Viva Lewes Issue #112 January 2016

art
Photo by Carlotta Luke
Focus on: Depot Cinema Mural
Blackboard paint on white-painted hoardings, 6x50’
“It works on two different levels,” says Carmen Slijpen,
the Creative Manager of the Depot Cinema,
in Pinwell Road. “The first level is that people will
be interested in what’s on the hoardings, and be excited
week by week as more goes up…”
What is on the hoardings, you’ll have noticed, if
you’ve been down that way since September, is a
growing series of well-designed and executed largeformat
black-and-white images from the history of
cinema, whether a Hollywood star, a Fellini heroine
or snapshot reference to a Hitchcock thriller.
“But what’s maybe more interesting is that people’s
interest will be piqued about what’s going on behind
the hoardings,” she continues. Hoardings being
hoardings, that means building work: the old depot
(built for use by the Post Office, later employed by
Harveys) is, of course, being converted into a cinema,
due to open in Spring 2017.
The images have been created by the graphic designer
Peter Bushell, and a group of volunteers
culled from a film group who used to meet up at
the Depot before the builders moved in. Carmen
has given Peter a list of films she feels incorporates
the wide range of genres that will be shown at the
cinema, then he has sought out iconic and striking
images of these films, upped the contrast on them
to make them silhouetty, and put them on an A4
grid. This grid has been enlarged onto the hoardings,
and the volunteers – including Carmen herself
– have painstakingly reproduced the images onto
the white-painted wood, using blackboard paint
(after learning acrylic runs in heavy rain). The volunteers
meet on Wednesdays and Sundays; they’ve
so far completed 25-30 of the 70 images planned.
“It’s something you couldn’t afford to pay for,” says
Carmen, “if you wanted to commission it.”
You might notice I’ve been cagey about revealing
exactly who is depicted in this massive artwork. It’s
great fun trying to identify who’s who and which
film they’ve come from, but… “We’re not giving
anything away because we’re going to have a
competition when the artwork is finished, offering
some free tickets to people who can identify all of
the films,” reveals Carmen.
Alex Leith
Lewes Depot Cinema/lewesdepot.org
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