Underwave
An underwater exhibition by Bettina Seitz representing successive arrivals to our shores, from Sligo’s earliest settlers through to people contributing to our modern multicultural society. Filming took place daily in Sligo bay and was streamed here and on social media for four days at the beginning of September 2020.
Underwave Day 1
Underwave Day 2
Underwave Day 3
Underwave Day 4
Streamed videos were uploaded daily Tuesday 1 - Friday 4 September.
First Settlers
We followed the retreating ice-age
that carved this bay, and melting away
revealed it.
Slipping by the yawl-full
from sands of Asilah and Larache
onto an Atlantic
sweetened by melt-waters rained
a million years ago on Ural slopes
we have simply drifted
north for months
on warm new streams and breezes
seeking refuge, a pristine place,
somewhere history is only fossils in lime-stone,
the only ways are river-ways and stream-ways
among forests of oak and alder. We will not encroach,
remain on the edge, clear back a small cove, perhaps
circle a few modest stones in the high places
to honour our dead, hallmark the landscape,
maybe that, but nothing more.
And so, caught in sun shafted tidal amber,
through birth-brine of prehistory
the first sallow skinned Formorians
cautiously struggle ashore.
Malcolm Hamilton
Underwave Audio