Sculptor Jamie Wardley is known for his work in two unusual mediums. For the first medium, ice, he uses drills and saws and travels to the Artic to execute them. For the second medium, sand, he uses spades and spoons. He will create a number of sand sculptures in four hours between low tide and high tide on Elie Beach in Fife on 4 July for the East Neuk festival. One of the sculptures will be a giant sand train and the idea behind it is that, during the tidal cycle, the train will look as if it is coming out of the sea. It is estimated that the train sculpture will take up to twenty tons of sand to complete.
Wardley took up sand sculpture after watching a Norwegian artist construct the Queen and Mr Bean on a beech. He was enthralled and immediately started working with sand. One would think it is a lot of effort just to witness your work wash away in the tide. Wardley says “The point is not so much the finished thing, more the journey towards getting it done, the huge expenditure of energy. But we will photograph it, as we do our sand drawings.”
His work for East Neuk festival will have a shelf life of only four hours. He is currently doing a slightly more durable work in sand for the Tate Liverpool which will showcase between 15 and 18 July.
