Saturday 11 September 2010

Beach art...

Had a mini artist reunion last week and met up with Clare and John, both of whom I was with in Cyprus.

It's strange to see people you know out of context, gone were the bohemian art college fashions and paint splattered clothes!

We met up down in Folkstone, not a part of the world I am familiar with despite living only an hour away. I liked it alot, although it needs an injection of something (people? Tourists?).



If it weren't for Johns local knowledge I would have completely missed the beach art:



This is a Mark Wallinger piece called 'Folk Stones' (good title), and consists of 19,240 'individually hand numbered' stones signifying the number of British soldiers killed on 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. For me, I could imagine each stone as a person lyng in the mud...

Then there was Richard Wilsons concrete beach huts, entitled '18 holes', made from a recycled pitch and put course. They looked alot better than the concrete beach huts 50 metres further along the sea front:


Even the pebbles shipped in to shore up the beach look like a work of art!



Lots happening in Folkstone art wise, unfortunately for the artists not many people there buying the art...but it does have a cracking fish and chip shop in the harbour!