Description:

Stirring at the International Festival of the Sea by Annie Lovejoy, 1996. The artist provided the following project description:

Stirring at the International Festival of the Sea was a public art intervention for the International Festival of the Sea (in Bristol) 1996. 40,000 sugar packets were distributed in cafes, bars and hotels within the festival boundary. An intervention negotiated to draw attention to an essential aspect of Bristols maritime history.

Bristols maritime heritage is a multi-layered construct. We remind ourselves of historical realities when we begin to peel away layers and look closely at seemingly innocuous things like packets of sugar.
Creatively this idea encourages us to acknowledge the tensions and discomfort that has so much been a part of the historical trade in sugar. Eddie Chambers.

It is an idea which connects history with the present by turning a familiar commodity into a symbol. Martin Lister, University of the West of England.

The project was popular, many packets being kept as souvenirs.

Creator: Annie Lovejoy

Date: 1996

Copyright: Copyright BCC Museum