Untitled Document

Four Shores,
Isle of Sheppey, Kent
2005
Project partners: Medway Swale Estuary Partnership (MSEP),
funding from Arts Council England, Kent County Council
and matched through
European budgets.

Further information
on Four Shores can be seen
on
www.publicartonline.org.uk
www.axisartists.org.uk

Four Shores: artworks for the
Isle of Sheppey catalogue
and DVD with text by Nicola Barker and Stephen Turner, edited by Frances Lord.
ISBN 0-9550467-1-8

Not The Usual Grasses singing: a journey around the Isle of Sheppey by Ros Barber
ISBN 0-9550467-0-X
Available from
www.medway-swale.org.uk

Four Shores, a sequence of walks on the Isle of Sheppey linking Sheerness, Warden Point, Leysdown and Harty, was devised by lead artist Stephen Turner, with poet Ros Barber, architect Simon Barker, film-maker Abbe Leigh Fletcher and project manager Frances Lord.

"The four of us camped on the island - spending time together discussing ideas from very different perspectives made for an intensely creative process. Between us we amassed a wide range of material, which really stimulated our imaginations. We were helped by the many knowledgeable people we met: a wasp fancier, local publicans, a retired bobby, the many fossil collectors who walk the beach … "
Stephen Turner

Stephen Turner created a series of artworks including 'Razorform' and five 'Shellcretes' made from a mix of white cement and shells sited in the Swale Nature Reserve, Shellness; and 'Cracked', 'Fallen', 'Exposed', 'Left', 'Settle', 'Wear', polished and incised concrete objects to be found along the foreshore from Minster to Warden Point, with lettering by James Honeywood.

Ros Barber wrote a series of linked poems, published as Not The Usual Grasses singing: a journey around the Isle of Sheppey, written entirely in rhyming couplets, inspired by interviews with island people and her research into Sheppey’s history, memories and rumours.
An additional poem 'End of the World' by Ros was inscribed on the sea defence steps at Sheerness, designed by Simon Barker. Simon Barker also created four 'Colours of Sheppey' image charts using details of photographs taken by the artists on the island.

Abbe Leigh Fletcher documented the entire project in a 28 minute film with footage incorporating the islands features and landmarks, and interviews with local people and the artist team.