Main content

Sea Goings

Rana Mitter hears about Doggerland, turning simple ideas into cosmic art, women and the sea, and the ship that carried tea leaves around the world

Conceptual artist Katie Paterson on art which produces candles scented with planetary odours – one of Saturn's moons has a hint of cherry…and how she and co-exhibitor the Romantic painter JMW Turner share an interest in the precise nature of moon light. Writers Julia Blackburn and Charlotte Runcie on the gaze of the beachcomber and searching for lost worlds along the tideline and Cutty Sark curator Hannah Stockton explains why the story of the famous tea cutter is one of survival.

A place that exists only in moonlight: Katie Paterson & JMW Turner at Turner Contemporary Margate until May 6th 2019
Katie Paterson's First There is a Mountain project will tour 25 coastal beach locations from 31 March to 27 October 2019
Time Song: In Search of Doggerland by Julia Blackburn mixes personal history with the archaeological evidence for the Mesolithic peoples who lived on the land beneath the North Sea.
Salt On Your Tongue - Women and the Sea by Charlotte Runcie describes her pregnancy and the death of her grandmother, set against shore walking and myths of women and the sea from ancient Greece to Scottish folk song.
Cutty Sark 150 includes a range of events at Royal Museums Greenwich including a performance by the 91Èȱ¬ Singers and of the Pirates of Penzance.

You can hear a Free Thinking Landmark discussion of The Odyssey with Karen McCarthy Woolf, Amit Chaudhuri, Emily Wilson and Daniel Mendelsohn https://bbc.in/2S2QuiE
and a discussion of Mermaids with Imogen Hermes Gowar and Sarah Peverley https://bbc.in/2FPeEH5

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

Available now

44 minutes

Last on

Thu 31 Jan 2019 22:00

Broadcast

  • Thu 31 Jan 2019 22:00

Featured in...

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

You can download all the past episodes of Radio 3's Free Thinking

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Angry politics, what we can’t say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Angry politics, what we can’t say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

We examine the fast-changing relationship between the individual & the crowd

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival

Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life