Cromer - Lookout - The Exhibition

 

The exhibition Lookout uses the Old Coastguard's Lookout house on the promenade in Cromer as a site for video installation. It is viewed from the exterior, the promenade area.
There is an illusion created of the building as a complete sculptural work that contains figures and fills up with water and empties reflecting the tides. Viewers look into the interior of the building as faces look out through lenses. The windows become the lenses themselves and the house filled with moving oversize figures who peer out. The work is created with video back projections in selected windows. The idea of looking and watching is amplified by the subject of the videos. Those looking out are no longer the coastguards but are children's faces, the children of Cromer.

The work was developed by the artist, Beverley Carpenter. She worked for one week, with the children of Cromer Junior School using lenses, working with light and colour. They separated light into colour using optical devices and looked at local lenses such as that of the Cromer lighthouse. During this week subject material for the artist's installation work was gathered. The final installation changes the viewer's perception of the building, scale and social ideas around Cromer and beyond. The artist asks us to question particularly the position of young people in the town, now part of a regeneration scheme. The question is raised of who is looking at whom, and who is inside and who is outside. This installation work shows children looking out over the sea through various lenses. Water rises and falls in the windows reflecting the sea tides inside and outside the building.

The work was commissioned is part of Cromer Prospect, a public art scheme, initiated by North Norfolk District Council which celebrates 200 years of Cromer lifeboats. Lead artist David Ward, has created a new promenade area, lighting and pier forecourt in front of the Old Lookout.

 

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