Exhibition on Sunday 27th October
Gorleston On Sea
11 am – 2 pm, 2024
Join Natasha with her 140 meters of panoramic drawings at Gorleston On Sea on the coast by the sea defences (south side beach / Lower Esplanade / NR31 6EZ, see the blue tag on the map below), Norfolk, 11 am -2 pm – weather permitting.
Please note: you will need to walk on the sand to view the work, so please wear suitable footwear. Don’t forget that the clocks will turn back by one hour, as we change from British Summer Time (BST) to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
On-road parking is available on Marine Parade, or use the car park (pay and display).
If you need a beach wheelchair, please book in advance at Great Yarmouth Borough Council Beach Wheelchair Hub
You are probably viewing this website because you have just walked, or intend to walk, part of Natasha’s paper panoramic journey exhibition today. Thank you for that. It’s one step closer to being part of understanding the torment of mental health illnesses we can go through.
Artist Statement
Natasha Davy is a British contemporary artist who creates large paper panoramas, drawing her anxieties as a troubled journey reflected in her coastal homeland environment in Norfolk. She encourages the audience to walk her journey whilst viewing the work, which is currently 140m long, set on eroded lands which metaphorically imitate one’s ebbing mind.
“I’ve always struggled to vocalise my emotions, and especially to give voice to my struggles with anxiety. It comes over me in waves, leaving me with ‘black dog days’ where I try to function, but even the simplest things seem nigh-on impossible. While facing up to a bad patch after the first Covid lockdown, I desperately needed just to get out and reconnect with nature and the countryside around me, so I decided to take on the challenge of walking the 100-mile plus Norfolk Coast Path.
The idea to document it came hand-in-hand and seemed like a logical step to me. I’d hardly started before I saw comparisons everywhere to mental health – the echoes between the crumbling cliffs gradually and unseeingly undermined before collapsing dramatically, and the struggles with dementia eating away at a person’s mind are as clear as the vast
Norfolk skies.
The walk took time; spread out over five long days, there was ample time to document what I passed in photos, recordings, sound graphs and sketches, and to see parallels with mental health, consider them objectively, and see in them my own struggles.
When I arrived home, I could hardly wait to start expressing this, but it had to be in a way that made sense to me. The walk was as natural as it was panoramic, so the choice of homemade charcoals and inks applied by hand to large rolls of paper almost made itself. These materials, so natural, mirror life so well with its fragility, and ongoing, manipulative ways – with the paper winding up past drawings like memories, then unrolling in front of me like the page wanting to be filled with the day ahead. The large sheets allowed me to express myself in a way that small-scale controlled work does not, and I was able to shout through a universal language of loose mark-making and interpretive drawing in a way I never could orally. Applying direct touch to the work, was primal yet humbling, and added a therapeutic side to the whole process.
Predominantly black and white, there are areas of darker and lighter monotones mirroring not only the scenery and the weather but also my moods. Flashes of orange are traceable throughout, echoing the rust, the carr-stone, the tangled fishing nets and wires. Soothing bird song sound-graphs dance in the skies, depicting how they were as full of action as the shoreline and waves below them.
The process of producing the work has been cathartic for me, so despite the recognisable locations, much of the context of the piece is still very personal and private, and so I’m still cautious about displaying it publicly – the process may have helped me voice my struggles, but it hasn’t rid me of my anxiety. However, I also want others suffering from poor mental health to be able to connect with the work, to offer it as a soundboard, while it may also help those who want to understand the struggles better – to walk alongside the panorama’s length is to undertake the journey oneself.
Displaying the work back at the coast which inspired it seems fitting, with Gorleston, as the closest suitable location to the end of the walk the right place to bring this part of the journey to an end. Placing the work on the sea defences is apt. As the sea wars against the land, so do we with our daily stresses and troubles.
I say “this part” because although this view of Norfolk may be complete, its coastline is ever-changing, and I know that I will walk its length again, perhaps capturing how it has changed in the meantime, the pain and loss it has felt in the interim. And then there is the itch that is simply continuing on, down into Suffolk and beyond, scratching further and exploring more, both literally and metaphorically”.
Natasha Davy
Helpful contact links
You are not alone – if you can’t talk about it, draw it.
I wish to thank all my family, friends, and past and present art tutors
(you all know who you are 🙂 ) who have supported me through my black dog days and encouraged my work to grow. Xx
Website header image shows work from 2024. All images are subject to copyright.