28 June 2011
Eastbourne’s award-winning art gallery Towner is getting ready to launch two major new exhibitions this weekend, John Piper in Kent & Sussex and Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive - which presents five new large scale installations containing 1,100 salmon skin tiles, 9,375 paper rolls and over a quarter of a million sugar cubes!
Both exhibitions open to the public this Saturday, 2 July, presenting around 100 major and rarely seen works inspired by the British landscape in John Piper in Kent & Sussex, while Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive is a group show of five new commissions by sculptors who obsessively use small scale repetitive processes to create large installations.
At 1pm on Saturday, visitors also have the chance to hear a talk by artist Susie MacMurray as she describes her piece in the exhibition – a new ‘sculptural drawing’ across one large wall of the gallery with corrugated hose extruding from the wall.
Brendan Jamison’s sugar cube tower combines elements from the architecture of local landmarks Beachy Head Lighthouse, Redoubt Fortress and the MartelloTowers –it stands 5m high and weighs over 500kg, and took three years to build!
Eastbourne Borough Council Cabinet Member for Tourism and Leisure Cllr Neil Stanley said “We are delighted to open our new exhibitions this weekend promising two wonderful displays for visitors to enjoy over the summer months. Piper was greatly inspired by the Sussex landscape and returned time and again to capture it in a variety of ways – even staying at Furlongs where Eric Ravilious, an artist Towner has become synonymous with, spent much of his time. This exhibition provides a rare insight into Piper’s love of the Sussex and Kent landscape, and in doing so highlights the versatility that attests to his greatness as an artist.
“Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive on the other hand will completely transform our 650 sq m Exhibition Halls showcasing the results of artists who have transformed the most mundane and domestic elements through repetitive processes on the smallest scale into large scale installations, which take months or years to complete. We are very excited to display the fruits of this labour with the exhibition also reflecting the scale of Towner’s aspiration and our intent to present ambitious new commissions, which was boosted earlier this year by the news of increased Arts Council funding from 2012.”
John Piper in Kent & Sussex runs from 2 July – 25 September and showcases many of Piper’s works inspired by the Sussex landscape from the 1920s to the 1980s and is curated by Nathaniel Hepburn.
Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive is on at Towner from 2 July – 18 September and presents six spectacular installations by Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva, Brendan Jamison, Susie MacMurray, Claire Morgan, Jill Townsley and Henry Seaton. Works include those made using sugar cubes, salmon skin tiles, corrugated hose and till rolls.
Entry to Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive is free and entry to John Piper in Kent & Sussex is £5.50 or £4 for concessions with under 16s free.
For more information on the exhibitions and events coming up at Towner this summer go to the Towner section of the Visit Eastbourne web site or call 01323 434670.
