Why Stones
The idea for the World Beach Project arrived in my head fully formed and in an instant. It popped up by way of responding to the response to my work using small stones, which in its turn, is a response to the land – specifically, rock.
Whether a line of quartz splitting a rock face or a huge folded mountain range, the structure of rock talks of the structure of our planet. It is like a map of time - the earth drawing itself on a massive scale.
And whether stones are satisfyingly smooth… or like long thin fingers… or beautifully, almost purely round; whether they are knobbly, shiny, dull, crinkly, holey, patterned or plain, black or white – they reflect the language of their making i.e. how they look in this de-constructed state is as a direct result of their construction, probably millions of years ago. I find this exciting.
World Beach was conceived as a global drawing project; a stone drawing project that would speak about time, place, geology and the base instinct of touch. Drawings made on shorelines all over the world, which although erased by the next tide or rains, would be collected within the V&A to become a permanent record of the individual human desire to make pattern.
To pick up a rock, is to touch base. Touching stones gives us a primal, spiritual connection with the earth. When we handle a stone, we hold in our hands a small drawing, a tiny piece of the map; we are holding time.
That’s why.
December 14th, 2007 at 4:25 am
I’m a needlepoint person in the United States who does original designs on counted canvas.Thus your comments on pattern and design are interesting to me, and your work is stunning and inspiring. I hope to send my family on a world beach project on Christmas Day in California, weather permitting. Please extend my thanks to the V&A for making your blog possible. One of the best things about the internet is the simultaneous shrinking of national borders and expanding of view and perspectives about our world.
January 11th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Dear Sue,
Congratulations for your words, which were more than letters next to each other. They became words (inspiring ones) because they mean something, as well as we all became happy and alive when a project as WBP turn out into our reality.
tx, once more and always.
January 21st, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Stones are so special to me. I suffered a breakdown, and to help to heal myself I walked and walked in the countryside near where I lived. I would collect stones whilst on my walks, they were a great comfort to me, they were like ‘friends’. I collected specific colours and stored them in jars. After a couple of years and getting through the breakdown, I made a patio area with the stones.
I was told once before picking up a stone, one should ask the stone if its ok to pick it up.
January 31st, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I am living in the US now, but lived on the coast of Wales. My former housemate is still living there with his two children, and we thought that the Beach Project was something that we could do together, 3493 miles apart. We both made stone projects on our respective local beaches. I have posted pictures of the experiences and the Beach project on my blog.
www.pigtown-design.blogspot.com
Thanks for this great project!
February 20th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Dear Sue,
I love the world beach project. I am currently running the Brighton Pebble Museum, perhaps you would like to come and visit and make some work together? All the best,
Graeme
www.tbpm.co.uk
April 7th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
i love the project and am looking forward to participating! i was wondering if the beach had to be by the ocean or if a beloved pond beach would be okay. thanks!
penny
April 15th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Ocean is good because the tide comes in twice a day to wipe the slate clean.
But a river or lake bank is okay too.
The most important thing is that it’s with stones - stones naturally found in that location (i.e not imported).
Look forward to seeing your ideas.
April 15th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Graeme - The Brighton Pebble Museum looks interesting.
Lots of great stones on the south coast - be good to devise some kind of summer project day?
June 5th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Hello Sue,
Great idea - thanks! I work with ‘Spreading Wings’, a community arts partnership in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland and we are to follow your idea on two gorgeous beaches here this Sunday - World Ocean Day. A local artist will create her own pieces and work with as many people as we can manage (or who show up!) to ‘litter’ the beach with stone art. We’ll submit images to the V&A site but we are excited about the potential for setting off new perspectives, ‘encouragement and permission’ to all comers to play with the natural environment ‘canvas’. Couple of people also thinking of creating a stone labyrinth for ‘better beach contemplation’. Hoping for great things on Sunday, and a continual stream of stone work on the beach in the future. Many thanks!
David.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
This is something I’ve been been doing in Worthing for a few years now, my work can be seen at www.land-artist.com
J. Stokes
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Hi Sue - Is there an end date to this project?
July 24th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Hi Kelly. No end date is planned for the World Beach Project at the moment… we are hoping it will gather momentum. As long as people feel motivated to participate, we are interested to see what it will become. There is also no limit to how many stone drawings you can submit.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Hi Sue, I visited the Whitworth over the weekend and was introduced to your work!! what an inspiration, thank you!!
January 5th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
hello sue,
i am an ex art student and have carried out a very similar project before.I was also inspired by stones and find this all very exciting.I live in north west London and therefore do not have many beaches with stones but i am hoping i could get involved in this amazing project and make my contribution too.i am looking forward to being even more inspired by everyone’s photos.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:48 am
Hullo Sue,
A group of us had great fun creating our stone drawing on the shore of our beautiful local Lake.But, I am having great trouble in submitting our contribution. Any thoughts?
We all want to thankyou for the totally absorbing pleasure of the project.
Cheers,
BB
February 6th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Hi Barbara
Sorry to hear you’re experiencing problems. Have just put your name into the World Beach search and as no results come up, guess you’re still having difficulty? It’s hard to know why this should be without a little more information.
Have you managed to get as far as the form filling page where you submit your name, choose the image files and showing terms and conditions etc? Are your files less than 2000k each?
If you could be a little more specific where the problem lies, we should be able to help find the answer.
Good luck!