U.K. ceramic artist Vicky Eden is shown here working on a temporary public art project which comemorates a tragedy which took the lives of 23 Chinese migrant workers near her home.
On Feb. 5, 2004, the workers drowned as they combed the dangerous beach on Morecambe Bay searching for cockles. The artist is shown in this video talking about how the tide can create quicksand and mud which can trap people. Her community was saddened by the tragedy and so Eden wanted to memorialize the victims with a ceramic art project. Taking casts of the sand, she created 23 ceramic forms which bear the names of the workers along with quotes from news reports regarding their deaths. The forms stretch away in a line, possibly in the direction of China. Eden installed the forms on the beach with the intention of letting them be carried away by the tide.
This video was created by John Davis, Alex McErlain and Stephen Yates. It was selected in 2008 for the 6th International Film Festival on Clay and Glass in Motpellier. Beause of its privacy settings, we cannot embed the film in this post, so please follow the link above to view it.
Above image: Screenshot from the video On the Night of February 5th.
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Screenshots from “On the Night of February 5th” featuring ceramic artist Vicky Eden.
is the clay fired, or does it erode in the waves
what a stunning piece of work, a real requiem to those lost