Art by Sarnia

I’m preparing to launch AURA Digital on World Mental Health Day, October 10, 2024 – a new online platform for my moving image artworks and AURA Texte essays exploring culture, feminism, and technology.

As part of the launch, I’m putting together a press and media campaign and would love to connect with:

🎙 Podcasters who cover creativity, digital art, feminism, or mental health
📰 Journalists & Editors looking for new media stories or launch coverage
📚 Art Bloggers & Critics interested in experimental moving image work

If you’d like to receive the press release, see preview stills, or even arrange an interview about the project, please DM me or email me directly:
📧 brightonartsclub@hotmail.co.uk

The platform will feature:
Premieres of new moving image works by Sarnia de la Maré FRSA
Archival screenings from past projects
Essays and cultural commentary

Let’s collaborate to make this launch a conversation about the future of digital art and wellness through art practice.

👨🏼‍🎨 More about the Artist Sarnia de la Maré FRSA https://lnkd.in/e2mkrYSC

🔗 www.digitalaura.art

DigitalArt MovingImage ArtNews ArtistLaunch FeministArt MentalHealthAwareness ArtWorld Culture PodcastersWanted OpenCall

Press & Exhibition Archive Sarnia de la Maré FRSA

Artist Statement

My work began in the frictions of nightlife—flyers, guerrilla shows, self-documentation—before expanding into moving image, sound and live action. Today I compose cinematic environments for 360° capture, where projection, choreography and camera position fold the viewer into the piece. I draw strength from feminist performance lineages—Carolee Schneemann’s radical body, Marina Abramović’s encounter, Pipilotti Rist’s enveloping video—while relocating the gallery to wherever a phone can tilt. AURA formalises this shift: a series of immersive films designed for handheld exploration and large-scale projection alike. Each work is both event and record; each viewer’s path becomes a reading of the piece.

Press & Exhibition Archive

Sarnia de la Maré FRSA — also known as Pasha du Valentine / Pasha du Pont / iServalan.
Highlights from socially engaged art, performance, and cultural commentary across multiple creative identities.

Artistic Identities & Evolution

Over two decades, I have released work under several names. These were deliberate creative identities that marked distinct phases of practice.
YearsIdentityFocus2005–2012 Pasha du Pont Sales brand, illustrations, self-published work on Amazon; memoir and social critique.
2012–2016 Pasha du Valentine Performance art persona; founder of Brighton Arts Club and Minge Fringe; frequent local press & TV.
2016–2018 Pasha de la Mare Transition from performance-led practice to visual art and curation.
2018–Present Sarnia de la Maré FRSA Current fine-art identity reflecting RSA Fellowship; painting, writing, socially engaged art.
Ongoing iServalan Stage name, music production & audiovisual persona for Tale Teller Club releases, loops, and immersive projects.

Press & Media (2017–2024)
Futures Venture Foundation
Awarded £10,000 grant for a socially engaged art project exploring identity, activism, and community collaboration.
a-n Artist Profile
Recognised by the UK’s largest artists’ network for contributions to alternative art spaces.
IMDB — Still Breathing Goddamn Media
Experimental film listing for production/direction credits.
Future’s Venture Radical Arts Handbook — Issue 1 (2020)
Featured in publication dedicated to radical socially engaged practice.
Gosport Globe Press Article (ed no 18054)
Press & Media (2012–2016)
Silver Magazine — Fashion Feature
“Artist and designer, and self-styled (punk) Countess of Brighton and Hackney…”
Brighton Arts Club — Event Coverage
Local press on curated gigs, performance art, and club nights.
Television Appearances:Come Dine With Me (in character as Pasha du Valentine)
Judge Rinder (as part of performance persona development ‘Dominartist’)
Hosted & Curated Music Gigs
Bands, promotions, and live events at Brighton Arts Club.
Public Domain Art Images (BAC)
Low-res public images archived on Yelp.
The Argus Newspaper
Pet Photography feature.
Silver Magazine — Guest Writer
“Cancer Ward and Female Strength.”
Stevie ZeSuicide — single’s video
Directed by Pasha du Valentine.
If punk never dies, how does it age? I-D Magazine fashion article
Argus Newspaper Booze Free Bar at the BAC
Broadcast & Recordings
Hosted & recorded 100+ live events and podcasts at Brighton Arts Club.
Considering re-release as a public archive (working title: “BAC Live Archives”).
Alternative Arts and Culture Show – Pasha Du Valentine Interview
Public Studios
Goddamn Media Radio Station at the BAC in Providence Place Studios
Map https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=providence%20place%20studios&hl=en&sll=50.8309…

Exhibitions — Solo
Pets at Arty’s — Dec 21–27, 2018 (Solo Show & Private View)
Dominartist – 2020
Pasha du Valentine Presents: Asperger Charity (Godd*mn Bar) — Launch Night — Jun 5, 2015
Weekly event with permanent exhibition.
Exhibitions — Group & Curated

Minge Fringe was an annual event run during the Brighton Fringe Festival. The Brighton Arts Club (BAC) also hosted numerous group shows and fashion events.Minge Fringe — Feminist Celebration — Brighton Fringe, Sat May 18, 2013
Alternative Brighton Fashion Week — Jun 8, 2013
Group show: performance art, photography, live installation; includes Pasha du Valentine Solo Show.
The Countess of Brighton & Hackney — Launch Party — Sat Jun 29, 2013
Permanent rotating group member’s exhibition.
Alternative Wedding Fair — Group Show (Mar 16)
Guerrilla Film Festival — Group Show (Mar 15)
Twisted Market — Brighton Fringe — Funky Fish Club, May 14, 2017
Fashion label launch with pop-up art exhibition.

For interviews, exhibition opportunities, and licensing enquiries, please reach out via official sites (Tale Teller Club / Book of Immersion). Additional references and press clippings available on request.

https://www.taletellerclub.com/

https://politica-uk.blogspot.com/

https://www.bookofimmersion.com/

https://www.iservalan.com/

https://iservalan.gumroad.com/l/kids

https://amzn.eu/d/dEGRj97

https://www.youtube.com/@iservalanjam

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClSJLxSPPFB216MkqgnqGrg

https://taletellerclub.bandcamp.com/music

AURA Texte No. 01 • September 2025 • Artist Focus: Caroline Achaintre courtesy of DigitalAura.Com

“I like the work to have a presence — to be slightly unsettling, to resist becoming purely decorative.” — Caroline Achaintre

Masks, Textures, and Thresholds

Caroline Achaintre’s work is where tapestry becomes theatre. Using hand‑tufted wool, ceramic, and watercolour, she constructs pieces that hover between costume, wall hanging, and living entity. Her forms are playful yet unnerving — channeling the language of primitivism, carnival, and Expressionism while refusing to settle as either painting or sculpture.

The sheer physicality of the works is striking: they droop, curl, and spill into space, implicating the viewer in their gravity. Achaintre’s wool “faces” are both masks and creatures, their twisted mouths frozen mid‑howl. This duality — between joy and menace, object and character — is what makes them so arresting in the home or gallery space. To live with one is to live with a chorus of material voices.

Pages

Masks, Textures, and Thresholds

Artist Links

Bibliography & Further Reading

SHOP