A 50m2 Roman-style mosaic has been unveiled at a sea viewing platform in North Yorkshire – designed by Turner Prize-winner Jeremy Deller and Sculptor Coralie Turpin.
The project has been installed as part of the town’s Wild Eye coastal art and nature trail.
“Roman Mosaic c2025” is a permanent installation on the Scarborough sea front which depicts a large whale swooping under a ship, a seal chasing after fish, and an octopus grappling with a crab.
Other elements of the mosaic, which resembles a “found” fragmentary Roman masterpiece, includes references to a Walrus which visited the town in 2022, a Little Auk which was spotted out to sea on a research trip, and a Roman god “blowing” the ship away.
As part of the project which took 4 months to complete, Coralie and her team of 8 assistants cut up 300,000 individual pieces of porcelain create the mosaic before it was installed on the seafront by Yorkshire-based tiling contractors Techni-Tile Ltd.
“The tiles we used were Winklemans 9mm thick 20cm x 20cm floor tiles which we cut into 1cm strips with a floor tile score and snap cutter, then we chopped the strips into 1cm cubes (tesserae) with a chopping machine we bought from Rome,” said Coralie.
“We had to tumble them a bit in a cement mixer so they wouldn’t be sharp and would look a bit old.
“The tesserae were then attached to mesh over a giant colour print of the image, before being cut into 1ft squares. We then packed them and transported them to Scarborough where Techni-Tile installed them under my close eye.”
ARDEX have supported Coralie on previous projects and were delighted to assist by
recommending ARDEX A 46 for subfloor build up and ARDEX EG 18 Plus epoxy adhesive and grout to fix the tiles and provide a waterproof and durable finish.
Between the mosaic sections was filled with resin-bound gravel, this gives the impression of a newly excavated Roman mosaic.
Geoff Cavell, ARDEX Area Sales Manager, said: “We’ve supported Coralie on numerous projects down the years, so when she contacted us about this amazing project in Scarborough, we were delighted to be able to support it.
“I visited site a number of times with Coralie and Techni-Tile and was pleased to be able to provide technical advice and a product recommendation.
“The mosaic is a true work of art – and with the help of ARDEX will look stunning for years to come for visitors on the Wild Eye coastal art trail.”
The sea watching area on Marine Drive includes a renovated seaside shelter to include an array of free telescopes for watching marine life.
It is one of the best places in England to view cetaceans – the group of mammals which includes dolphins, whales and porpoises.
Roman Mosaic c2025 is a collaboration between art and science organization Invisible Dust and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
Jeanine Griffin, Lead Curator, Wild Eye, said: “We are delighted to complete the Wild Eye coastal art and nature trail with this powerful and thought-inspiring new work from Jeremy Deller.
“Viewing Roman mosaics can give us an unnerving sense of deep time, with evidence of lives like ours and wildlife we recognise existing millennia ago. If we project forward a similar timespan, we see a very uncertain future for the natural world of which we are part.
“This new work conceived by Jeremy Deller, designed and created with Coralie Turpin, contains a central conundrum – it is a piece of contemporary archaeology – made to look like an authentic relic from the past, that invites us to think about the future.”
To find out more about the project and Coralie’s & Jeremy’s work visit coralieturpin.co.uk or on instagram @coralieturpin_sculptor @jeremydeller
