Ink drawing, performance, installation and postal Art

Ballygally Northern Ireland and Manchester England,  August 2025

An installation incorporating all 642 pieces of a drawing that was created live on Ballygally beach whilst on holiday. The original drawing captured the surrounding view of hills, sky, sea, stones, buildings and the beach.

Knowing the tide was coming in I weighed down the drawing with rocks whilst I went to have lunch, happy in the knowledge that water may lap over it.

On my return and much to my aghast the tide had completely encompassed the drawing and in fact shredded it into many pieces that I could now see floating in the sea all along the beach. I was mortified that I had caused the mess, that was definitely not my intention when leaving the drawing. The next two hours saw me and some family members, wading and swimming in the sea to gather all the pieces of the shredded drawing. Seeing the drawing still present on the wet paper and the beauty of it whilst floating in the sea,  I saved and dried out all the pieces of paper with the intention of piecing it back together once I was back in Manchester.

A slow process and not entirely exact you can now see my recreation of the drawing that has been stitched together (My 9 year old niece suggested this)  and hung reflecting the movement of the ocean and the seaweed which inspired the drawing in the first place. 

It’s not perfect, it’s not exact but there is beauty in the broken…

Allowing the art to come full circle, postcards along with each strand of the drawing installation have been posted to houses along the Ballygally coast road. Small pieces and postcards will also be available at the Spar for anyone to take.