Four new benches situated at the Warren Hill dew pond have been commissioned by Towner and created by artists Will Spankie and Alinah Azadeh. The bespoke 2.5 meter benches were designed, constructed, and carved by East Sussex sculptor Will Spankie at his workshop near Ditchling using green oak sourced from the Balcombe Estate sawmill in West Sussex. Each seat has been inscribed with a text written by artist and writer Alinah Azadeh - entitled ‘To the North’, ‘To the South’, ‘To the East’ and ‘To the West’; the four reflective texts referencing the views from each of the benches. Sited at the compass points around the Warren Hill Dew Pond, four new benches provide a welcome location for gathering, rest and reflection for people of all ages and abilities, allowing appreciation of the surrounding landscape and views across Eastbourne and Pevensey Bay to the East and Beachy Head and the sea to the South. The project has been delivered by Towner as part of its ongoing commissioning programme of public realm artworks for Eastbourne, in collaboration with the Eastbourne Downland Group. It has been generously supported by East Sussex County Council Public Health and the South Downs National Park Authority. Alinah Azadeh is a writer, artist, performer and cultural activist of British Iranian heritage. She uses text, audio, and live practices to create poetic narratives that activate spaces, amplifying untold or overlooked stories. Will Spankie undertakes public and private commissions for sculpture, garden ornament, seating and lettering; he also carves house signs, commemorative plaques and memorials. The new benches, on a site easily accessible by foot, bike or mobility vehicle, will enable everyone to enjoy the area and its breathtaking views, and feel the wellbeing benefits that access to the landscape can offer. Close to Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters the site is uniquely and safely placed to serve as a site of reflection, remembrance and communal gathering for those who have lost loved ones to suicide at the nearby cliffs. The benches form part of an initiative by those involved in suicide prevention to reframe the area with more positive associations, providing an alternative site for reflection away from the cliffs themselves. The texts inscribed on the benches are: To the North. _To air. To cloud drift, skylark, breezing wind. To our lungs, where grief gathers, then releases. To finding voice, courage. From cream blush of hawthorn flower to ice blue of melting glacier in Arctic Circle. To the guiding embrace of the Seven Sisters, above and below. To that light and dust we all become._ To the East. _To water. To our skin, freshly bathed in sea and spring, reborn. From Holywell, to foaming lips of sea, across Europe, onto Pacific ocean. From island to shifting island_ _._ _To ebb and flow of all those on the move – human, bird, seed. To welcome, rooting of self, renature of coast. To our sublime, wild, formless ocean mother. To our gaze reflected in mist, cloud, dewpond._ To the South. _To fire. To crimson warmth of birth, of sun. To rising heat of seas transforming this coast, chalk dissolving into tidal sweep. From Falling Sands to Gulf of Guinea, to Accra. From smouldering imprints of Empire to ashes cast into sea, homing_ _._ _To those we love, lose, long for, in moments of stillness on far horizons._ To the West. _To earth and chalk. To wayfinding across this realm of forking paths. To deep time, our ancestors and descendants, extinct and returning species. To those lost in conflict, named and unnamed. To the young rising, re-imagining, shaping changes to come, forming new worlds. To all our rememberings, regrets, hopes, joys and dreaming. To this present moment._
