Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating   talk at Charleston Farmhouse as part of their Small Wonder Festival bringing together contemporary artist Nathan Coley and DJ James Lavelle. The speakers were friends and had been brought together as both use snippets from others work to make their art. Coley takes snippets of text and makes giant illuminated signs of them and there has been one at Charleston over recent months. They discussed where they found their source material, how they then made these into finished works, their attitude to getting permission to use other people’s work and the role of the audience. They didn’t always agree with each other which led to a lively but friendly discussion.   It was interesting to see a rolling slide show Coley’s work above them as I didn’t know it well, apart from the Charleston piece, and to realise how the same words in different settings seemed to mean different things. He also talked about being commissioned by Charleston.    

Effective  installation at Charleston Farmhouse by Nathan Coley. This work is one of a series of six around Lewes called “Tentative Words Change Everything” organised by Sussex Modern. Coley creates these monumental sculptures using existing phrases that come from overheard conversations, song lyrics, news report, books or any found text. This one, ‘I Don’t Have Another Land’, was a piece of graffiti found on a wall in Jerusalem in the early 2000s. I have seen this work in many lights and, as the words are made up of light bulbs, it works best after dark however it is also effective in the day and makes a powerful statement. I also saw the piece at St Mary’s Church, Glynde, “You Create What You Will” as we drove past which looked beautiful standing amongst the gravestones.   Closes 29 August 2019