Project: Songs of the Triassic Sea: Lyric Poetry / Folk Music Performance
Location: Cheshire
Cost: £1,000 (Commission from Atoll consultancy fee)
Artist: W Terry Fox
Site Programme: 6 months
Atoll Service: Public Art Consultant for (outgoing) Cheshire County Council
Project Status: Completed 2010

Ian Banks acted as public art consultant and curator for Cheshire County Council in run-up to creation of the new Unitary Authorities of Cheshire East and Cheshire West & Chester. Ian explored the strategic public art strategy opportunities for both new authorities linked to a Cheshire Spaces public realm commissioning programme. Part of this involved curating micro art commissions, such as this work in progress of action-led research by Cheshire Poet Laureate and folk musician W Terry Fox. The work involved the creation of 4 lyric poems celebrating the River Weaver and Cheshire’s historic salt mining industry (the remains of a triassic sea, some 250 million years old). Songs of the Triassic Sea, consists of 4 lyric poems, each set in a different epoch of the Weaver Valley and Winsford Waterfront:

i) The Ballad of Old Salt (phantasy of pre-history and the spirit of the sea)
ii) Ram Your Spike (a worksong/shanty of open pan salt making)
iii) In Winsford Town (a contemporry pastoral)
iv) Over and Under (a prophesy foretelling the rebirth of Old Salt)

Scroll down for videos of W Terry Fox performing Songs of the Triassic Sea with his band Stringfings….

Part ii Ram Your Spike from  Songs of the Triassic Sea lyric poem performed by W Terry Fox with his band StringFing at the Coachmakers Hanley on 03.03.10.

Part iii Winsford Town of Songs of the Triassic Sea lyric poem performed by W Terry Fox with his band StringFing at the Coachmakers Hanley on 03.03.10.