"It was just then that I happened upon a choir of urchins" | 2011
Installation with sound | variable dimensions
Urchin tests | concrete
Urchin tests | concrete
...Most familiar was the Heart Urchin, Echinocardium cordatum, which frequently washes up in Southend. A few were freshly dead, but most were empty tests which had lost their spines, probably individuals which had died some time ago and remained buried in the sand until washed out by the storm.
Mass mortality of the Heart Urchin, or Sea Potato, is well known to occur at times. The explanation usually given is that they have been killed by severe storms which have disturbed the seabed, first burying the urchins deeply enough to suffocate them, and later exposing them again, either throwing the dead urchins or bare tests on to the shore, or leaving them lying on the seabed.
Mass mortality of the Heart Urchin, or Sea Potato, is well known to occur at times. The explanation usually given is that they have been killed by severe storms which have disturbed the seabed, first burying the urchins deeply enough to suffocate them, and later exposing them again, either throwing the dead urchins or bare tests on to the shore, or leaving them lying on the seabed.
