Poster design by Jude Montague

Sex and Success in Sussex

Jude Montague introduces work by some of the artists who will be contributing to a playfully exuberant show with a DIY approach at Electro Studios Project Space Thurs 29 May – Sat 1 June.

From the Venice biennale fringe to underground car parks in central London and various international and characterful venues, many of the artists in this show have come together through a DIY artist movement in shows curated by Vanya Balogh and the late, very much missed, Hastings-based artist Danny Pockets.

We appreciate the project space opportunity to get together here in Hastings and show work, and curate a few shows that bring something of this avant-garde free-wheeling spirit of these exhibitions and camaraderie.

Last year in 2024, we explored the legacy of John Logie Baird, in ‘Spirit of Invention’, this year we have chosen a more exuberant and general theme that also just emerged from the sound of the phrase ‘Sex and Success in Sussex’. Some artists have made work particularly for the show, others are slotting in other pieces that might or might not fit into what is an experimental and playful approach.

Chris Simpson, an professional object handler as well as fine artist and sculptor, will be hanging the exhibition, as well as contributing some of his fluid forms.

The original brief was quite deliberately bizarre.

“Oddities and Goddities, Iron Age Arseholes, Stick Culture of the Long Men, Kings and Trumpets, Loser Snakes, Horse Emblems of the Bronze Age, Women Cutting their Hair to Reveal Brain Disorders, Hordes and Hoards, Uncivil War, Moon Crash in the Flint Mines, Linguistic Substrates, Courtly Codes, Elon Musk’s Downs Timeshare, Broken Gods, Sexy Trees, Woven Magick, Blood in the Dew Pond and Glacial Creep.

Multiple Artists wiggle around the soil, poking their fingers into politics.”

hdrpl by Jude Montague

Jeffrey Louis Reed has been working with local maps to bring out exotic content, Erica Smith brings together calligraphy and textile art to explore sexual organs in colour and feminist theory. Ceramics will feature with work from Rowan Corkill and Sam McGoun from the powerful ‘Folde’ group exhibition at the Mint House in Pevensey, a collection of original ceramic works from Caroline Gregory and the first showing of a selection of ‘Freud Rolls’, using scrolls of porcelain embroidered with quotations from case notes of interpreted dreams.

Kalai Preston’s poetry appears in the form of a collaborative booklet. Film-maker Duncan Reekie will be contributing a new experimental audio-visual work although AV pieces and performance pieces will be at a minimum for this show, which concentrates on 2D and 3D media such as wall art and sculpture.

Jeffrey Lewis Reed explores erotic content in old Sussex maps

Julia Maddison shows new prints on the history of women and sex in Sussex with a cartoon vibe in a collaboration with the Montague Armstrong workshop.

Photographer and installation artist Gary Willis is creating an extended piece inspired by the English tradition of dirty seaside postcards.

Other artists contributing work include Leah Germann, Laure Brooks, Shuby, Natalie Frost, Bill Greenhead, Jim Roseveare, Mark Walter, Wolfgang Dubieniec, Natalia Zagorska-Thomas, Rachel Williams, Philip Sanderson, Nicole Zaaroura, Calum F Kerr, Rosie J Sullivan, Nick Weekes, Ian Land, Theresa Caruana, Sinéid Codd, Robert Sample and others. The final list of artists will be available at the show opening.

All are invited to the private view on Friday 30 May, 6–8pm
‘Sex and Success in Sussex’ is at Electro Studios Project Space from Thursday 29 May to Sat 1 June.

Also in: Visual Arts