Summer intervention project part 2

Continuing on my success with my red card work in Gostrey Meadow, Farnham I decided to re-create the intervention in a different location – this time Beer beach, close to where I was on holiday. Beer beach is a pebbly beach with no sand

First I buried the shiny red card in the pebbles. I left the middle clear and piled the edges with stones so there were glimpses shining through the gaps.

I timed it to be around lunchtime and buried it near the cafe to ensure it was visible to the maximum number of people. I did the same as I did in Farnham and sat at a suitable distance away from the work so I can wait and see what happened.

Nothing much happened apart from the odd glance and a dog sniffing it.

I thought about the fact that it was on the floor – was it being considered a random piece of rubbish? and was it being ignored because of that?

After a period of time I decided that another piece of card needed to placed, just off a pathway that people seemed to be using. I didn’t have any more shiney card so had to use an A1 piece of bright red card instead. This piece seemed to offer more opportunities for interaction as more people were noticing it.

Nothing was happening until an elderly man spotted the work. He went over and picked it up, although it was held in place by plenty of stones and walked off with it. He went up some stairs towards some beach huts and disappeared. He did re-amerge later but without the work.

Making sure I was in view of the elderly man I picked up the less successful piece, just to see if he would notice but he didn’t.

I now considered the work to be completed as it had been interacted with, even though nobody else could now interact with it.

Thoughts I had afterwards: I could have written on the card that it was an art piece and made sure that bit was hidden under the pebbles to see the reaction of the finder. That would have meant they would have moved it from the original position – would they try and put it back because it was an art piece or would they ignore the writing and consider it rubbish?