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A Brighton billboard takeover by artist Helen Cammock, inspired by ‘All About Love’ by bell hooks

Graham Robson July 19, 2023

Billboard and advertising spaces across Brighton & Hove will be taken over by Turner Prize-winning artist Helen Cammock for one weekend in August as part of BUILDHOLLYWOOD’s first major curatorial and artist commission, All About Love.

Originally planned to coincide with the opening of a major outdoor commission by Cammock for the recently closed Brighton Centre for Contemporary Art, the deepest crease in the folds of stone and the sweet taste of salt (2023) has morphed from an ode to Brighton and its many folds, into a plea and a challenge to its institutions to support and nurture the contemporary visual arts in a more structured, sustained and existential way.

Helen Cammock. Credit: Sebastiano Luciano

Launching on Brighton & Hove Pride weekend, this new commission features bold, coloured artworks and fragments of poetic text. The work invites the audience to contemplate the power of creativity, asking questions about what we value and urging Brighton to preserve its vibrant habitat of ideas. The site-specific works will be taking over billboards and advertising spaces across the city, at locations including Lewes Road, Elm Grove, Spring Gardens, Seven Dials, Surrey Street, Portland Road amongst others.

Using the launch as an opportunity to platform important conversations around the future of the arts and the current challenges and risks around its infrastructure, a special panel discussion will be held on the evening of Wednesday, August 2 at Phoenix Art Space. The event will bring together artist Helen Cammock and former director of Brighton CCA, Ben Roberts, as well as executive director of Phoenix Art Space Lucy Day, in conversation with author and The Art Newspaper journalist Anny Shaw.

the deepest crease in the folds of stone and the sweet taste of salt (2023)

BUILDHOLLYWOOD’s All About Love project is taking place across five UK cities between April – September 2023. Championing artists who are either born in those cities or live and work there, the project presents their work on billboards and advertising spaces in the heart of city centres, with the commissions all taking inspiration from All About Love, a book published in 2000 by cultural critic, feminist theorist and author, bell hooks. The project is curated by Zarina Rossheart.

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