The De La Warr Pavilion is a local Grade One Listed Modernist icon which houses contemporary arts on the sea-front in Bexhill on sea.
On August Bank Holiday Monday I visited this celebration it was one of the most moving events that I have visited. The mass collected within the grounds re-creating one of the most famous images of the De La Warr Pavilion. A reflection of images in 1936.
The De La Warr Pavilion was designed by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff and opened in 1935 as the first public building built in the Modernist style in the UK. Constructed with steel and concrete, it posed a new and exciting challenge for its structural engineers F J Samuely and Partners who built their reputation on their association with the Pavilion. Samuely's have advised the Pavilion on the positioning of Critical Mass to ensure that the weight of the sculptures do not compromise the structure or materials of the roof space.
We arrived at the Pavilion at 2pm as part of the crowd, I positioned myself on the roof looking over the crowd singing along with the scratch orchestra in the company of Anthony Gormelys critical mass sculptures.
Anthony Gormley was born in London in 1950. After schooling at Ampleforth College, Yorkshire, he went on to complete a degree in Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Art at Trinity College, Cambridge, between the years of 1968-71. Following his graduation, Gormley travelled to India and Sri Lanka to study Buddhism for three years.
Critical Mass, one of Gormley's best known works, is an installation made up of 60 life-size cast iron body forms which will be displayed on the roof of the De La Warr Pavilion.
The artist comments: "This is the return of the lost subject to the site of Modernism. It is great to have a chance to test this piece of sculpture against the clarity of Mendelsohn and Chemayeff's English masterpiece. I am excited to see these dark forms in the elements against the sea and in direct light. It will be like a sky burial. How these masses act in space is very important. The challenge is to make the distance intimate, internal."
Latterly, I was singing Happy Birthday to this iconic builidng and thinking of the years of happiness the gave to my family and friends.
