RUNWAY invites you to Walk West

RUNWAY artists extends an invitation to WALK WEST, from Hastings to Bexhill, on International Women’s Day, Saturday 8 March. Roz Cran explains how the project, which supports the local women’s refuge, has developed over the years.

WALK WEST is the fifth group photo project of RUNWAY artists. You are invited to join this art walk from Hastings to Bexhill on Saturday 8 March on International Women’s Day (IWD) and to take part in still photographs along the way.

We will assemble at Hastings Pier at 10.15am (leaving at 10.30am). The walk should take about two hours and we will end at De La Warr Pavilion. Please wear black for the photographs that will be taken at several points of the walk.

If you have not taken part in one of our photo projects before, we ask people to pause and to form a line in the landscape, living sculptures, taking time to be still, to listen, to be. We will send you an image via email (make sure you give us your e-address). All are welcome, including black dogs. Please bring a £5 donation for our local women’s refuge. Bring sandwiches if you’d like to eat your lunch together on the beach at Bexhill.  There are regular trains and buses back to Hastings.

RUNWAY – artists without studios formed in 2009, a group of six artists who had met at Claremont Studios. Bexhill was the site of our first live art performance in 2010. There was a show on the De La Warr Pavilion roof of Anthony Gormley’s black body sculptures entitled Critical Mass. Our response was to dress in black and stand as living sculptures on the beach in front of the Pavilion. We called it CRITICAL MESS – a piece of live art. We invited people to join us on four Saturdays for one hour, standing and sitting in several poses, five, 10 and 15 minutes each. Each week more people came; on the final week over 35 people assembled. We stood staring out to sea; we lay in a line on the shingle; we sat in a circle. It was meditative. We took photographs. People interrupted their promenade along the front and stared at us. Participants spoke of the calm feeling that grew from being still and quiet.

In 2011 we took part in the Folkestone Triennial Fringe. We arranged to work with a group of older people from a housing association and we organised a photographic memory walk round the town. This was followed by LOOK OUT, a live art event and group photo on the beach looking out to sea.

 

 

Romney Marsh featured the next year. We invited people to stand and stare on the marsh near Fairfield Church and this time we filmed the event and showed No time to stand and stare at the School Creative Centre, Rye. Black figures standing in a landscape, the long grasses blowing. The sound of a train shunting past.

Last year was the first time we organised an art walk. WALK THIS WAY was a long walk from Hastings Country Park to Rye, about 9 miles. We stopped at appointed places, celebrated notable women who had lived locally and took time out to stand, to be still. We photographed the line of women in black along the Military Canal, on breakwater stumps at Pett. We ended with tea and cakes at the School Creative Centre in Rye. RUNWAY showed the photographs at the Domestic Disturbance event at the School Creative Centre. This was part of the events for IWD 2013 and we collected £200 for the women and children of our local refuge.

This year we are holding our RUNWAY event on IWD 2014 and decided to collect donations for our refuge again, particularly at a time when funds for this essential service have been cut by half. The number of women and children needing refuge from violence and abuse has risen but the number of places available for safe housing has slumped sharply. What will these women do? Where will they go? Please help by bringing a donation with you when you join WALK WEST on 8 March, or by donating directly on the Refuge website. The links are below.

 

RUNWAY artists is organised by Roz Cran and Sharon Haward.  We have a group of associate artists and hold occasional Show and Tell sessions when each artist brings work in progress from their own practice for consideration and critique.

You can see more information and images by joining our facebook group: RUNWAY – artists without studios.

Link for information and to donate to Refuge.

East Sussex Independent Domestic Violence Advisor: 0844 2250657.

24-hour National Domestic Violence Helpline 0808 2000 247 and website.

 

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