Exploring the ways in which the Beat Generation engaged with other forms of art, this exhibition takes its name from a quote from one of the movements leading figures, Jack Kerouac: “'Burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the sky”.

Whilst most famous for their writing – Howl, On The Road, Naked Lunch, Gasoline, -Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, along with Gregory Corso, experimented with other creative forms such as drawing, art, performance, music, photography and film.

The results were experimental, colourful, incandescent, riotous, unpredictable, and often seen as scandalous. As well as highlighting these Beat Generation explosions, focus falls also on two other dimensions of these Beats' work: Kerouac's close collaborations with the photographer Robert Frank, and the ways in which the Beats' debts to Romanticism created fascinating links to Romantic writers with local links to West Sussex/Chichester, such as Ginsberg's debts to William Blake.

Whilst this multi-media exhibition emphasises the Beats' writings, their art and their many other creative activities will be explored, some in audio-visual formats.  Jack Kerouac’s quote used for the exhibition's title, perfectly sums up both what the Beats sought to do and what this little exhibition seeks to display.

The exhibition is curated by Beat Generation fans and experts:  University of Chichester Professors Dick Ellis and Hugo Frey and our very own Martyn Bell,  Trustee of Oxmarket Contemporary.