Days of Wonder, a free exhibition of art inspired by the film and media collections held at Hove Museum of Creativity and Screen Archive South East, opens Saturday 4 May as part of Brighton Festival 2024.

Four artists have been commissioned to echo the spirit of innovation found in early cinema and filmmaking which had its roots in Hove at the turn of the twentieth century. Their resulting pieces will be installed as temporary interventions in the Museum’s permanent galleries.

Sapphire Goss has built a dream-like world by fusing archive imagery from the collection with newly shot footage taken around Brighton with obsolete film stock and clockwork cine cameras. Her moving image work will be viewed by looking down inside a rosewood and brass box and also projected up onto the ceiling.

In Annis Joslin’s video installation, eclectic objects are projected through and above a display case of optical toys. Originally used as props in early films, these items are repurposed by the artist and combined with imagery created by museum visitors in workshops earlier this year. The images are presented in both monochrome and intense, digitally-processed green and red, in an homage to early filmmaker George Albert Smith’s 1906 invention of ‘Kinemacolor.’

Working with the museum collections, Bella Okuya sought out representations of women, queer communities, and people of colour and found them hidden, or unavailable. By positioning representations in her single-channel video, the artist attempts to intersect past, present, and future; creating space, and time to imagine.

Connor Turansky uses antique and contemporary technology in his artwork. His mechanical pop-up books tell stories of the history of cinema in Hove and visitors can access augmented reality content by scanning special images, enhancing the paper creations with 3D scans.

Commissioned by Corridor and videoclub, the exhibition also includes work by The Wonder Club, a group of young people led by artist Chahine Fellahi in a programme of workshops at the Museum. The group has researched early filmmakers’ representations of personal experiences such as dreams, thoughts, and hallucinations, using their own performative interpretations to make short films, projections, and prints.

Jamie Wyld, Director of videoclub says “It’s wonderful to see such beautiful and thought-provoking work resulting from this commission. The artists have all relished exploring the collections and have been energised by the same spirit of creativity and innovation that fuelled our cinema pioneers.”

Ceryl Evans, Director of Engagement and Public Programmes at Brighton & Hove Museums says “Film makers from our local area played a pivotal role in cinema history. We are looking forward to visitors seeing this important collection of early film in a new light.”

Days of Wonder runs until 1 September at Hove Museum of Creativity

Notes to Editors

Hove Museum of Creativity
19 New Church Road,
Hove
BN3 4AB

Free to visit Days of Wonder runs

4 May to 1 Sept 2024
Open: Mon, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun
10am – 5pm
Closed: Tue – Wed

Press enquiries and interview requests

to Helen Wade 07795 672107 helenwadecomms@gmail.com

Images:

Work in progress still and moving image files cleared for use with credit are available at this link

Showing at Hove Museum of Creativity at the same time (also free entry):

Matisse – Drawing with Scissors, Late Works 1950-1954
This exhibition features 35 posthumous prints of the famous cut-outs produced in the last four years of Matisse’s life, when he was confined to his bed. It includes many of his iconic images, such as The Snail and the Blue Nudes.

Days of Wonder is produced by Corridor and videoclub in partnership with Brighton & Hove Museums and Screen Archive South East with support from Arts Council England and National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Corridor is an arts organisation connecting artists, people and places. Their artist-led programmes are exploratory and open-ended, rooted from the outset in partnerships, creative engagement and learning in its broadest sense. Participatory projects are designed to create encounters that share untold stories, support well-being, skills development and creative expression. Corridor is a registered company limited by guarantee. Corridor recently produced the In This Place programme of art projects in the new development around Hove Station and Clarendon.
corridorprojects.org.uk

videoclub is an artists’ moving image and digital culture agency, showing artists’ work across the UK and internationally. They support artists through curated programmes, engaging the public through screenings, exhibitions, residencies and commissions. Collaborating with small collectives to large institutions, videoclub shows work in cinemas, galleries, museums, outdoors and online, presenting diverse work by early career to established artists. videoclub is the team behind last year’s Dreamy Place festival and the popular sound and light installation under Brighton Station.
videoclub.org.uk

Housed in an impressive Victorian villa, Hove Museum of Creativity contains a Contemporary Craft collection seen as the most important of its kind in the south of England, outside London, and arguably one of the most significant in the country. It also highlights Hove’s history as the home of early film-makers, local history and paintings and has a magical Wizard’s Attic filled with toys from the 18th century to the present day
brightonmuseums.org.uk/hove-museum-of-creativity

Sapphire Goss works with moving image, photography and other lens-based methods. Using obsolete technologies she creates chimerical imagery with unexpected materials, looping and processing. She creates work that grows, lives and decays beyond the surface, frame edges and the looking glass of the image. Sapphire’s work has been shown widely in exhibitions and events including the Barbican, Tate Exchange, By Art Matters Hangzhou, Fermynwoods Contemporary, Milton Keynes Art Centre, East End Film Festival, and Maysles Centre New York. Eternity City.
sapphiregoss.com @sapphire_goss

Annis Joslin is an artist and filmmaker with a collaborative approach, making work through conversations and participatory encounters with others. She adopts drawing, animation, photography, performance, collage, storytelling and video into and lens-based work. Annis has shown work in the UK and internationally with screenings, exhibitions and projects with organisations including People United, The Fine Arts Film Festival California, Phoenix Art Space Brighton, The Royal College of Physicians, The National Trust, Tate Exchange, The Women’s Library, and The Walker Art Gallery Liverpool.
annisjoslin.com @annisjoslin

Bella Okuya is a London-born and based interdisciplinary artist working across moving images, writing, and sound. Her artistic focus primarily involves centering the inner landscapes of diverse communities by blending elements of fiction with poetic imagery. She is interested in exploring tensions and frictions between spaces, places, power, and wellbeing in society, particularly in relation to marginalised groups. Her work is underpinned by the pillars of sound, silence, and spirituality. Bella has an MFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, on a Fulbright All Disciplines Award and she is a current member of the British Art Network Emerging Curators group researching French and British film and moving images related to narratives around the black diaspora and abjection.
bellaokuya.com @bellaokuya

Connor Turansky is a visual artist and educator. Combining photographic methodology with various mediums: mixed reality, paper engineering, electronics and projection mapping he builds interactive experiences, creates worlds to be explored and designs mechanical contraptions.
connorturansky.com @connor_turansky

Chahine Fellahi is an artist-filmmaker and facilitator based between London and Casablanca. Working across analog and digital processes, her practice revolves around the politics of archives, exploring relations and borders between the materiality of media and the making of memory. She is the co-founder of Kimiã, a collective dedicated to experimental practices in film, photography, and media arts. She has delivered participatory projects with diverse audiences in collaboration with institutions such as the Cinematheque of Tangier, the Arab British Centre, and Mosaic Rooms in London.
fellahichahine.com @mantadeluxe