Acid Pavilion Series

‘The Future’s so Bright, it’s Twisted’ – Jacqueline Hammond, 2010.

The futuristic ‘Acid Pavilion’ photo series depicts Brighton and Hove’s famous landmark as it’s never been seen before.

These series of works were showcased at the ‘I Love Art’ exhibition, part of the Christmas Artists Open Houses trail in 2010.

I wanted to find water with a reflection and heard there was a pond in the Pavilion Gardens that I hadn’t seen before. With my four-year-old daughter gathering pebbles to throw in the pond, and me lying on the floor to compose the desired shot, we must have looked a real sight. We attracted attention from tourists, who took their own photos of us. I took shots of the Pavilion in the snow and also studied the building from interesting angles – looking up pillars and arches, etc.  See my images.

It’s amazing how a slight ripple on the pond’s surface could distort the building enough to make it look ‘wonky’ and ‘surreal’. The ripples accentuated the global influences in the architecture, somehow making them ‘of another world’ – alien, space age, futuristic, psychedelic.

Images reflect our modern day, digitally enhanced, saturated world and my paintings have a ‘hyper real’, graphic feel to them. Rather than attempt to paint the pavilion in a similar way, it made sense to use the photos themselves. Manipulating the photos with colour alterations in Adobe Photoshop gave the images a painterly quality.

I think what my photos say about Brighton that the future’s bright, if a little twisted, and things aren’t set in stone. There’ll always be new ways of looking at the old and achieving regeneration – moving on to a ‘brave new world’.

The I Love Art Open House exhibition is organised and curated by Sarah Gillings, a marketing specialist with roots in Brighton, her home town, who has worked internationally for blue chip companies such as Disney and Warner Bros. She recently returned from Dubai where she was undertaking a role at The Wave leisure complex in the Middle East for the Mccan Erikson global advertising group.

Exhibition organiser, Sarah Gillings, says: “Art is a great medium for regeneration and the ‘Acid Pavilion’ series has this ethos in mind. With I Love Art and our related Invest in Art campaign, we’re offering a viable and commercial means for Brighton artists to earn a decent living while showing the outside world what Brighton art is really about. People can invest in art rather than stocks and shares, property and other commodities that devalue and pollute our planet. In doing so, they can support art for all.”

A Brighton resident of 13 years standing, Sarah has previously organised local art exhibitions including ‘Undercurrent’ with Big Brother guests and Rolf Harris. Sarah exhibited my work at a previous I Love Art ‘Hometruths’ Open House exhibition held in Hanover, Brighton, in May 2010. Impressed with the popularity of my work at this event, Sarah wanted to find a like-minded artist with whom she could bounce ideas. Sarah explains: “Although Brighton’s art scene is vast in terms of fresh talent, there are few places where artists can exhibit, meet others and, most importantly, sell their work.”

I’m becoming well-known for my paintings of Brighton and, after the success of the May event in Hanover; I decided to show some of my photos on the Christmas Open House Trail. As photos of Brighton have become extremely popular, I wanted to turn the theme on its head. Buildings are an obvious choice and I wanted to tie the Pavilion in with my recurring water/reflections theme and my Comic Strip Venice Series, where the buildings are in cartoon and the reflections in the canal are realistic.

I Love Art’ runs an ‘Invest in Art’ campaign that educates the public to treat art as a viable investment commodity that grows in value over time. With the economy remaining shaky and savers achieving poor return on their capital, wisely bought art can give a good long-term return. By investing in talented artists and craftspeople, the public can assist in the regeneration of Brighton.