Viva Lewes Issue #144 September 2018

ART
Image (cropped) © Red Saunders 2011
It’s 250 years since Tom Paine arrived in Lewes, and as a celebration there’s a
one-day exhibition, in the Westgate Chapel, as part of Heritage Open Days,
featuring images of rebellious types from history including Levellers, Chartists,
John Ball, Wat Tyler, Mary Wollstonecraft and, of course, Tom Paine (Sat
8th). And finally… Lewes potter (and one-time Viva cover artist!) Mohamed
Hamid, who has taught hundreds of students in his Star Pottery workshop,
needs to replace his ageing kiln, and is setting up a crowdfunding page to help;
go to crowdfunder.co.uk/new-kiln-for-the-star-pottery.
Out of town
Pink by Matt Smith, 2017. Wool
© Matt Smith. Courtesy Matt Smith
We’re very excited about the brand-new galleries at
Charleston (see pg 76), which will be presenting three
connected shows in their inaugural month, starting
September 8th. The main event, marking 90 years
since the publication of Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando:
A Biography, presents a contemporary response to
the ground-breaking novel, whose gender-switching
narrator lives over many centuries. Orlando at the
present time features new works from: modernisminfluenced
figurative artist Kaye Donachie; crossdressing
self-portraitist Paul Kindersley; mixed-media
anti-racist artist Delaine Le Bas, and site-specific
LGBT-oriented ceramicist Matt Smith, alongside
photographs and objects
pertaining to the original
publication of the novel.
This exhibition will be
accompanied by two
displays. Zanele Muholi:
Faces and Phases features portraits of gender-stereotype-challenging
subjects from South Africa and beyond by the eponymous artist; Vanessa
Bell and Duncan Grant’s Famous Women Dinner Service, meanwhile,
features a set of 50 china plates decorated with portraits of illustrious
females, from Cleopatra to Greta Garbo.
Oh! by Paul Kindersley, 2018. iPhone photographic print on vinyl
© Paul Kindersley. Courtesy the artist and Belmacz
The Attenborough Centre, at the University of Sussex, starts
its autumn programme with a free drop-in ‘pop-up shoe shop’
where the audience is invited to listen to the audio stories
of individuals who have gone through out-of-the-ordinary
experiences – from sex workers to refugees, entitled Empathy
Museum – A Mile in My Shoes (14th-23rd, 11am-5pm, right);
at the same venue the Brighton Digital Festival returns
with The Messy Edge, a conference discussing the cutting-edge
forces shaping our lives (28th).
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