Today, our site-specific work brought to life the intricate dance between nature and human achievement through a series of material creations and physical movements. The design team brought to site for the first time eight rod-puppets representing the little tern birds that nest here annually in Beacon Lagoons. These delicate puppets were crafted from ‘withies’—tough yet pliable branches of willow. Soaked and shaped, these branches form the skeleton of our avian friends, while translucent muslin covered the heads, wings, and tails, creating ethereal, weightless figures that are now being gracefully manipulated by performers across our sandy stage.
Our performance draws inspiration from my poem Flight, which celebrates both the little terns annual migration and the trailblazing female pilot Amy Johnson. The poem links the avian world to human flight and freedom, particularly relevant to Spurn, given Johnson’s historic emergency landing at Spurn lighthouse on November 9th, 1930. Stranded in thick fog, the aviation pioneer demonstrated incredible bravery and skill, making her emergency landing on a narrow strip of sand, between wooden groynes, in a hugely challenging environment.
Ellen Jeffrey’s and Archie Hubbard’s choreography is slowly translating this connection into movement, weaving the complex story of bird and human flight into our performance. Our rod puppets become another bridge between the natural and human worlds, linking the little terns with Johnson’s daring feat.
In addition to the bird puppets, our lead designer, Maya Carpenter, has now created eight origami models of Jason 2 (Amy Johnson’s second aircraft). These models were meticulously folded from sheets of brown wrapping paper, and are based on a design by Japanese origami master Yukihiko Matsuno. To withstand the strong winds of the beach, we are reinforcing the wings with a sturdy withy strut.
Our work today considered how the skill and creativity of humans can be compared to the seemingly effortless activity of birds – and yet birds, like humans, live equally in changing forms of nature, they too navigate fog and wind, and they learn, like us, through their embodied experience. Both avian flocks and human communities persevere; by shifting between the bird puppets and the origami planes, we are trying to explore and erode the boundaries between avian and human flight. Just like the little terns who return here annually, so too do people from this region and these villages leave and return, come and go, depart and arrive – all rooted in heart and mind to the shifting sands of Spurn.
… Lift up your wings to breathe!
Push down, fly forwards, and exhale!
Fleet floating flight of avian form
Your life untethered
Un-held by land, or lane,
But linked through cycled time
And gently overlaid
With bonds of nesting place. . .
