Teignmouth seafront is alive with art this weekend as the 16th annual sculpture trail goes up in the glorious sunshine.
Despite CV19, the TRAIL organisers have inspired environmental artists from around the South West to create artworks from recycled materials. Local businesses have rallied to help fund the event which attracts thousands of visitors over the summer.
Over 30 artists responded to TRAIL’s simple design brief, to create a sculpture from at least 70% recycled materials with an environmental message – the finished artworks are stunning.
Emerging artist like Ed Hill, who has welded a striking globe from reclaimed metal and Gail Marshall, whose kinetic Mermaid Tails are blowing in the breeze; exhibit with well-known artists, including Steve Apelt from Yeovil and popular Totnes artist, Malcolm Curley.
The exhibition is well represented by local Teignmouth artists and TRAIL gives makers a unique platform to display public sculpture and providing exposure for our local talent.
The town is so rich in artists that two (socially distanced) collectives have formed to make work for the show. The Rose Collective have created a response to fast fashion and the artists who exhibit at Voyage Fair Trade have been inspired by the resurgence of nature over lockdown.
Usually there are at least 10 community sculptures, unfortunately the pandemic has reduced this number. But TRAIL does have one colourful entry from Montgomery School in Exeter, made by the Early Years children and their Teignmouthian teacher Sarah Pratt. ‘Flower Fest’ by Teignmouth’s Make It Thursday represents the older community. This carers group (oldest participant 97 years young) have made dozens of flowers from drinks cans, at home over lockdown. Since lockdown has eased, they have brought all these flowers together to create a shiny, sparkly explosion of colour.
TRAIL is free and the perfect socially distanced day out. The ingenious and thought-provoking sculptures delight passers-by and the wonderful South Devon coastline creates the perfect backdrop.
TRAIL Organisers Amy McCarthy and Sam Lock have been overwhelmed with the positive comments and well wishes, from locals and tourists alike.
Amy explained, “Every year the TRAIL becomes more well-known, we get emails and messages from visitors from all over the UK. People really love the event and come back every year to ‘do the trail’. When we went into lockdown it was very disheartening, we had just launched a district wide plastic reduction programme in schools, had a full calendar of public workshops and were expecting a busy year…then everything just stopped.
We remained very hopeful that we would be able to run and reached out to our artists to keep making their sculptures. We only got the final go ahead a few weeks ago, so the volunteer team have worked harder than ever to pull together this year’s event. We hope to aid footfall to the town to help our economic recovery and provide really great experience for visitors. The sculptures all have strong environmental messages and we love hearing people discussing the artistry and environmental issues.
The underlying themes coming through all the work are encouraging us re-evaluate our collective relationship with the planet and reimagine a greener society after the pandemic subsides. We hope the event brings joy and hope to everyone, in what has been a very strange year.
The exhibition is also entered as a venue in this years’ Devon Open Studio’s and we will be extending the show until the end of September to be part of this county wide event’.
