Tidal Margins exhibition – Suffolk's eroding coastline
Bawdsey Point, Bawdsey Manor. Etching and Aquatint
Covehithe marshes. Etching and Aquatint
Shingle Street. Etching and Aquatint
Shingle Street, sea. Etching and Aquatint
Threatening clouds over East Lane, Bawdsey. Etching and Aquatint. Artist Jen Hall
Iken Cliffs, looking towards Snape, Etching, Aquatint and Dry Point
Minsmere Nature Reserve. Monotrype
Sizewell, viewed from Dunwich Heath. Monotype
Ploughed Field, East Lane, Bawdsey. Monotype
Bawdsey, East Lane 2. Monotype
Bawdsey, East Lane 1. Monotype
Across the River Alde. Monotype
Covehithe. Monotype
Fish Tree. Bronze
Hag Stone Tree. Bronze and Hag stones
Silver Darlings. Bronze
Wrackline. Bronze
Whales (from whalebone stone fossils) Bronze
Deben Estuary at low tide. Watercolour
Felixstowe Docks at night. Watercolour
Startled flight, Slaughden. Watercolour
Tidal Margins 3 Exhibition held at the Ipswich Art School Gallery
6th June to 7th September 2014
Walk the wild Suffolk coast in Ipswich this summer – from the ruins of Covehithe church, to the pier at Felixstowe, via Dunwich, Snape and the Deben estuary. This is Tidal Margins, a major exhibition of art, photography and writing at the Ipswich Art School Gallery, and the culmination of three years’ work by six artists, two photographers and four writers, all inspired by the Suffolk Coast.
Opening this month, the exhibition is arranged as a journey, and your trip begins in the dramatic art school atrium, in Shingle Street and Southwold, in hag stones and seaweed. Rooms just off the atrium are like little secrets. Here you will find the sea, borders, and hope. While the atrium balcony draws you down 50-miles of Suffolk coast, other rooms explore wildlife, rivers, boats and ghosts.
Artist and sculptor, Jen Hall, came up with the Tidal Margins project. “I was interested in how the art of the past can show what our coast used to look like,” Jen explains. “Suffolk has a dynamic coast, buildings and landscapes disappear through erosion, new sea defences are put in place – it’s always changing. Tidal Margins is about recording our impressions of the coast at the beginning of the 21st century.”
“The project has challenged everyone to work differently,” says Karenza Jackson, “Having to go out into the landscape in all seasons and all weathers makes you sketch in a particular way. If it is windy, raining and cold you have to work quickly. That helps you pick up the atmosphere around you.”
“The project has encouraged us to search out less well-known parts of our coast,” adds writer and artist, Juliet Lockhart. “I’ve always had a long and deep love for the sea and its restorative powers, but I’d never been to the more remote parts of this incredible coastline – I have fallen in love with East Lane in particular, I go back there all the time.”
Exhibition organiser, Jen Hall, agrees. “I’ve learnt more about the Suffolk Heritage Coast in the past three to four years than I have in the last thirty! Drawing and painting requires you to really look, listen, and see. If you record all of that, you can’t fail to fall in love with such a beautiful place. The light changes, the weather changes the mood, the wind whips the sea up, and the sound changes as well. We all wanted to capture some of that magic.”
The work reflects the sometimes contradictory nature of the Suffolk coast – it is beautiful, but can be forbidding, the sea is benign, or appears bent on destruction, it’s a coast of defence and military buildings, marshy landscapes, wide stormy skies, estuaries and river walls. I am struck by the energy of the work on display – there’s a real passion for this coast in the photographs, paintings, sculpture and writing.
Unusually for an art exhibition, there’s a room dedicated to writing. Dr James Canton, who teaches a course in Wild Writing at the University of Essex, is one of four writers involved. “I have written about East Anglia and Essex,” he says, “but there is something tangibly strange and special about the Suffolk seascapes which has returned me there again and again.” There’s a rich variety of writing on offer, so pick a piece off the shelf, sink into a vintage armchair, and allow yourself to be taken to Britain’s most easterly point, to other wordly Orfordness, and into the uneasy beauty of the sea.
The artists involved in this unique project want to pass on their love of Suffolk’s coast and estuaries. “I hope everyone coming to the exhibition will be inspired to explore as we have done,” says Jen Hall, “learn something new about the wildlife, have a go at drawing, painting, writing, or just be curious and go and see.”
Tidal Margins artists: Jennifer Hall, Joan Hodes, Heather Hodgson, Karenza Jackson, Juliet Lockhart, Margaret Wyllie, photographers Hugh de Las Casas and Eamonn McCabe, writers, James Canton, Liz Ferretti and Julie Garton. For more information on them and their work: tidalmargins.wordpress.com
These words were written by Elizabeth Ferretti in March 2014 for a Press Release, she was one of the talented writers who took part in the Tidal Margins project.
Opening this month, the exhibition is arranged as a journey, and your trip begins in the dramatic art school atrium, in Shingle Street and Southwold, in hag stones and seaweed. Rooms just off the atrium are like little secrets. Here you will find the sea, borders, and hope. While the atrium balcony draws you down 50-miles of Suffolk coast, other rooms explore wildlife, rivers, boats and ghosts.
Artist and sculptor, Jen Hall, came up with the Tidal Margins project. “I was interested in how the art of the past can show what our coast used to look like,” Jen explains. “Suffolk has a dynamic coast, buildings and landscapes disappear through erosion, new sea defences are put in place – it’s always changing. Tidal Margins is about recording our impressions of the coast at the beginning of the 21st century.”
“The project has challenged everyone to work differently,” says Karenza Jackson, “Having to go out into the landscape in all seasons and all weathers makes you sketch in a particular way. If it is windy, raining and cold you have to work quickly. That helps you pick up the atmosphere around you.”
“The project has encouraged us to search out less well-known parts of our coast,” adds writer and artist, Juliet Lockhart. “I’ve always had a long and deep love for the sea and its restorative powers, but I’d never been to the more remote parts of this incredible coastline – I have fallen in love with East Lane in particular, I go back there all the time.”
Exhibition organiser, Jen Hall, agrees. “I’ve learnt more about the Suffolk Heritage Coast in the past three to four years than I have in the last thirty! Drawing and painting requires you to really look, listen, and see. If you record all of that, you can’t fail to fall in love with such a beautiful place. The light changes, the weather changes the mood, the wind whips the sea up, and the sound changes as well. We all wanted to capture some of that magic.”
The work reflects the sometimes contradictory nature of the Suffolk coast – it is beautiful, but can be forbidding, the sea is benign, or appears bent on destruction, it’s a coast of defence and military buildings, marshy landscapes, wide stormy skies, estuaries and river walls. I am struck by the energy of the work on display – there’s a real passion for this coast in the photographs, paintings, sculpture and writing.
Unusually for an art exhibition, there’s a room dedicated to writing. Dr James Canton, who teaches a course in Wild Writing at the University of Essex, is one of four writers involved. “I have written about East Anglia and Essex,” he says, “but there is something tangibly strange and special about the Suffolk seascapes which has returned me there again and again.” There’s a rich variety of writing on offer, so pick a piece off the shelf, sink into a vintage armchair, and allow yourself to be taken to Britain’s most easterly point, to other wordly Orfordness, and into the uneasy beauty of the sea.
The artists involved in this unique project want to pass on their love of Suffolk’s coast and estuaries. “I hope everyone coming to the exhibition will be inspired to explore as we have done,” says Jen Hall, “learn something new about the wildlife, have a go at drawing, painting, writing, or just be curious and go and see.”
Tidal Margins artists: Jennifer Hall, Joan Hodes, Heather Hodgson, Karenza Jackson, Juliet Lockhart, Margaret Wyllie, photographers Hugh de Las Casas and Eamonn McCabe, writers, James Canton, Liz Ferretti and Julie Garton. For more information on them and their work: tidalmargins.wordpress.com
These words were written by Elizabeth Ferretti in March 2014 for a Press Release, she was one of the talented writers who took part in the Tidal Margins project.
