Vraiqu’sie: Visit to Jersey Heritage Archives
9 October 2024, Written by Esther Rose Parkes
This was our third visit as part of the Vraiqu’sie artist research group - six of us, along with Nuril Basri, an Indonesian writer visiting Jersey for a residency, spent two hours exploring the Jersey Heritage Archives.
We started by looking at a series of photos of vraic collecting - a practice I am not familiar with, having moved here as a child in the 1990s when this practice had become relatively rare. Within the artists group research group, we have some members who grew up in Jersey and knew farming families who collected vraic and some who have more recently moved to Jersey, making us a group that is both more and less familiar with seaweed in Jersey and its historical role in agriculture. We looked at a 1979 photo of a tractor being used for vraic collecting, followed by a series of images from 1938. These were taken on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, just after a storm, which meant a lot of vraic had washed up, an opportunity for the farmers to gather storm cast seaweed (vraic de venu). They were using a Hernais (a two-wheeled cart with no springs) and grappins (a fork with curved prongs for dragging vraic out of the water). Using Jèrriais words to describe these agricultural practices feels important, as the language, landscape, and people of Jersey are deeply interconnected. This was the language shaped by the land and its rhythms, uniquely able to convey the essence of work that belonged to this place.
I also learnt that gathering vraic de venu was permitted all year round, but harvesting vraic from the rocks was restricted to the period of the 1st February to April 30th, Monday to Saturday during daylight hours (Loi Sur la coupe et la pêche des vraics). This regulation has now largely been replaced by newer legislation under the Aquatic Resources (Jersey) Law 2014. This newer law allows for year-round management, with specific rules depending on the species of seaweed being harvested. These laws are in place precisely to protect our shores and the delicate balance of the coastal ecosystem, which is crucial for preserving both the environment and the traditional practices it supports.
As an all-female group, we couldn't help but notice that the historic vraicking photos only showed men, with a mix of ages, including teenagers. In the audio archives, Natasha came across a story about a Mrs Pearce who was known as one of the only female vraitcheux (seaweed gatherer) in the early 20th century and the story goes that she went vraicking the day after she gave birth. This story prompted more curiosity about the lives of those who gathered vraic.
In the reading room, the Senior Registrar, Helena Kergozou, and the Digital Access Manager, Harry Le Feuvre, had prepared and set out paintings and photographs for us. We spent time looking at artworks by Edmund Blampied, including a framed piece depicting a vraicking scene (the gathering of seaweed). What really struck everyone was his sketchbook. Instead of a polished, finished work, we caught a glimpse of his thought process, his looking, and his technique. The way he sketched horses, so familiar to him and well-observed; his panoramic view of vraic gathering had beautiful gestural marks. We were also shown two linocuts of a vraicking scene. We all became curious about Blampied’s background and found out that he grew up on a farm in St Martins and only spoke Jèrriais until he was 16 at which point he moved to London to study art.
We then moved on to four photographs by Claude Cahun. The first was of Cahun holding sea kelp against her body like a skirt - using the technique of photomontage allowed Cahun to create a surreal, dreamlike quality in her photos. The second image was of Cahun lying in water, facing a wall, with a swimming costume wrapped around her ankles. The figure was mirrored using photomontage, making it look like two Cahuns lying in a channel of water, one with dry hair, the other with wet. We compared this with the original photograph, which only shows one figure. The next photograph showed Cahun wrapped in bootlace seaweed, and there was speculation about where it was taken. We initially thought it was at Plemont, but the archivist told us that it was taken at La Rocquaise, at Cahun’s and Moore’s home in St. Brelade’s Bay. As a group, we talked about how these photos made it feel like the figures were becoming part of the natural world. Cahun used photomontage and the natural environment as a setting to explore themes of identity, transformation and fluidity. We spoke about the collaborative nature of these works—how much Cahun’s partner, Marcel Moore, must have contributed to the compositions, how these photographs came into being through dialogue.
We wrapped up the visit with dinner, where we had a conversation about why we are doing this project—Vraiqu’sie—in the first place. Nuril Basri, coming from Indonesia, was curious about why were were focussing on seaweed - he told us that in modern Java seaweed is not so valued, despite being an island. This gave us a chance to exchange thoughts about the cultural and ecological significance of seaweed and its decline in importance. We talked about how, before World War II, there were smaller farms with almost 2000 farms in Jersey, all growing their own food, with vraic playing a central role in fertilizing the fields. Karen had found some documents from 1941, written in German, about ordering chemical fertilizers from France, which led us to think about when the shift from natural to artificial fertilizers began. After the German occupation, which saw a disruption in traditional agricultural practices, there was an increased shift towards the use of chemical and artificial fertilizer.
Altogether, it was a rich and thought-provoking experience. Karen had done a great job organising the visit, and it gave us a good overview of the historical significance of vraic in Jersey and we got to see beautiful artworks by Claude Cahun and Edmund Blampied engaging with seaweed as a metaphor for place and identity. This visit helped me to understand how an artist research group can bring a unique lens to the study of seaweed, allowing us to explore not just the practical or scientific aspects, but the emotional, cultural, and symbolic layers that are often overlooked. By responding to seaweed and its role in local practices, artists can deepen their practice and connection to the landscape, provoke new questions about our relationship to nature, and offer alternative ways of understanding and engaging with the environment that go beyond traditional research methods.
All Images courtesy of Jersey Heritage. The first two images are courtesy of the Jersey Evening Post Collection held at Jersey Archive. And with special thanks to The Blampied Estate.
Photograph of Margaret de Carteret holding seaweed and her brother Roger playing with a model boat in shallow waters on the beach at La Pulente, St Ouen.
