Group exhibition – 2018 – Hastings Art Forum, East Sussex

100 years ago Woolf had published her first novel.  Today she is considered one of the foremost modernist female writers of the 20th Century, a pioneer of streams of consciousness narrative; her work, themes and concerns remain uncannily relevant to today’s society. 

This all female group of nine contemporary artists seek to interpret Woolf’s written work on themes of memory, the passage of time, the corrosion and rejuvenation of life, the status of women in society, the consequences of war and existentialism.  The exhibition will include installation work, sculpture, photography, sound and video works. 

Woolf was strongly connected to the South East having lived, written and died in East Sussex, close to her sister Vanessa Bell; both part of the Bloomsbury Group.  Woolf had associations with Sissinghurst, Knole, Sevenoaks and Rye, to the source of the river Ouse that makes its way from Sheffield Park through Lewes to Rodmell, where Woolf lived for much of her life.   

“Kit Forrest recreates stories from the past, intertwining her own personal experiences. Fascinated by stories that are uncomfortable, ingrained beneath the surface, wound tightly into our subconscious yet affecting our day to day lives, she carefully unpicks them, processing as she makes. Utilising found imagery and material steeped in tradition she gradually allows the subconscious to communicate visually. In this exhibition Kit was inspired by Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse, which is overtly about a family’s holidays but in reality revisits Woolf’s own childhood memories. Kit’s work was inspired by natural motif’s used by Woolf in the book along with the ’ordinary’ psychologies that challenge most families.” – Jane Cordery, Curator

Coastal Currents Press release: Virginia Woolf is recognised as one of the foremost modernist writers of the 20th Century; her themes remain uncannily relevant today. In September 2018 nine artists opened an exhibition as part of Coastal Currents, interpretting the novels written by Woolf; in part a celebration of the rights of women. While some of the artists have focussed on particular novels, others have taken a more general overview of her themes,motifs and writing styles, within the context of her life. Woolf struggled with what would now be diagnosed as a bipolar condition for most of her adult life, possibly exaserbated by early traumas; it did not prevent her from producing some of Britain’s most celebrated literature at a time when little was expected of women other than to nurture the family.

Making the work:

Wavelengths Two, Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sevenoaks, April 2019

To see more information about this exhibition and view work by the other artists you can visit the Hastings Arts Forum website and the Sevenoaks Visual Arts Forum website or the Wavelengths website (links open in new window)