Regency Town House
The opening for the Brighton Festival followed closely on the heels of the Fantastic Tales launch at The Ceramic House, i.e. the next day, Friday 2nd May. It was such an unbelievably busy week I had to go back over my blog posts to see what I managed to cover that week – not much!
One of the biggest happenings that week was the installation and opening of my piece in the Regency Town House, one of the main exhibition venues during the Brighton Festival.
While I was still in residency in Denmark, I was selected for Open Houses Open Exhibition, which is the curated part of the Artists Open Houses and this year the exhibition is held in the awesome and regal Regency Town House on Brunswick Square. Brunswick Square is arguably the most famous Square on Brighton seafront; an impressive line of Regency Townhouses forming a beautiful horseshoe facing the sea. It is a dilapidated but unspoilt treasure, and the Council are very slowly bringing it back to its former glory.
I am the only artist who proposed to make a piece especially for the space, and I made two installations while doing my residency at Guldagergård; one for Fantastic Tales at The Ceramic House and a second piece for the Regency Town House; one oxidised (fired in an electric kiln) and the other fired in the soda wood kiln (see previous blog posts all about the excitement of the firing). In the end, I decided to put the oxidised piece into the Regency Town House, because it is twice the size of the soda wood fired piece, and its size matches the grandeur of the room it is exhibited in.
I feel honoured to have spent two days installing this piece in the drawing room on the first floor, overlooking the square and the sea. The site I chose together with the curators was an obvious one – over the mantlepiece, an ideal space for me, as we cannot touch the walls, so it provided a perfect perch for me to lean the 2.4m x 1.2m panel on, high up and in perfect view.
It was a difficult job, and I worked with two volunteers attempting to get it all done in one day. The plan was to get it photographed at the end of that day, but after several postponements, in the end I spent another day there, finishing it off, and getting it photographed by Matthew Andrews, who had already shot the soda wood fired version which is on display at The Ceramic House. We managed to get fabulous photographs of it before any of the rest of the artwork was hung, and I must say I am pleased with the result. The colours of the glazes seem as if they have been designed for the room.
The private view was on the 2nd of May, part of the trail of art previews ending with the official opening of Brighton Festival 2014 at Brighton Museum. My piece was extremely well received and will be on display Saturdays and Sundays until 25th May. You can also vote for your favourite piece of work in the exhibition in Visit Brighton Visitor’s Choice award.
