A call and response sea shanty performed by the artist, Hastings Town Singers and the public.
The lyrics to the shanty are based on a love letter writing exchange organised by the artist between passengers traveling in opposite directions across the English Channel. Never meeting, the public were invited to write a love letter to an imagined other on board the ship traveling in the opposite direction. Matched and exchanged anonymously based solely on the proximity of imagination these letters form the basis of the shanty.
Developed at sea, the work creates a place for the romance of encounter with another in the space of imagination, subverting the possibility for disappointment by meeting only in hope.
This work was commissioned by Diep-Haven Festival New World and performed at Jerwood Gallery Hastings in the contact of the Lowry by the Sea exhibition.