Ian Skelton

i-Found: the extended remix – making new life from found materials at St Andrew’s Mews

HOT’s Judy Parkinson re-immersed herself in i-Found, the extended remix, an exhibition bringing new life to found materials soon to open at St Andrews Mews, to discover new things about quite a lot of old stories.

After a successful inaugural run in January 2024, the two Ians’ i-Found exhibition returns to St Andrews Mews, one of Hastings most intriguing art venues, where Ian Shillito and Ian Skelton work as artists in residence. Curated as the extended remix, the two Ians are joined again by ceramicist Emma Harding, plus selected artists, for a three-week immersive experience across the annual Coastal Currents festival.

Ian Shilito

The two Ians wanted to use this opportunity to build on their shared interest in found materials, memory, a sense of place and storytelling by bringing together other i-Found artists, particularly those who have not had much experience exhibiting work professionally. The contributors range from recent art graduates from Hastings College, Caitlin Macdonald, Bella Rose Sharpe and Lara Vaney, Green Party councillor Amanda Jobson, IT specialist Mawjood, library manager Tom Mountford, artist and prop maker Saskia Gall and tv stylist David O’Brien.

The work of these artists, though distinctly different, is linked by a shared interest in found, recycled and repurposed materials.  Once again, this new exhibition will showcase collections aiming to instigate a dialogue, and reveal subplots, underlying stories, submerged themes and deeper meanings.

Saskia Gall

“It’s definitely worth a visit. We’ve all seen the plastic and debris on the beach. It’s a future wake-up call, Hastings!” said Green Councillor Amanda Jobson about the last show.

Ian Shillito is a production arts educator and creative director for Grim Times events. He makes inventive montages using plastic flotsam that washes up on Hastings beaches to construct brightly coloured coastal creatures. They are vibrant and eye catching, but a deadly message loiters beneath their shiny surfaces that predicts the devastating effect of marine plastic on the environment.

Ian Skelton writes for film, tv and theatre. He fashions fragments of notes, lists and graffiti into his drawing and painting. Cartooning, collage, typography and abstraction are drawn together, layered and lacquered. Skelton presents the work on found materials, mainly wooden panels and often roughly framed in similar style.

Emma Harding has been an art teacher for many years and completed numerous mosaics in public settings. She works with found clay, natural pigments and repurposed ceramic fragments and here she focuses on the human mind and memory and the receptacles that contain them.

i-Found: the extended remix flows even further from the accepted gallery experience than it’s possible to imagine. The historic upper gallery at St Andrews Mews with its recently discovered lost rooms is very much part of the show, forming the backdrop for a truly dramatic experience. The visitor walks through room sets and plays a character in set pieces laced with dramatic tension, intriguing subplots and mind-bending denouements. Not to be missed.

Venue: The Upper Gallery, St Andrew’s Mews, Waldegrave Street TN34 1SJ
Dates: Friday 30 August until Sunday 22 September
Open: Thursday – Sundays, 11am – 4pm
Instagram: @thetwoians @ehmosaics

Ian Shillito

Also in: Arts News