"Commissioned as part of our Teylu at Tate programme, artists Frances Daykin and Huhtamaki Wab have collaborated to make new fabric sculptures for our holiday programme. Play with these sensory creations and take part in large-scale mark making, with collaborative drawing games and prompts provided by WABKIN."
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Wabkin were invited by LOW PROFILE and Laura Hopes to design a temporary tattoo as part of their wider 'Let's Sea You Tatts' Project.
The ‘Dive for Pearls’ tattoo by WABKIN is both a playful, darkly comic image and a call for reflection. It is inspired by the song ‘Shipbuilding’ written by Clive Langer and Elvis Costello. The song was written during the 1982 Falklands war and questions the moral conflict of war bringing economic prosperity into shipbuilding towns. “Is it worth it?” The song asks this in a tender and reflective way. This tender reflection is pertinent to now, it is relevant and current in a time where conflict is present digitally, environmentally, geopolitically and in our local communities.
The last lines of the song, some of which can be seen on the tattoo, felt like a perfect summary of the song's sentiments.
“Diving for dear life, when we could be diving for pearls”, suggests a universal waste of human potential in conflict rather than more valuable pursuits.
WABKIN asks you to dive for pearls and bring kindness to our Ocean City.
