Wild Eye’s art and nature trail to be completed by Spring 2025, with top UK artists to create major new public works inspired by coastal wildlife.

This National Marine Week, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Invisible Dust are excited to announce the concluding phase of Wild Eye, the ambitious coastal art and nature trail that celebrates the incredible wildlife and marine life found on the Yorkshire Coast.

The final stage of the trail, which has now received full planning approval, will see works from leading UK contemporary artists Jeremy Deller, Emma Smith, and Shezad Dawood collaborating with author Daisy Hildyard, revealed in locations across Scarborough between November 2024 and March 2025. These thought-provoking new works, all celebrating the region’s incredible biodiversity, will connect with existing permanent sculptural works in Scarborough and Whitby from Ryan Gander, Paul Morrison and Juneau Projects.

Due to launch in November 2024, the fourth commission in the Wild Eye trail is an Augmented Reality work from leading UK artist Shezad Dawood collaborating with award-winning writer Daisy Hildyard. Weaving together science, storytelling, myth and local knowledge, the work, accessed via QR codes along Scarborough’s seafront, will explore the future of UK marine and coastal environments. Developed in collaboration with scientists and conservationists as well as local community groups, Dawood and Hildyard’s work will aim to strengthen understanding of the effects of climate change while raising awareness of the importance of marine conservation efforts.

The Wild Eye trail will be completed in March 2025 by two final commissions: a floor artwork conceived by Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller and a series of sculptural resting spaces for humans and other species by artist Emma Smith.

Set to be installed as part of a new Wild Eye seawatching station on Scarborough’s Marine Drive, Jeremy Deller’s artwork, created in collaboration with Yorkshire-based mosaic artist Coralie Turpin, will be a fragmentary, Roman-style floor mosaic, inspired by both Scarborough’s sea life and its Roman past. As part of the project, an existing shelter will be renovated and repurposed with the addition of free seawatching telescopes and information panels, providing an insight into the amazing marine life viewable from the area, including dolphins and porpoises.

A virtual impression of a renovated bandstand viewing area which will be turned into a marine viewing platform for seawatching on the seafront.

Site with proposed improvements on Marine Drive (c) James Woodcock

student creating marine mosaic sat at a table wearing safety goggles

Friaridge School student creating marine mosaic (c) Jules Lister

boy smiling and holding up 2 mosaics he's made of a dolphin and an octopus.

Marine mosaics (c) Richard Ponter

Group of people lined in a row with 3 more people sat down in front of them holding up 2 big mosaics

Friaridge School student with marine mosaic they made, presented by Wild Eye (c) Richard Ponter

Boy seawatching with binoculars round his neck holding them in his right hand and looking out to sea. In his left hand is a pamphlet of what he might see.

Sea watching on Marine Drive (c) Richard Ponter

Also completing the trail, Emma Smith’s Wild Eye commission will see a series of five multi-part outdoor artworks installed along Scarborough’s Cinder Track, a historic railway line, now a popular cycle route and footpath that also serves as an important green corridor for wildlife. Co-produced with the local community, the works will support a number of species that inhabit the track and have been developed through conversation with naturalists and academics, exploring the benefits to both human health and nature.

The three new commissions will join existing Wild Eye works at Scarborough Harbour, Scarborough Castle and Whitby Harbour, to create a powerful and thought-provoking contemporary art and nature trail that celebrates the region’s incredible nature, wildlife and marine life.

boy looking into the reflective metal of a sculpture depicting seaweed on the promenade at the coast.

Sea Oak, Paul Morrison - with child (c) Richard Ponter

Sea Oak

At Scarborough Harbour, internationally renowned artist Paul Morrison’s work, entitled Sea Oak, has been created in the shape of Fucus Vesiculosus or Bladderwrack – an ecologically-important seaweed species common to the UK. Made from water-jet cut stainless steel, the highly-polished work, launched in March 2024, has been installed overlooking the North Sea, reflecting both the viewer and the ever-changing coastal conditions, while celebrating the important role that seaweed plays in contributing to the health of the ocean.

Man in wheelchair facing to the right looking at a white sculpture laid on a grassy floor on a coastal clifftop.

We are only human sculpture (c) Richard Ponter

We are only human

At Scarborough Castle, Ryan Gander’s sculpture, We are only human (Incomplete sculpture for Scarborough to be finished by snow) launched in 2022, provides a viewpoint for incredible cliff-top wildlife and sea views, also functioning as a seating structure. Created in the shape of a dolos - a form normally used as a defence to prevent coastal erosion, the sculpture is purposely only partially formed, intended to be completed by snowfall. Due to the changes in weather conditions caused by global warming, this work may never be seen in its ‘complete’ form.

2 men stood either side of a concret bench on a seafront on a sunny day. The back of the bench is painted brickwork to depict a coastal image of the sea and cliff edges.

Juneau Projects - There Is Another Alphabet (c) Richard Ponter

There Is Another Alphabet

Also launched in 2022, artist duo Juneau Projects created a series of three community co-designed sculptural seating structures in Whitby Harbour, collectively entitled There Is Another Alphabet. Each bench depicts a different stage of the local river environment, exploring the extraordinary diversity of wildlife in the Esk Estuary.

Wild Eye is funded by the Towns Fund drawn from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government administered through North Yorkshire Council and supported by the Scarborough Town Board, specifically assigned to the development of a nature, art and culture offer in Scarborough. The funding aims to promote year-round tourism and assist with local economic regeneration.