Finding people not Nemo

By Adrian Lochhead, Director of Eden Arts

In Redcar two boys kept coming back. We began to recognise them through the day, later when we talked with them they told us they were eight years old.

They clearly had the freedom to do what they wished, local boys, street confident.  They would come and engage, starting early in the morning, staring down the beast, flirting with us but maintaining a distance, wary ferals, coming in for a quick bite and then off again. 

It turned out they were going away and researching.

By the end of the day they knew it was a Sperm whale and what they ate and what their habitat would be and that something must have been wrong with it for it to beach here. They interrogated us about what it could have been, they suggested it could have eaten something bad or perhaps been hit by a ship. 

As we left as it was getting dark we asked them if they would remember this WHALE. 

“Yes”, they said, “for the rest of our lives”.

From what we gathered the consensus was that the whale was killed by climate change or that we had put it there for some reason to do with climate change. 

We didn’t sell it or explain it or interpret it. 

But climate change and our relationship with the environment will do if a reason is needed. 

When you get a review that says I will remember this for the rest of my life then you know that something is real and relevant. 

The viewers numbered many thousands, we estimated about 10000 in each of Redcar and Whitehaven. They would stand around sizing it up, discussing it, arguing about it, interrogating all aspects of the event; even the unbelievers had something to discuss – if it wasn’t real, then what is it, why would anyone do this, is it some environmental statement, is this art?  The average time spent was 30 minutes (* see note at bottom of page).

As a piece of people bait the WHALE is about as big as it gets. It brings people in their curious thousands to gawp and muse and puzzle over the leviathan landing in their space.  How did it get there? Why? What happened to this giant? Some are cynical, unbelievers, others come to mourn. 

Thanks to all involved, the Captain Boomer Collective, Bart, Stijn, Joris, Hedwig and the team, the Eden Arts team, Simon in particular got us through the years of planning, Heather and Bryoney did some early work and late comers Matt and Sally and Lakota got us over the line with last minute arrangements and negotiations, and to the artists who responded to the beaching.  A project so long that it started off working with one Whitehaven Harbour Commissioner, Celia McKenzie, and ended with a newer one John Baker – thanks to both of them and WHC’s Simone and team who sorted the practical things – ‘little things’ like lowering the level of the harbour to create a bigger beach, and thanks too to Laura and Lisa at Redcar and Cleveland Council, we know that it wasn’t easy.

A big thank you too to all the services involved who supported us, coast guards, police, council comms teams, as well as the haulage companies and security and in particular our support from BOSS Events for helping us to ensure that everything went safely.