Electric Dreams At The Towner, Eastbourne

Time to get in some culture, innit. A couple of weeks ago I visited the gallery my sister works at - the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne - for a club-style evening event. Themed around 'Electric Dreams' and neon electronica, it was a party inspired by the Kelly Richardson: Legion exhibition. The exhibition is still on and FREE - it is well worth a visit if you are in the area. Richardson layers photographs she has manipulated into eerie, almost mystical worlds of enhanced colour and odd perspective. These are projected onto huge screens, with natural soundtracks ... the effect is very ghostly and atmospheric, it immediately triggers a mood change even if you are not into very conceptual modern art. All of the works in Legion are about the environment - in one, a 'ghost' stag walks into a strange, misty forest. Sometimes he is there, sometimes he isn't... he leaves a trail of smoke behind him, like a memory of an extinct animal that used to walk in the woods.

The evening centred round a dance performance by Ceyda Tanc Dance, who used the giant screen art as a set for their piece. It was a really impressive piece (says I as an out-of-shape very-ex-performance person) and captured the strange combination of anger and whimsical mystery in the artwork itself.

Anyway, enough with the culture ... this is what I wore:

Excuse the fuzzy picture, it was quite dark. As there was a neon theme and neon is one of the few colour schemes I don't have, I had to ring my sister in a panic. She suggested electric blue... which I do have. A lot of. So voila, it's my old chestnut £1.99 of EBay JC Penney disco dress, along with sequin shoes, belt and a solid glitter resin Hello Kitty pendant. As usual I didn't quite match everyone else but what's new.

There were some fun twists on a normal evening opening. For example, not only was there a bar... it was in the lift! A party lift. This was a great idea as not only was it fun in there, with cider and lethally strong blue cocktails but as it stopped and opened on every floor, it lifted the atmosphere throughout the event as neon-clad dancers and costume scouts jumped out and got everyone else involved.

As you can see some of the costumes were really amazing. My favourites were these 'silver people' which, like the exhibition, were spooky and beguiling in equal measure ... the photo is right - they didn't have eyes! But they walked round fine. Don't ask me how.

The Towner is a gem of a gallery, in a state of the art building. It hosts many events and exhibitions, many of which are free - so if you are ever down in Sussex, be sure to pop in!

Find them on the web here and on Facebook here.