Vic Stevenson, courtesy of University of California - Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Graham Spicer headed over to Eastbourne to take in the latest show at the Towner Art Gallery.

The House in the Middle is a new photographic exhibition at the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne, running until December 5.

Subtitled Photographs of Interior Design in a Nuclear Age it explores the relationship of ourselves to the ‘stage’ of the interiors we inhabit.

Central to the exhibition is a projection of House in the Middle, a 1954 American government information film. It shows how citizens can make their home safe from a nuclear blast.

Produced by the US Civil Defence Administration and sponsored by the paint and hardware industries, it clearly sought to cash in on Cold War paranoia. The message unfolded: the only way to stop the Soviet menace was by buying, consuming, and replacing.

At first, the Towner Gallery may seem an odd location. Set in a park in Eastbourne Old Town, curator Gordon MacDonald explained his choice: "It was really very easy. The Towner is a converted old residential building, so to have the photographs of interiors displayed in this environment seemed completely right."

Photographer unknown, courtesy of University of California - Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Supporting the film were images from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1950s America, also sponsored by big business.

A ghost town had been created occupied by mannequins. Some were bent and broken, others still in good shape, depending on the quality of their house. The insinuation being that with a properly painted house and modern appliances, you were helping yourself and the war effort.

The exhibition also features other works examining ideas of the interior. These include Jo Broughton’s pictures of empty porn sets. Initially they are oddly unmoving - sterile, glossy, and pre-packaged, devoid of real meaning when taken out of context. An audio track of a pornographic film in the making accompanies the images and forces us to confront the status of the sets.

EastEnders sets from 1984, also with occupants removed, reflects the portrayal of working-class London through middle-class eyes.

Dirk Wackerfuss. Detail from the work Spring, 2004. Courtesy of the artist.

Thankfully there is no pornographic audio accompanying shots of Lou Beale’s bedroom and it was the attention to detail and almost iconic status of the sets that fascinated me.

The peas and pies of the café jarred with the yuppie ideal of Colin’s front room - the height of 1980s fashion, he even has a state-of-the-art Amstrad 464 home computer on his desk.

The EastEnders photos mirror the voyeuristic nature of Richard Billingham’s work. Unpublished photographs from 1996 series Ray’s a Laugh captured moments at Billingham’s father Ray’s house.

The viewer is repulsed yet strangely enthralled by the images of a working class home where Ray’s alcoholism is explored without sentimentality.

John Kippin. Ottoman, from the series A House In The Country, 2003. Courtesy of the Artist.

Martin Parr’s pieces from his collection Signs of the Times (1992) bring a welcome humour to the show. The gaudy decorations, justified by quotes from homeowners, encapsulate the spirit of the aspiring middle-classes. One-upmanship, appalling taste, and more frilly upholstery than you can imagine.

Suburban driveways and perfectly mowed lawns can be glimpsed through curtains made for twitching. The interiors hint at the insecurity or confidence of the occupants and suggest that people can be more comfortable showing off a new three-piece suite than their own feelings.

These are just some of the works on show. Photographs by Dirk Wackerfuss, Danny Treacy, John Kippin, Anne Hardy and John Paul Bichard all expand on the themes of our relationship to interiors.

The House in the Middle exhibition is at times disturbing, but certainly engaging.

While the images often jar the senses, they gel as a collection. Ultimately they reminded me of walking past your neighbours’ houses in the early evening when the lights are on but the curtains aren’t yet drawn.