Ghosts of the Restless Shore
Space, Place and Memory of the Sefton Coast
Tim Collier
From Cabin Hill - Ghosts of the Restless Shore, 2015
Mike and Tim Collier
Five birds of the Sefton Coast, 2015
In this collaboration, Mike’s use of the colloquial names of the bird sits below Tim’s photographs of them, emphasising a feeling of space and clean colour. The five birds here are ones encountered regularly along the Sefton Coast. Pitcartnie; Common Tern: Screecher; Sandwich Tern: Windhover; Kestrel: Lintwhite; Skylark and Chaldrick; Oyestercatcher.
Jake Campbell
Slack Tide: William Wouldhave at Formby Lifeboat Station, 2014/5
William Wouldhave was born in South Shields – where Campbell himself hails from. He is reputed to have ‘invented’ the first lifeboat in 1789 (a claim also made by Henry Greathead), whilst the first Lifeboat Station in the UK was at Formby Point.
Tim Collier
Return of The Avocet, 2015
The Avocet, emblem of the RSPB, is a bird that symbolises, perhaps more than any other, the successes of conservation over the last seventy or so years. The text pieces emphasise the rarity of the bird with quotes being taken from A Familiar History of Birds by Edward Stanley 1865 and The Birds of the Liverpool Area by Eric Hardy 1941
Mike Collier (artwork); Jake Campbell (words)
Bootle Organ, 2014/5
There are three images here. The first two are drafts of the poem scanned from Campbell’s own notebook. The third is the final version of the finished poem, typeset. The Bootle Organ of the title of this poem is a colloquial name for one of the coast’s rarest creatures – the Natterjack Toad.
MIke Collier
Six Birds of the Sefton Coast, 2015
The colloquial names for birds frequently refer to the look, behaviour or sound of the bird. For instance a swift is called a DEVILING – perhaps because of its inaccessibility; its speed in flight. Avocets utter loud yelping cries when disturbed, hence YARWHELP. SPARLING refers to the harsh call of the Common Tern.
Tim & Mike Collier and Jake Campbell
Jellyfish, Bird Sound and Latin Names (Inspired by Diatoms), 2015
This piece was inspired by a visit the artists took to the Botany Department in the World Museum in Liverpool. The repeated visual forms of the bird song and jellyfish acknowledge the layout of the diatoms, bringing together elements of natural history that are found on the Sefton Coast.
Mike Collier (artwork); Jake Campbell (words)
Elegy for Bert Trautmann, 2014/5
German goalkeeper Bert Trautmann was interned as a Prisoner of War for a short time at Fort Crosby during the Second World War. Collier and Campbell ‘discovered’ the remnants of this site on their walk along the Sefton Coast in 2014.
Tim Collier
Ancient Sunken Forest, 2015 & Pre-historic Red Deer Prints, 2015
The dots in this piece each represent one year – there are 4,000 here. The separation of the black and red graphics indicates the bronze, iron and modern age from year zero. Each line represents 100 years.
The squares in this piece each represent one year. There are 7,000 here, each line representing 100 years. The five bands indicate the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, Iron and the modern age from year zero.
Mike Collier
Everything seen and heard in a walk over two weekends along the Sefton Coastal Footpath in 2014 (no 1), 2015
In these four pieces Collier has listed everything he saw or heard on the four walks along the Sefton Coast in 2014, making reference to plant folklore and the colloquial names for the birds and flowers as well as interrogating the derivation of many of the area’s place names.
Mike Collier
24 Birds of the Sefton Coast, 2015
Colloquial bird names often reflect more closely than current nomenclature the look, sound or behaviour of the bird in its environment.
Daup (Carrion Crow); Sparling (Common Tern); Pynot (Oystercatcher); Tumbler (Black-headed Gull); Corbie (Raven); Lerruck (Skylark); Smeu (Willow Warbler); Calloo (Curlew); Bergander (Shelduck); Keelie (Kestrel); Screamer (Swift); Maalin (Sparrowhawk); Skirlock (Mistle Thrush); Eeckle (Tree Creeper); Cheeser (Yellowhammer); Whittol (Wheatear); Yarwhelp (Avocet); Tullet (Ringed Plover); Chickstone (Stonechat); Boatswain (Sandwich Tern); Reeler (Grasshopper Warbler); Cutty (Wren); Hazeck (Whitethroat); Teuk (Redshank)
Tim Collier
Ten Species of the Sefton Coast with Quotes, 2015
The Sefton Coast is an area with a particularly rich wildlife heritage. The quotes here are from various sources, ancient and modern, and demonstrate the many ways we respond to and interpret the natural world, from the poetic and scientific to the anthropological and curious.
Mike Collier
20 Indicative Flora of the Sefton Coast, 2015
The Sefton Coast supports a bewildering variety of plants. This diversity is the result of a range of habitat types found on the coast, from derelict land to dune-slacks and woodland. During the four walks along the Sefton Coast in 2014, Collier recorded many plants in his diary. He has selected a group here that, he hopes, could be considered indicative species of the Sefton Coast.
Tim Collier
Black-tailed Godwits Ice Reflection, 2015
Mike Collier
Everything seen and heard in a walk over two weekends along the Sefton Coast in 2014 (no 2), 2015
This is simply a hand-written ‘list’ of all the things Collier saw and heard whilst walking along the Sefton Coast over four days in 2014. Have as much ‘fun’ discovering the names of the flora and fauna he encountered (and which are ‘hidden’ in these pictures) as he did finding them himself along the walk.
Tim Collier
Four Walks along the Sefton Coast, 2015
Four of the artists in the exhibition (Jake Campbell, Mike Collier, Tim Collier, and Rob Strachan) walked the Sefton Coastal Footpath together in the company of local natural historian, John Dempsey, from the Sefton Coast Landscape Partnership, in the summer of 2014. These four pieces show the weather maps of each day as well as pages from Mike Collier’s diary and photographs of each walk.
From the Botany Collection of the World Museum, Liverpool
Herbarium Sheets
Mike Collier
From John Dempsey’s notebook entry dated 13/9/03; Ainsdale Beach (sunny; warm) and 14/9/03; Marshside, (sunny; light sky), 2015
In these pictures, Collier has worked directly, intuitively and spontaneously with pastel over digital copies of pages from the notebooks of local natural historian John Dempsey with whom he walked along the Sefton Coastal Footpath in 2014.
Mike Collier
The Birkdale Nightingale, 2015
The Sefton Coast is an important breeding ground for one of the UK’s rarest and noisiest amphibians, the Natterjack Toad. Its ratcheting mating night-time call has brought it two local nicknames: the Birkdale Nightingale and the Bootle Organ.
Mike Collier
48 Flowers of the Sefton Coast, 2015
Collier spent many summer afternoons with his family walking along the Sefton Coast. His mum would have her ‘Illustrations of The British Flora’ by W. H. Fitch and W. G. Smith. This piece uses 48 of Fitch’s illustrations of some of the key flowers Collier encountered on the four walks along the Sefton Coast in 2014.
Tim Collier
Football and Pink-footed Geese, 2015
As a 17 year old, Collier’s life revolved around watching Liverpool Football Club, playing for the school team and birdwatching. When on a recent trip to Crosby he passed by his old school playing fields, and saw a flock of Pink-footed Geese in front of the goal posts he used to stand between, it seemed that all aspects of the important things in his life had coalesced.
Tim Collier and Jake Campbell
Words and Image 1 - The Sefton Coast Two images
Tim Collier
Wrecks, Sand Banks and Plant Succession, 2015
The list of wrecks here are those lost between the years 1863 and 1960, during the age of the steamship. The sandbanks have some beautifully evocative names and were taken from local nautical charts. The plant succession list was sourced from Phil Smith’s book The Sands of Time.
Tim Collier
Wrecks, Sand Banks and Plant Succession, 2015
The list of wrecks here are those lost between the years 1863 and 1960, during the age of the steamship. The sandbanks have some beautifully evocative names and were taken from local nautical charts. The plant succession list was sourced from Phil Smith’s book The Sands of Time.
Tim Collier
Wrecks, Sand Banks and Plant Succession, 2015
The list of wrecks here are those lost between the years 1863 and 1960, during the age of the steamship. The sandbanks have some beautifully evocative names and were taken from local nautical charts. The plant succession list was sourced from Phil Smith’s book The Sands of Time.