Stefan Gec, Trace Elements, 1990

Stefan Gec
Trace Elements, 1990

The High Level Bridge Pontoons, Tyne & Wear
10.09.1990 - 28.10.1990

As part of TSWA Four Cities 

Trace Elements was commissioned in 1990, in a period following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989-90. It took the form of eight large bells cast from steel taken from eight decommissioned Soviet submarines that were being scrapped at Battleship Wharf, Blyth, Northumberland.

These submarines were part of the old Soviet naval fleet and had played a major part in the early days of the cold war. The bells were installed on a wooden pontoon surrounding one leg of the High Level Bridge, spanning the River Tyne. At low tide the bells were hanging and exposed, and at high tide submerged; the tidal flow pulling the bell's clappers, causing them to ring. The vibrations of their ringing were carried out to sea, travelling back into the shipping lanes the submarines once patrolled.