Six local artists created incredible artworks for Walk the Chalk, which sat along the coast path during Celebration Week, working in sympathy with the landscape and provoking discussion and wonder.
From seahorses to a mushroom spore to a giant lost bird, all our installation artists responded to the themes of biodiversity and human interaction with nature.
Renowned land artist Chris created a fly agaric mushrom spore on the west gable end of South Hill Barn, using limewash so as to fade gradually over time. You may still be able to see it!
Two talented students from East Sussex College were given the fantastic opportunity to work as apprentices to Chris in the making of the piece.
Hope Gap is the home of a rare colony of beautiful short-snouted seahorses, thanks to the chalk aquifers that lie beneath the ground and supply water to around 75% of local homes. Some of the water contained within seeps out of the cliffs into the sea, diluting it to the perfect level of salinity for these precious creatures to thrive.
Michelle was inspired by this phenomenom to create a quartet of elegant metal seahorses, forming a portal to the England Coast Path.
Christian's 4 metre high recycled stainless steel and copper bottle was adorned with exquisite representations of local marine wildlife. The work is a reflection of the marine conservation zone which stretches along this part of the coast, and a commentary on the volume and impact of the waste and plastic which ends up in our seas.
A member of the Corvid family of birds, the chough was once a common sight at Seaford Head, but disappeared from the area around the 1830s. Abbie hoped her recreation of this distinctive creature, with its red beak and legs and black plumage, might entice them back. Natural England has run successful chough re-introduction programmes in some parts of the country, and indicated during a Walk the Chalk planning meeting that East Sussex may be next - mission (hopefully) acomplished!
Originally intended to be an automaton with flapping wings, the chough was badly affected by the high winds and storm early in the Celebration Week. Abbie worked tirelessly in terrible weather conditions to restore her to the magificent beast you see above.
Lee Baker and Catherine Borowski's Graphic Rewilding project uses joyously colourful representations of local plant life to inspire people to connect and empathise with the natural world. Their set of 11 huge flags rustling in the breeze by the Coastguard Cottages included species found on Seaford Head, such as the Green Winged Orchid, Yellow Horned Poppy, and the very rare Moon Carrot.
Installing huge artworks on a windy clifftop was never going to be straightforward, and some unexpectedly dramatic weather took its toll on the night of the 17th-18th September.
Keith's angular cube, covered in chalk slurry and being ingested by giant chalk fossils, was a contemplation on how humanity has moved away from the natural world, the catastrophic climate-induced erosion of the area, and how the man-made will always eventually be reclaimed by nature.
With the climate working as an univited co-creator, Fundamental Fallen - renamed in the aftermath of the storm - ended up telling this story more authentically than could ever have been planned, and served as a reminder of how the environment holds all at its mercy.
Drawing by Keith Pettit
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