‘Explain Yourself’ Severn Beach Stone Carvings

Choose your favourite designs to be turned into stone

VOTE ONLINE HERE! "

Which three stone carvings would you like to see on the sea front? A Forgotten Landscape’s artist Deborah Aguirre Jones has been developing ideas with local people for public art that speaks to Severn Beach: the people, the environment and the history.

Deborah asked people an impossible question; ‘How would you go about explaining yourself or the human world to this landscape?’

Individuals, groups and families in the area responded by having conversations, making sculptures, doing drawings and trying out different actions.

Deborah has designed a carving inspired by each of the responses, which has the potential to be transformed into stone for Severn Beach. The designs are shown here, along with a short description of what happened or the idea behind it.

Please enjoy browsing through this extraordinary and wonderful selection of stories and artworks. VOTE HERE to let us know which three you would like to see as sculptures.

Please note:

Final carvings will differ from drawn designs, in response to the stone.

Votes will inform selection of three designs to be carved in stone. Selection will be finalised with A Forgotten Landscape, South Gloucestershire County Council Arts Officer and Severn Beach Art Group.

‘Explain Yourself’ Severn Beach Stone Carvings VOTE ONLINE HERE! "

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Explaining myself to a Black Poplar Jo-Anne Mc Allister

Myself = scale / life-span / time

By = hugging (contact / meditation) What = a large tree, such as a Black Poplar (with something larger than me / us with it’s own much slower bio-rhythm)

Photo: Eleanor Davis

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Explaining Movement to TreesEmma Cross

Trees stay in one place, rooted to the ground. Emma’s life involves a lot of travelling, slowly or at speed, between places and across landscapes. She explained this feeling of freedom and movement by riding her bike through one of the levels’ historic orchards while it was abundantly fruiting.

Photo: Deborah Aguirre Jones

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Explaining the Affect of Music to the Tides.Miriam Barnes

You know that feeling, when you hear a really good piece of music? It makes Miriam smile a warm smile of friendship. We read her poem out loud to the estuary; it was an imagined conversation which puzzled over unanswerable questions and, in the end,simply feels happily companionable.

Photo: Eleanor Davis

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Explaining Creativity to the Estuary Melanie Knight

Melanie is a maker; she’s always learning new techniques and getting to know how materials behave. Walking regularly along and around Severn Beach, there are particular places she knows and loves well. Bringing both these passions together, Melanie made small ‘jumpers’ for the sea wall fence which show the stones on the mud, the water and the sky.

Photo: Deborah Aguirre Jones

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Explaining Me to the WaterAnne Newman

The words full of energy and feeling, written in soluble ink, dispersed as they were submerged. The poem drifted off the paper, becoming water. Ann looked for what we have in common with the estuary and connected through empathy.

Photo: Eleanor Davis

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Explaining Ballroom Dancing to the EstuarySevern Beach Art Group

Why do we dance? Do dolphins dance?

Peter remembered the painting ofa couple dancingon a beach, with an accommodating butler and maid in attendance, which we reconstructed.

Imagining the beach as a ballroom felt right; it is expansive and joyous.

Photo: Michal Iwanowski

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Explaining Potatoes to our Ancestors1st Olveston Guides

Our ancestors never had the chance to taste or meet these incredible things that are the successors of evolution.

Photo: 1st Olveston Guides

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Explaining Different Journeys to the EstuaryPeter Tyzack

Severn Beach is a place of journeys; crossings, arrivals and departures. Over the centuries, so many people have passed through here on their varied journeys; as pioneers, explorers, holiday-makers or migrants… Peter imagined three figures from across time alongside each other, each with distinctive luggage holding their identities, their stories.

Photo: Eleanor Davis

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Explaining Human Negligence to the Natural WorldAnne Harrison

A stormy sky takes no notice of the wild, eroding sea. Just like us, living with indifference while our greedy and destructive behaviours destroy the natural world. We read Anne’s poem to the incoming tide.

Photo: Jennifer Gathercole

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Explaining Compulsory Purchase Orders to the Estuary St Helen’s Art Group, Alveston

Manuella’s home village in Mexico once had a small river, but a company bought the rights to the water through a compulsory purchase order and replaced the river with a tap supply. The whole shape and lifestyle of the village was changed as they lost their ability to grow vegetables easily; children could no longer play and swim; the sound was gone and the landscape dry.

Photo: Jennifer Gathercole

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Explaining my Mother to the BirdsManuella King

A memory of Manuella’s mother Concita who, while hanging washing on the line, would stand on one leg and whistle to the birds. It may be that she stood on one leg simply to rest her other leg, she was such a busy woman.

Photo: Jennifer Gathercole

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Explaining the Royal Family to the Second Severn CrossingSevern Beach Art Group with Diver Carmen Zahra

What is Royalty? What must it be like to have all of your orders obeyed? What must it be like to be a member of the royal family and to have no choices?

Part of Severn Beach’s folkloric history is that, when Prince Charles came to formally open the second bridge, security was so high that there were frogmen in the rhines. This is remembered with some degree of wry humour.

Photo: Eleanor Davis

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Explaining Allotments to the EstuaryDavid Bull with Severn Beach Art Group

David Bull has lived alongside the estuary all his life; it’s in his blood, he’s always loved this landscape. He grows vegetables (including delicious beetroot!) and has an allotment near Oldbury. Art is another important pastime; he creates beautiful drawings and paintings of people, animals and flowers. David asked us to explain his allotment to the estuary through the medium of drawing. Our art group happily took this challenge on, creating all sorts of plants and gardens in the mud.

Photo: Eleanor Davis

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Explaining Halloween to the Moon1st Olveston Guides

Trick or treat?

Izzy wrote a rhyme, we acted out a dark story of Halloween. Phoebe was a witch and killed Georgia, Erin, Emily the children. It was creepy.

Photo: 1st Olveston Guides

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Explaining Our Lives to the EstuaryCaroline Stealey with Severn Beach Art Group

Caroline loves the way maps can be re-invented to record the journeys of our lives, which are so often different from what we planned. They can show the things we’ve done, what’s happened and our experiences.We each drew a map of something from our lives, turning them into flags for the beach.

Photo: Eleanor Davis

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Explaining Ourselves to the Water in the estuaryAnn Newman with Severn Beach Art Group

How is it possible to explain ourselves to water? Starting with what we have in common can be a way to communicate across apparently un-bridgeable difference. Reminding us that humans are 50–78% water, Ann invited the art group to make miniature figures in ice and personalise each one before offering them to the estuary. The miniature frozen people contained stones, feathers, flowers, tea leaves and bubbles. They melted together on the seaweed and mud.

Photo: Michal Iwanowski

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Explaining Our Feelings to the Water1st Olveston Guides

Two angry people and two peace keepers.

A ritual and dance. The calming effect of words spoken aloud.

Feelings written in the sand, washed away by water.

Photo: Emma Pritchard

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Explaining Harry Potter to a Tree1st Olveston Guides

We were explaining Harry Potter. We read sections of Harry Potter to the tree. We told the tree that books are made of paper. We assured the tree that when a tree was cut down a new one was planted. The information was passed from tree to tree as long as they were touching.

Diagram: Daisy, April and Laura

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Explaining A Family Ritual to the VillageSally Kitching and Severn Beach Art Group

Families often have their own rituals which accumulate shared memories. Birthdays in Sally’s family are always celebrated with a full-on party tea. The table is decorated with balloons, cake, hats, candles, glitter, party poppers and an abundance of food. It’s what they always have done, and always will.

Photo: Michal Iwanowski

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Explaining Donald to the DukeLucy Bywater

Lucy decided she should explain Donald Trump’s hair to her horse, Duke. She felt Duke probably knows quite a lot about hair, but the president’s quiff is a special situation which really needs to be understood. As horses are sensitive and responsive to their riders’ moods, Lucy decided to do most of the explaining through silent communication with some talking.

Photo: JP Event Photography Ltd.

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