Folkestone gold hunt as art: the search for £10,000 bullion – as it happened

Ok, that’s it from us I’m afraid – and no gold to speak of. I’ll leave you with this, as suggested by Rob Mog Lyon. From his 1970 album Before the Goldrush, it’s Neil Young’s Till the Morning Comes. Good night and good luck! HJP

We’ve spoken to Lewis Biggs, the curator of the Folkestone Triennial, and he’s told us a little more about the piece, its intentions, and how it has been received.

Michael Sailstorfer is an artist from Berlin and he’s a sculptor and he likes to make art that appeals to people very directly, in a visceral way. He likes art that appeals to the stomach, rather than the head. He proposed this artwork, which is a kind of land art; making sculpture in the landscape.

Because it’s Folkestone and there’s a tradition of digging in the sand, sandcastles and so on, he has appropriated that way of working with landscape, and encouraged people by burying gold bars in the sand. These are only accessible at low tide. So it’s a perpetually renewing sculpture, it’s different each day because the tide comes and washes it away.

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People have been fantastically enthusiastic. I’ve just come back and spent the last couple of hours down there. It looked like 400 or 500 people on the beach, of all ages. Some very professional with their metal detectors and others just families with kids enjoying themselves.

The thing is there is no compulsion to tell anybody if you do find one. It depends on your character, some people will keep it a secret, some people will announce it loudly. We know how many there are buried there, we will never know if they’ve been found or not.

It’s designed as a temporary event, but it could go on forever. In a sense the artwork becomes the stories people tell about it. And if people take the gold bar home, do they keep it on the mantelpiece, or in a vault? Is it a piece of art or a monetary investment? Do they tell their friends about it? Or do they take it to the pawn shop? It’s entirely up to the point of view of the people who find them.

A few commenters have expressed concern about the event taking place in times of relative austerity, and whether the work appears insensitive in a climate of cuts and hardship. Lewis addressed the issue:

Well I have thought about that quite a lot, I have to say. The thing is, the people are doing it for fun basically. Of course, there are the serious ones with the metal detectors – but if they have metal detectors, then, they’re probably not that hard up. But it’s mostly families doing it for fun. There’s a choice.

HJP

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Here are some of your live tweets #folkestonegold.

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Updates coming in from Frances…

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Let’s have another musical interlude. This one goes out to YorkerBouncer. Do feel free to suggest your own gold-themed songs in the comments.

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The Guardian’s Mark Brown has been speaking to some gold-hunters.

Jack Rover, a local 15-year-old told him: “I’m here because I want some gold, I guess.” His friend Gabriel Hynes, also 15, says he’s been digging for 20 minutes and is already a bit bored.

It’s amazing. It’s really brought the community together – getting people out. I always loved a treasure hunt when I was little. The whole thing is so exciting and, of course, it would be lovely to find gold, but it’s not likely” – Leigh Cripps, 51.

I wouldn’t have come down if it wasn’t for the kids. It’s like the fairy stories they connect with. The artist must have done this under cloak of darkness” – Helen Alden, 38

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Here are some more pictures from the beach, with people having dug to shoulder height.

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bellamyp showing some entrepreneurial nous here. “Yer hired!” (said in Alan Sugar voice).

I'm away to Folkestone to sell some spades

bellamyp28 August 2014 1:40pm

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My colleague Fran Perraudin is in Folkestone observing the hunt.

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View image in fullscreen

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Alison Chapman, self-styled ‘Honey with the Money’ and star of David Dickinson’s Real Deal is out on the beach looking for gold. If she wanted something orange, she’d just call David.

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Richard Clooke has a good suggestion…

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Here’s some musical inspiration for you all out there. No gold has been found, as of yet. HJP

Is this going to end in someone drowning?

VSLVSL28 August 2014 1:27pm

DROWNING IN MONEY.

(£333.33)

HJP