‘Array’ a sound sculpture and installation commissioned by the B-Side Arts and Media Festival part of the ‘Maritime Mix’, 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Visit the Array Blog for more information and documentation of the residency and installation process, and listen to the sounds from the piece below.

An Undesirable Archive, Photographic installation, Berlin and Turin. 2012, 160 A4 digital images.

From my continuing and growing photographic project recording plastic marine debris in situ on the beaches of the UK. Part of my  bigger on line global participatory photographic project marineplastic.org

Commissioned by the Whitley Arts Festival 2011 for the Whitley Arts Trail

Text reads:
The Whitley Cup (Handle and Strapping)
Grave-goods (2200-1500 BC).

The handle and relating strapping from what is now known as The Whitley Cup, thought to have belonged to ‘The Wessex Culture’ of the Early Bronze Age.

Found in 1986 by school boy H Fury amongst a pile of stones and rubble (possible cairn and secondary burial site), near an unconfirmed yet documented Bronze Age barrow 1 km South of Reading in the Whitley area.

Present is the handle and strapping hand crafted in the design of a Sea-Wyvern (a winged and fish-tailed reptilian creature of legend), reconstructed around a plaster reproduction of a traditional ceramic handled ceremonial cup. Such drinking vessels as in the case of The Whitley Cup were objects of status amongst Bronze Age warriors and would have been used almost certainly for the drinking of alcohol, probably beer or mead.

The Whitley Cup pieces have been remarkably crafted from a little known resinous compound (Arbor Creta Putty), which when hard has a similar consistency to that of modern plastics. WASL document it as being created by mixing heated tree resins with powdered chalk and bone ash. This creates a malleable paste or putty that can be moulded over a former and worked until it cools and hardens, with further possibilities for carving detail.

WASL – © Wessex Archaeological Society Limited 2011 all rights reserved

Wessex Archaeological Society is a Registered Charity No. 6932091514

‘Siren – Signal’  2011

During the International Lighthouse Weekend (Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd August, 2011), the 3 works that constitute ‘Siren – Signal’ were installed within Light Vessel 21 (LV21). Now moored at Gillingham pier on the river Medway, this magnificent 40 metre steel-hulled Lightship saw active service at stations around the Kent coast between 1976 and 2001.

‘Siren-Signal’ references my experience of growing up on that coast, where the Fog Horn sound was a seasonal event that signalled the warning of impending and seemingly infinite cloud conditions. The Horns mournful cry echoed along the cliffs, yearning and piercing the visually impenetrable fog and thick sea mists that curtained the land and turned days into eerie twilights.

Lying in my bed it was my belief that these sounds emanated from the flashing beacon that was North Foreland Lighthouse, Broadstairs. Thirty years on I was informed, contrary to that notion, that Tongue Light Vessel 1 (LV1) that had been moored stationary and mostly silent on the Tongue sandbank miles off Margate’s coast, was the source of the voice I had heard and which had comforted and blanketed my sleep.

Vocally creating all the sounds and manipulating them digitally; Siren – Signal aims to reawaken slumbering memories and experiences which are no longer a part of our coastal environment, whilst  at the same time reflecting on and echoing my own and LV21’s lost pasts.

Siren Signal by STEVE MCPHERSON

A waterline Light Vessel 21 paper model, created to cut out and create yourself. 2011

Artwork available for purchase, (some experience of model making may be necessary), £10 + postage. Email me for details, or visit Light Vessel 21 on the river Medway in Kent, to buy one directly from them.

A reworked version of Lost-Song, with sounds taken from the Siren Signal samples, and including as part of the exhibition the 8ft ‘Tongue Light Vessel 1′ drawing.  Part of the ‘International Light House Relay’ project of the Folkestone Fringe, during the Folkestone Triennial, July 2011.

60 Marine/beach plastic objects found on the coast of the UK, 1994-2011 (Including those both lost due to mishap and misadventure) Unaltered Marine plastic objects found on the UK coast, 1994-2010, and text on card

On the 20th April 2011, members of the Light Vessel Historical Society gave four talks on board Light Vessel 21 at Gillingham pier, Kent. Discussed was new information regarding the secret history of LV21, and its unique experimental role during 1944 at the East Goodwin Station. With the help of documents recovered from archives , diary entries and personal effects from the former crew, the story was revealed, questions asked, and information based on current findings divulged.

Collaboaration  with artists Sarah Britten-Jones, Fiona Long and Katy Beinart,  for Figure Ground Projects

‘System Accumulation’, 2011 Unaltered Marine plastic objects found on the UK coast between 1994-2011 collated and created to reflect the mean temperature of the UK official summer of 2010