I. nobody dies of old age in the ocean
A trio of texts by Harvey Dimond, published across three days, unravels real and imagined oceanic journeys in South Africa, Scotland and Barbados
If only I could get to the sea,
To touch those glistening secretions of memory.
The wild green that tumbles down to the coast,
Beneath the searing young skies going to war.
They say that nobody dies of old age in the ocean,
Instead they watch the crumbling forts of the slave coasts
The water diluting those architectures of suffering.
I look at the Atlantic Ocean,
In the background of our video call
That vast unnameable fear
The hysterical surges
And all of these oceanic meditations.
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Harvey Dimond is a British-Barbadian writer, artist and curator based between Scotland and South Africa.
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This text is one of a series of new writing commissions in response to SALT, Art Walk Projects’ ongoing season of artist residencies. It also forms part of a new editorial partnership between Art Walk Projects and MAP, working together to support contemporary art writing through experimental approaches to commissioning and publishing. SALT culminates in the publication of a book in spring 2023.
