The Folkestone Mermaid — Attraction in Folkestone and Hythe District

The sand in this beach is so good that there’s an annual Folkestone Sand Castle Contest with some absolutely amazing entries. Next to the beach is a sculpture of the Folkestone mermaid, the pleasure beach cafe, toilets, a gift shop, fish and chips and a public house. Parking is available next to the harbour in two long term car parks or you can try on-street on Wear Bay Road if you’re light on your feet and belongings.

The Folkestone Mermaid was produced by Cornelia Parker in response to a commission for the Folkestone Triennial 2011.

Details

Medium: Bronze on a granite boulder Dimensions: 155 x 172 x 110 cm Art Fund grant: £15,000 (Total: £36,000 Acquired in: 2012 Vendor: Cornelia Parker

It was conceived of both as a reinterpretation of one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world, Copenhagen's 'Little Mermaid', and as a means of engaging both with Folkestone's local community and with the reality of the female form. Inspired by the story of The Sea Lady by HG Wells (a long-time resident of Folkestone) and the famous fairy-tale of Hans Christian Anderson (who visited Folkestone in 1857), Parker developed the concept for the work in 2009 during the Copenhagen Climate Conference. The Mermaid's watchful gaze over the horizon is also an allusion to the threat of rising sea levels and endangered populations living by the sea. The work takes the form of a life-size bronze cast of a local resident. Folkestone residents were invited to model for the Mermaid and through a process of open submission Parker shortlisted six potentials, with a stated aim not to find 'a lookalike of the idealised Copenhagen Mermaid, but ... a real person, a free spirit'. The successful candidate, whose likeness has now been installed overlooking the sandy beach at the end of The Stade, next to Folkestone's harbour, was Georgina Baker, a local mother of two.

Source: ArtFund The national fundraising...

She's called the Folkestone Mermaid, and the pose and positioning is very reminiscent of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, but she is in fact life-size and modelled on a body cast of a Folkestone resident, which is appropriate for a town that has made something of a name for itself through the artworks dotted around...

We had a fantastic early morning walk along the cliff pathways and then along the beach. We met several people on the way and shared information about the area. I had never walked so far along the shore before. The tide was out so it was an...