Our love season began this Sunday with a look at Unconditional Love in an unconventional way.The theme came about because one of our team spotted a graffiti wall in north central Brighton with those exact words (see it being created here). We used it for our promotional postcard image this time and it sparked a whole series of ideas which we're going to explore in our next three events.
Unconditional Love was our first attempt at a guerilla style evening and we asked people to come to the graffiti ready for an urban journey. Behind this meeting place is a concrete multistorey car park and we set up a number of installations in the space which itself was covered in graffiti. Everyone who turned up was invited to explore the space while asking themselves the question "is this unconditional love".
In one corner there was a Rob Bell video loop all about the different kinds of love in the Old Testament, across from this was some love neon with a haunting audio loop of the song "Jesus blood never failed me yet".
In the middle of the whole space were two perfect human figurines which surprised us by dancing around wildly in the wind despite our best efforts to anchor them. This installation invited people to think about the qualities that they like in a person and those that we dislike and write these on ticks or crosses which were then pinned to the figures. On various surfaces and expanses of concrete were long ribbons of poetry or quotes from the Bible about love.Beyond team members showed their commitment to our cause by acting the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet or playing the part of rough sleepers who find solace in each other and the poetry of the Song of Songs.
After half an hour of this we headed away, under the kissing sculpture which is situated in this area to the Circus Circus pub to warm up, have a drink and discuss what we'd all seen and experienced.Our next exploration of love is only 2 weeks away on St. Valentine's Eve. Our venue is amongst all the slot machine and games of chance on Brighton Pier in the Victoria Bar and is entitled Unlucky in Love.
