Part 2: De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea

Little did we know that the day we chose to visit the De La Warr Pavilion was the same day that its foundation plaque had been laid 80 years ago. After discovering this fact I looked up the pavilion's history online. It was apparent that Earl De La Warr was very forward thinking with his vision that the pavilion would "...become a crucible for creating a new model of cultural provision in an English seaside town..." The sheer number of similar creative arts venues that have sprung up along the south coast is surely a testament to this. Over the years the De La Warr Pavilion has earned a decent reputation for the diversity of its programme. In addition to art exhibitions, it hosts many concerts, film screenings, workshops, talks, comedy shows and theatrical performances. It also has a small, but well-stocked, gift shop with a great choice of books.

Ladybird By Design (see Part 1) has been the venue's most popular exhibition to date. Another key crowd-pleaser is likely to be the forthcoming show of Bridget Riley's Curve Paintings that starts 13th June. Anyone wishing to steer clear of the mainstream might prefer the smaller exhibitions on display. They showcase contemporary works that offer alternative ways of thinking. In this category I would place Mark Harris' Pro Patria - A Continuous Series 2009-2015. His show features collage and maquettes constructed from the content of mid-to-late 20th century architectural publications. Harris' sense of purpose in rescuing these images from future obscurity is quite apparent and fairly commendable. However, these imaginative ideas for utopian (and sometimes dystopian) architectural projects seem to have had the life sucked out of them through this recycling process.

Also on show at  De La Warr Pavilion are John Stezaker's Film Works. His three films are shown simultaneously on three walls in a darkened room. They silently flick between images of either horses, cathedrals, or crowds of people at 24 frames per second. Such a high speed creates a flip book effect, challenging the brain to keep up and make sense of the images. In the past Stezaker has created collage from found images, therefore these films are like an antithesis to this - the images move so fast that they almost hurt your eyes. The artist describes these works as "accentuations of the purgatorial incessancy of film images" - a sentence that has just won him 'quote of the day'!