Maggi Hambling CBE is a British figurative painter, portraitist, sculptor and printmaker whose work is represented at the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Tate Collection and the V&A among other public collections in her native UK and abroad. Her most recent exhibition, a resounding success that garnered very positive, enthusiastic reviews was a selection of silk-screen prints made of her friend, the ebullient and memorable jazz & blues singer, critic and writer, George Melly. In 2003 Hambling was commissioned to produce a sculpture in memory to the musician-composer Benjamin Britten and the result is an almost 4-metre high scallop in stainless steel. It is installed at the beach in Aldeburgh, Suffolk close to where Britten lived and worked.
Hambling refers to Scallop as "a conversation with the sea". The scallop signifies the ear through which we discern the myriad sounds of nature and the turbulent, untameable power -- and chorus -- of the sea. Therein lies the origin of music and songwriting: it is the attempt to create order from chaos; to heighten our perception of the wonder that surrounds us; to make it manifest in quavers, minims, keys and notes; to represent the power of the natural world -- and the unquantifiable -- as a sound or shape or form that is meaningful to us. It is as if the messages of wind, wave and marine-life are amplified through the heart of the shell to the listener. I think it's rather beautiful how the symmetry of this monument is interrupted and broken -- rusted by the elements -- because it reminds us that everything must travel the road to eventual decay and non-existence. This is not depressing at all, but rather conveys the vigourous actuality of life, of wind and sea.
The inscription at the top of the scallop, "I Hear Those Voices That Will Not Be Drowned" are taken from Britten's opera Peter Grimes that was based on the writings of Suffolk poet, George Crabbe. Here is a short film made by the BBC in which Hambling discusses Scallop and the North Sea.
The inscription at the top of the scallop, "I Hear Those Voices That Will Not Be Drowned" are taken from Britten's opera Peter Grimes that was based on the writings of Suffolk poet, George Crabbe. Here is a short film made by the BBC in which Hambling discusses Scallop and the North Sea.
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