On the weekend I left London to live in Bath, 11 piglets went missing from Surrey Quays farm. There were no signs of breaking and entering. Nothing on the cctv. The piglets just vanished, and as far as I can see, the story has never been explained to anyone's satisfaction. Porcine rapture. On the same weekend in early September 2018, a Beluga whale was spotted in the River Thames off Gravesend. It had become lost, and crowds gathered to witness its whiteness in the grey waters of the estuary.
A lucid explanation, and yet one I did not hear put forward in any circles at that time, was that the piglets had fashioned a submarine, in the form of a beluga whale, and when no-one was around on the Sunday after the gates were locked at Surrey Quays City farm, they boarded the craft, sealed themselves in and made for open waters.
I decided to model the submarine, with 11 piglets carved in balsa wood and permanently bathing in mud. I knew the journey underwater would be arduous, so tried to imagine what the little beasts would have done to alleviate their anxieties. This lead to me painting a version of Adam and God from the roof of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, but with pigs. I could lie back all day in a blanket of mud looking at that. Then I sealed everything in with glue and filler and sanded and polished the outer skin until I could see your beautiful face in it.
I am a big fan of John Huston's film, The Maltese Falcon, and also Theodore Roszack's book Flicker. I thought I could edit the film to replace the sculpture of a black bird to instead have my beluga sculpture. This has not yet been done, but you never know.
