This site-specific, community-orientated project engaged with notions of memory, heritage, and belonging by personifying the remnants of the old pier head as a metaphor for Herne Bay.
Over the first two days a series of mobile and improvisational ‘interventions’ around the town served as poetic disruptions within the everyday; and an interactive installation in the bandstand acted as a point for ‘exchange’. Here, members of the public could have a cup of tea and discuss what the old pier meant to them. They were encouraged to write private messages to the pier, which were collected and wrapped around pebbles. On the third day, the ‘climax’ took place on Herne Bay beach at dusk. This celebratory performance served as a finale to the project, and brought all its components together. Besides visual and aural elements that referenced Herne Bay’s past, members of the public were invited to cast a pebble/message into the sea.
