Fermenting Forms: Walk & Day Course
Abstract Edible Sculptures with artist Barney Pau 

£80 General

£40 Concessions (Full time Students, 18 – 25 year olds, Disability PIP/Universal Credit, Pension Credit)

Join artist Barney Pau and take inspiration from Paule Vézalay’s representation of the natural world through this day course exploring edible abstract art. 

This day course will start with a short walk from Towner to Eastbourne’s beach, where attendees will be encouraged to take inspiration from the local environment along the way.  

Back at Towner, you’ll be presented with a diverse array of foods to carve and shape into abstract forms. Throughout this process, you’ll be guided into thinking about flavour, form and texture, and beyond any previous ideas you might associate with them.  

You’ll then submerge your edible sculptures in sugar water with a wild-fermented champagne starter for you to take home and ferment, along with instructions for how to care for your abstract edible artworks.  

The session will end with a tasting session of Barney’s signature wild-fermented champagnes, each of which has been developed to tell a story through taste. 

Throughout the course, Barney will speak about his food-based art practice and the concept of ‘fermentation methodology’: a way of thinking that he uses as a point of focus to both understand and generate ideas and then translate these ideas into edible artworks.   

The course is open to all with no previous experience of working with food or fermentation needed.  

All materials will be supplied.  

There will be a morning break with teas, coffees and refreshments and a longer break for lunch.

For lunch you could book into our delicious restaurant Light, visit one of the cafes near to Towner or bring a packed lunch to eat by the sea.

Barney Pau (he/they) is a London-based creative working across food, art, and writing, whose practice focuses on food futures, queering consumption, and foraging and fermenting as social resistance. 

Food, in its ubiquity, can transcend language in its communication, and as art offers novel understandings of culture and nature. In 2021, Barney founded Finger Food, a contributor-based zine in its third issue for creatives working with food. 

When he’s not jamming ferments into jars, peering at plants on the pavement, or writing ramblings for his Substack, you can find him foraging for food or reading books on baking. 

@barneypau

The walk will be about 30 minutes and will have a flat gradient. The majority of the walk can be done on roads to the sea or the promenade by the sea, however appropriate footwear is still advised.  

We have a budget available to make this event as accessible as possible – this can include further interpretation services or other access arrangements we can meet to enable you to participate. If you require access arrangements, please email programme@townereastbourne.org.uk two weeks before the event date so that we can book a service if needed.