Sand Whales
At the heart of Keening – Song of the Stranding were the sand whales, conceived by visual artist Sam Gare as a way to symbolically return the animals to the sea. Sam wanted the public to be directly involved in the creation of the memorial, offering an opportunity to say goodbye and experience closure.
A total of 55 sand whales were created, each representing one of the whales lost: 53 were small, and 2 were life-sized. Sam created wooden moulds for the sand sculptures, based on a historic model from the Natural History Museum . The moulds made it easy for the public to create the whales without pressure to sculpt perfectly; participants simply smoothed the forms after casting, transforming the act into gentle, caring touches. Using digital tools and traditional carving, Sam created a way to honour the whales’ memory.
Designed to be accessible to all ages, the sculptures encouraged hands-on participation, and as the tide slowly reclaimed the sand, they became a living tribute to the whales - an ephemeral memorial, returned to the sea.
Dialogues with the Natural History Museum
COLLECTION TO CASTING
Sam’s process began in dialogue with the Natural History Museum’s cetacean collections. Early in her research, curator Richard Sabin introduced her to the series of plaster casts taken from stranded animals and preserved within the Museum. This immediately resonated with her own interest in mould-making, particularly her idea of creating sand whales formed in public spaces. The connection led her to explore not only the animals represented in the models, but also the processes of casting and reproduction themselves.
She carried out a 3D scan of a 1930s pilot whale model, she was able to trace the origins of a cast originally made by museum model maker Percy Stammwitz. Stammwitz had created the model from a stranded long-finned pilot whale discovered on the Wexford coast on Jan 28 1930.
Through research in the Museum’s historic stranding cards and archives, Sam found out that additional models within the collection were linked to one of the most significant strandings recorded in the UK. These models were derived from the mass stranding of more than 130 false killer whales in the Dornoch Firth, Scotland, in October 1927. At the time, the species was poorly understood and thought to be known only from fossil specimens. Recognising the scientific importance, Martin Hinton, then Keeper of Zoology, travelled to the site. With assistance from local people, each animal was documented, dissected, and skeletons from 126 individuals were transported to London. These specimens now form a core part of the Museum’s cetacean research collection.
Inspired by this history, Sam became interested in how the Museum’s casting practices could inform her own. Whereas Percy’s plaster moulds were fragile working tools, Sam developed hard-wearing carved wooden moulds designed both as sculptural objects and as functional forms. These moulds could withstand the weight of sand and the interaction of the public, while still holding the presence of the whale. In doing so, her work draws direct influence from the Museum’s archival practices, creating a dialogue between scientific preservation and contemporary artistic interpretation.
Percy Stammwitz, dolphin casting c-1924. Photographs Courtesy of the Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
Sam Gare 3D scanning Long-finned pilot whale model. Photograph Courtesy of the Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
Sam’s wooden mould segments, echoing the segments Percy would create during his plaster casting process