A daily scan of the editor’s inbox at Sussex Bylines reveals numerous emails marketing something or someone – and most, I’m afraid, go straight in the bin. Every now and then one stands out, perhaps because it’s unusual or intriguing. The email that came in from Keith Pettit about his bonfire sculptures was certainly that.
Everyone in Sussex is familiar with the giant tableaux that are burnt on bonfires across the county on 5th November – but sculptures? Wasn’t this over-egging it a bit? Looking at the stunning photographs that accompanied Pettit’s email, the conclusion was very much not. Intrigued, I arranged a zoom call with him to find out more.
I had expected our discussion to focus on the creation and building of the sculptures featured in Jim Holden’s superb photographs. In fact it turned into something far richer, ranging over topics as varied as community cohesion, neuro-diversity, and the challenge of earning a living as an artist in straitened times.
Pettit explained that for many years he tried to ignore the internal voice that constantly challenged him as he tried various ways to make a living – “Why are you doing this? Really, you are an artist.” The creation of the bonfire sculptures provided the psychological breakthrough: “I finally had to admit to myself that that’s what I was and what I wanted to be.”
Photo by Jim Holden
This is about ‘carnival’ rather than ‘bonfire’
Bonfire was, of course, very much in his blood. He was born and still lives in the East Sussex village of East Hoathly, and growing up, the village ‘Bonfire Boys’ were his heroes. When he was older he took part in the collection of material for the annual bonfire – driving a tractor and trailer around the village to pick up people’s rubbish and take it down to the fire site. “As it got into the 1980s and 90s, the fire site became a fly-tipper’s paradise, and we’d end up with these monumental piles of rubbish which would burn for a week or two after the carnival.” Clearing up the fire site became an increasingly harder and more expensive task.
I was intrigued that Pettit referred to “carnival” rather than “bonfire”. “That’s because”, he explained, “we’re rather the black sheep of the Sussex bonfire family. The East Hoathly bonfire society lapsed before the First World War and was reformed after the war by the headmaster of the local school as a society of remembrance, not as a bonfire society. Our celebrations take place on Remembrance Weekend, not on 5th November.
“We’re proud of our difference, but Bonfire is very competitive and tribal and we do get stick from the other societies. Mostly it’s good-natured banter, you know – ‘You’re not proper Bonfire, you’re carnival lightweights’, but sometimes with too much alcohol it can turn into something a bit more serious.” I can only imagine…
The discussion veers into an exploration of the culture of Bonfire. Pettit reflects on the dark side and the positives of a tradition that’s deeply embedded in many Sussex towns and villages and in his own personal family history. “It can be a bit insular, sometimes ignorant, but there’s also a huge number of positives. It’s about bringing the community together; it gives them something to coalesce around at a time when the population is generally much more transient and that sense of looking out for your neighbour that used to exist is being lost.”
Photo by Jim Holden
Bigger, better, brighter
We return to Pettit’s own personal Road to Damascus moment, so deeply associated with the annual bonfire celebrations.
In the early 1990s, he and his mates continued to discuss how they could make the East Hoathly carnival “bigger, better, brighter, more interesting and more unique than anyone else’s”, but without the hard work and expense of clearing up after gigantic bonfires. This was when he first came up with the idea of building a bonfire sculpture, “although we didn’t call it that then”.
Pettit describes the experience of starting with a blank canvas, working with an initial idea, and having the ability to express his creativity as a “revelation”: “and it all started from there”. From the first sculpture of an American Indian chief, the set pieces have become increasingly elaborate and dramatic over the years, with Pettit gaining inspiration from sources as diverse and unlikely as a vicar’s sermon, and the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.
Photo by Jim Holden
Being at one with the medium
When Pettit describes his childhood and schooling, it’s obvious that his interest in art began in his earliest years but went unrecognised. Although there was a family history of skilled craftsmanship, there was “absolutely no talk in my world about going on to university or college. You went out and got a job on a building site or in an office, which filled me with horror.”
On the other hand, he was struggling at school, nobody having realised that he was dyslexic, “so I was a bit angry and disruptive”. When he left school he got an apprenticeship with a sign-writing company, unfortunately just at the start of the digital revolution that would virtually kill off the industry. He was made redundant after three years, went travelling, and on his return spent many years struggling to make a success of his own sign-writing and graphic design business.
Working on ideas for bonfire sculptures opened up new avenues for his creativity. He started to experiment with different materials and became fascinated with wood engraving after joining a small class in Lewes, “led by the best teacher that I have ever had”.
His description of working with wood, “which is totally inflexible, it’s incredibly difficult to do compound angles or curves”, leads us into a discussion about the relationship between the original idea for an artwork and the medium through which that idea is expressed. “The highest achievement in art is when an artist has totally understood and is totally at one with their medium. That maybe happens for me once a year. I’m still learning to work within the parameters of my medium. And when you get it right, when you can draw upon the original idea and flow it into the world through your hands, then ….”
He uses the analogy of old clinker-built wooden fishing boats. “They are things of exquisite beauty. What you see in them is humans developing within the limitations of their material and exploiting it to the maximum.” As to the bonfire sculptures, those things of beauty that every year go up in smoke, Pettit says: “It’s not about making the finest art, it’s about having fun with my mates and about community.”
And long may it remain so.
- Keith Pettit will be exhibiting his work in Hamsey Church as part of Lewes Artwave, 7– 22 September.
- East Hoathly and Halland Carnival Society’s bonfire celebration takes place on 9 November. Information can be found on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/groups/35929887178/?locale=en_GB
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