Lost Voices

Lost Voices consists of a number of artist books made in response to old whaling log books. They combine research into the early days of whaling, with excerpts from the classic book Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Melville wrote '

"to produce a mighty book you must first choose a mighty subject."

Whales certainly fill this criteria! Starting from a position of wanting to acknowledge the decimation of whale populations, this research has taken me along some interesting and unexpected paths. One such path has been learning about the social history during the earlier days of whaling. This was a time when wooden ships set sail into largely unchartered seas. Conditions were harsh and the loss of life great. While I do not see commercial whaling as acceptable today, seen through the perspective of the day, I can see it was a means to provide food and incomes for many families.

In creating these books, I have incorporated first hand accounts from the middle of the 19th century alongside various pages from a contemporary ecology magazine. In the 18th century paper was an expensive commodity so it was common for log books to be re used. In keeping with this idea I have worked over the top of magazines pages, allowing the 'voice' of todays environmental concerns to come through.