A series of large-scale outdoor light sculptures by Turner Prize shortlisted artist Nathan Coley have been installed at six locations across Sussex as part of a new outdoor exhibition featuring some of the artist’s most important works sited in spectacular locations across the region.
The exhibition, Tentative Words Change Everything, which runs until 29th August 2022, is part of Sussex Modern, a pioneering partnership bringing together some of the region’s leading cultural organisations and vineyards in the distinctive landscape of the South Downs National Park.
A major new commission by the artist has been unveiled at Charleston, the former home of artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. The new work will encourage audiences to think differently about the history and contemporary relevance of the rural home of the Bloomsbury group.
This exhibition brings together the largest selection of my outdoor sculptures in one place and is the first time I have exhibited so many of the works in such close proximity. I’m enthralled and moved by all of the locations and how the sculptures sit together in the Sussex landscape.
Nathan Coley
Exhibition locations:
St Mary’s Church, Glynde YOU CREATE WHAT YOU WILL, 2014
Rathfinny Wine Estate, Alfriston A PLACE BEYOND BELIEF, 2012
Junction Road Car Park, Eastbourne WE MUST CULTIVATE OUR GARDEN, 2006
Brack Mount, Lewes HEAVEN IS A PLACE WHERE NOTHING EVER HAPPENS, 2008
West Beach Promenade, Newhaven YOU IMAGINE WHAT YOU DESIRE, 2014
Charleston, Firle I DONT HAVE ANOTHER LAND, 2022 (New Commission)
We are delighted to launch these spectacular works across Sussex. Nathan Coley’s works have been exhibited in a wide range of locations over his career and we are thrilled to bring this impressive selection of sculptures to Sussex, where they will appear closer together than ever before, in a fresh dialogue with each other and with the vistas in which they appear. This new outdoor exhibition is a chance for those living in the region to uncover world class art on their doorstep, and for those visiting this summer to experience the landscape in a brand new, thought-provoking way.
Nathaniel Hepburn, CEO of Charleston and Chair of Sussex Modern
Tentative Words Change Everything is funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund as part of a wider project to promote Sussex as a place for high-quality wine, world-class culture and breath-taking natural landscapes. It encourages visitors to plot their own route between the sculpture locations, which make up some of the region’s most diverse and surprising destinations.
For more information: sussexmodern.org.uk/nathancoley
About the artist
Nathan Coley was born in 1967 in Glasgow, Scotland. Coley has held solo exhibitions at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Portsmouth Cathedral; De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill and Kunstverein Freiburg, Germany. His work is held in important international collections including Tate, London; Scottish National Galleries, Edinburgh; Government Art Collection, London; Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; VanAbbemuseum, Eindhoven and Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand. In 2007 he was shortlisted for the Turner Prize.
