58...La Linerie and Brighton Museum

http://lalinerie.monsite.orange.fr/

I was contacted this week by someone who owns a large old flax factory near my town in France. It is a semi derelict building, last used as a working Linerie in the 70's. I have often driven past and been intrigued to see various colourful pieces of art on or in the buildings, and I knew there was some sort of artist collective working there but that was all, so it was good to be asked to go and have a look around it with the view to showing some work there in the future.

Cistern creature

It is an amazing space and lends itself to all sorts of ideas. They have a festival here each May and invite many different artists working in various arenas, performance, music, applied arts, graffiti etc. to exhibit.

Oyster rabbits

The buildings and land were bought just a few years ago by a couple with a vision to make it a cultural centre, a lifelong project if ever I saw one!

View through a frame through an apeture

Many of the artists who have exhibited previously have responded to the space, as it is now or how it was then. Flax is used frequently, or as in the image above the ideas have come from the space itself.  So, I will have to get my thinking cap on and see what I can come up with.

Grayson Perry

Back in Brighton for the weekend and wondering around the Laines I decided to pop into our museum for a quick look at the Grayson pot. It's a shame it is no longer on a turning plinth as you can only see one part of it so you don't get the full story...nice to know it's there though.

Domestic violence in Porcelain

What I hadn't realised was that they have a huge ceramic collection there from a collector called Willett. It was presented to Brighton in 1903 and was collected by him because he thought that ceramic figures and vessels told stories of political, social and cultural history through their form and decoration.

There are some really interesting and often quite funny and occasionally sad pieces there. Definitely  worth a look.

When we came outside we spotted this fella in Pavilion Gardens....

....dead, drunk or just dead drunk, whichever he looked peaceful!

 Find me now over at http://theceramicgardener.com