Hive has been a popular installation built with books and potatoes by Andover-based artist David Dixon. The piece was made especially for Stade Hall, and took several days with several volunteers to complete. This has been a return to Hastings for Dixon, who in 2009 created a large-scale salt drawing on the floor of Bourne Hall in the Old Town for Coastal Currents. An image of this work was used as the cover for the festival brochure in 2010.
Dixon exhibits nationally (including the Turbine Hall, Tate Modern). Uncertainty, impermanence & subjectivity are central to his work, which refers to modern physics & cognitive science. He often experiments with particle-based materials such as dyed rice flour & quartz powder. The use of books is also an important element to his work. As well as being multi-facetted cultural devices, rich with associations of history, knowledge, identity & memory, he uses them in a sculptural way, emphasising their phenomenological aspects.