Winter Lights Festival '24

The Winter Lights Festival '24 brought together light sculptures, projections and lanterns to the Sensory Garden and Riverside Walkway, the Ham and Sidmouth Wallspace, where the Byes, the River Sid and the sea meet. This low-carbon, free event featured a trail of artworks each highlighting the need to save our seas and protect them for future generations. 

Look out for the calls to action and opportunities to get involved in local conservation and biodiversity initiatives.

ARTWORK 1. PRICELESS BY eARTh VADER

Priceless is a barcode that represents Earth's biodiversity at risk from human activities that put profit over our planet

Profit or planet? You choose... nearly half of the world’s 230,000 marine species are in decline

Act now - buy products that support conservation and boycott products that pollute our oceans

ARTWORK 2. MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE BY CHILDREN OF SIDMOUTH PRIMARY SCHOOL

Art meets ocean advocacy as our schoolchildren send a Message in a Bottle to politicians to do more to Save Our Seas

From classroom to coastline... only 5 of UK's 73 offshore Marine Protected Areas are on track for conservation goals (source: Greenpeace, 2020)

Act now - support Marine Protected Areas, reduce energy and plastic use in your home

ARTWORK 3. PLASTIC PEARL BY ZAC GREENING

Plastic Pearl is sculpted from the ubiquitous milk carton to reflect oceans that have become a dumping ground for plastic waste

Oceans apart... over 14 million tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans yearly (source: ICUN, 2021)

Act now - eliminate single-use plastic from your lifestyle and help our oceans recover

ARTWORK 4. TIPPING POINT BY PATRICK BATEMAN

Tipping Point sounds the alarm on the plight of our oceans and irreversible changes in marine ecosystems

Time is running out to save our seas - with half of the world’s marine species in decline, urgent change is needed to avert inevitable, irrevocable loss

Act now - only choose seafood that’s sourced locally and caught sustainably

ARTWORK 5. SEA ANEMONE BY ZAC GREENING

Sea Anemone is made from plastic bottles to symbolise the irony of ocean pollution – the material that threatens anemones’ fragile existence in the face of rising sea temperatures

Life or death for coral reefs - anemones play a life-sustaining role in coral reefs, but warming by 1.5°C would result in 90% of coral death while 2°C would be a point of no return

Act now - Join the Sidmouth Plastic Warriors for a beach clean-up or support ocean conservation projects

ARTWORK 6. OUR WORLD BY SIDMOUTH COLLEGE

Year 10 Photography students at Sidmouth College have created Our World with each image taking a careful, curious and creative look at our natural environment

Feel connected - looking at the world around us, engaging with nature and appreciating its beauty all add to the desire to nurture and protect what we love – the place we call home

Act now - getting involved in creating art can help you feel more connected to people and the planet, and less overwhelmed in the face of the climate crisis

ARTWORK 7. WISH YOU WERE HERE? BY ROSE ADAMS

Wish You Were Here? is a Beryl Cook-inspired parody of bygone seaside postcards that features a sun worshipper basking in the 1.5°C temperature rise

Do we really wish we were here? To halt irreversible climate change, average temperatures mustn’t rise 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era – yet we’re on track for an increase of 2.9°C by 2100 (source: UNEP, 2023)

Take action - consume less and share more of the world’s valuable, finite resources

ARTWORK 8. WHO ARE THE MONSTERS? BY SIDMOUTH REPAIR CAFÉ

Who Are The Monsters? is a deeply unflattering reflection of humans’ impact on ocean life – this sculpture of a sea creature rejecting our waste challenges us to consider who the monsters really are

Take action - repair cafés challenge our throwaway habits and encourage us to reduce, reuse and recycle

ARTWORK 9. FLOWER CORAL BY ZAC GREENING

Flower Coral gives vulnerable beauty a voice by highlighting the dire state of coral reefs amid rising ocean temperatures

Beauty at the brink - coral’s story could be cut short as a 2°C rise would destroy these unique habitats, and see us lose half of marine species due to the degradation of ecosystems like coral reefs

Take action - consume less, eliminate single-use plastics and don’t let politicians off the hook on climate commitments

ARTWORK 10. ACT LOCAL THINK GLOBAL BY eARTh VADER

Act Local Think Global flips the original phrase of ‘think global, act local’ to focus more on empowering local communities so their needs and ideas for sustainable development shape global policies, action and democracy

Be the change you want to see - collective action and positive change locally can be powerful forces

Take action - get involved with a local sustainability initiative such as the Climate Awareness Partnership Sidmouth (CAPS) or Coast and Country Sustainable Tourism Project

ARTWORK 11. BOTTLE LIGHTS BY SIDMOUTH COLLEGE

Bottle Lights repurposes milk cartons into lanterns to upcycle and nudge us all into making more-considered choices as consumers

Change at the checkout - consumer power is effective and the choices we make at the checkout are proven to change supermarket practices

Take action - look out for and demand verified carbon footprint labelling to help you make informed choices (source: The Carbon Trust)

ARTWORK 12. MELT BY ZAC GREENING

Melt merges plastic bottles into a chilling reminder of melting ice caps and their profound impact on sea levels, coastal erosion, flooding and loss of habitats

Disappearing faster than ever - Antarctica is losing ice at an average rate of about 150 billion tonnes per year and Greenland at about 270 billion tonnes per year adding to sea level rise (source: NASA)

Take action - understand your carbon footprint and look at every possible way to reduce your energy use

ARTWORK 13. LIGHTEN THE LOAD BY SIDMOUTH COASTAL COMMUNITY HUB

Lighten The Load features washing machine drums that highlight the environmental cost of laundry while hanging out the dirty washing – a few uncomfortable climate truths

Turning the tide on dirty laundry - washing clothes creates issues of water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, carbon dioxide production and microplastic release

Take action - wash clothes less frequently on a full load at 30°C or lower, reduce the amount of detergent you use and install a microplastic filter on your washing machine

ARTWORK 14. THE CLAMSHIP BY SIDMOUTH SCHOOL OF ART

The Clamship is half-boat, half-truck – lovingly welded and clam-inspired - and a symbol of the lost harmony between humanity and nature on land and sea

From scrap to kinetic sculpture - as a metaphor for the vital role of molluscs as water filters in healthy ecosystems, the Clamship hinges open to reveal a performance space that unites people through shared experiences of art, music and poetry

Take action - leave the car at home (or turn it into a piece of kinetic art)

ACT LOCAL

We hope you've been inspired to get involved in and around Sidmouth - there's lots happening locally:

• Sid Valley Biodiversity Group
• Sidmouth Plastic Warriors
• Climate Awareness Partnership Sidmouth
• Sustainability East Devon
• Coast and Country East Devon

THINK GLOBAL

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals aim to address the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. There are 17 Goals in total to be achieved by 2030.

Goal 14 on Oceans is about conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources. Healthy oceans and seas are essential to human existence and life on Earth.