On the night of February 5th 2004 23 migrant workers from China drowned as they gathered cockles from the sands of Morecambe Bay on the coast of north west England. Victoria Eden responded to the tragedy by creating a 50m long installation to commemorate those who lost their lives.

The piece is made up of 23 ceramic forms each constructed from red earthenware clay moulded on to individual plaster casts taken from the ripples and depressions in the sands of Morecambe Bay.

Each piece represents one of the lost Chinese cockle

pickers and uses screenprinted quotations from press reports to highlight the issues of migration, loss and modern slavery. Individual names were added by Taiwanese artist and calligrapher Chun-Chao Chiu.

The work is intended as a metaphorical pathway to the families in China who lost men and women in the tragedy.

It expresses the way that the coastal communities of Britain are linked to them by the events of this night. The piece is about the universal urge to be adventurous, to

improve life and to provide for a family that leads men and women to travel so far a field in search of work and prosperity and it is about those who misled them and imperilled their lives.

The work acknowledges the forces of nature that still rule our existence despite the sophistication of modern technological society.

Victoria Eden was brought up in Morecambe and has family roots that go far back into the history of the town and the fishing industry.

The coast has always been important and meaningful to

her and she has early childhood memories of jumping on the sand untill it turned to jelly and recalls warnings not to roam far out.

The incomparable beauty of the sands, sky and tide and the dangers they present in fine weather or foul have been a background to her life, which has been lived within a few miles of the coast, apart from two years spent teaching in Thailand during the time of the Vietnam war.

The connection between the Far East and her home environment gives the Morecambe Bay cockling tragedy a great personal significance.

NEWS:

*A film of the installation has been made by Alex McErlain, Stephen Yates and John Davis from Manchester Metropolitan University. The film was shortlisted for the International Festival of Ceramic and Glass Films, held in Montpellier, France in Spring 2008, then subsequently shown at:

• Maison des Metiers d'Art, Quebec, Canada. October 2009
• International Potters Festival, Aberystwyth, Wales, July 2009
• Terramicales Association Ceramics Festival, in Paris, France March 2009
• 'England Forever' exhibition at the studio of Françoise Dufayard in Rennes, France, 2008
• The International Biennial of Contemporary Ceramics, Vallauris, France from June to November 2008
• Ceramic Art London, 2008

*The installation was shown at Sandside on Morecambe Bay as part of the 2007 FRED event.

*The piece was selected for 'Coast', an exhibition of work from UK artists, in all media. An opportunityto look at the many different interpretations inspired by that narrow border of land next to the sea.
Rhyl Library, Museum And Arts Centre - Wales, June-July, 2007.

for comments and further information click here to contact Victoria Eden