NEWS: Edgelandia – Brine Field @ RSPB Saltholme

On a mission to uncover the hidden histories and forgotten landscapes of Britain, Edgelandia is the brainchild of independent publishers Penned In The Margins, who seek to fuse experimental ideas and performance with original voices. Featuring a series of artistic ‘disruptions’, Edgelandia is a wide-reaching project which will encompass many mediums and the submerged histories of our own landscape come under scrutiny in Brine Field, an installation embedded in the industrial landscape at RSPB Saltholme, near Billingham.

12 white obelisks, each accompanied by poems by artist and poet Thomas Pearson, aim to spotlight Teesside’s heritage. Dotted around the reclaimed marshland of RSPB Saltholme, the obelisks serve as a stark reminder of the tenuous line between ecology and progress. The monuments are designed to echo the brine derricks which once characterised the landscape, with the accompanying poems responding to the site and its ‘submerged histories’. Billingham-born Pearson’s grandfather and great-grandfather worked at the ICI chemical works and the area holds particular significance for him, as he explains: “It has been fascinating to use words and sculpture to explore the site’s connections to iron, salt, ships, chemicals – and now birds.”

Pearson will be on hand to lead poetry tours around the site on Saturday 1^st and Wednesday 5^th June, with Brine Field able to be explored free of charge until Saturday 9^th June.