Join us on Baile Sear beach, on the 14th of July to take part in this exciting interactive artwork by Katie Paterson, where you will transform the beach into a mini mountain range using special “buckets and spades”!
About the Project:
Website:http://www.firstthereisamountain.com
First There is a Mountain is a new artwork that connects the public to the world’s diverse mountains. Launching on 31 March at Leysdown Beach, Isle of Sheppey, and touring the UK until 27 October 2019, the project involves the creation of ‘buckets and spades’ with which the public are invited to build mountains of sand across the UK coastline and play out the world’s natural geography against a series of tidal times. The five pails are scale models of five of Earth’s mountains: Mount Kilimanjaro (Africa), Mount Shasta (USA), Mount Fuji (Asia), Stromboli (Europe), and Uluru (Oceania) nested together.
First There is a Mountain is choreographed over the period of daylight saving time during British Summer Time. Following the launch, the artwork will go on to tour twenty-five high profile coastal art venues around the UK who will each stage a sand pail building event on their local beach. The ways in which the public interacts with the artwork at each location is integral to the evolution of the project and its overall experience.
At each event, participants will sculpt beaches into hundreds of mountains of sand to form micro-geologies. The artwork’s inevitable ephemerality points to concepts around gravitational attraction – awareness of Earth’s tilted axis during longer daylight hours and the UK’s eroding coastline. First There is a Mountain is a poetic vehicle that connects diverse world mountains to smallest grains of sand, with participants holding the world’s geography in their hands, time and geology collapsing, and connecting through touch.
Teaser Video:
Katie Paterson: First There is a Mountain from Katie Paterson on Vimeo.
The Pails:
Interview with Katie Paterson: http://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2019/03/an-interview-with-cosmological-artist-katie-paterson/