Monday, June 18

On the Board

I've recently finished producing On the Board with documentary photographer Tessa Bunney about swimmers from the Serpentine Swimming Club in Hyde Park in London. The finished piece is currently on show at the Mercer Gallery in Harrogate as part of the Dive! exhibition - 'A celebration of the element of water and how the body moves through it', exhibiting from 12 June - 2 September 2012.



On the Board from Tessa Bunney on Vimeo.

Marking time

At the end of the last Hinterlands workshop we tried and failed to leave Devon. Busy planning and then running the workshop I'd forgotten to make plans for the Jubilee and it kind of crept up on me. So Mike and I decided we would stay and not make the mass exodus to London. On the Monday, me, Mike, Big Tom and my family all went up to Blackborough Beacon to see it set alight. John Tizehurst who featured in my piece Memories of a house (playing the accordion) is one of the oldest residents in the village and he set the Beacon ablaze. 

We all stood and watched the pile of wood burn. There's something very comforting and wild about watching fire and as we watched ours we looked out on the horizon to see all the other beacons blazing. It felt we were part of the history of these beacons being burned throughout time, firstly as a tool of communication to alert people to the approach of the Spanish Armada and now part of the spirit of smaller rural communities. It marked our own ending to our time in Devon and the next day we packed our things and headed back to Bristol to plan for the next workshop. All good things must come to an end.