Play On Productions’ TTTI exhibition transformed Whitstable’s Horsebridge Arts Centre into one giant time travel portal, transporting participants and audiences back in time to Whitstable’s past. A three-month participatory art piece and month long exhibition by artist Alexis K Johnson, filmmaker James Johnson, commissioned artists and 50 residents.
Known locally as the ‘unofficial’ tourist information centre, the Horsebridge regularly directs Whitstable’s beaching tourist to exciting new destinations. TTTI took this to the next level, here participants dressed as guides directing audiences into Whitstable’s past.
On entering audiences were greeted by guides and sent through a wardrobe, where they could dress for the experience. A boat then sailed them back in time to reach a warren of time travel rooms to experience Whitstable’s maritime, seaside and resident’s past.
Each room was dressed with backdrops, sound, lighting and effects to enhance the audience experience of going back in time. Inside participants had donated their memories and collections to tell the story, supported by films, information panels and specially commissioned art pieces.
Whitstable stories included family trees, the 50”s flood, UK’s first regatta, May Day resurrection, building a Playhouse Theatre, The excavation of the Horsebridge, Thames Barge restoration, Winkler’s, Oysters and woolly mammoths.
Activities happened throughout the exhibition with families making a giant woolly mammoth, a puppet show and postcards, history trails and local Playhouse residents performing in the space.
The piece changed people’s perceptions of the Horsebridge Centre – built on the much loved assembly rooms site, residents who had objected said they would definitely return, and the audience feedback asked for more accessible and interactive exhibitions like this.
Artists included Alexis K Johnson, James Johnson, Victoria Mosley, John Fulford, George Johnson, Leyla Folwell, Alice Gur-Arie, Paul Cowie, Celia Topping, Matilda Delves, Don Sims Film Archive and Whitstable Photography Society.
TTTI was supported by Heritage Lottery Foundation.