Newhaven Lifeboat launch Knot on Call for Artwave 2021
Newhaven Lifeboat launch Knot on Call for Artwave 2021
Lifeboats News Release
RNLI Newhaven has collaborated with local artist Pete Hellicar to create a site-specific installation for the Newhaven Community Courtyard space at Sidings Bistro. Part of September's Artwave festival 2021 around Lewes, Newhaven, Seaford and the surrounding villages.
Pete Hellicar
'Knot on Call' by RNLI Newhaven X Hellicar at Sidings Community Courtyard
The installation explores the emotional nature of the sea. A symbol of power, strength, mystery, calm, endlessness - the sea, at the heart of our existence.
Knot On Call opens on Saturday 11 September.
Pete Hellicar says, ‘I was interested in building on the evocative language of the sea. As a subject, the sea provides both perspective and an eternal rhythm. It is at the primal heart of us all. Both chaotic and calm, balanced yet treacherous.’
To create the poems, Hellicar used the cut-up technique, popularized by writer William S. Burroughs.
‘We printed some 750 words collected from seafaring-related texts and cut these into strips. These strips were then mixed and placed on a large table. The exercise of randomly selecting oblique sentences and pairing them with others threw up surprising combinations. Sometimes dark, other times light and full of whimsy. The word and line selection happened over several weeks as friends and collaborators visited the studio and played with the process.’
The anamorphic poems focus from a fixed perspective, creating a natural resolve as the viewer moves around the piece. Hand-painted into the hull of the boat, the text appears to be floating in a rippling sea. Hellicar achieved this 'Anamorphic' effect by hand-tracing projected text.
The installation includes a boat, buoys, and a trunk painted in the iconic RNLI colours. The paint was kindly supplied by the project's sponsor, Brewers in Seaford.
Roz Ashton, RNLI Newhaven Lifeboat Press Officer, says, 'We appealed to our community via social media to help find a suitable vessel for the project. We have been bowled over by the support of friends, local people and organisations who have given their time, physical strength, and not least, materials. Their generosity and spirit have made the installation possible.'
The installation also includes a selection of RNLI equipment.
'A chance for visitors, young or old, to handle some RNLI kit and even dress up as lifeboat crew.'
‘We are delighted to take part in Newhaven’s Artwave festival. To celebrate Newhaven Lifeboat’s heritage and the essential role the Lifeboat and her volunteer crew continue to play in our community.’
• Established in 1993, Artwave showcase and celebrates a wealth of creative talent. Over 800 creatives will be exhibiting in studios, galleries, gardens, workshops and some more unusual locations in this vibrant part of Sussex: in Lewes, Seaford, Newhaven and some surrounding villages. Work on show ranges from jewellery, textiles, metalwork, ceramics and glass to furniture, illustration, painting and printmaking. All exhibitions are free to visit during their Artwave opening times.
• The cut-up technique (or découpé in French) is an aleatory literary technique in which a written text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. The concept can be traced to at least the Dadaists of the 1920s, but was popularized in the late 1950s and early 1960s by writer William S. Burroughs. It has since been used in a wide variety of contexts.
The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.
