Here, There, Everywhere at the Towner, Eastbourne

On Friday I was lucky enough to find time to see an exhibition at my local public gallery, the Towner. I was intrigued by the website entry stating the exhibition would include a Victorian watercolourist, Eric Ravilious alongside Grayson Perry and Tracey Emin.

At the entrance to the exhibition on Level One were a number of watercolours by Louisa Paris from the Towner's extensive collection. it was interesting to see views of Eastbourne prior to industrialisation. I really enjoyed the annotations by the artist in her beautifully neat handwriting sensitively revealed in the framing and giving us a direct and intimate connection with the artist as handwriting does. Victorian women were able to sketch and paint but works were shown to family and friends and not exhibited. Having received an impression of the artist and the time she was living in, it was very moving to see the last work by Paris with a solitary candle and mirrir, without a written annotation. A note informed us that she had lost both her parents suddenly and as her siblings married and moved away Paris clearly became very lonely and finally ended up in a mental asylum on the Isle of Wight. All the more poignant to be given this information having witnessed her joie de vivre in the previous works. Followed were a selection of works by Eric Ravilious and Harold Mockford of the local area.

The sound from the newly acquired Adam Chodsko video installation (the "Everywhere" in the theme) made its presence felt but rather dominated the remaining areas. The Wolfgang Tillmans  image of a girl looking over the cliff at Beachy Head, End of Land 2002, was impressive and Southern Discomfort, an interactive film made  by young people in East Sussex with George Butler were interesting juxtapositions with the work in the first room. Grayson Perry's, A Map of Nowhere, 2008 was superb and a real highlight. Here is a link to A BBC video where Perry talks about the idea of using the Mappi Mundi as a starting point to his work.

 

I left feeling that the exhibition was stimulating and highlighted many questions but was a bit too ambitious for the modest space it had been allocated and was trying to tick too many boxes. It is understandable that a new gallery will have many different agendas - clearly the remit is and should be to introduce newer art forms, latest acquisitions and well-known contemporary artists to the local area alongside works already acquired and admired from previous eras and from local well-known artists. However, not to include a work by international, Lewes-based land artist, Chris Drury was a serious ommission.  The flyer contained lengthy, intellectual explanations about the choice of works more suited to art history/curating graduates than the general public. I would have liked to have seen something more personal from the curator about why these particular works were chosen and think this would engage the visitor coming to see many of these works for the first time and encourage them to return for future shows. I intend to visit the Towner more frequently and look forward to hearing a curator's talk in the future. I am sure there are many exciting exhibitions planned - hurry up with the new website so we can plan our visits.