‘…for boats catching fish like journalists catch stories, for asylum seekers looking for haven – a work for Whitstable Harbour.’
Whitstable Herne Bay Dover Folkestone Rye Hastings Eastbourne Brighton Shoreham Worthing Littlehampton Portsmouth Southampton Christchurch Bournemouth Poole Swanage Weymouth Bridport Lyme Regis Sidmouth Exmouth Teignmouth Torquay Totnes Plymouth Truro Falmouth St Ives Newquay Bridgwater Weston Bristol Newport Penarth Barry Port Talbot Swansea Llanelli Tenby Milford Haven Cardigan Aberystwyth Caernarfon Holyhead Bangor Rhyl Birkenhead Bromborough Liverpool Preston Blackpool Fleetwood Whitehaven Maryport Annan Stranraer Girvan Ayr Irvine Campbeltown Largs Ardrossan Greenock Dunoon Oban Stornoway John O’Groats Inverness Banff Aberdeen Montrose Arbroath Dundee Perth St Andrews Alloa Berwick Newcastle Hartlepool Whitby Scarborough Bridlington Hull Goole Grimsby Boston Skegness Kings Lynn Great Yarmouth Lowestoft Ipswich Felixstowe Harwich Colchester Clacton Maldon Southend Sheerness Faversham
I subscribed to almost 100 papers from places with harbours, fishing and papers with the name of the town in the title. People usually keep newspapers because of a collective event such as a royal celebration or moon landing. In June 2006 these newspapers I gathered these papers for randomly coinciding with the Whitstable Biennale dates. This became an archive of a moment in time, rather than for reasons of historical significance. Harbours around the British mainland are points of entry and exit from the UK, they delineate between land and sea. There is a slow evolution from industrial use to leisure and tourism. Stories from the newspapers were read out on the first three Sundays in June at 2.30 pm at Whitstable Harbour. I focussed on stories of regeneration, tourism, intolerance, and harbour’s change of emphasis mostly. Otherwise I picked randomly or out of my curiosity. The work was also installed in Plymouth in April 2007 with Plymouth Arts Centre who organised a series of reading events within the container, including shanty singers, and a poet.
Date
2006 and 2007
Media
Sea container, shelving, seating, 100 local newspaper titles, public readings
Aknowledgements
Whitstable Biennale 2006/Canterbury City Council
Whitstable Harbour and Plymouth City Centre
Production – Sue Jones
Photography – Simon Steven, Stuart Moore
Michael Weir, Whitstable Harbour Master
Archive
http://www.whitstablebiennale.com/
Approx 100 newspapers
photographs – High res digital
mini dv video of reading
Whitstable Biennale brochure
sound recordings, Plymouth Art Centre