Join Amanprit Sandhu in conversation with May Hands and Hannah Lees as they discuss their collaborative residency in Eastbourne: what it means to make work together, to return to a location, have time to reflect between residencies, and to work in sync with the seasons.

Working collaboratively, artists May Hands and Hannah Lees explore site-specific working and their ongoing mutual curiosity of ritual, death and rebirth. Together they are researching further rituals that happen during the wheel of the year to create a multifaceted installation of textiles, sculpture, and various natural ephemera. 

Hannah and May were in-residence at Devonshire Collective’s VOLT gallery on Seaside Road from 26 to 29 September 2024. This event comes during a second residency in Eastbourne in May 2025, and takes place surrounded by an installation of works created during the residency. They will talk about their practice in sculpture and textiles, their relationship to natural materials and the landscape, seasonal cycles, traditions, social celebrations and rituals in connection with the more-than-human world.

This event will last 45 minutes with 15 minutes for questions at the end. 

Access info: Please contact Esther esther.collins@townereastbourne.org.uk

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Hannah Lees (b. 1983, Kent, UK. Lives and works in Margate, UK) investigates ideas of cycles, constancy and mortality; the sense that things come to an end and the potential for new beginnings. This constancy, be it in religion, science, history or in organic matter, is visible in her practice through her attempts to make sense of and recognise traces of life. Traditional processes, materials and rituals are often reworked to explore how ideas and beliefs can live, die and be reborn across times and Cultures.

May Hands (b.1990, Brighton, UK. Lives and works in Folkestone, UK) explores how our relationship with materiality shapes our understanding of the world. She documents and collects observations of the world around her through traditional craft-based techniques and the collecting and reinterpreting of objects. Reflecting upon seasonal cycles, sensuality and the inherently curated aspect of our everyday consumptions, her work questions how society constructs and articulates value and desire.

Amanprit Sandhu is a curator and writer. She is the co-founder of the curatorial collective DAM Projects, who support underexposed and unorthodox artists, art scenes, discourses, and socio-political debates. In 2018 she initiated ‘No Person’s Land’, a project focused on bringing international cultural workers and UK curators together through joint research, enacting how alternative structures might be formed between peers based on shared commitments and support. Previous roles include Public Programme and Residencies Curator at Camden Arts Centre, Projects Curator at Art on the Underground, Performance Programme Curator for Art 13/14 London art fairs, Project Manager for the 2014 Folkestone Triennial and 2012 projects at Frieze Foundation, and Assistant Curator at the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art. She sits on the board of Arts Catalyst and is a visiting lecturer on the Fine Art BA at Chelsea College of Arts, and a visiting tutor on the Curating Contemporary Art MA at the Royal College of Art.

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Making Sites 

This is the inaugural project in a new series Making Sites; artist-led residencies hosted between Devonshire Collective and Towner Eastbourne. The series invites creative practitioners to engage with local materials, stories and the landscape, fostering collaboration between artists, organisations and publics. 

Designed and facilitated by Esther Collins (Head of Learning, Towner) and Polly Wright (Curator, Devonshire Collective), Making Sites is shaped with participating practitioners and supports artists to respond to Eastbourne and its surrounding areas, inviting projects to develop over time, through multiple visits and seasonal returns. 

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