It is about two years since I last updated my website – not because I haven’t been busy, but because I was experimenting in new directions, still inspired like all my previous work by the local shoreline.
For the past couple of years I have been looking at how to use seaweed creatively (mostly kelp). I was inspired by how robust, tough and flexible it has to be to survive in its natural environment.
Oarweed and linen thread 54x95cm 2023
The kelps are a totally wild, uncultivated and plentiful resource, growing in the sub-littoral zone of the shore – below the tideline. It is only uncovered at extreme low tides, which happen once every full-moon. Round this part of the Solway Firth, low spring tides occur around 7am and 7pm. Clambering down steep cliffs and out across seaweed-strewn rocks in the dark is not a very safe or practical activity, so I need to collect all my resources over the summer months. I treat these restrictions with respect on several levels.
Once collected, if left wet, it rots; if dried it becomes brittle and fragile. There are no manuals or traditions (that I can find) about how to make reasonably durable artworks from seaweed. I found this refreshing – I was having to make my own way.
Oarweed and linen thread 40x100cm 2023
Oarweed corded and netted 46x122cm 2023
Seaweed – the laminaria zone 35x29x3cm 2023
Seaweed – the laminaria zone is a one-off artist’s book with each page showing different (flat) ways I have used the different seaweeds. Sample pages follow:
Book page: stitched oarweed
Book page: stitched oarweed
Book page: dulse
Linda Mallett 