qua[D]rille [four channels]
a song and dance

Hastings West Hill Funicular Railway
Saturdays + Sundays 10am - 5pm
from 16 September until 1 October 2000

video: David Rogers

sound: Stephen Preston & David Rogers

choreographer: Sarah Cremer

dancers: Sarah, Vicky, Steve, Mark, Nick, Maureen and Betty

funicular technician: John

funicular operators: Simon, Adrian and Nick

project administration: Janet Bicker

Press Release

The musician and director Stephen Preston and digital artist David Rogers, working with residents and transient people in the Hastings area, to create a sound and video work, demythologising 'romantic' ideas of travel, comparing and contrasting historical aspects with current social concerns.

Visually the work will represent the physical and mental discomfort of travel and arrival - the piece will coax the viewer into questioning the social acceptability of smuggling and the misconception of free movement.

The accompanying soundscape will draw on the expectations of a variety of travellers to Hastings, holiday makers, commuters, foreign students, the homeless and asylum seekers. The combination of sounds from the local environment, contrasted with the spoken words and sounds that the travellers bring with them, will illustrate the conflict between expectation and reality.

The work will run over three weekends in September 2000, installed in the Hastings West Hill lifts. During these weekends the public will require a valid (complimentary) travel permit/visa, issued by the lift operators when they purchase a ticket, for their journey.

The site, not being a traditional arts venue, will promote the presentation of the arts to a new and predominantly non-traditional arts audience.

qua (by virtue of being) [D] (removal) rille (a channel)

jb/00

a year of the artist project 2000

funded and supported by: South East Arts (year of the artist), Hastings Borough Council, East Sussex County Council, Coastal Currents, PVA, re:flexarts and MZT