‘St Leonards Edgelands’ is a print installation, part of Point of Decay, made for the launch event of Coastal Currents Arts Festival in Bottle Alley, St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, curated by Zeroh.
Bottle Alley runs along the southernmost edge of St Leonards and has decayed physically and socially since it was built in the 1930s. The images of caryatids and incident tape tie the coastal edge of the town to its northern edgeland, Hollington Valley nature reserve, which has been until a couple of months ago a home to animal, plant and human populations. Now it has been felled to make way for a road, two roundabouts and industrial estates. Edgelands are full of riches of one sort and another. Biodiversity or ‘development’ potential epnding upon your perspective. A legal challenge to preserve the northern edgeland has been launched. The prints on the southern edgeland decayed, peeled, and have now been removed.