Ous at The Towner Gallery Eastbourne

Ous

Local artist Becky Beasley has launched a crowd funding appeal to publish a slim book of her exhibition ‘Ous’ at Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, before the end of July when the exhibition ends. The content is all ready – the images and texts and design for how it will look. The exhibition is very spatial and so this documentation is important to Becky as an outcome. Zelly Restorick asked Becky to tell us more about her project.

Ous by Becky Beasley. In dialogue with Caroline Le Breton (b. 1966), Jonathan Cole (1961–2007), Enid Marx (1902–1998), Eric Ravilious (1903– 1942), David Rhodes (b.1968) and Duncan Lewis (1951–2016). 

“Ous: a nonsensical doubling word of no fixed pronunciation derived from the last three letters of Ravilious. Its indefinability sets up an oblique and playful set of ideas related to place (Où); to community (Us); to wonder (Oou); to something slowly seeping to the surface (Ooze); and to the Ouse, the Sussex river haunted by the shade of Virginia Woolf. The large hand-printed photograph, Sedum Joy (Double Grave), taken by the artist outside her former family home also reminds us that the cognates of ‘bed’ include ‘garden plot’, ‘grave’ and a ‘dwelling dug in the ground’. A burrow.” (Brian Cass, Curator Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne)

Sedum Joy (Double Grave)

“This crowdfunder is a way of making something happen in direct collaboration with the people who are most interested and invested in it. It is also, hopefully, a way of showing what we are doing here creatively, locally, nationally and internationally. The Towner Art Gallery experience has been one of my best to date. We have an extraordinary team there and although we are unable to publish a book directly with them for financial and political reasons, I am keen to recognise the project fully and allow it to fly beyond East Sussex. Everything I have done the last seven years has been Made in Hastings!

“My life here in Hastings has supported me enormously creatively. The lower financial costs of living in the area have allowed me to take my time and have some space to work; the wildness of the place makes me feel at home in myself and I’ve met inspiring people to talk to in between work, sleep and dreams. I’ve collaborated already with a number of local people, including the always brilliant Patrick Jones at Project 78 Gallery, Hermione Allsopp and most recently with Caroline Le Breton and David Rhodes at Towner.

“I’ve also been able to have a family here which is not something I was expecting! So Tom, also, is Made in Hastings!

“There are a couple of events at the show at late May and late June where I’ll be in conversation so I do hope to see some of you there in person. Anna Gritz, a curator who is coming over from KW in Berlin in a couple of weeks, for a conversation with me about interiors and time, is a superstar and not to be missed!”

Here is the link to the Crowdfunding page for more information: BBBook

Becky Beasley: Ous is on until 9 July at Towner Art Gallery, Devonshire Park, College Road, Eastbourne, BN21 4JJ Open Tuesday-Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday. 10am-5pm.

Also in: Arts News