Events

A very special night at Horatio’s Bar, Brighton Pier with films, conversation and talks exploring the work of some of Sussex’s most inspiring, visionary artists. Emma Carlow, Jo Lamb and Isobel Smith will share how they came to dodge art world gate keepers – and allow themselves limitless imaginary funds to enable their creative imaginations to run riot – through the creation of an imaginary Arts Foundation, Fondamento Scherzo.
There will be films and Q&A with Brighton’s Spirit House creator Jim Sanders, a short documentary with The Flint Grotto creator Rory McCormack and, in conversation with host David Bramwell, Radiohead, The Smile and Robert McFarlane collaborator, artist Stanley Donwood.

Stanley Donwood is best-known for the graphics and covers of all Radiohead albums since 1994 and, more recently, album artwork for The Smile. He also creates the artwork for Glastonbury Festival and for many years has illustrated book covers for Robert Macfarlane books, including Underland and 2025’s Is A River Alive? A prolific artist and writer, he is the author of many books including There Will Be No Quiet, Ness and Bad Island. His work veers from the apocalyptic to hallucinatory visions of nature. He’s particularly fond of trees.
www.slowlydownward.com

Jim Sanders is a Brighton-based artist working predominantly in drawing, painting, collage and constructed sculpture, to create large scale installations and immersive environments.
Jim is best known as creator of The Spirit House a monumental art installation that Sanders effectively inhabits. Shaman-like rituals and performances take place in the Spirit House referencing a vast range of visual languages and anthropological connections to pull the past into the present and frame the essential questions of existence.
@sansjimsanders

The Fondamento Dello Scherzo is an arts foundation invented by Emma Carlow, Jo Lamb and Isobel Smith in order to dodge art world gate keepers, and allow themselves limitless imaginary funds to enable their creative imaginations to run riot. In the summer of 2022 their fictional benefactors generously funded an imaginary trip to Japan. In 2023 the Sussex village of Slynde was invented, with tales centred around a Priory, an anchorite, a pantomime-horse burial site, a box of old puppets and a bogey man, the Earl of Slynde. In 2024, they exhibited their Slynde findings at Glynde Place, and they delved deeper into the character and pursuits of their imaginary backers, Gloria, Lorenzo and Fabrice Scherzo. The artists continue to swerve and merge fantasy and reality, and have been excited to see the Scherzo family take on a life of their own.
@fondamento_scherzo_