The Coil in Newfoundland
Part of The Coil: A History in Four Parts
The Coil began her life as a cod-trap – a fishing net which had hauled thousands of pounds of fish ashore, and was beyond mending. Eli Tucker, the skipper of the fishing crew Hall was fishing with, gave the net to the artist, and after 33 days of binding and wrapping, it became The Coil. Taking it out on one of Eli’s boats, The Whispering Sea, Hall and her crew threw The Coil back into the Atlantic and hauled her out – an echo of its previous life and a baptism for the one which lay ahead. Installed on Eli’s wharf in Quidi Vidi, on Middle Cove Beach in Conception Bay, and on the Hawke Hill barrens of the Avalon Penisula, The Coil began her life simply – as a long and continuing line on the land.
-
- on site, wet spiral at Eli’s Wharf
-
- on site, circle at Middle Cove Beach
-
- on site, heaped at Middle Cove Beach
The Biographical Notes
The Biographical Notes were both documentary and reflective in intention. They evolved as part diary, part “theory”, and became Hall’s primary means for “writing” the history The Coil was “living”. They were her way of both exploring the meaning that emerged from this process on the land, and became her way of sharing it with viewers.
There were 12 notes created to capture her ephemeral presence in the Newfoundland landscape. Click the image for a larger version of those represented here. All works are mixed media on rag paper, and are 30″×44″ in dimension.
