We invite you to an evening of conversation between artists, filmmakers and parent carers, Andrew Kötting and Kate Adams.
Gathering in the Claremont gallery during the exhibition Parallel Lives, Kate and Andrew will discuss their creative lives and the influence their disabled children have had on their lives and art.
When: Thursday 12 November, 18.00 – 19.30
Where: 12 Claremont, Hastings, TN34 1HA
Book your ticket here.
Kate Adams is an artist, advocate and activist. She has curated many responsive, collaborative projects with neurominorities, families, care services, artists and galleries. Kate co-founded Project Art Works in 1997 to explore an expanded concept of art that was and continues to be influenced by Paul Colley, her son, who among many amazing attributes, has complex support needs. Their work embraces personalised studio practice, peer support and award-winning films, art actions, installations and exhibitions. Kate’s practice disrupts preconceptions about what people can and can’t do, who they are and how they live, revealing the beauty of other ways of being in and seeing the world.
Images left: Eden and Andrew Kötting. Image right: Paul Colley and Kate Adams
Andrew Kötting is an experimental filmmaker, artist, and writer known for his idiosyncratic, psychogeographical travelogues and multimedia installations. Often incorporating elements of collage, live-art performance, and absurdism, his work explores themes of identity, memory, family, and British folklore. A mainstay of Andrew’s work is his creative partnership with his daughter, Eden Kötting, who was born with a rare neurological condition. Her unique perspective has deeply influenced his creativity, leading to collaborative short films, exhibitions, performances and touring VR projects.
During the evening there will be time to see the exhibition, a Q&A and Andrew will be reading from his recent publication BLABBERMIND (2025).
BLABBERMIND, will be on sale that evening at a reduced price.
Friday 16.56pm ish:
Then
She comes back to haunt me. When I was young the only thing
I longed for was philosophical knowledge but now that I
have grown old the only thing that I want is for someone
to understand her and her slightest utterances and for her
chin not to stick out so much, her legs not to hurt and for
her spots to clear up…. And all of this about someone that
can barely string two words together. Unless she is angry
in which case they all come flooding out. Therefore it must
be read as an approximation of her ambition. Just like
this supposed writing or blabberthink from a blundering
blabbermind.
Excert from BLABBERMIND, Andrew Kötting
Parallel Lives brings together the contrasting realities experienced by many neurodivergent people who have complex support needs.
Through paintings, drawings, prints and polaroids, artists reveal lives shaped by instinct, freedom, choice and imagination. Alongside these are drawings that map complex structures of health and social care — structures that can enable people to live the lives they choose, but that can also be opaque, adversarial and difficult to navigate.
The exhibition is on till 14 November.