Access to the Egg from the land is via a path through a thicket of old oak, hawthorn and bramble through the fields below Lower Exbury House. The gate and wire fence is newly made for the Exbury Egg and echoes the remnants of an earlier version of itself a few strides further along. Like the egg itself, it reflects the action of the elements upon all things manmade and is a reminder of my intention for the exterior of the egg itself.
I needed a symbolic form that would evolve and change though time as it is bleached by the sun, scoured by the wind and rain and below the waterline accrues algae, worm and barnacles; an evolving form that echoes changes to the surrounding landscape itself and turns the egg into a natural calendar of the seasons.
Inside, my own journey will be catalogued in collections of digital imagery, found objects, drawings, maps and natural colour that are all derived from this particular estuary location. During the next twelve months the egg will evolve, until it becomes a sculptural element in a time based happening, integrating inside with outside in a creative archive that reduces the distance between people and nature.
Local colour made from sawdust created during the construction of the Egg at Battramsley Farm and used to paint interpretations of how the Egg might look when completed.
Ex ovo omnia. Detail of the frontispiece, probably drawn and etched by Richard Gaywood, from William Harvey, Exercitationes de generatione animalium: Quibus accedunt quaedam de partu: de membranis ac humoribus uteri& de conceptione, London: Octavian Pulleyn, 1651. 21 x 16 cm.
By permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library
The blueprint for the egg structure, echoes the symbolism of the egg as a blueprint of life. An aesthetically perfect and compact capsule, the egg contains in embryo the essentials for new life in most of the animal kingdom and is closely related to the seed, which encapsulates the same meaning within the world of flora. A great scientist of the Seventeenth Century, William Harvey, wrote ‘ex ovo omnia’ – everything comes from an egg. From primate to plankton it embodies the idea of new birth and renewal, protection and fragility. In an urban 21st century world where we are increasingly disconnected from nature this ancient archetypal symbol will nurture re-enchantment and understanding as a step toward a sustainable future.
While these ideas will be shared virtually online, I am floating older tried and trusted means of making contact…
When the Egg was launched into the river at Lymington last week, I poured a bottle of fizzy stuff over her ‘bows’ and named her ‘The Exbury Egg’ in homage to Neptune, keeping the cork and bottle label (signed by the principle partners) as a memento. We also screwed a boat registration number over the port door, so I will now need to carve her name – we are all more than numbers.
The Egg by moonlight on Tuesday May 21st, made ready for transport to Lymington Yacht Haven where it is due to be launched on Thursday.
Rob, Mark, Natalie, Me, Trisha, Paul, Wendy and Phil enjoy a last supper in the barn at Battramsley after loading the egg onto its transporter. Scores of midges join our party to remind us about the environmental intent of our work.
The Exbury Egg 