October 2005

Neville Gabie
Coast: Public lecture.

Neville completed his active involvement with the Coast Project with a free lecture given at the South East Essex College. The talk, attended by approximately 60 people was held on the evening of October 18, 2005. Speaking to a mixed audience of foundation and fine art degree students from the college, and members of the local population, Neville talked about his work on the nearby island of Foulness.

Sealed off from the outside world as a MoD weapons' testing facility,the island is an enigma to its near neighbours in densely populated Southend. Locked within a maze of creeks and waterways Foulness Island has always maintained a mysterious reputation - as well as a small resident population.

Formerly used as an Atomic Weapons Establishment and still generally off limits to the non resident public, the low lying spit of land between the Thames Estuary and the River Crouch is only maintained by sea defences. In his lecture Neville explained his work to look at the secretive nature of the Island's fascinating geography and the Island's associations with the sea.

Brought together in a publication and DVD, Neville's work on the island as part of Coast follows as many strands as there are creeks and waterways around Foulness. To explore this landscape's intimate relationship with the sea Neville travelled between Estonia and Creaksea Wharf on Wallasea Island, ostensibly to fetch a length of wood. On land, he filmed the secretive landscape of Foulness using kites as a means of giving an aerial perspective of land and water not possible from the ground. Neville's journey on a decommissioned lifeboat up the Thames Estuary with Kenyan writer Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, resulted in a short story which echo's the opening of Joseph Conrad's famous 19th century novel, Heart of Darkness. Itself set as a narration in the waters off the island the books refers to Foulness and the surrounding landscape as the "swamp" and "savagery, the utter savagery" that would have welcomed Roman soldiers.

The resulting publication was launched on June 25 at an event on the island that due to MoD restrictions had to be limited to invited guests only. During that special event delegates made their way onto the island by boat and on foot using ancient tidal track ways. They then followed footpaths, specially marked for the event, to converged on the George and Dragon pub in the island's village of Churchend. During his talk and reception at the architecturally striking lecture pod, Neville encouraged the audience to follow in his footsteps to visit the island by contacting the landlord of the George and Dragon to be allowed onto the island.

Neville's book is available through firstsite and cornerhouse.
For further information contact firstsite on 01206 577067.

Artist's Statement
The coastal region around Foulness Island continues to be illusive. It is neither truly land, most of it lying below sea level and only protected by earthen sea defences, nor is it sea, though it is equally exposed. With almost all the islands here belonging to the MOD, it is also in effect a military state with no right of access for anyone bar its few residents. It is a vast, empty wilderness, butting right up to Southend. Divided from the 'mainland' by a myriad of tidal waterways, it is easy to become lost, confused, with almost no distinguishing landmarks among the mud flats and river inlets.

Small backwaters intertwine leading to vast bodies of water as estuary crosses estuary between the Thames and the Crouch. My project echoes the arrangement of these waterways, follow different avenues of interconnected investigation. Seen together, they will give a personal insight into this landscape.

Flat, unyielding, out of bounds; some of my thinking has been influenced by the need to simply see where I am. Using simply constructed periscopes and more recently, kites with cameras attached, the work is an attempt to snatch glimpses of a prohibited landscape from an elevated viewpoint. My focus has been on one specific island - Rushley, an entirely deserted, landlocked island which falls within the military boundary, but which has never been used as anything other than a buffer giving added security to Foulness itself. Over the coming months I plan to chart the island from the air using kites and from the water, circumnavigating it by boat.

The idea of the 'island' is something that interests me. It's separateness, its clearly defined boundary, the basic desire to own or at least be in control of ones environment, the romance of it. Much of this work is motivated by the desire to 'take possession' of the island and at least conceptually, that is what this work is about.

Despite the emptiness and isolation of Rushley Island, you are never out of sight of the tower blocks in Southend, which sit like beacons on the western horizon. Densely populated with all the trappings of a seaside resort, it is hard to imagine a greater contrast. Just as the influence of the MOD in this area is impossible to ignore, so to are the seaside activities and culture that has been shaped by a landscape of land and water.

The spit of land east of Southend lies guardian to one of the most significant rivers in history. Marlow, the narrator in Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness', tells his story on a boat lying at anchor right here. This is in effect the gateway to where Empire begins, shifting goods, people and dominion across the world. Essex remains a place of trade, though my means of accessing this activity will be through the classified adds in local newspapers and the numerous carboot sales which take place on a daily basis.

Exploring the physical qualities of the landscape, tracking the last remaining commercial shipping company on the river Crouch and visiting carboot sales. These are threads of thought that will be brought together in a publication.

Neville Gabie