#uponapaintedocean

[soniaoverall]

Message in a bottle

I asked visitors at the private view of Upon A Painted Ocean to leave me a message in a bottle. Here are the messages received (italics), and what became of them...

I came to find a new life - the sea washed the old one away. I made my home in a sandcastle, but with every fitful moon came the swish, swish, swish and the tangled swamps of bladderwrack. There was no peace. I tied myself to a fishing net, more at home in a watchful sea, the slapping waves upon the hull.

Still floating - a feeling of impending danger with each high tide, the fear of running aground, stranded on the shores. But I am prepared. This will be the best way to communicate: perhaps one day you will look up and see me, glinting on the beach.

If you should find me, please throw me back to sea.

[soniaoverall]

Text experiments on a sea theme from my collaborative exhibition with artist James Frost - Upon A Painted Ocean - in The Old Lookout Gallery, Broadstairs, Kent (17/8/12 - 22/8/12). Visitors were able to reveal a poem by shifting sand in a box, read another work by peering into a bowl of water, and follow snippets of a longer piece chalked and charcoaled around the walls. Text bunting also told a very short story.

The show explored the sea and shipwrecks, and in particular the nearby Goodwin Sands, also known as the Great Ship Swallower. Our collaborative performance combined the wrecking of James' beautifully-made shadow boats with my sound effects and reading of a piece written for the event.

Visitors were invited to make an origami 'ghost ship' to add to our display. By the end of the week we exceeded our goal of 144 ghost ships - one for each of the known wrecks lining the coast between Broadstairs and Dover. Thanks to everyone who took part...