White Horses - New arts collaboration on the sea

The White Horses arts collaboration © Tracey Falcon

Five months of experimental work have resulted, amongst other things, in a six metre sail printed with hundreds of tessellated sailing related images from our coast, some from interesting perspectives. This stretched up the central stairwell of Whitstable's Horsebridge Centre in February and also appeared at the RYA Dinghy Show at Alexandra Palace.

Prosper is funded by Canterbury Festival, and, working in conjunction with Workers of Art and The Map Consortium, artists Tracey Falcon and Andy Evans have been collaborating with Richard Earland of Whitstable Yacht Club (WYC). The Prosper funding was to enable an experiment between creative professionals and non arts partners.

Tracey, Richard and Andy, under the working title White Horses, have been looking at the activities of the yacht club from new perspectives. This involved two aerial photography sessions taken from a circling plane in November and a hovering helicopter in December when sailors took part on a race. The RNLI and Whitstable Life Boat have combined training with the timing of these aerial photography sessions which has resulted in some stunning shots. White Horses experimentation has also involved photography at and below sea level, ongoing conversations with a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) company, research into KAP (kite aerial photography), printing and other artistic responses to the environment.

The trio see this as very much a trial for ongoing collaborative work with huge ambitions developed during the experimental period and consultation with members of the yacht club.

'We would love to see this sort of activity shared with other yacht clubs around the Kent coast' says Richard who is the Sailing Development Officer of WYC. 'I have been very excited by the potential of aerial photographs for race training as well as the artistic dimension.'

'We have plans for a floating art exhibition at sea and a pop up version on the shore. We are trialing this at the moment and if all goes to plan there's no reason why it shouldn't be able to tour other sailing clubs,' Tracey explains. 'We would also like to create a way of sharing what is happening out at sea during a race, for people walking along the beach. Our conversations with people so far suggest that a sort of Bayeaux Tapestry might be the way forward. We have all sorts of ideas.'

Andy adds 'we have been blown away by the warmth and generosity of the yacht club members in welcoming us and also offering resources, ideas and contributions to our funding. They are as much a part of this project as we are.'

White Horses are aiming to extend the perception of Kent beyond the boundaries of the coast and to draw people's attention to the sea, the associated traditional jobs and coastal industries/area in a new way. They want to encourage new connections with the fantastic natural resource that is the sea, to enable greater access to activities associated with the sea and to explore artistic possibilities offered by the sea and new ways to show and curate these works. Finally, the group want to explore community engagement possibilities through working with Whitstable Yacht Club, visitors to the coast around Whitstable and the associated coastal industries.

Tracey says, 'so far we have had a very short time to explore the exciting potential offered by this collaboration. There is so much more scope for further work. For example, we want to look at navigational and communication technologies used at sea and in the coastal industries and create interactive works for the public to explore. Through Richard we have great connections to a number of potential coastal partners. We are currently applying for funding and sponsorship to continue our activities and would welcome approaches from interested partners.'

For further information please visit prospertogether.co.uk/2012/04/08/post-9/ or our new facebook page www.facebook.com/whitehorseswhitstable.