Time and Tide Bell, Lincolnshire
A sculpture on the Mablethorpe beach, and a community arts project that spreads far and wide, the Time and Tide Bell is a focus for conversation about our relationship with the coastal environment, past, present and future. Geology, archaeology, history and the biodiversity of the site on land and underwater are addressed. Global warming, climate change and sea level rise are considered and the human consequences, locally and world-wide, are issues to which the Bell rings out its warning.
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Sunday, 23 June 2019
The Lincolnshire Time and Tide Bell has been installed
Friday 21st June 2019
The Lincolnshire Time and Tide Bell has been installed.
For more information please visit:
http://transitiontownlouth.org.uk/bell.html
Friday, 22 June 2018
Time and Tide Bell June 2018 Newsletter
Happy summer solstice to all the Friends of the Lincolnshire
Time and Tide Bell.
Some while ago we had, rather optimistically, hoped we might
get the Bell installed on the beach at North End, Mablethorpe, on the Summer
Solstice. We’re nearly there but not quite. We still have one or two bureaucratic
hurdles to jump but we’ve now pencilled in early September for the grand
launch. We’ve had some very positive help and support from Natural England, the
Marine Licencing Organisation, the Environment Agency and others to complete
the job and we’d like to thank all those involved.
We have taken delivery of the Bell itself and we are
building its oak and stainless steel frame. When struck it sounds beautiful,
Sheffield Brass Founders having done a brilliant job of casting and tuning almost
700 kilograms of bronze.
Many of you will have visited our first big art exhibition, ‘Across
the Seas’ at the Sam Scorer Gallery in Lincoln in May. Thanks to all who made
it such a success. For those who didn’t make it, we do still have a handful of
the exhibition booklets left over. Send a stamped addressed envelope to fit an
A5 document and it’s yours.
We were very pleased to be shortlisted for the Lincolnshire
Environment Award. We didn’t win, but that wasn’t the point. (A very worthy
project in the Deepings deservedly won our section.) But we did get some good
publicity and put on a nice display with eight of our #200Fish works of art on
show.
Our next exhibition is #200Fish, a project that has involved
a great many artists each picking one of the 216 species of fish found in the
North Sea and creating an artwork. You can see images of all the fishy pictures
completed so far at http://bit.ly/200Fish
The exhibition opens at the new North Sea Observatory on Thursday 23rd
August and runs till Monday 3rd September. We hope to be publishing
a rather lavish full colour book showing all the amazing artworks that this
project has generated along with pieces of writing authored by the artists. It’s
all part of our aim to draw attention to the biodiversity in our seas and the
threats that human activity poses to the marine environment.
Our third major art exhibition of 2018 will also be at the
North Sea Observatory. ‘By the Sea’ is our show of contemporary artworks
reflecting the wild and natural landscape of Lincolnshire’s coast. It takes
place in the last fortnight of November. If you are an artist who might be able
to offer something for this exhibition, please do get in touch. See more at http://bit.ly/BellBytheSea
And we have various ideas developing for 2019, but more of
that anon.
Meanwhile. If you feel you would like to help in organising
our projects please do get in touch. We are particularly looking for someone to
do the press officer job, someone who is good at making contacts in the media
and getting publicity for our activities both locally and nationally.
Finally, we have organised a music gig for Friday 29th
June at the Town and Country Club, Louth. Partly a fund-raiser, thanks to the
generous support of the band, Itchy Fingers, and mostly to have a fun night
out. Get your tickets from Off the Beaten Tracks.
Biff Vernon
#200Fish Newsletter June 10th 2018
#200Fish Newsletter June 10th 2018
Firstly, apologies for the length of this rambling newsletter.
If you haven’t time to read it all just now, please skip to the end where I
have summarised the key points.
As you may know, we have confirmed dates for our main
exhibition of the fish art: open to the public on Thursday 23rd August and
every day to Monday 3rd September. We will set up the exhibition on Wednesday
22nd August and have a preview party that evening for artists and friends.
Tuesday 4th September we take the exhibition down.
We need to have the artworks in the gallery as early as
possible on the 22nd. That means you either have to bring your work on that day
or you get it to my house any time before that, delivered personally or sent in
the post. (Address at the bottom.)
For 2D works to be hung on the walls, we have to have them
framed and with a string on the back – there will be a rod and hook hanging
system (I believe!). I realise that if you live far away and intend to post
your work, sending framed stuff can be tricky, especially if it involves a
piece of glass rather than plastic glazing. If it really can’t be helped you
could send me work on paper and I will put it in a frame. We don’t have a
budget for this so it will be something I find in a charity shop and the time
and work involved means I can only do this for a few works so please don’t rely
on this.
3D works we will accommodate in the best way we can. We will
provide plinths. The sooner we know how big your work is the greater the chance
we will have of getting a plinth that fits it.
Insurance. We do not have any insurance cover for your
artworks. Of course we will endeavour to take care of your work but please
arrange your own insurance if you feel it might be appropriate.
Publications. As you know, we’ve been putting your pictures
and writing on our website as soon as you send material to us. We’re now in the
process of converting all this material into a print. The current plan is to
produce two things, one a small format, cheap, catalogue, which has your
pictures and the names of the fish and artists but not a lot more text. We hope
to produce this for about £3. We also want to produce a much more lavish book
in a larger format that really does your images justice and includes all the
informative text, poems, songs and so on. It will probably cost nearer £20 but
it should be a nice thing to own and keep.
Part, and it’s an important part, of this project is to get
artists to learn a little about their subjects and to communicate to their
audiences what they find out, not just through images but also in words. We’ve
asked you to do a little research, find something out about your fish, factual,
scientific information, the fishes place in culture and folklore perhaps, and
your own personal relationship with the subject. You might feel moved to
versify or write a song. On the website I added a few links to information
sources to get you going.
Now some of you have produced some excellent pieces of
writing. Thankyou. Some of you, in the light of the idea that your words will
be lying on the nation’s coffee tables for years to come, might like to review
what you’ve done and change it. Easy, just email me an updated version. And
some of you will prefer not to write anything at all. That’s fine; there is no
compulsion about this; it’s entirely up to you. For fish that we don’t get much
text, we might add something ourselves. We do want each page to be individual
and reflect the work of you all, our multiple authors, rather than appear to be
a book written by one person. That said, we reserve the right to edit your work
to improve readability where we feel appropriate or add information where
interesting stuff may have been missed.
Copyright. Now, forgive me for getting a bit
school-teacherish here but while it’s fine to get information from books and
online sources, what we can’t do is publish material that is somebody else’s
intellectual property without their permission. So please don’t just copy and
paste a paragraph from Wikipedia or wherever; it has to be your own work. If
you do quote somebody else’s words then you must acknowledge the author with a
reference to the source. By sending us written material you declare that are
the copyright owner and that you give this copyright to the Lincolnshire Time
and Tide Bell CIC which will then have the right to amend and use in any way.
Could you please check, by looking at the webpage that shows
your fish, that I have your description of the media used and the dimensions of
the work. If this information doesn’t appear could you send (or re-send) it to
me, please.
The actual artworks. The exhibition will be set up on
Wednesday 22nd September and we aim to have a party that evening.
It’s going to be a rush, hanging 200 pictures in less than a day so we really
need your works in the morning or earlier. Either get your works to my house
any time, by post or call in yourself, or try to come to the gallery as earlier
as you can on the Wednesday.
It’s entirely up to you whether you wish to offer your work
for sale or not, but if you do I need to know the price you want beforehand, so
I can print a price list and labels etc. We won’t be charging any commission
but the gallery may charge a commission. They have still not decided this. It
might be worth assuming there may be, say, a 25% commission, so set you price
accordingly. Tell me the price you want to receive and then I’ll add the
commission, if any, onto the list price when I know it.
Collecting your work, or not. The exhibition ends on Monday
3rd September and we have Tuesday 4th to take down and
clear out. If you want your work back then, please come and collect. That, of
course is tricky for those of you who have sent works from the far corners of
the planet. We’ll make individual arrangements. However, we have plans to take
the #200Fish on the road with exhibitions at various venues. We have ideas but
nothing definitive yet. It would be great if, unless you particularly want your
work back immediately, you could leave it with us, to exhibit again.
Fantastically, some of you have sent us your artwork saying it is a donation to
our company and we can keep it or sell it if we can and keep the proceeds to
further future projects. Thank you very much. Needless to say we would welcome
further such generous gifts.
For 2D works please ensure they are framed and with D-rings
and string, as we will be using a rod and hook hanging system. If it is really
impossible to send us your work in a frame (it’s on paper and you are posting
it from Mongolia) then we do have a few frames that we found in charity shops
and will do our best to present your work as best we can, but we don’t have a
budget for this so don’t rely on us! For 3D works, we’ll just treat each piece
as best we can.
If you want to try to sell prints, priced and cellophane
wrapped, that’s fine, though we only have a limited display space.
Please make sure you have given us your contact details in
the real world, rather that just an email address. You may wish to see our
Privacy Policy: http://transitiontownlouth.org.uk/bellPrivacy.html
If you have signed up for doing one of the fish, but now
find that you won’t be able to produce an artwork after all, please let us know
so that your fish can be allocated to somebody else. It would be a shame if
somebody gets put off painting a picture because they think somebody else is
doing one and then it turns out that they don’t.
Finally and in other matters, the Time and Tide Bell
installation on the beach north of Mablethorpe is now scheduled to happen a bit
later in the summer, hopefully just after the #200Fish exhibition closes.
Later in the year, lightly pencilled in 14th to
28th November, we will be holding another art exhibition at the
North Sea Observatory. Called ‘By the Sea’ it will be a contemporary take on
the wild coastal landscape of Lincolnshire. This is not quite the mass participation
project of #200Fish but we have still a little space available so if any of you
would like to submit a proposal of work to be submitted for this show, please
e-mail me. http://transitiontownlouth.org.uk/bell3.html
Summary:
Set up day: Wednesday 22nd August 2018.
Party night (vernissage, for those who like such things):
evening of 22nd August.
Open to public Thursday 23rd August to Monday 3rd
September, inclusive.
Take down day Tuesday 4th September. Collect your
work then if you need it back at the end of this exhibition. Leave it with us
if you want it shown again.
Either send or deliver you work to my house in North
Somercotes before the 22nd August or bring to the North Sea Observatory
on the 22nd, earlier in the day the better.
2D work should be able to be hung on a wall with hooks. This
probably means framed and with D-rings and string fitted. 3D work will be
displayed as appropriate.
If you want to offer your work for sale make sure you tell
us how much you want, net of any possible gallery commission, in good time so
we can print the price list. (We don’t take any commission ourselves – as a
community arts organisation we’re on your side!)
If you would like your work retained by us for the next
exhibition of the #200Fish that’s excellent.
If you want to donate your work to us so we can sell it and
support our future projects that would be marvellous.
We do not carry any insurance for your works – leave it with
us entirely at your own risk.
Have you sent us your writing about your fish? We intend to
create two publications, one a cheap, brief catalogue and the other a more
lavish, more expensive, book. We don’t have a print deadline set but send your
written material soon or you may miss out.
Please confirm that it is your own work and does not
infringe any copyright or other intellectual property rights. Understand that
by sending us written material you agree to give copyright to the Lincolnshire
Time and Tide Bell CIC and that we can then use the material in any amended
form and publish in any medium.
If you are interested in our next exhibition, ‘By the Sea’,
let me know.
Biff Vernon
Artistic Director, Lincolnshire Time and Tide Bell Community
Interest Company
Tithe Farm,
Church End
North
Somercotes
Louth
Lincolnshire
LN11 7PZ
01507 358413
Monday, 21 August 2017
Gettogether at Trinity Buoy Wharf 3rd October 2017
All the different Time and Tide Bell communities from around Britain will be meeting together at Trinity Buoy Wharf in London on the 3rd of October. Here are some details:
Time and Tide Bell get-together,
celebration and planning day October 3rd 2017 at Trinity Buoy Wharf
Objectives of the day are to:
1. Find ways in which people responsible for different bells might be able to help each other (bearing in mind that no-one is getting paid….)
2. Provide inspiration as to exciting ways the bells can be used as the heart of new activity – artistic, educational……
3. Achieve a better sense both of the strong individuality of each installation and the fact that they are part of a network.
4. Come up with many ideas about what needs doing next, including a website upgrade.
Download Programme details here.
Time and Tide Bell get-together,
celebration and planning day October 3rd 2017 at Trinity Buoy Wharf
Objectives of the day are to:
1. Find ways in which people responsible for different bells might be able to help each other (bearing in mind that no-one is getting paid….)
2. Provide inspiration as to exciting ways the bells can be used as the heart of new activity – artistic, educational……
3. Achieve a better sense both of the strong individuality of each installation and the fact that they are part of a network.
4. Come up with many ideas about what needs doing next, including a website upgrade.
Download Programme details here.
Thursday, 18 May 2017
Bell and Refugees
Impression of the Time and Tide Bell at Mablethorpe
Detail
"There's no refugee crisis, but only human crisis. In dealing with refugees we've lost our very basic values. In this time of uncertainty, we need more tolerance, compassion and trust for each other since we all are one. Otherwise, humanity will face an even bigger crisis."Ai Weiwei.
From the National Gallery in Prague.
From the National Gallery in Prague.
Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Art, Science and the Sea
People interested in the meeting of arts, science and the sea may like to explore the work of Scarborough-based Invisible Dust.
Invisible Dust works with leading artists and scientists to produce unique and exciting works of contemporary art and new scientific ideas exploring our environment and climate change.
Invisible Dust are behind the current show, Offshore: artists explore the sea, at Ferens Art Gallery and Hull Maritime Museum, as part of Hull's Year as City of Culture.
1 April – 28 August 2017
Linked to this is the Sounding The Sea: Symposium 2017 in June.
Organised by Invisible Dust and Steven Bode – Sounding the Sea is taking place at Ferens Gallery and The University of Hull, 15 – 16 June 2017.
Nekton Mission and VRTÜL: the submersible that took author China Miéville on a 300m descent into the deep ocean, Bermuda expedition, 2016
Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Introducing the Time and Tide Bell Project.
A permanent installation around the U.K. of bells rung by
the sea at high tide.
Marcus Vergette has designed a bell with a new harmonic
relationship, which can sound different notes from the same strike, and is
played by the movement of the waves creating a varying musical pattern. This
bell has been installed at the high tide mark at a number of diverse sites around
the country, from urban centres to open stretches of coastline. To create,
celebrate, and reinforce connections, between different parts of the country,
between the land and the sea; between ourselves, our history, and our
environment. Additionally as sea levels rise as an effect of climate change,
the periods of bell strikes will become more and more frequent, and as the
bells become submerged in the rising waters the pitch will vary.
The first bell was installed in July 2009 at Appledore,
Devon: the second on Bosta beach Gt. Bernera, Outer Hebrides in June 2010: the
third at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London in September 2010. The fourth installed in Aberdyfi, Wales August
2011, and the fifth Anglesey, Spring 2014.
Lincolnshire will host the sixth.
The integrity of the Time and Tide Bell project nationally
is in the choice of the sites and how they connect. Each site brings something particular and
unique to the whole group.
Appledore, Devon (installed May, 2009), in North Devon, on
the Taw and Torridge estuary, an ancient shipbuilding town with connections
east and west, through export of domestic ceramics to the West Indies as part
of the slave trade, to ball clay still being shipped to Russia. Here are some of
the highest tides in Europe, the base of the bell marks the moment the water is
over the bar and ships may leave or enter the estuary.
Isle of Bernera, ( installed June 19, 2010) on the northwest
fringe Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides; is some of the oldest rock/land on earth,
and has been resisting the ravages of sea for 3 - 400,000,000 years, from
before the fossil record. This island
has a complex history of courage, and independence in the face of resource
depletion and oppression, with barely a tree now left on the island. Bosta
beach has been the point of arrival and departure for many different groups and
cultures from the Vikings to the clearances.
Trinity Buoy Wharf, (installed Sept 19, 2010) London, on the
embankment wall of the Thames, 28 seconds east of the Meridian Line. One of this bell’s potential meanings is as a
time-piece or time-marker, both in the way the bell is rung by the movement of
the sea at high tide daily, and as a long time marker of sea levels and present
shoreline. Here Michael Faraday built a
lighthouse to experiment with electric lighting for lighthouses, lighthouse
keepers were trained, and navigation buoys were made. This site is the confluence of the Lee and the
Thames rivers which twist and turns between walls and embankments, through
factories and houses as it winds its way from the central heart of England to
the sea.
Trinity
Buoy Wharf, London
Aberdyfi, Wales ( installed August 2011) clinging to the
rocky edge of Snowdonia, on the estuary of the historic river Dovey, flowing
down the mountain Arran Mawddy to Cardigan Bay, the dividing line between north
and south Wales. Aberdyfi is referred to
in ancient Gaelic legend and song as the former kingdom of Cantre’r Gwaelod now
submerged beneath Cardigan Bay, and its bells which, it is said, can be heard
ringing beneath the water. Here the tree
stumps from the post ice age forests are revealed at low tide. The ancient
Gaelic legend perhaps referring to ice melt at the end of the last ice age and
the formation of the bay.
Aberdyfi, under the pier.
Cemaes, Anglesey ( to be installed Spring 2013) Cemaes Bay
is on the north coast of Angelsey and is an area of outstanding natural beauty,
with a unique history and some of the most geologically important shoreline in
Britain, whose signifigance has been recognized internationally. Local legend insists that St Patrick was
shipwrecked on Ynys Badrig, where he founded a church in 440 AD. However this project is not only to connect
with the past but also to engage with the present and future. Around Cemaes there is a long history of
varied land use, with farming, industry, and mining, and more recently wind
farms, and a nuclear power station. The
Time and Tide Bell has become a way for residents and visitors to connect with
their own history and environment, as an instrument of measurement, as a
musical instrument, as a sculpture, and a focus for music, events, exchanges,
etc, both locally and between the different bell sites.
The Bell at Mablethorpe North End will be the sixth in the
series and two more are planned for Morecombe Bay in Lancashire and
Happisburgh, Norfolk.
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