Coastal Currents keeps on giving!

The Coastal Currents arts festival continues on its merry way, despite the vagaries of the weather. Although the Open Studios concluded last weekend, there are many more events under way or coming up, as Nick Terdre reports.

Yes, it’s a real cultural bonanza on offer from Coastal Currents which runs through the month, with some events carrying on longer. Back with a bang this year thanks to restored funding from Arts Council England, there are shows and happenings and performances, mainly located in Hastings and St Leonards, but also further afield in Bexhill, Battle, Rye and even Eastbourne.

Brief details follow. More information, including opening times, is contained in the festival brochure, the printed version of which can be found in shops and venues around town, and the online version on the website. And director Tina Morris especially asks that you respond to the Great Big Culture Survey to throw light on the thoughts and needs of the creative community: you can find it here.

Let’s start in Hastings Old Town. The Electric Cinema at 39a High Street, TN34 3ER, is hosting an exhibition titled Enter The Dragon (forget Bruce Lee) comprising artworks and posters by Ania Goszczynska inspired by her favourite films and film characters. Drawing equally on pop kitsch and medieval art, horror films and fairy tales, Ania creates stark images with strong contrasts.

The works can be viewed before and after all cinema screenings during September.

Also in the High Street, at the Pop Up Gallery at number 52, TN34 3EN, Kathy Foley is showing new work under the title of Pattern, Shapes & Faces until 22 September. Kathy is primarily an abstract painter who also crosses over into different disciplines and mediums to give play to a distinctive and colourful artistic voice within her expressionistic style.

Just along the road, florist Shirley Leaf and Petal Co at 58a presents Bizarre Boutique, an exhibition of bags, berets, hats and accessories made in 1920s vintage velvet and inspired by Clarice Cliff’s 1930s ceramic designs. The display runs for the duration of the festival.

Across the road at The Crown pub in All Saints Street (TN34 3BN), fine art photographer Kirsten Iles has an exhibition showing throughout the festival of images of landscapes and nature largely taken in the nature reserves of Hastings and Rye. She is sharing the wall space with the mixed media collages and paintings by Kate Delany whose show has been reviewed in HOT.

Around the corner is the Rock-a-Nore Art Gallery at 23 in the road of the same name (TN34 3DW), where a diverse group of artists have exercised their imaginations to produce another edition of objects from the id, number XIX. The show, which includes paintings, print, ceramics, photography, film and sculpture, runs until 15 September.

An exhibition of photographs capturing Hastings’ multi-faceted character seen through the lens of local photographers can be viewed at Tadhg Mae Projects, 51a George Street, Hastings TN34 3EA throughout the festival.

Moving into the town centre, the Car Park Park is a street-level installation consisting of a non geo-fixed micro green space questioning how urban space is used and can be repurposed to improve the wellbeing landscape. See it at Plot 6, Waterworks Road, TN341RT throughout the festival.

A unique collaboration between Jason King, creator of Tongue in Cheek, and Rachel Moller has produced a display of fine hats and glorious floral murals on display throughout the festival at Hare & Hound, 196 Queen’s Road, TN34 1RG.

Razzmatazz is a group show of painting, ceramics and photography at Barnaby’s Lounge (46 Robertson Street, TN34 1HL) running throughout the festival.

While walking around Hastings keep your eyes peeled for Show Off, a perambulatory exhibition of posters displayed in unfamiliar places celebrating the diverse output of the region’s artists. Sites include the Source Park, town centre bus stops, Bohemia Road and Maku on the roundabout where Elphinstone Road meets Queen’s Road.

Hastings Museum and Art Gallery (John’s Place, Bohemia Road, Hastings TN34 1YY) presents On the Edge of Nothingness, an exhibition of haunted landscapes, revenants and spectral visions by Jo Israel which runs until 6 October.

Hastings Arts Forum at 20 Marine Court (TN38 0DX) has its summer members’ show on display until 15 September: “a diverse and multi-disciplinary collection of 2D and 3D work.” A short walk along the pavement, at the Burton Gallery, 5 Marine Court, is an exhibition dedicated to plastic era design, showing for the duration of the festival.

In St Leonards the Solaris gallery at 76 Norman Road (TN38 0EJ) hosts Defence of the Realm, an exhibition of photography by Jeremy Llewellyn-Jones, which constitutes “an oblique testament to the foolhardy human desire to control and dominate natural forces rather than respect and work with them”.

The Electro Studios in Seaside Road, West St Leonards TN38 0AL, present Making Strange, works by Colin Booth inspired by Russian formalist critic Victor Shklovsky’s claim that “The technique of art is to make objects unfamiliar”. Final viewings will be over the weekend 13-15 September, though admittance can also be gained by appointment. (See separate article.)

At 30 Tower Road West Helen Tennison, winner of plaudits and awards from the Edinburgh, Oslo and Stockholm fringes, presents performances at 7pm on the evenings of Thursday 12 and Friday 13 September of Doggerland, an “absurd lecture performance” inspired by the rich and fertile land which stretched between the east coast of England and the European mainland 8,000 years ago. “You have your private Doggerland. We all do.”

This is a free event though booking is required..

Oscar’s on the Square (Lower Promenade, Warrior Square TN37 6FA) presents Fast-Forward to the Future, a display of work by Nick Hill which takes its inspiration from black and white photos from the late 1800s to the early 1900s across Hastings and St Leonards. The exhibition runs until 25 September.

The Moth shop, 263 London Road, St Leonards TN37 6NB, hosts Collected, a dementia-friendly group show featuring works by 13 artists.

Tracing the Past is an exhibition by Jane Cordery of mixed media drawings and paintings and thread and metal sculptures exploring the development of human social connection. It runs until 31 October at Beauport House Gallery in Bannantyne Hotel, Battle Road TN38 8EA.

Out of town events include Lines in the Highwoods, an art trail in Bexhill Highwoods comprising sculptural pieces illustrating the history of the woodland as a working environment. The trail begins in Peartree Lane, TN39 4RA, grid reference TQ 716096, and can be followed until 2 November.

Bexhill town centre is the location for Create ON, a shop-front exhibition of work by local young people let down by mainstream education or dealt a tough hand. Running throughout the festival, the exhibition is at Love Art by the Sea, 21 London Road, TN39 3JR.

Way out west in Eastbourne the Devonshire Collective presents Riviera, a communal and community designed textile pattern made from stencils relating to the neighbourhood, the product of workshops with local residents run by Navine G Dossos. The work, at 67-69 Seaside Road BN21 3PL, is on view until 15 September.

In Every Shadow is an exhibition exploring the symbol of the Green Man, Jack in the Green and associated images and personages which runs at the blackShed Gallery outside Robertsbridge (Russet Farm, Redlands Lane TN32 5NG) until 21 September. At a pivotal  moment in our history, in the midst of global change, the notion of the Green Man persists, lurking in the shadows.

Curated by Lorna Ough, and displaying work by 14 artists and writers from across the UK, the event also includes traditional greenwood workshops and film screenings.

Coastal Currents website and Instagram.

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