The beautiful, gold-collared natrix natrix is a symbol of power and prosperity. Snakes are often reviled, but in Baltic lore, the presence of a grass snake or zalktis in a homestead shows that the farm is in good condition. The zalktis gives protection and is welcomed. It is harmless to humans, loves to live by the water’s edge eating frogs and small prey. And Zalktis is the title of Jude Montague’s first art documentary film, a feature-length exploration of her ancestral journey into forests and ancient meadows. 

With a sea-faring ancestor that came from Old Prussia to Scotland, and a father who was fascinated by travelling across the Iron Curtain into Soviet lands, Jude has made a film which follows the mysterious slithering creature into a land of folklore. The zalktis leads her on a trip to make connections with forgotten stories. The film is a homecoming, a search for family origins. It was made in midsummer 2025 with Wolfgang Dubieniec.

For many years, the mythology of Latvia has fascinated Montague. She has been learning and singing Latvian folk poetry, dainas, collected by Krišjānis Barons in the nineteenth century. The traditional singing was even then dying out, but 217,996 were published. Short, four-line verses celebrate the seasons, family life, and an ancient pantheon: the goddess of fate or Laima; the solar deity Saule, and the lunar god of the soldiers, Meness. Laima, in particular, captured her poet’s imagination.

“When I found out about the sun goddess, it was as if the world turned on its head for me. She lit up ancient ways. I fell in love with the dainas, the old verses. I believe they are a window which gives us a glimpse into how we did things in Europe before Christianity. Rituals, trees, horses, bees, stones and birds are clearly very important. Being quietly in nature, forest bathing and the communal gatherings of midsummer are still part of Latvian culture. The film is also about larger-than-life figures who remind me of my father, who was a real character and a historian, always on the lookout for an entertaining story.”

The Art Documentary Festival takes place annually in Riga. In March 2026, Zalktis ends the programme on the final day, at the Zuzeum, which houses the largest private art collection in Latvia.

The film opens in Montague’s workshop at 15 Kings Road, St Leonards-on-Sea. One of her band’s songs, Vins, appears in the film. It is about the long-ago sailor with a star tattoo on his hand who came from the Baltics to Scotland. The band also play Anglo-Baltic Electro-Folk on the first Tuesday of every month at Adventures in Pop at the Jenny Lind. 

Zalktis was supported by a DYCP (Developing Your Creative Practice) grant from ACE (Arts Council of England). The folk band is simply called after the surnames of the members: Montague Armstrong Rippengal. 

Below the cliffs beyond Rock-A-Nore, it’s late afternoon and a boulder tumbles down the hillside, rolling into the sea. There are three people walking along the pebble shore between the encroaching waves and the sandstone rock. One of them harangues the hillside in a rhyming volley of verse, arms flailing to the gods. Another crouches some distance away, close to the sea, peers over a rock pool, petting a small crab. It clambers over his hand and walks across his shoulders. The last lounges on a slab of stone despite the light and heat being lost behind the cliff, perfectly framed by the little shade his silicate perch provides, as though sunbathing. 

I’ve always been a bit of a mirror, so I’m somewhere between them, taking a knee, fondling a shapely stone and a piece of seaweed, occasionally mumbling to myself. The sea is getting closer, and we won’t be back in time. We knew this setting off, choosing not to fold back into the country park , safe behind the edge of the land, because what fun would that be? What kind of person walks back exactly the way they came? No, we must make the circle, or perhaps the spiral, and so the waves push up and the land pushes down. 

Meanwhile, back…

This is roughly how I’d describe the work of this group of artists: Oli Spleen, Wolfgang Dubieniec and Mark Walter. Three friends cutting across the space where one world ends and another begins. I reviewed the first part of In Harm’s Way last autumn, when they were in the Landing Gallery (where this year Ouroboros will be showing). This time they’ll have a larger, more exposed space, and include a live music performance on the night of the private view, featuring some of our moodier favourites from Oli’s solo albums. 

While there is a degree of separation from Ouroboros upstairs, the creators there are also friends. Trusted with use of the space, Mark wanted to help curate a show of work from artists who get fewer chances to exhibit, or haven’t shown before. From this, Ouroboros evolved, a talented all-female group who match the sometimes strange and otherworldly energy emanating from In Harm’s Way. 

Connections

There’s a thematic connection here, because there’s vulnerability involved in presenting to others that which you’ve created. And there’s often a peculiar mix of anxiety and celebration in the knowledge that most of the art we make now is built from, and based in, everything that came before – the snake eating itself, constantly growing so it must eat more. 

In the need to communicate something to the world through art, something that could be an essential part of the way you view this existence, or maybe something that could stem from personal trauma, there’s often a duality. It’s masochism and sadism. As much as art is a kind of therapy and a pleasure, it can also be an assault on yourself and on the minds of others. This may reflect something of the viewer’s, or art collector’s, desire to find the emotional extremes a work invokes. It should celebrate or commiserate, it should affirm or terrify. We want art to do something to us, don’t we? It can’t all be left to office hallways and starkly-lit beige cafes, or for that matter, collectors’ vaults.

And so you are invited, dear reader, to put yourself at risk. Join a deliciously bedlam whirl of artistic contemplation: new work from those you know, and those you don’t. 

In Harm’s Way II shows from 15-17 November at Electro Studios, TN38 0A1, along with Ouroboros, a show of new work from emerging artists. Private view for both, 15 November, 18.00-21.00. Other days open 11.00-17.00. 

Swelling clouds, aged turf and morphing figures populate the paintings and drawings of Martyn Cross. Within this presentation at Flatland Projects, personal, elemental and historic fragments assemble together, untethered to any singular era, person or place. Exhibition forms part of Eastbourne Alive, a 6-month programme curated by Towner Gallery Eastbourne.

Unit 7, Beeching Road Studios, Beeching Road, Bexhill-on-Sea TN39 3LJ

In Harms Way – 23/24 September, 12-6pm

Mark Walter, Wolfgang Dubieniec, Oli Spleen

With over a century of collected creativity, this triumvirate of local artists are bringing together various media in an exhibition celebrating the crepuscular side of life. 

Landing Gallery, Electro Studios, Seaside Road, St Leonards TN38 0AL

Hastings Chamber Music Festival, 23/24 September

There is still time to catch the last two concerts in this series, presented in association with Hastings Early Music Festival, bringing together the highest calibre musicians for concerts on the East Sussex Coast.  Beethoven in Nature – 5pm, Sat 23, Christ Church St Leonards. Music and Climate Science – 3pm, Sun 24 September, Kino-Theatr, St Leonards: Professor Tamsin Edwards, renowned climate scientist will talk on climate change, followed by Blok and Beethoven chamber music. For details see hemf.co.uk.

Falstaff – Adapted from the Novel by Robert Nye, 28 Sept ONLY, 7.30pm

Performed by Mike Stoneham. Adapted from Robert Nye’s acclaimed novel, Falstaff merges Shakespeare’s great comic creation with the real-life soldier, Sir John Fastolf. The result is a deeply moving, funny, bawdy romp through Agincourt, with frogs, slugs, and plenty of onions. A not-for-profit production in aid of the Trussell Trust.

The Stables Theatre and Arts Centre, The Bourne, Hastings, TN34 3BD

‘Silver’ Anniversary Mirror Exhibition, 29-30 Sept, 1-3 Oct

Local decorative mirror and glass designer Alison Purdy is celebrating 25 years in business this month, with an exhibition and pop-up shop in the newly-refurbished Observer Building in Cambridge Road, Hastings. Mirrors and windows featuring elements from our local landscape and architecture – the beach, fishing boats, pier, seagulls, shops. 

For details of times see purdyshop.com.