolated the opportunity to enjoy art via the telepresence robot.”

PICTURE: Will Barrett

She continues, “This is an excellent example of how robotics technology can be used to support people in difficult situations such as we are currently experiencing. There are other applications for the use of telepresence robots within health and social care and I look forward to learning from our experiences at Hastings how to apply them elsewhere.”

Esther Fox, Head of Accentuate, an arts and culture organisation that aims to support the talents of deaf and disabled people, is part of the research project at D4D. She’s also a Hastings Contemporary trustee and HIP featured her in the run-up to AltPitch Arts and Technology Festival.

Esther says D4D: “explores how new technologies can change experiences of disability, social belonging and community engagement. Up until now we have been working with disabled people to explore how the telepresence robot might open up access to spaces they could not experience. We are now excited to see how we can enable a wider group of people to access great art and combat isolation, particularly those with underlying health conditions who are having to self-isolate.”

AltPitch’s Proof of Concept

AltPitch Arts and Technology festival is dedicated to exploring the relationship between the digital world and humanity, and the responsibilities that come with our technological expansion. It had planned a week of exciting performances and supporting events to provoke thought and debate, bring together creatives and innovators, question our daily use of technology, and ultimately help the audience to find their own answers to pressing questions about how humanity will function in the future.

Anastasia Witts, Executive Producer of AltPitch Festival, says “There are a few valuable lessons we can learn in these extraordinary situation. And one thing is obvious from the start – the necessity to stay at home pushes people to embrace technology in a much more thoughtful way and to re-think their relationships with it. Computer literacy is growing by the day and people realise that digital technology contains so many helpful options, and we have only been using it superficially. On behalf of the AltPitch Festival, we are delighted to see the Hastings Contemporary leading the way and quickly adapting to the needs of the situation showing ingenuity, resilience and opening new exciting opportunities for the art lovers. The AltPitch Festival is very happy to support this initiative.”

Even if most of its public events have been shut down (the venues closed due to COVID-19) AltPitch has been able to use digital technology to carry on. #echochamber, the Anglo-Icelandic opera about sexism and shaming on social media (which uses a live twitter feed as part of performances) was streamed on the festival Facebook page and can be watched until 27th April on the AltPitch website. Meanwhile, the work of Bristol Robotics Lab and Hastings Contemporary has gone some way to proving the festival’s core concept: that arts and technology can work together to improve access to social resources and even increase profit. The AltPitch Platform – a day of lectures from experienced speakers, hopes to return in September this year. 

What about the Virus? 

We all have to put on a brave face, engage in that ‘Dunkirk Spirit’, the spirit we only bring out when we’ve already been beaten and want to resurrect ourselves. It’s great that we have a robot rolling around a gallery, providing access to disabled and self-isolating individuals alike. That is a good thing. But what is art, and what is a gallery, any gallery perhaps, when set against death and economic collapse? Reality is knocking at the door, and even the arts world (perhaps as expected, actually) doesn’t seem overly interested in it. 

I think there’s a chance we’re going to get through this pandemic relatively ‘easily’, so just the few tens of thousands of deaths that Dominic Cummings allegedly said is a price worth paying. What will we have learned by the time we get to the other side? Will we just have a better relationship with digital and remote technology? Will we care more or less about each other? Will people stop saying economic collapse and NHS workers and patients without protective gear, without funding, is “not political”? I think it’s summed up beautifully with the image of a couple, sitting in relative comfort at home, looking through a robot at one of the scenes of devastation or disarray from The Age of Turmoil, Edward Burra’s War in the Sun, say. Looking at it and saying to each other, “Isn’t that a wonderful painting?” and “Such an expressive palette!” and, soon after, going back to Netflix and a pot of fresh-boiled pasta. The day carries on. 

The majority of the first floor explores the work of Israeli born, Danish artist Tal R (b.1967).The internationally renowned artist draws inspiration from his immediate surroundings, exploring the theme from a mixed media perspective. His bold and gregarious show ‘Eventually All Museums Will Be Ships‘ (Running from 6^th July-13^th October 2019) cannilypays homage to the seaside locality of the Contemporary, whilst acknowledging his own agenda as an artist. Tal R’s work is predominantly abstract in nature, with distinct nods to popular culture, underpinned by an undeniable Picasso-esque sensibility.

Running alongside the gallery’s seminal exhibition, is a comprehensive collection of works, by British artist Roy Oxlade (1929-2014).‘Shine Out Fair Sun’ (Running from 6^th July-6th October 2019) showcases the first major presentation of his work, which includes, notable pieces from a career spanning more than 50 years. Considered to be highly influential, not just as an artist, but also as a writer and teacher, Oxlade championed art for all – free from the constraints of academic pretense. His work reflects a simple, yet considered appreciation of the everyday, which is in turn re-imagined within the creative sphere.

Also on show are a number of select works by David Bomberg (1890-1957). Once the tutor of Roy Oxlade, Bomberg’s work is characterised, by a direct and unpretentious approach, centered around two key themes; portraiture and landscape (Running from 6^th July-6^th October 2019).

The Hastings Contemporary’s Summer 2019 programme concludes with a show by Sir Quentin Blake (b.1932) perhaps best known for his illustrative contributions to the children’s literary genre. ‘The New Dress’ (Running from 6^th July-6^th October 2019) is Blake’s response to his revised role as Artist Patron at The Contemporary. Blake invites visitors to explore notions of metamorphosis and regeneration, via a series of specially curated drawings and sketches.

The Hastings Contemporary has undoubtedly positioned itself at the heart of the local arts scene, demonstrating a clear creative intent to present shows, which promote all forms of modern art, whilst celebrating the considered contribution of artists within a relative and international context.

Please refer to the gallery website for all visitor information www.hastingscontemporary.org

DAVE YOUNG REPORTS

Long awaited, and a little more expensive than envisaged, Hastings Library has reopened. Located in the Brassey Institute in Claremont, the listed Victorian structure has been sensitively refurbished inside and out. Original features have been restored, stained glass repaired, and the central roof windows reinstated, bringing light into the middle of the building. Specialist plasterers were brought in from around the country to repair ornate interior mouldings while decorators stripped paint back to 1875 layers.

On the opening day the enthusiasm of staff and public for a building combining the best of traditional and modern design building was palpable. All four floors are now fully accessible and can be viewed from a glass-fronted lift, and there are toilets for persons with disabilities and a baby changing space. The children’s library, previously in a separate location, is particularly attractive and welcoming with a brightly coloured seaside theme, including an especially commissioned wall-hanging by Quentin Blake.

Ranged across different floors are study areas, a reference library (with extensive local history shelves), papers & magazines, dvds, fiction and large print books. Free-to-use internet-connected computers can be found on every floor, supported by photocopying, scanning, printing and microfiche reading facilities.

Family history research, under fives activities and health and well being resources are among the services provided.

East Sussex Council, its architects and builders have given the town a library to be justly proud of. The only sadness is that its rebirth coincides with news that many libraries in outlying areas, including Ore, are scheduled to close as the County struggles with cuts in central government funding.

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