One of the many kiss-of-death committees which blight the lives of all small towns decided at the planning stage that De La Warr Pavilion could do without a signature sculpture. For better or worse they spared us Frank Dobson’s Persephone, leaving a conceptual and actual void. With its tagline “Meet Artists Shaping Sussex” MASS (organised by ZEROH, the 3D-art studio who like All Caps) more than fills it with a brilliant and ambitious one-day sculpture garden.

MASS Gathering supplements Tschabalala Self’s seaside-postcardy Seated to visibly transform DLWP, and refract both human presence (how other people look when they interact with big art objects) and the environment (how you see the beach or Beachy Head; how light plays on the works of art and your brain). In the absence of what the building actually merits – a Moore or a Hepworth, say – it should become a regular, much longer annual event.

Among over three dozen works, Christian Funnell’s Single Use has the best spot, by the domed shelter. From afar it’s like a giant abandoned crown; up close its wire tendrils form a junkyard nest. From inside you can people-watch or look out longingly towards the distant cliffs. Monuments from Liz Wilson’s Of Confluence multi-media installation stand like heavyweight sandcastles, pebbledash navigation buoys that have somehow been beached on the sun-bleached lawns. The steel strands of Almuth Tebbenhoff’s The Hedge wave from the terrace towards a DJ who with nods and grimaces aplenty attempts to deliver a redundant party vibe.

INSIDE

Inside DLWP’s auditorium an Airbnb aesthetic abounds. The MASS Exposure art fair offers works in wood, paper, metal, clay, fabric, even Rachel Ring’s plastinated teabags. There are competent stabs at Hans Arp-like objets d’art for the second home owner’s mantelpiece; some Goth burnt offerings which one imagines Nick Cave might hang in his bathroom; plenty of clunky Perryesque pots of the kind that mistakes brash for bold. But there’s nothing on a par with the conceptually robust and technically exquisite work of Katie Boccaccini-Meadows, the best of Bexhill’s Common Clay potters; or with the wow factor of Cătălin Filip’s ceramic curtain, Petrichior, at Fresh Salad Art’s Pylos exhibition at Electro Studios last autumn.

Best in show: Isobel Smith whose Sunday Papers performance sees the artist transform herself into a work of art, a newsprint-bound gargoyle left sitting forlornly at a table of mute soft toys. Compelling, authoritative and hilarious, she should be featured in DLWP’s main gallery.

Providing the punters with a sophisticated but discomforting take on muzak is the day-long, collectively realised Passing Through, organised by James Wilkie, director of the pioneering SONO festival. The performers are hidden behind a gauze curtain through which can be glimpsed an ominous pendulum. Its dense pulsating cloudlike clusters of sound and contemplative ambulatory tonalities would work much better among the sculptures in the open air, to drift as we do weightlessly between and through solid forms.

MASS was at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, on 16 August 2026 as part of Bexhill Art Weekender. Visit zerohstudio.com.

Held at Electro Studios in West St Leonards, Sono-Electro is a groundbreaking, two-weekend festival dedicated to spotlighting the best in local, national and international sonic artists, while inspiring the people of St Leonards and Hastings to explore and experience the joy and profundity of sound art. The festival aims to grow a sense of belonging, providing the tools and mindset to navigate uncertain futures we face collaboratively. Performers will re-imagine and interpret the theme through residencies, performances, talks, broadcasting, workshops and installations.

In two years, the festival has skyrocketed from a crowd-funded, four-day festival that brought together a handful of talented local artists, into a two-week event supported by various large organisations locally and nationally. Past performers have included Jem Finer, Marcia Farquhar, Melinda Bronstein and Sly and the Family Drone. This year’s artists in residence works will include ZEROH’s light-responsive and sound-making kites soaring above the old bathing pool site opposite the studios, Ben Branagan’s cyanotype collaboration with local students from ARK Hastings and East Sussex College, and photographer Carl Bigmore’s exploration of the sonic world of whales.

Other highlights include sessions that travel sonically from the domestic parenting experience through Peruvian jungles, an installation designed for the blind and partially sighted, showcases from emerging sound performers, music improv sessions open to everyone, a workshop to rework noisy baby toys into glitchy chaotic instruments, performances that fuse folk, live performances and rave, and a spectacular finale courtesy of The Statue of Liberty All-Star Big Band.

The festival’s artistic director, James Wilkie, says, “There is a greater sense of urgency and seeking in this edition. While last year’s focus was on what we make of our environment, this year faces how we might change ourselves to continue belonging to it, through listening differently. Artists are forming counter-narratives to helplessness and overwhelm through the pairing of activism and vulnerability into their work.”

The third edition of the two-weekend sound art festival will take place at Electro Studios, Seaside Road, Tuesday 19 – Sunday 28 September 2025

Sono-Electro is supported by Arts Council, Resonance FM, OBX, Electro-Studios, Project Hastings Brewery, Hastings Commons, The Refugee Buddy Project. 

For more information, hi-res images, artist and director interviews or review tickets, please email katesonoelectro@gmail.com

At this free event visitors will be able to meet and buy work directly from artists, who will come together to create a pop-up gallery. Artists will be selected via an open call. There will also be some very interesting guest artists curated by the Stella Dore gallery

Designed by Sidney Little, the ‘Concrete King’ of Hastings, Bottle Alley was constructed in the 1930s as part of Hastings’ sea defences, and decorated with glass bottles which reputedly came from Hastings town’s legendary knees-ups. Over the years it has undergone, like the sea, waves of change. One such wave was created by Bottle Alley Art Market (BAAM) founders and artists Daniel Hardiker and Neil Hetherington, aka ZEROH.

Originally conceived as a temporary installation and commissioned by Hastings arts festival Coastal Currents in 2017, the Wavelength installation received an overwhelmingly positive public response and unexpectedly became a long-term fixture. Unfortunately despite the best intentions and efforts of the artists, Hastings Borough Council and the Foreshore Trust, it became impossible to restore the paintwork each year, so the boldly coloured columns were whitewashed. Restoration is currently taking place, however, and should be completed over this summer. This offers an opportunity for celebration not only of the restoration, but also of the eclectic mix of artists and creatives here in Hastings and St Leonards.

BAAM is jointly run and organised by ZEROH, Steph Warren from Stella Dore Gallery, and Gina Hewitt, Operations Manager at The Other Art Fair. This is the first event in what they hope will be an annual art carnival, an opportunity to showcase the diverse, eclectic and talented artists and creatives that live here or have links with the town. We also want the day to be an opportunity for artists to meet each other and make connections, and generate sales and exposure. 

The Art Market will take place on Saturday 26 August from 10am to 6pm. So far over 80 artists have applied for the 50 spaces. For full details of artists and work selected go to Instagram instagram.com/bottlealleyartmarket For further information please also visit bottlealley.org/baam or contact baam@bottlealley.org

The portrait encompasses the town, its culture and its people, using the latest emerging XR technologies – Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, 3D scanning and WebAR. The Digital Arts Hub – through which much of the project took place – is run by Hastings Commons in collaboration with the project’s Creative Directors, ZEROH, responsible for the Bottle Alley light show amongst other things. People of Hastings has attracted hundreds of people keen to contribute to this representation of our town and its vibrant culture in 2022.

Every 3D scanned portrait made during the project has been printed as a 3D physical model. All of the hundreds of models will be on display at the Observer Building (Ground floor) from 1 October until the final event on 8 October, when everyone who has been scanned is invited to come and collect their model (for free). 

People of Hastings 3D portraits will also be viewable on your mobile phone through augmented reality – point your phone at the QR code below and try it out (no app download needed)! All of the scans that make up the People of Hastings exhibition will also be added to a web archive – a persistent time capsule where anyone can view the portraits in 3D online. The archive will be launched at the final event on 8 October. 

ZEROH said: “We were asked to devise an idea around community engagement with art and technology. We wanted to include everyone in this, so we made an open call for anyone to book a free portrait with the Digital Arts Hub team. The portrait-making process involved a 3D scan using LIDAR technology, which gives a colourful, detailed 3D digital model of the subject. Each portrait can be viewed through augmented reality: by pointing a camera at a palm-sized QR code. The QR code means images can easily be shared with anyone in the world. At the same time we are printing every single portrait as a miniature statue, a physical manifestation of the process, to be handed back to each and every subject at an event on 8 October.” 

The Digital Arts Hub is a community creative technology project run by Hastings Commons with Zeroh since June 2022. Alongside the 3D mass portrait project it has organised a number of free digital arts related talks and workshops including Andrew Kötting’s VR films, game-making for kids, Digital Painting with Roz Hall and many others. The Digital Arts Hub will move to the Observer Building to form the core of Hastings Commons’ creative digital centre from September 2022 onwards: watch this space for news of new projects, activities and events! The Digital Arts Hub is funded by the Community Renewal Fund and UK Government. 

Daniel Hardiker and Neil Hetherington – ZEROH – are Hastings-based mixed media artists. Their work often transforms spaces allowing audiences to challenge their own perspective and relationship with their environment. In 2018 they collaborated with author Gareth E Rees who wrote a folk myth based in Hastings, which ZEROH brought to life via an episodic app, encouraging audiences to engage in an unfolding story that used technology, art and performance across the town. This project was an origin story for the now legendary Hastings Moth Project. 

• People of Hastings will be on the ground floor of the Observer Building, Cambridge Road, from 1 October to 8 October. It will be open from 1pm to 6pm daily. The closing event will run from 6pm–8pm on 8 October. The exhibition is fully accessible.

We are pleased to announce that Coastal Currents Arts Festival has been successful yet again with their Arts Council England funding, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief and start blocking out September in our diaries to ready ourselves for yet another selection of incredible performances, exhibitions, events and surprising pop-ups!

As director of Coastal Currents and Sweet and Dandy Ltd, I will continue to push the envelope with both unusual new commissions and pieces that look to transform the spaces around us; continually looking to keep this much loved festival currently in its 20th year, fresh, bold, brave and relevant as well as unique to 1066.

Based in Hastings and St Leonards but stretching out to Battle, Rye, Bexhill and the rest of 1066, the impact of this month of cultural offerings is becoming even more visible. With Bottle Alley’s Wavelength project last year and Isaac Cordal’s little men of Rock a Nore still peeking out of locations in the Old Town, the festival looks to future legacy and more permanent pieces that get absorbed into the landscape of the town. On that note we are still on the hunt for freehold building owners with available walls for a mural – please do get in touch!

Curators and artists chosen for 2018 include Becky Beasley, Emily Peasgood, Becky McCray, Chiara Ambrosia, HOME LIVE ART, Fuel, Marlborough Theatre, Screen South, ZEROH, and Greig Burgoyne. The festival makes a bold statement with an opening piece by Morag Myerscough, an octagonal bandstand which will descend on the Stade Open Space from the 1st. Don’t forget the Opening Party on the 31st August and the Open Studio trails which happen on the first two weekends (1st/2nd and 8th/9th). There will also be a Coastal Currents Pecha Kucha special on the 6th September at the De La Warr Pavilion. So you might as well just take September off, invite all your friends to visit and take it all in.

The festival runs from the 1st September to the 30th September 2018 and the brochure will be available from mid July.

• Find out more about the festival as it unfolds at coastalcurrents.org.uk or on Instagram
@coastalcurrentsfestival or on Facebook 

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article from Hastings Independent. The future of this volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.

Janey Moffatt describes the recent funeral for fossil fuels

As Dad to two small children, my husband Mike has become increasingly anxious about the ever-escalating roller coaster towards climate destruction.  What IS going to happen to our planet in the future?  What kind of legacy are we leaving for our children?  Will they live in a world of scarcity – not enough clean water to wash every day – or worse, not enough water to sustain life?

Forever the pragmatist, Mike decided to ‘just do something about it’ and struck up a relationship with local art activist Beccy McCray.  McCray comes from a background of staging art events, so she seemed like the ideal person to co-create some exciting and captivating spectacles that might fire the imagination of local residents.

‘Don’t Frack with Sussex’ was born and its maiden activity was a large banner unfurled on the Long Man of Wilmington bearing the words ‘Frack Off’. It made national news and was seen by thousands of commuters.  The aim of DFWS is to increase awareness of the damage that fracking can do to our countryside and our health, and to promote the end of reliance on fossil fuels, with a view to moving towards greener, cleaner and more sustainable energy sources.

Since then the actions have continued to grow in creativity and scale, and include a Mad Scientist protest aimed at Barclays (who were investing in fracking) and a ‘Don’t Be Shortsighted’ campaign which involved a trip to London and a brief meeting with Jeremy Corbyn.

However, these ventures were overshadowed last Saturday (13 May) when over 30 campaigners staged a carnivalesque, New Orleans-style jazz band funeral parade for fossil fuels in Hastings Old Town. The event, complete with CO2 wreath, coffin, sashes and decorated umbrellas aimed to highlight the role of companies in driving the climate crisis and delaying action on climate change. It also urged East Sussex County Council to stop investing local people’s pensions in these damaging and financially risky fuels.

The mourners, dressed in full New Orleans jazz funeral regalia, assembled at Butlers Gap, George Street in Hastings Old Town. The well attended parade was led by local music legend, Blair MacKichan who got the crowds of onlookers going with numbers such as ‘Hit the Road FRACK!”.

The work that went into to the project was huge. I couldn’t imagine where Mike, who is a stressed-out Dad, full time worker and Hastings-London commuter, could possibly dredge up the energy needed to make a life-sized coffin, rally troops, and spend his much needed Saturday of rest pounding the streets in a procession. Somehow he did, and as I sat at home making some tiny effort to help with the social media of the event and looking after two boisterous young boys, I was touched by the images from the procession:  the many young children taking part, the girls on roller skates handing out leaflets, and the spectacle of so many lovingly decorated black umbrellas and brightly coloured sashes.  People had turned up, turned out and showed up for life, without knowing how much difference they might ultimately make.  But they knew they had to try.

I am convinced that every little bit does help, and when we put our actions together with the small actions of thousands of others, there can be a sea change.  A tipping point.  Into something better.  And I know that no matter how exhausted he might be, Mike will keep trying.  And I will be proud of him and everyone else like him just for this.