Maddie Exton ‘Meet me at First Light’

Meet Me at First Light is a 20 metre aerial banner installed along the Lowestoft coastline. Instead of being towed by a plane, it is installed for the duration of the festival to mark the ephemeral solstice sunrise and create a meeting point.

The work plays with the idea of ephemerality at the centre of the festival itself. Each year the event gathers people to witness a brief, natural moment: the first sunrise in the UK.

Aerial banners normally share this fleeting quality, appearing only momentarily as they pass overhead towed by a plane. By holding a typically temporary message in place, the work gently extends a passing moment.

Maddie is an artist working across sculpture, drawing, film, and socially engaged projects. Her work often starts with research, evolving into participatory experiences that invite reflection and dialogue. As a first-generation university graduate from a lineage of rural Suffolk labourers, she cares deeply about class and place. Her art works have been exhibited in France, LA, London, my parent’s house and beyond. At last year’s festival she created Homestead, a 15 metre mock Hollywood sign referencing Lowestoft’s name in old norse.