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When lockdown prevented her from returning to Jersey, a swimming diary from her childhood friend, Lucy Allchurch, enabled poet Alice Allen to imagine herself back home and feel like she was not “missing out on too much.”
“Although it was not the same as swimming, it was a real imaginary way of experiencing something I could not experience,” she explained.
“One of the first poems was about Bonne Nuit. Although I had never swam from that particular spot, it was an area I enjoyed swimming from and that was close to me. I could really imagine myself swimming there.”
From the first look at Lucy’s swimming diary, which she has been keeping for over seven years and is one of her most precious possessions – “If there was a fire I would grab my diaries,” she said - Alice was inspired to write a poem and as Lucy kept sending notes from her swims, as well as pictures, voice notes and short films, the poems kept coming.
Together, Lucy and Alice, who have known each other since the first day of secondary school at JCG, are presenting 20 of them at the Link Gallery, along with the images, objects and sounds Lucy collected, ahead of the release of a pamphlet bringing them together.
Pictured: Made her feel like she was "not missing out on too much."
Lucy’s original notes will also be on display to show the creative process by which Alice created poetry from the “raw material” she provided.
“Alice took the raw material I sent and changed it, which is a testimony to the power of poetry, it brings a whole different sensibility,” Lucy said.
“We thought it was really important to have not just the poems but also the raw material. Part of the interest is how Alice took it and turned it into poems. It’s really fascinating seeing what Alice made from the material, sometimes she drew very heavily on my words and other times, it was just a starting point, a trigger.”
Pictured: The exhibition is entitled 'Yellow Lichen, Pink Sea Thrift' from the first lines of Lucy's notes.
The exhibition, titled ‘Yellow Lichen, Pink Sea Thrift’ from the first lines of Lucy’s notes, marks the first time the friends have worked together - something they never imagined, despite sharing an interest in music, film and arts, and studying the same A Levels, history and literature.
It’s also a first for Lucy, who, as the Outreach Curator for Jersey Heritage, normally finds herself putting the work of other people on display.
“It’s quite unusual for me to do something artistic,” she said. “I come from an artist family, my husband, my sister, and my father-in-law are all artists. I am used to having other people in my life be the creative ones. I am not an artist but there’s definitely a creative element in putting exhibition together. It was just so exciting to see her turning my notes into poems and to feel I was kind of collaborating on something artistic.”
Alice adds: “Lucy is very poetic. She always notices the quality of the light and the rocks and the colours. I have never worked collaboratively with anyone. We did not set out in the beginning with the intention to do an exhibition. It happened very quickly, it was a real gift to have as a poet because there was lovely colours. It enabled me to sort of virtually swim. In the early months, it was nice to have a project among all the feelings of limbo.”
Pictured: Alice says Lucy "always notices the quality of the light and the rocks and the colours."
The duo hopes that with the growing popularity of sea swimming, the collection of poems, which includes one about the ghost of Havre des Pas’s past swimmers, will connect with many people.
“It’s a testament of our love to the island and all its beautiful places,” Lucy said. “We hope it can be stepping off point to explore the island, its history and its language. It’s not about us, it’s about the island and swimming as a way of exploring and sharing it together.”
The exhibition runs between 3 and 31 September 2021.
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