MASS.DLWP
ABOVE: Location photos by ZEROH
The De La Warr Pavilion (DLWP), Bexhill On Sea, East Sussex, invited us to create an event to coincide with the 2026 Bexhill Art Weekender.
We designed a free, one-day expo-style building takeover event dedicated to celebrating regional sculpture and three-dimensional art. For the first time in its 90 year history, the De La Warr Pavilion (DLWP) allowed a one-day artist-led building takeover.
Inspired by the Pavilion’s rich history of presenting landmark outdoor sculpture — having previously hosted major works by Antony Gormley, Richard Wilson and Holly Hendry and by the current presence of Tschabalala Self’s beloved coastal installation “Seated” on the DLWP lawn — MASS transformed the iconic modernist building, it’s terrace and surrounding lawns into a vibrant, multi-area, open-access celebration of artists working in three dimensions.
The take over represented an opportunty for us to invite practicing Sculptors and 3D artists to present their work in the context of a building which rarely opens it’s doors for local artists, challenging it’s regular audience alongside those visiting the town for the dedicated arts weekend. Curating the look and feel of the building and the event created a sense of possibility and grounding purpose.
We produced the event in collaboration with Bee Nicholls of Hole Projects CIC & Unit 2 Gallery, St Leonards. Unit 2 supported a dynamic programme of “off grid” art shows during it’s 1 year residency in St.Leonards On Sea at a pivitol point in the town’s growth as a dynamic arts centre.
As part of the take over we commissioned a live, improvised durational audio work in collaboration with James Wilkie, sound artist, Creative Director of Sono Festival and lecturer at UCL and 5 Sono associated artists.
ABOVE: In house ZEROH designed branding for the event took inspiration from the textures and elemental details found in and around the Modernist icon. With architectural features forming the bespoke lettering for the final logo, mimicing sculptural forms and incorporating original surface detail. The title also gave way to an acronym that supported the concept of the event.
‘MASS EXPOSURE’
The DLWP agreed for us to use five key spaces in and around the building in order to create a one-off experience for visitors, allowing the space to take on different forms and tones for the day. At the core of the event was Sculpture/ 3D Art Fair, ‘MASS EXPOSURE’, where, having answered an open call, regional artists showed and sold their work in the main auditorium. The layout of the space allowed for 3sqm per artist and we gave them complete freedom in what they did with it. Artists set up their areas as a tradition table top sale, Rachel Ring created an installation, Isobel Smith performed in her space, recent graduate Violet Cuming hung her work from the auditorium’s lighting rig, Laura Gill brought just one piece with her, and sold it. A constant audience flow afforded the artists the time to share and the space to talk about their practice.
Artists:
Adaesi Ukairo/ Ali Jannergren/ Amos Mitchell/ April Thompson-Yasamee/ Ben Fairlight/ Bekky May/ Catherine Whiteoak/ Consuelo Radclyffe / Do Macnair/ Emma Donovan/ Emma Harding/ Isobel Smith/ Jane Higginbottom/ Julian Wild/ Kirsti Matthews/ Kirsty Latham/ Laura Gill/ Madeleine Smith/ MEW/ Mudworks/ Rachel Ring/ Sharon Wylde/ Shuby/ Steve Bernadine/ Vanessa Fowler/ Violet Cuming/ Will Cottrell.
To soundtrack the auditorium we commissioned sound artist, SONO festival creative director and UCL lecturer James Wilkie to present and curate a live durational improvised soundscape. The experimental work featured participating sound artists Ben Chernett, Emma Kate Matthews, Isac Leung, Ethan Kirby & Babalola Yusuf. The contributing artists brought with them traditional instruments and experimental self built sound generators, like Ben Chernett’s Pendulum and sound triggering sink and Emma Kate Matthews’ ‘Cyborgian musical hat’ to add texture to the soundscape. We placed the collective on the stage in the auditorium and presented them behind a gauze, in a detached state from the rest of the room, so they had complete freedom and control to produce a soundtrack without distraction or audience response. Creating these conditions were an important part of the event in order to mimic a studio set up rather than a performance space, ensuring complete freedom and a sense of play. We set up a webcam which faced the auditorium audience feeding back the visual seen by the audio artists, with the swinging pendulum presented as dominant over the crowd, this image was rear projected on to the gauze.
THE FOYER – EVERYWORLD en MASS
The Foyer space, leading into ‘MASS Exposure’, was given over to artist, filmaker and writer Andrew Køtting along with his daughter, and artist in her own right, Eden, and his wife Leila. Together they presented an installation around their ever expanding VR experience ‘The Everyword’ which presents a series of discombobulating environments centered around Andrew and Eden’s collaborative work and their former family off grid get away in the French Pyrenees.
“In The Everyworld, everything is possible. In The Everyworld, hope holds up her head and hopes. In The Everyworld, we are not by ourselves. In The Everyworld, tales will be told. In The Everyworld, we will all have deadads. In The Everyworld, the sun came dripping a bucket full of gold.”
— Andrew Kötting, Artist & Filmmaker