Hastings: "Thinking about our relationship with the sea"

A very positive response has met an important new exhibition at Hastings Contemporary – an exhibition which marks a shift in mission for the venue.

Entitled Edge: Where the Land Meets the Sea, it explores the fundamental connection between land and sea and the vital role both play in sustaining life on our planet. It runs until January 3.

Co-curated with The Land Gardeners, who presented the acclaimed exhibition SOIL at Somerset House in 2025, this ambitious, gallery-wide exhibition brings together modern and contemporary artists to examine these interconnected living systems and their shared futures.

Leah Cross, director of programmes at Hastings Contemporary, said: “Particularly in the past couple of years we have really shifted our mission. We have been thinking about the fact that we are a gallery that does not have a collection so really we are just thinking about what it is that is really important for us to think about, what defines us as a gallery. There are other galleries that might say they are on the beach but we really are literally on the beach. We are built on shingle. There is something quite unique about our situation, and it is that situation that we are thinking about – the fact that we really are on the beach. We want to think about our relationship with the sea and our relationship with the land, our position on the beach and also our position in Hastings.

“This is a thematic show. It has been co-curated with The Land Gardeners. There is a lot of contemporary art and there is a lot of historic art but there is also more of a scientific thread that weaves throughout the exhibition. It's about how soil and sea and about how land and sea are connected. It's about the edge not as a dividing line but as a meeting place.

“The starting point was that we approached the curators. We are doing a different exhibition next year called Where The Sea Meets The Sky, a sister exhibition with different curators. But for this one the curators fed the narrative of the exhibition, and we worked together to identify some of the pieces that we wanted in the show. There is a real mix of international artists and also some quite regional ones.

“I think it's important that everyone finds something quite different in the exhibition. I don't think an exhibition should be preachy but it should endeavour to meet people in different places. If you take an interest in the environment, I would hope that it might make you think about different things. It's about sharing a narrative about land and sea in a really unique way. But I also want it to be an exhibition where there is a little bit of something for everyone. I also hope that people might be quite surprised. We are an art gallery first and foremost and always will be but, as I say, there are a lot of scientific elements in the exhibition that will be exciting as well.”