Jerwood Gallery

Danny Pockets’ proposal Arcadia was chosen by the panel of judges to win the Sussex Coast College Prize, supported by the Jerwood Gallery.

On Thursday 15^th July Lara Wardle (Director of the Jerwood Foundation) announced that Danny, who lives and works in St Leonards-on-Sea, had won the £3,000 to fund a solo exhibition at the Circle Gallery. She said, ‘At Jerwood we believe in supporting exceptional work and talent for artists at all stages of their careers and especially at the critical time between art school or college and the work place. This prize has given us the opportunity to offer this support to artists living and working in and near Hastings. The quality of the five short listed artists’ proposals is testament to the wealth of talent in Hastings and the surrounding area and reinforces our commitment and excitement of having the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings which is so rich in artistic tradition – both past and present’.

The Sussex Coast College Art Prize selectors were Alan Haydon (De La Warr Pavilion), Elizabeth Gilmore (Arts Council England) and Sarah Williams (Jerwood Space). Alan Haydon wrote, ‘I felt that the winning proposal best reflected the overall brief and in particular, the challenges of the new exhibition space at the College. The project itself, captures some the issues surrounding the artists immediate environment through the use of multi screen film technique within a constructed sculptural installation. It should not only capture the imagination of visitors but inspire some the students working in the field of the arts’.

Danny Pockets will use the gallery as a location to install a cross discipline piece of work that recognises the presence of that mighty steel, wood and glass structure. Describing it in a colourful and living light and filling the auditorium with the sounds and movement of a living, breathing thing and gives the viewer a new perception of what the Pier could be. Core to the piece is a dizzying and entrancing film work using the rebus technique.

Danny has said, ‘During the heyday of package holidays the seaside town became overlooked, a bit tatty and forlorn, and with that took on a new charm, one that attracted people looking for something different and with that new influx comes regeneration. None more so than in Hastings: The South Coast College, the Media Enterprise Centre and the Jerwood Gallery all arriving in close succession of each other as the town finds itself popular once more.

‘Hastings and St Leonards is renowned for its history of involvement with TV and film. John Logie Baird famously making the first television transmission in Hastings in 1923. The first cinema screening in the town being on the now long gone and forgotten second Palace Pier.

‘With this in mind I will use monitors (tv screens) sourced in the area through local enterprise such as H.F.S. (Hastings Furniture Service, a non-profit making organisation, whose sales go to help maintain services for people with low incomes) and Freecycle.

‘Hastings and St Leonards is also famous as the setting for Robert Tressels book The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, an account of the lives and fortunes of the building industry workers in the area at the turn of the last century. The timber I will be using will be recycled and reconditioned, primarily from the buildings being built in the period around the time the book was written and represented in the new auditorium. The timber will be from The Hastings and Bexhill Wood Recycling Project.

‘I intend the installation, like all my work, to operate on many levels. Not merely a thing in a space, but something personal, intimate and above all, honest’.

Arcadia will be on show in the Circle Gallery 8 November – 3 December 2010.

Read about all the short listed artists’ proposals.