HAPPY VALLEY marks a checkpoint in a two year long project made in response to the building developments happening here in the valley gardens area where ONCA is situated.

Before its demolition and subsequent redevelopment Nicholson created works at the site of the old Astoria Cinema that reflected his own experience, observations and research undertaken on the buildings history and current state. This has developed into a wider project focussing on the entire ‘Valley Gardens’ development – a £20 Million pound scheme to redevelop the area between St Peter’s Church and the Palace Pier. Recently these plans have been met with controversy and resistance.

‘Happy Valley’ is the media coined term for the development, suggesting a sarcastic and utopian vision of what’s to come. This exhibition both mirrors and inherently critiques the immediate progress occurring outside through conceptually loaded use of materials, actions and aesthetics.

Launch Event | Wednesday 4th September, 6 – 8pm FREE

About the Artist

Tom Nicholson’s work develops out of opportunities to intervene in, critique or utilise local/public spaces and political or social situations. His process often requires extensive inquiry, carried out through direct site interactions, photographic documentation and historical and urban geographic research, in an attempt to experience and understand spaces beyond the means of the everyday commuter or tourist. National identity, colonisation, labour and psychogeography are just some of the subjects that have occupied his practice in recent years. These works have taken the form of public interventions, museological installations, collaborative residencies and site-specific works

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