MOAS: Migrant Off-Shore Aid Station launched its 2015 mission on 2 May when the rescue ship Phoenix motored from Malta to its operations area in the central Mediterranean. The vessel’s 20-person crew includes trained search-and-rescue personnel, drone operators and a post-rescue medical assistance team.

Rona will be  showing a selection of her video work  and will perform  a reading based on Guidance on Ensuring the Safety and Security of Seafarers and Rescued Persons – Second Edition 2015.

Videos:

Above and Below 1998 – 1.20 mins
The Encircling of a Shadow – 2001 – 1.30 mins
Calenture 2007 – 2 mins
The one that got away 2010 –  5 .35 mins
Ama 2012 – 9 mins
The Captain’s Bird Table 2012 – 9 mins

A collection will be made following the performance for MOAS.

“Eco-Village Pioneers”  

Take a personal journey following the pioneers of low impact living as a young mother journeys through Australia, Spain, the UK and Ireland, in search of a more sustainable way of life. In Wales, Tony Wrench’s turf-roofed roundhouse radically alters the Welsh government’s policy on low impact housing and paves the way for Lammas – the UK’s first planned ecovillage.

“Deep Listening”  

Exploring the secrets of Aboriginal wisdom which enable connection and healing, this new feature documentary from Living in the Future asks “What skills do we need to build successful relationships and how can we create communities that are both healthy and sustainable?”

Beautifully shot against the rich diversity of the Australian landscape, Deep Listening interviews inspiring leaders in alternative culture, and Aboriginal elders share their own wisdom on the indigenous way of dadirri or deep listening – a profound connection to self, land and people.

The acoustics at the chapel have inspired several people to spontaneously sing….

Click on this link John Butler sings “Westlin’ Winds” to see a video of local musician John Butler singing a beautiful song.

Suky Best is an artist based in London. Working with print, video and installation, she has exhibited nationally and internationally. She will be talking about recent works and how these inform the exploratory work that she has done whilst artist in residence at The Mothership for the month of June 2016. As someone who grew up in the area and still has close links and knowledge of it, her work has often been informed by her love of West Dorset and involves the landscape and those that live in and on the area around the Powerstock parish.

www.sukybest.com

In days gone by, an upturned boat provided a seat for passers-by outside the Methodist Chapel. A sheltered wooden bench to sit down, stop and chat or simply take in the view. The boat rotted and this community seat disappeared.

Richard Toft is in the process of renovating a boat, donated by the Sea Cadets to be installed outside the Methodist Chapel that will provide a place to sit should anyone feel inclined.

The boat is now installed.. to be sanded, painted very soon!

The boat, donated by the Sea Cadets

Cleaned up and cut in half…..

Helen Robertson is a London based artist who works with and across sculptural processes/materials, photographic displacement, movement, projection, performance and architecture. The works explore porosity even within seemingly inert matter seeking to activate an elusive ‘present’ that continuously ‘forms’ and ‘un-forms’; a ‘ present’ in which we might think and inhabit the world anew. She has recently exhibited at Hayward Gallery, Coleman Projects and presented a performance at Central Saint Martins where she teaches.

Her live event ‘ breath’ responds to the chapel and beach at West Bay through spoken word, objects, bodies, actions, sound and space; including fragments from Clarice Lispector’s writings.

An architectural tour of West Bay – the unofficial version

This is a West Bay walk-about for everyone.  The buildings here have an interesting history, but on this tour we will be looking at some of the overlooked sights – buildings that everyone uses and sees, but which would not feature in the official history!

Architecture, football and Deleuze

What does this word “architecture” mean”?  Why is “architecture” different from buildings?  Why isn’t architecture as much fun as football?  And why, in West Bay, talk about a dead French philosopher?  My talk will make link with the architectural tour of West Bay, but you don’t need to do the tour to enjoy the talk!

Tim Gough is senior lecturer in Architecture at Kingston University and runs his own architecture practice in central London.

The Fortress of Utopia: a short film – 28 minutes

This experimental narrative articulates the language of visual and auditory associations between the nostalgia of the socialist past and future perspectives. Cinematic performances are placed in the ex-military bases on the island of Vis, questioning the potential of political and military power illusions.

Kayla Parker & Stuart Moore present a programme of short films by artists responding to their experience of the sea.

The Bodies of Water Collection was curated for the Royal West of England Academy exhibition The Power of the Sea [2014, Bristol]:

Image credit: Still image from A Voyage Over The Horizon by Peter Matthews (2013)