Cheriton Lights 2014
The last weekend of February saw the streets of Cheriton taken over by art, music and people for the second Cheriton Lights Festival. The roads were closed and the streets, shops and houses of this small Kent town were filled with an extraordinary compendium of artworks commissioned by Strange Cargo and created by artists, some who travelled from as far away as the USA and Vienna to be there, exhibiting their work alongside homegrown talent.
Thousands of people came to enjoy the spectacle, roaming freely in the wide, traffic free streets and participating in many of the wonderful works on show. Feedback has been wonderfully positive and Strange Cargo thanks the people of Cheriton for helping us make this event such an ongoing success. Shops and eateries stayed open late to enjoy and benefit from the visiting crowds.
We are extremely grateful to the event funders, without whose support this event could not happen: Arts Council England, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Roger De Haan Charitibale Trust, Tory Family Foundation, Folkestone Town Council, Shepway District Council, The High Street Innovation Fund, Interreg European Funding, L’Ecole d’Art du Calaisis and Kent County Council. Cheriton Light Festival Travel Partners are Stagecoach South East.
Thanks to photographer Andy Jones.
Cheriton Lights artists include:
Out of control - Assocreation invites to the High Expansion Reality Show - a ground penetrating experiment at Cheriton High Street and Surrenden Road.
Colin Booths neon artwork ‘the nothing new’ is the second large scale light work to be produced by the artist. The large text installation adorns the back wall of Strange Cargo's Factory Space and is only visible from the train line which runs behind the building. An accompanying stone carved The Nothing New is sited on the opposite side of the building, visible to pedestrians. An essay by the artist and writer Jen Thatcher will be on display at Folkestone West station. Booth is also be exhibiting ‘Jesus Wept’, a second neon work inside All Souls Church on Cheriton High Street.
Artist and filmmaker Callum Cooper produced Antecedents, a new artwork specific to Cheriton that was screened in the High Street with technical support by Kent based artist Margherita Gramegna of 51 degrees Zero. who bring's Callum's work to the town with an outdoor cinema.
‘Return’ is an immersive experience of light and text. The artist invited the audience to encounter an inwards experience – through the creation of a private space in light and words. Utilising text from postcards found in Cheriton’s archives, the work bathed the viewer in words from the town’s history, turning them into an active and integral element to the artwork. Kulkarni is no stranger to Kent previously being commissioned by Shepway District Council to produce ‘Chambers’, 2005, a series of artworks-come-viewing chambers on the seafront at Dymchurch.