The recent devastation of Hastings Pier will cast a poignant light on an exhibition opening in Hastings Town Centre on 8 November 2010. Arcadia is a long-planned installation by St. Leonard’s artist, Danny Pockets, exploring the glory and vulnerability of the pier and examines its social and physical architecture.
The work is the winning submission to the new Sussex Coast College Art Prize, which is run by Sussex Coast College Hastings with support from the Jerwood Foundation. Pockets was awarded the £3,000 prize in July 2010 by a panel of judges who included Alan Haydon (De La Warr Pavilion), Elizabeth Gilmore (Jerwood Gallery) and Sarah Williams (Jerwood Space).
Pockets is an associate artist at The School Creative Centre, Rye, who has been working on studies for a piece about Hastings Pier for a number of years and describes the structure as ‘a beautiful testament to our connection with the elements, that reaches out to the horizon and allows us a moment’s freedom from terra firma’. Winning the prize has finally given the artist the space and backing to complete his project. The installation is the first joint project between the Jerwood Foundation and the Circle Gallery and is ‘a three-dimensional drawing in wood, steel, light and sound’.
Pockets, who trained at Chelsea and The London City and Guilds School of Art, uses a unique visual language that crosses the creative spectrum – incorporating paint, film, sound, performance and structure. His work focuses on everyday cornerstones of communities, such as chip shops, café’s and small independent businesses which he views as being, ‘negated by a wave of homogenisation and indifference’. By referencing these as objects d’art, his work highlights need to ‘preserve these vestiges of cultural identity before they slip away’.
Pockets recognises that the catastrophic blaze which ravaged the pier on 6th October may affect how people view Arcadia. He intends the installation to be experienced as a ‘homage to’ and not a ‘requiem for’ the historic landmark. Pockets says ‘I hope the pier sub-structure has survived the blaze and will, in future, support a pier which continues to be a place to think, walk, talk, laugh, hold hands and dream, eat ice cream, jive, boogie, waltz, pogo, twist, head-bang or rave…and keep the glory of the English seaside town alive’.
Arcadia will be open to the public from Monday 8th November.
The work is the winning submission to the new Sussex Coast College Art Prize, which is run by Sussex Coast College Hastings with support from the Jerwood Foundation. Pockets was awarded the £3,000 prize in July 2010 by a panel of judges who included Alan Haydon (De La Warr Pavilion), Elizabeth Gilmore (Jerwood Gallery) and Sarah Williams (Jerwood Space).
Pockets is an associate artist at The School Creative Centre, Rye, who has been working on studies for a piece about Hastings Pier for a number of years and describes the structure as ‘a beautiful testament to our connection with the elements, that reaches out to the horizon and allows us a moment’s freedom from terra firma’. Winning the prize has finally given the artist the space and backing to complete his project. The installation is the first joint project between the Jerwood Foundation and the Circle Gallery and is ‘a three-dimensional drawing in wood, steel, light and sound’.
Pockets, who trained at Chelsea and The London City and Guilds School of Art, uses a unique visual language that crosses the creative spectrum – incorporating paint, film, sound, performance and structure. His work focuses on everyday cornerstones of communities, such as chip shops, café’s and small independent businesses which he views as being, ‘negated by a wave of homogenisation and indifference’. By referencing these as objects d’art, his work highlights need to ‘preserve these vestiges of cultural identity before they slip away’.
Pockets recognises that the catastrophic blaze which ravaged the pier on 6th October may affect how people view Arcadia. He intends the installation to be experienced as a ‘homage to’ and not a ‘requiem for’ the historic landmark. Pockets says ‘I hope the pier sub-structure has survived the blaze and will, in future, support a pier which continues to be a place to think, walk, talk, laugh, hold hands and dream, eat ice cream, jive, boogie, waltz, pogo, twist, head-bang or rave…and keep the glory of the English seaside town alive’.
Arcadia will be open to the public from Monday 8th November.
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