Ballad O’ Bones

COD

This multidisciplinary project by The Critical Fish combines marine science research and creative commissions. The Critical Fish Trail has cultural and environmental aims using exciting and creative work to:

• Explore the beauty and wonder of fish
• Draw attention to the degradation of our seas and the danger to sea-life.
• Highlight the vital contribution fish and sea life make to our ecosystems.

The starting point for this innovative project is Gordon Young’s much loved ‘Fish Trail’ which navigates a viewer/visitor through the streets, alleys, and watersides of Hull. Forty-one life-size representations of glass, brick, steel, bronze, and stone fish species are carved, engraved, set, or burnt into surfaces around the city. There is one (or more) for each letter of the alphabet (from anchovy to zander) and lots of playfulness with site specificity – a shark outside the bank, a monkfish on Whitefriargate – the site of an old priory, and a plaice in the marketplace.

Forty-one local artists and writers have each been given a fish to respond to… and this image and accompanying poem (which you can READ HERE) form my response to COD. Many thanks to former fishermen Bill and Dave for sourcing me a gutted cod skeleton.