(image courtesy of Peter Hibbs who has an amazing website all about the towers http://www.martello-towers.co.uk/)Froze my A@*! off today visiting the Pevensey Martello Towers, all in the name of ..
It was a beautiful day and didn't quite head off as early as hoped but still managed to re-film four towers on a strip of coastline between Pevensey and Eastbourne. This re-shoot is an effort to hone my strategy based on the test film I did and which will form one half of my final project for the MA.
I seem to have a penchant for towers and not wishing to psycho-anaylse the whole thing (although I'm sure George could give me a few clues) I'm adopting the position of one that sees them like sentinels, permanent structures a bit like truncated bodies communicating with each other (there were 74, now only 25, dotted along the Kent, Sussex Coastline, built to ward off Napolean who never arrived).
The idea of them communicating kind of reminds me of a piece of work by Pierre Huyghe "Les Grands Ensembles". Bruegel's vision of the tower built to connect society to the heavens, as depicted in The "Little" Tower of Babel (1563), seems to echo the Martellos' grandiose role which was never fulfilled and now seems somewhat redundant.
The journey continues on Thursday pm - to Dymchurch and beyond!
-Cathy
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