25 February 2010

Coastal erosion as art

Posted by Dave Petley


The Guardian has a slightly bizarre article today. It is entitled “The art of watching your house fall into the sea”. It tells the story of artist Kane Cunningham, who has bought a bungalow on the cliff edge at Knipe Point near to Scarborough. This site has been featured here before as recent landsliding has threatened to destroy a number of houses. He says in the article:

“I’m going to turn the moment my studio collapses into an art work: I’ve set up cameras to film it, and I’ve commissioned music and poetry to celebrate it. Both our houses punch a hole in what we think of as the value of ­property, and remind us of our moral and ethical responsibility to nature… When my studio disappears, I’ll have no sense of loss – that will be its beautiful final act. The sooner it goes, for me, the better.”

He has a website about this here. Quite bizarre, but it could be very interesting to watch.