Nothe Fort Residency - Mala Hassett

Dorset Visual Arts is always delighted to hear about the amazing work our Members are doing. Mala Hassett recently completed an Artist in Residence at Nothe Fort responding to the history and material of this iconic sea fort.

We wanted to share this report from Mala, a fascinating insight into the processes of an artist.

"I spent around 6 months at Nothe Fort from April to Oct’ 2025, as the Artist in Residence. At first I spent a lot of the time simply looking at the view out from the fort. The Isle of Portland looks like a silhouette, almost illusionary and the white Jurassic cliffs gleam irrespective of the weather. The scene never changes, the light constantly shifting.

The initial weeks were spent in research, simply getting to know the fort, its layout, history, looking through copies of old maps. The maps not only gave an indication of the scale of change in the landscape but were also beautiful pieces of design which have inspired some of my paintings. I spent many weeks sketching and painting the scene but it remained elusive to me. I felt I was copying the landscape rather than being inspired by it. By now I was working from the signal room, at the very top of the fort. The longer I spent here, the more aware I became of nothing except for the sounds of wind, rain and waves. It was often lonely on days when visitor numbers were down. It made me wonder how isolated the soldiers posted here would have felt and how open to the elements the fort was.

When looking around the fort, what is immediately evident are the damp conditions inside the fort, in spite of the valiant efforts by the maintenance team. What attracted me immediately was the plethora of different marks and textures on the walls, both inside and out, created by this damp. The damp also corroded all the iron fixtures, creating beautiful rust patterns.

My eventual response to Nothe Fort was inspired by the current physical condition of the fort, layered by the weight of time and isolation. I wanted every canvas to be imbued by some part of the fort. Through my process of using rust and textural references from the fort’s walls in every canvas, it is as though Nothe itself lives in each of the paintings.

PROCESS

• I set up a couple of canvases in the Lamp Room, which was known for its damp and often dripping walls. I arranged iron pieces on the canvas, salvaged from caponiers, and regularly sprayed them with a mixture of vinegar and water, to encourage rusting.

• I salvaged rusted objects around the fort, collected the rust from them, powdered and used it as pigment.

• I photographed the richly textured walls, bearing the weight of layers of time, and transferred the texture onto canvas, using it as a springboard for the paintings.

• I used metallic gold and silver pigments which refer to my art practice of reimagining landscapes as sari designs. The metals signify the precious quality of the decay."

Visit Mala Hassett's website to find out more about her work. The results of her experimentation with rust-based paints and wall textures are now on display at Nothe Fort until Wednesday 19th August. Open daily, 10am-4pm, don’t miss this series of vibrant landscapes that truly capture Nothe Fort’s character.