Sonics and Electro Studios Project Space present Porridge Van: The Peculiar Art and Music of Sexton Ming and Jason Williams - a collaborative exhibition in St Leonards on Sea, E. Sussex
Friday 5th: Private view with puppet show by Sexton Ming and Jason Williams
Saturday 6th: Matinee live performance by Sexton Ming’s Porridge Van - 3pm
Electro Studios, Seaside Rd, Saint Leonards-on-Sea TN38 0AL
A joyful universe of non-conforming art and music.
Across the weekend an exhibition of album prints and a range of collaborative and solo artworks, audio playback of Porridge Van’s discography and Q&A film with the artists.
Sexton Ming has been writing, drawing, painting, recording, and performing for decades, as a solo performer, as a founder member of The Medway poets and in The Tasty Ones trio. Sexton has collaborated with the likes of Billy Childish, Adrian Stout of The Tiger Lillies, Project Dark, Black Arches and Leigh Bowery’s Minty. Solo albums include Ban the Mindreader and Birds With Teeth, while his collaborations with Billy Childish include The Cheeky Cheese and Here Comes The Fleece Geese.
Jason Williams untrained and uncompromising with a non-careerist attitude for over thirty years. A central figure in the noise explosion of the early nineties. Both a catalyst for chaos and a reclusive introvert. His collaborations have included collages and oil paintings with contemporary German artist Albert Oehlen for the “I will always champion bad painting” exhibition and as ‘Silver-head’ with godfather of graffiti Jeff Keen. Once described by fellow artist Jeffrey Louis-reed as “a one-man avantgarde steamroller”.
True outsider artists, Sexton Ming and Jason Williams exemplify a lifetime commitment to art, experimental music and performance that invites and challenges in equal measure - what they describe as “proper schizo”.
Sexton Ming’s Porridge Van have, since 2018, released upwards of one hundred albums, over eighty hours of music, mostly available free of charge. The project combines provocative or bizarre visuals with noise adjacent pop music to produce a challenging, immersive experience rooted in DIY traditions like punk but always with a hefty dose of humour.
Sexton and Jason have participated in Hastings and St Leonards on Sea’s experimental art and music festival SONICS since the event’s inception as Thee Sunday Sonics by artist/musician Danny Pockets in 2015, appearing as artists, musicians, performers and audience members (often in a sleeping bag).
Lead curator/director of SONICS CIC, James Weaver, says “This exhibition is a chance to share Sexton and Jason's work with a wider audience, to celebrate their friendship, their music and artistic collaborations, as well as solo works. It's a celebration of these two underground artists. Porridge Van’s fiercely independent ethics and provocative / hilarious performances are a perfect fit for the nature of art that Electro Studios Project Space supports."
IN THE SHOP
Display, and opportunity to purchase, of limited Sonics Editions embossed prints of selected Sexton Ming’s Porridge Van album cover art.
Also check out other Arts events in St Leonards, Entertainment events in St Leonards, Exhibitions in St Leonards.
