I nearly forgot about this one. So, I am bringing you back to the year 2000 for the first sand sculpture exhibition I helped organise.
After the questionable success of the small sculpture Fergus Mulvany and myself made (Link) in the little Irish fishing village of Duncannon, the locals wanted to go bigger and with a bit of help from grants we were able to bring in four other carvers from around Europe.
This time we also had a large tent to protect the sculptures from the wind, rain and vagabonds. This is something that is not normal necessary but it also provided the option of getting people to pay in to see our creations to recoup some of the costs.
All and nothing
As one of the organisers I didn't really make my own sculpture but went around and helped where I could. Mostly I worked with Nuria Vallverdu Villaginis from the Republic of Catalonia (Had to say that or she'd kill me).
She wanted to make a piece about a mermaid and a shepard form a Catalan story. I helped with the Shepard and Sheep.
The other sculptors made their own pieces based around sea tales from their Countries Denmark, France and The Netherlands were represented but to be honest I don't remember what they were all about. Give me a break, this was 18 years ago.
Edwin from The Netherlands made this great piece of Abstract Star fish. My favorite sculpture because of it's simplity and pushing the sand to new heights, literally.
Sissa from Denmark made the viking myth sea worm along with Fergususususus' help.
And, Caroline from France made some horses fighting with some sort of sea serpent.
It was great to see the small tent filled with sculpture over the few days. The sand in Duncannon is quite nice to work with as beach sands go. The exhibition also helped build the small Cockel shell festival the village was having into something a bit more substantiation and it has now become known as the Duncannon sand sculpture festival with many things happening along the beach.
I still go there ever year to make a sculpture but the grants have been more difficult to get with the recession and all so,the festival has never been able to grow that much bigger because of budgets.
Ps
Thank you for joining me on this journey as I look back and document my work as an ephemeral sculptor. There are many more to come in both sand, snow and ice.
Below you will find some of my recent posts.
Crash test cowboy - sand sculpture
Picture this - sand sculpture
The Kiss - sand sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon and please bring a friend.
@ammonite