World Beach Project

Saturday, 9 August 2008

The World Beach Project is a global art project open to anybody, anywhere, of any age. Building on the experience many of us have of making patterns on beaches and shorelines, this project combines the simplicity of making patterns with stones with the complexities of shape, size, colour, tone, composition, similarity and difference.

Why stones? Sue Lawty says, "Whether stones are satisfyingly smooth… or like long thin fingers… or beautifully, almost purely round; whether they are knobbly, shiny, dull, crinkly, holey, patterned or plain, black or white – they reflect the language of their making i.e. how they look in this de-constructed state is as a direct result of their construction, probably millions of years ago. I find this exciting.

"World Beach was conceived as a global drawing project; a stone drawing project that would speak about time, place, geology and the base instinct of touch. Drawings made on shorelines all over the world, which although erased by the next tide or rains, would be collected within the V&A to become a permanent record of the individual human desire to make pattern.

"To pick up a rock, is to touch base. Touching stones gives us a primal, spiritual connection with the earth. When we handle a stone, we hold in our hands a small drawing, a tiny piece of the map; we are holding time."

You can join in. Choose the stones and make a pattern, recording the work-in-progress with some photographs along the way. Then later, at a computer, upload the photographs to World Beach Project section of the V & A website to complete the project.

Sue Lawty told the Hebden Bridge Web, "The V&A has been collecting art work from all over the world for centuries - this is a truly 21st century (and totally inclusive) way of adding to their collections."

Full details about how to take part can be found at the website.

See World Beach Project