Coast to Coast to Coast: map, line, and stitch — poetry into stitch From Aldeburgh to Pier Head

Coast to Coast to Coast: map, line, and stitch. Stitch Translations— poetry into stitch       

Image of one of stitch translations from, Coast to Coast to Coast: map, line, and stitch, thanks to Ron Davies for photo

Maria will give an illustrated talk about her project which was shown at the South Lookout at Poetry in Aldeburgh in November. The talk will be followed by a shared reading of the graphics piece created from the lines written at locations around the UK, Ireland, and beyond, and will conclude with some of Maria’s own recent work including that created as part of her residency at Aldeburgh. There will be an opportunity for questions, and a chance to see the 48 textile pieces. Copies of the limited edition concertina journal will be available for sale. 

Background to the project: 

In response to Maria’s prompt, on or as close as possible to 31 August 2018, at 8pm, poets drafted a poem at their chosen coast; each draft was given location, date and time as a title, and poets sent a few lines to Maria representing the essence of their writing. 

One line of text was selected from each poet to create a litany of the coast around the UK and Ireland and beyond. The litany resulted in a concertina journal of 96 lines tracing the coasts of the UK, Ireland, and beyond.

Each line of the litany has also been translated into abstract works resulting in 48 stitched pieces for display.

The artworks are depicted in the order of the litany: the journey around the coast starts at the Pier Head in Liverpool, tours the coast of Northern Ireland, travels around Ireland including Galway, Kerry, Cork, and Wicklow before travelling to Wales, Somerset, Cornwall, along the south coast, west to east, and up the east coast to Whitby, and beyond to Scotland, east to west from Aberdeen to Loch Fyne, over to the Isle of Arran before returning to Southport and Crosby in Merseyside.

It’s a pleasure to include four poets located outside of the UK (South of France, Geneva, Turkey, and California), at the time of writing