My 'art on the beach' birthday experience

September 15 2010 , Written by thediversetraveller Published on #Birthday, #coast, #England, #Evewright, #evewright studio, #Kadija George, #Lancaster, #Ola Fagbohun, #public art, #Recommendations & Rants (tips, links and reviews), #seaside, #Silecroft Beach Cumbria, #Travel Beyond the UK, #UK, #Walking Drawings

When I was much younger, I hated birthdays; if I wasn't in school, I was at on my way back to university. I hated those school birthday celebrations, shared with the many other September babies.

A unique birthday experience

Fortunately, these days I can choose how to celebrate, or not, my birthday. Despite being a prime candidate for the TV show 'Grumpy Old Women', I look forward to my birthday.

Not for me, hiding under the duvet, or camping out at the designer beauty counter praying that the adverts were right and the face-lifting and anti-wrinkle face polisher containing oxygenated oxygen will make me ten years younger. My birthday plans tend to be a little more unique i.e engaging in new experiences.

I had other plans for my birthday, a trip to Tuscany, Italy. A few days later, numerous emails and phone calls, the Tuscany trip was off. I resorted to the comfort of my duvet and a Curb Your Enthusiasm marathon, to avoid thinking about spending my birthday, a Thursday, in London doing nothing special.

While under my duvet, I read and re-read emails, and was intrigued by one requesting volunteers.

A unique birthday experience

This year, in the early hours of my birthday morning, I shall be volunteering dressed like a ninja i.e head-to-toe in black. I shall be walking, with many others, in single file following lines carved into the sandy, pebbly beach of Silecroft Beach in Cumbria, a part of England I have never been to.

Madness has not set in, I am not leaving London at Midnight to dramatically drown myself off the English coast, just because I won't be celebrating my birthday in the style of The Tuscan Sun or Eat, Pray, Love. I shall be on a midnight mini-bus to Cumbria, along with about 25 other nutty Londoners, in order to join about 100 others. We will all be forming a large public art project, a Walking Drawing project.

There was a photo embedded into the email, it showed a beach decorated with oddly-shaped lines. It seemed, to me, that someone had let loose with a very large pencil and drawn un-edited lines in the sand, lines that curved, were straight or joined together, forming something. On closer inspection, I noticed people standing tall in the grooves made by the lines.

Curious I read on; could this be the unique birthday experience I was looking for?

The Walking Drawing project

The Walking Drawing mentioned in the email is a film installation project by artists Evewright, Everton Wright, and Renate Moritz.

"The Evewright Walking Drawing project comprises a number of large-scale experimental drawings undertaken with a combination of freehand and mechanical tools on a vast landscape (canvas) of at least a quarter of a mile in the early hours of the morning."

Along with other about 100 volunteers of different ages, genders and cultures, all dressed in black, I will be led onto the Silecroft Beach sand and instructed to walk within the lines of various formats and patterns. Our early morning walk will be accompanied by a soundtrack produced by a local music organisation. As mentioned, the Walking Drawing is a film installation, so the entire process (creating the drawing, the various walks on the drawing through the day) will be filmed, photographed and then shown in venues and festivals as an art film installation.

A piece of art

Silecroft Beach is not tuscany, and cannot rival the food, museums and art, but I don't care. As how often will get the chance to be part of an intriguing contemporary art project. Plus I get the chance to continue my visits to the English coast.

I may be on my soapbox, but I believe, with each birthday, we should do something meaningful, something we want to do for ourselves. You don't have to be adventurous, like me to use each birthday to try out new experiences.

Follow me on Twitter (@diversetraveler) to find out how I get on. Plus if you are participating in this Walking Drawing project, or you have your own birthday stories about embracing new experiences, please share.

To learn more about this Walking Drawing project visit http://www.evewrightstudio.com/walkingdrawings.html

Walking Drawings images credit: www.evewrightstudio.com

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