9 images
click on image
to pause & continue
click on image
to pause & continue
Morecambe Bay, Cumbria
One Rock
Lanternhouse, Ulverston, Cumbria
December 2003 and January 2004
A multimedia installation and performance by Welfare State International, exploring the ecology and environment of Morecambe Bay in sound, images, sculpture, song and performance. The focus was a lone rock in a great expanse of sand exposed at low tide under often dramatic weather rolling in across the bay.
As a founder member of Welfare State I joined a group of geologists and microbiologists working with artists and musicians to create this
One Rock is last visible trace of glacial debris that filled Morecambe Bay after the last ice-age. But when William Wilberforce crossed the sands in 1779 he wrote: ' You see on the sands many rocks, which render the navigation very dangerous.'
Local people say the Rock was "above their heads" only forty years ago. It could well disappear in our lifetime as the bay continues to silt up.
On the opposite side of the bay, Heysham Nuclear Power Station reminds us of other modern realities.
copyright 2011 © Roger Coleman