Black Rock Beachcombers, Brighton, Commission
Black Rock Beachcombers by Anna Dumitriu and Alex May
Year
2021-2024
Client
Brighton & Hove City Council
Services
Commission Management
Location
Black Rock, Madeira Drive
Brighton & Hove
Permanent Commission for Black Rock
For Brighton & Hove City Council a new permanent artwork, comprising of three parts, has been commissioned to highlight the history and ecology of Black Rock.
The Black Rock Beachcombers are three sculptures created for the boardwalk at Black Rock on Brighton’s eastern seafront. Combining 3D photogrammetry scanning and 3D modelling these sculptures reveal hidden stories about the nature, people and the engineering of this coastal location.
“It’s been wonderful to have the opportunity to deeply research the history of the location and work with local communities to explore what it means to them. ”
Following an open call, artists Anna Dumitriu and Alex May held discussions with residents and stakeholders on what elements, and histories of the site held meaning for them. After this consultation and research they created a series of three 3D digital collages based on detailed scans of objects at the site and historic references. The resulting 3D printed forms that were used to create the moulds for the sculptures:
Nature - which references This sculpture focusses on the natural flora and fauna of the Black Rock site in Brighton and collages photogrammetry scans of items found at the site and 3D digital models from the site’s history, from pioneering Victorian female seaweed collectors to contemporary re-wilding projects. Including: Yellow Horned Poppies, barnacles and limpets, seaweed photogrammetry scanned from the Mary Philadelphia Merryfield collection of dried seaweed at the Booth Museum in the city, discarded nylon rope, sea kale and drift wood.
People - incorporating the face of Neptune, the Black Rock Horde in Brighton Museum, symbols suggested by the Brighton LGBTQ+ community, parasols, barbed wire, the windows of Concord 2, the tunnel to Sussex Square, Black Rock Lido, sea kale and driftwood.
Engineering - incorporating elements of Volks Railway, Daddy Long Legs, the fictional veteran car Genevieve, Windmills, Rampion Offshore Wind Farm, The Big Apple Rollercoaster, seakale and driftwood.
A full breakdown of the items scanned and their story can be found on the artists’ dedicated website.
Cast in aluminium these sculptures can be seen along the boardwalk. Fabricated by Łagowski Metal Foundry (Art Intelligence).
Supported by Trebbi Polska. Installed by Mackley.
Commissioned by Brighton & Hove City Council as part of the Black Rock Rejuvenation Project, with funding from Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership, is part of a large-scale regeneration effort to transform the city’s eastern seafront and enable further development in the future. See the press release here.
The sculptures are accompanied by an exciting augmented reality app by the artists that will enable users to digitally re-wild the beach with sea kale plants. This will be launched in May 2025 as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival.
A second permanent artwork is S E A T S F O R B L A C K R O C K by Katie Schwab which can be seen nearer to the Marina.
“We hope these new sculptures which speak of past and present times, made through cutting edge technologies will bring joy to visitors to Black Rock for many years to come.”
About Anna and Alex
Anna Dumitriu is a British artist who works with BioArt, sculpture, installation, and digital media to explore our relationship to infectious diseases, synthetic biology and robotics. She has an extensive international exhibition profile including ZKM, Ars Electronica, BOZAR, The Picasso Museum, Kunstlerhaus Vienna, MIT Museum, Liljevalchs, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, MOCA Taipei, HeK Basel, LABoral Art Laboratory Berlin, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the 6th Guangzhou Triennial, and The History of Science Museum Oxford. Her work is held in several major collections, including ZKM (recent acquisition), the Science Museum London, and the Eden Project.
Alex May is a British contemporary artist questioning how our individual and collective experienced of time, and formation of memories and cultural record, are mediated, expanded, and directed by contemporary technologies. His work forges creative links between art, science, and technology through a wide range of digital new media, including virtual and augmented reality, photogrammetry, algorithmic photography, interactive robotic artworks, video projection mapping, generative works, performance, and video and sound art. His international exhibition programme included Ars Electronica, LABoral, IMPAKT, FACT Liverpool, The Francis Crick Institute, Eden Project, Science Gallery Bengaluru, ZHI Art Museum, and the Beall Center for Art + Technology, University of California, Irvine.