Finding people not Nemo
By Adrian Lochhead, Director of Eden Arts
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.
From the moment it is found at dawn the dog walkers begin to spread the word, taking snaps for their social media, sending out the message that there is a whale on the beach. From then on there is a steady stream of people, school groups, workers in their break, old people taking a detour from the supermarket shopping, families who jumped in the car in disbelief. Thousands come across days. And then it is gone.
As the word spread, we tried to track it and count, at 2.6m engagements we gave up. The Chinese People’s Daily had covered the story, how many millions were going to engage with the WHALE through that?
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?
In Redcar two boys kept coming back, we began to recognise them through the day and 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 it was killed by climate change or that we had put it there for some reason to do with climate change. We actually had a much less directed narrative, as much about us being curious as to how people react than trying to direct them.
We didn’t sell it or explain it or interpret it.
But climate change will do if a reason is needed. Who are we to argue?
This work wasn’t easy. It takes years to make it happen. Brexit, the pandemic, a local environmental event all brought their challenges, quite disheartening challenges that had some of us even wishing we weren’t even doing the thing towards the end – rather like when you spend a long time planning a special meal and cooking and preparing and when it comes to it you don’t want to eat.
But 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.
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 like Matt and Sally and Lakota got us over the line with last minute arrangements and negotiations. 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 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.