Towner serves a purpose
May 2009 | by Roger Hudson
The
majority of visitors to Eastbourne tennis week - as it was known
before commercial pressures and sponsorship - will be astonished
to find a huge white concrete box has taken pride of place at the
former main entrance to Devonshire Park tennis club.
This new Towner art gallery has risen like a chalk cliff-face, albeit
one that will not erode like the natural cliffs at nearby Beachy Head
and Birling Gap.
It has been designed by architectural firm Rick Mather, and sits to the left of the award-winning modernist glass and concrete Congress Theatre. And the striking building has been nominated for the third Conde Nast Traveller Innovation & Design Awards.
The original Towner Art Gallery opened in 1923 but closed a couple of years ago. It was was located within an 18th century manor house in Manor Gardens, in a part of Eastbourne called Old Town. This was deemed to be too out of reach for the public to be fully appreciated, so it was relocated as an ambitious £8.5m purpose-built facility adjacent to the Congress Theatre.
But this state-of-the-art gallery will
come as a disappointment to the Towner's neo-Victorian critics, of
which there appear to be many in Eastbourne. Local critics would have
preferred a replica of the ornate Town Hall or the stucco terraces that
adorn the wondrously well-kept seafront.
The Towner is here to stay, complete with folded
origami logo
and right-on T-shirted young attendants who patrol the works of art but
rotate around the Towner every 40 minutes to avoid the ultimate
embarrassment of falling asleep on the job.
The vast building is unashamedly modern with a cavernous entrance hall
and a well-stocked gift shop, which includes art books as well as the
usual tourist trinkets and fridge magnets. And the Towner boasts in its
collection over 4,000 works of art by contemporary, historic and modern
artists.
The Towner officially opened to the
public in April, but the feature exhibition on the ground floor - Lost
Horizons - will only run until a week before the 2009 AEGON
International begins. So tennis fans will be unable to enjoy
'the exploration of Utopia and ... reflection on the
relationship between artists, participants ... and the terms under
which they are engaged ...' Basically, it is an ephemeral collection of
folk-art and images, devised as part of the Towner's award-winning
Outreach and Inclusion programme for those at risk of social and health
inequality.
To access other floors either take a 'feature lift ride'
or climb the amazingly bland staircase. However, an attendant
got very excited about the lift ride and enthused: "It has views all
across Eastbourne!" But the main view is of nondescript
rooftops and a very distant view of the South Downs. Once at the upper
levels, the long but high-ceiling spine corridor is intimidating, with
an less than inviting entrance to each gallery.
But for a potentially panoramic position, overlooking Devonshire Park
and the gentile town centre, a visit to the cafe is a must. Situated on
the second floor, the cafe boasts a sun terrace that really catches the
wind. From a seated position in the cafe it is
virtually impossible to see anything but sky and the occasional passing
seagull. How the architect managed to create a solid wall where full
height glazing is demanded should be the first question on the list by
the Conde Nast Traveller judges.
A case of first set to the Towner, but a
long way to
go before making it game, set and match to the state-of-the-art gallery.
It has views all across Eastbourne!"
- Towner attendant about the 'feature lift'
2009 exhibitions
Main exhibitions running during
the 2009
AEGON International were:
First floor (running until 16
August 2009) was the
People's Choice.
A democratic-sounding selection of key art exhibits
from the Towner's permanent collection, decided after local residents
voted. But just how many local voters made their
choice is not revealed.
People's
Choice | A spread of styles and themes that encompasses
abstracts and contemporary works, landscapes to portraits,
narrative scenes as well as architecture and design. Look out
for the watercolour of local beauty spot
Cuckmere Haven (above) by Eric Ravilious, who was brought up in
Eastbourne and
went to the local College of Art before attaining international
recognition.
Second floor (running
until 20 June 2009) was Nowhere Man & Die Again.
Arguably the most
controversial exhibition comes from the celebrated Chilean artist Ivan
Navarro - and there is also a leading professional from Spain on the
ATP Tour who shares the same name.
Nowhere
Man | The linked exhibits are neon tubes in
various standard lengths, cleverly formed into symbols of figures based
on the
infamous 1972 Munich Olympic pictograms designed by Otl Archer. Many
visitors
seemed puzzled by the validity of these works, but the sporting themes
work well in juxtaposition to the athletic context of the adjoining
world-class international tennis centre that often hosts Davis Cup
matches.
Die
Again | Effectively a black plywood cube that can actually
be entered but
encloses visitors within a dark void that is illuminated by a
series of
geometric neon tubes with mirrors reflecting 'infinitely'. The most
spectacular of these descend from the floor of the cube in a triangular
form, which creates a truly multi-dimensional sensation. Within the
cube and
filtering out into the body of the gallery can be heard, rather eerily,
the song from The Beatles aptly called Nowhere
Man. This track of music obviously links both strands of the exhibition.